University of Michigan IOE vs University of California IEOR

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Michigan
1

<p>I am a transfer junior student who transferred into the U of M's IOE department from the University of California Berkeley. I am in state for Michigan and out of state for california. Something weird happened and I got rejected from Michigan as a freshmen and got into Berkeley despite having pretty decent academics in high school.</p>

<p>Took 7 Ap classes, 34 on ACT, etc. Nothing special, but should've gotten in but didn't perhaps because of a bad esssay. I remember my Berkeley essay was written much better than my ann arbor one.</p>

<p>Anyways, that's beside the point. My question now is which school to choose. I could choose to go back to Berkeley next year, or I can go to Ann Arbor. I've registered for classes at both locations.</p>

<p>Here's the pros and cons as I see it.</p>

<p>Berkeley
Pros: overall more prestigious and has a lot of worldwide fame primarily due to its professors and graduate students, but as an undergraduate institution is not necessarily better than the U of M.</p>

<p>In the Bay Area, so it's different from Michigan which is what I'm used to.</p>

<p>The faculty are top notch and many of them went to schools like MIT or Stanford.</p>

<p>Cons: 20k a year more expensive than Michigan. The room and board costs are similar but tuition is 20k a year more, and there are airplane tickets
Far away, so I get homesick and miss my friends in michigan that I could see very often if I go to Umich.</p>

<p>Still a public school and is rather large and unorganized.</p>

<p>IEOR at Berkeley is a relatively new program and isn't as prestigious as other engneinering disciplines within Berkeley and offers fewer classes. </p>

<p>IEOR at Bekreley is a small program.</p>

<p>There's a financial crisis hitting the school so some instructors are adjuncts and my last professor was much less than qualified to teach and made the class like a community college class.</p>

<p>There's more GPA deflation at Berkeley compared to Michgan for lower division classes, though once I start next year, the GPAs at both schools would be similar given I work the same amount.</p>

<p>Berkeley as a city is in worse shape than Ann Arbor and there are homeless people everywhere.</p>

<p>Michigan Pros: Industrial Engineering IOE at Umich has more areas to concentrate on and offers more courses with more variety. It's a bigger program with more students and faculty. US news ranks it as number 2 while Berkeley ieor is numbrer 3.</p>

<p>Close to home so I could visit family and friends whever I want.</p>

<p>I'm in state so it costs 20k less. If I live on campus, the costs for room and board at both schools is about 10k a year. My family lives near ann arbor so I could commute if I want to save money.</p>

<p>Less competitive overall and better endowed so more likely to find research opportunities. </p>

<p>Fewer homeless people and nicer overall town.</p>

<p>better dorms/apartments though Berkeley just built a new dorm for sophs and upperclassmen and I have a spot in the new dorm which is only 9800 a year for a single. Last year, I lived in a crappy aparttment with a roommate which was over 100 years old, and had lead paint and asbestos and charged 1400 a month but I paid 700 a month because we split the cost. Umich apartments esp on north campus are newer and are nicer and the dorms are also pretty good.</p>

<p>Cons: While as an undergraduate institution, both are top publics and well respected, in the sciences and engineering, Berkeley is more reknowned than Michigan and has many nobel prizes and other innovations that Michigan doesn't have. But these are tangential for an undergraduate student who's livelihood does not depend on research, but becaue of the beter reserach institution, Michigan is overall slightly "lower" than Berkeley even if departmentally speaking, Michigan IOE is good, the overall reputation isn't as good.</p>

<p>Some credits do not transfer. At Berekely, I have 2 more years. At Michigan, I need 2.5 more years. </p>

<p>It's a transfer, so my GPA does not carry over and there's less of a feeling of a smooth continuation since I'm jumping to another school and might be disadvantaged relative to people who were at Michigan all along. At Berkeley, I have the feeling of continuity so I would be advantaged.</p>

<p>Michigan has a very short winter break that lasts 1-2 weeks while Berkeley's winter break is a month. I"m prety burnt out after 1 semester, so I'd like a long rest.</p>

<p>Michigan has 2 seperate campuses-north and central, so while most of my courses are on north campus, I'd have to take some time to commute to central.</p>

<p>This is only a general overview of what I remember at this point. I may have left out a few pros/cons of each respective school I will state in future posts, but given this situation, which would you choose and why?</p>

<p>There are both two good programs, so which one would you choose?</p>

2

<p>will attending michigan delay your graduation? I think it’s too late, just stay at berkeley. You should have tried to transfer last year…</p>

3

<p>To me the considerations are $, grad date and where you want to live upon graduation. </p>

<p>On $, you save something like $28K (2 * $20 - $12 for the extra semester) but cost yourself the 6 months of employment (if you have a position lined up like you should upon graduation.</p>

<p>Grad date - one semester - not a big deal time wise - you’ll still be young!</p>

<p>Where you want to work - obviously being that both Universities are nationally renowned and you could likely work anywhere; the on-campus recruiting will be more west coast for Berkeley and mid-west & north-east for UM.</p>

4

<p>I personally don’t think an extra semester is that bad. Also, my final semester is part time and I’ll mostly likely not dorm.</p>

<p>Graduating in 2 years at Umich could be possible but would be kind of difficult and I still need 9 credits and I don’t want to squeeze them in and go over the credit limit. I’m averaging 16 or 15 credits a semester, so 3 more credits a semester would make me pay more per semester, so fiinancially speaking, I should leave the 3 classes out for a last semester. Transfer students are all given 5 more semesters.</p>

<p>I’ll be paying part time tuition and probably will commute for that semester though I’ll live on campus for my first 2 years.</p>

<p>I’m younger on average than most people in my grade, so working 1/2 a year later really isn’t that big of a deal.</p>

<p>People from my grade’s birthday’s go up to September of that year. I have a July birthday of that year. Many people have January birthdays, February, or December of the previous year, so graduating one semester late, I’ll still be on track with others in my grade since I have a relatively later birthdate in July, so you can rationalize it that way.</p>

<p>What I find useful about a final semester is I can squeeze in one more summer internship or even find a part time internship during my final part-time semester, so I don’t see graaduating one semeester later as an obstacle, but rather kind of an advantage because I could accrue valuable extra work experience, and I won’t be that old since many people already work “later” than me because of an earlier birthday.</p>

<p>Put it this way, if I work right after a normal graduation I’d be 21 years old , and almost 22. If I work after an extra semester/summer, I’ll be 22.4-22.5 years, which is still around the time most normal college grads find their first job, so I won’t really be that old.</p>

5

<p>Also, did I mention I don’t really like California that much? While the Bay Area is a nice, dynamic metropolitan area, the crazy home prices, crazy traffic is not something I like or would enjoy after graduation.</p>

<p>Michigan, Chicago, Indiana, or East Coast places would be a better fit for where I’d like to work after graduation, but given a Berkeley degree, I could still easily find a position in these places, though it would probably be easier to find a job on the west coast.</p>

<p>Also, did I mention that I wanted to go to graduate school? I might just want to work a year or two just to make some money and then go to graduate school.</p>

<p>I’m thinking of getting a masters in IOE again, or a masters in Financial Engineering, Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, or Biostatistics. Undergrad is not going to be my terminal degree.</p>

6

<p>From reading your lists and reasoning, I feel that you’re more inclined to attend UMich (especially for the program and location). The cons you listed for UMich don’t seem as significant as those you listed for Berkeley.</p>

7

<p>“I personally don’t think an extra semester is that bad. Also, my final semester is part time and I’ll mostly likely not dorm.”</p>

<p>Apartment rentals in Ann Arbor typically are for one calendar year. You can take some classes over the summer months and get it done in two years. Might as well stick around in A2 for the summer since you’re paying rent anyway.</p>

8

<p>“Who cares about “overall prestige”? You only attend one part of a university at a given time and the reputation of that segment is what you should be concerned with: undergraduate, professional, or graduate school.”</p>

<p>I will save this comment from goldenboy.</p>

9

<p>Saving about $40k for the same education is always wise.</p>

10

<p>True what waynegarth says about on-campus recruiting being regional. If you want to stay west coast based, stay at Berkeley. If you want to settle in midwest, save the money and go to Michigan.</p>

11

<p>“Who cares about “overall prestige”? You only attend one part of a university at a given time and the reputation of that segment is what you should be concerned with: undergraduate, professional, or graduate school.”</p>

<p>I will save this comment from goldenboy</p>

<p>Looks like goldenboy erased his statement after my comment. TOO LATE!</p>