University of Michigan vs. University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

<p>Hey everyone,</p>

<p>The May 1st deadline is approaching, and I have yet to make a decision.</p>

<p>I have narrowed down my choices to Michigan and UNC.
My intended major is somewhere in Computer Science, and to maybe tie in Biology (i.e. Bioinformatics, Biotechnology)</p>

<p>Here is the breakdown of my analysis of the two schools:</p>

<p>Michigan - Pros:</p>

<p>Higher comp sci. and biology ranking
Higher ranking overall
I would like to be in a city
Higher endowment ($8 billion to $2 billion)
I feel like my heart is leaning towards Michigan</p>

<p>Michigan - Cons:</p>

<p>I would have to allot a little over $100,000 in loans for the four years to attend (27K / year)</p>

<p>UNC - Pros:</p>

<p>Comp sci. and biology ranking is only slightly below Michigan
Part of Research triangle
Only have to take a little under $60,000 in loans for four years (14K / year)</p>

<p>UNC - Cons:</p>

<p>I feel like I may get bored quickly.
After living in a large city for my whole life, I don't know how I would adjust to a change into a small city.</p>

<p>I feel like I am judging the schools by ranking, but I still feel that despite the cost of attendance for Michigan, it has a slight edge over UNC in the other categories.</p>

<p>I would appreciate any thoughts.</p>

<p>Thank you</p>

<p>I really like both schools, but honestly, UNC edges out Mich by a bit in this one. 40k is a pretty substantial difference in cost, and it is around Raleigh-Durham. Plus, if weather is a factor at all, UNC wins big time. Both have very high prestige and are fantastic schools, so go with your heart.</p>

<p>Plus, while Ann Arbor is a nice area, it is by no means located in the city being about 45 minutes outside Detroit (not a fantastic city to begin with). Congrats on being accepted to both, this is a good dilemma to have.</p>

<p>Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind</p>

<p>Do you have any cheaper options?</p>

<p>Pros for Michigan:

  • Computer engineering
  • Biomedical engineering
  • Michigan’s annual research budget is around $1.33 billions, second only to Johns Hopkins. </p>

<p>GoBlue81, the OP indicates no interest in BME or Computer Engineering. Michigan and UNC are peers in Computer Science and Biology.</p>

<p>ennisthemanace, UNC and Michigan are not peers in CS. But I don’t think it makes sense to take out $100k in loans to attend any university. I don’t even think $60k of debt makes much sense.</p>

<p>adidas, don’t you have a more affordable option than UNC or Michigan?</p>

<p>For my family, UNC is affordable. They said they could try to make Michigan happen but obviously that would put some tight restrictions on the family’s spending habits. The only cheaper option I have is BU where I would pay 10K a year.</p>

<p>“Michigan and UNC are peers in Computer Science and Biology.”</p>

<p>“ennisthemanace, UNC and Michigan are not peers in CS.”</p>

<p>Once again, the hater is refuted. </p>

<p>

Neither did I. I was pre-med and then Chemistry before I found my niche in engineering. The OP won’t have that option at UNC. Many college students change their minds, some more than once. Why limit yourself?</p>

<p>Computer Science and Computer Engineering are often housed in the same department. I believe this gives you more breath and depth, and again more options.</p>

<p>

Alexandre, the National Research Council actually puts UNC firmly ahead of Michigan in Computer Science.</p>

<p><a href=“http://chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-/124721/”>http://chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-/124721/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>UNC Reputational (R-Rank) Range: #5-14
UMich Reputational (R-Rank) Range: #10-25</p>

<p>UNC Subjective (S-Rank) Range: #6-36
UMich Subjective (S-Rank) Range: #12-45</p>

<p>USNews puts Michigan firmly ahead of UNC in Computer Science however.</p>

<p><a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/computer-science-rankings”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/computer-science-rankings&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Michigan: 4.1 PA rating
UNC: 3.6 PA rating</p>

<p>At any rate, an undergraduate shouldn’t notice a difference between these two schools in the rigor and resources of the Comp Sci department compared to Stanford or MIT for instance.</p>

<p>@adidas8:
“I feel like I may get bored quickly.
After living in a large city for my whole life, I don’t know how I would adjust to a change into a small city.”</p>

<p>Short answer: No. I obtained a Master’s Degree from UNC-Chapel Hill, and as far as the big city/small city difference goes, it is somewhat irrelevant in graduate school. Even if it were, the Triangle area offers enough in social opportunities, with or without a car; plus the ocean is within driving distance from Chapel Hill!</p>

<p>So you could graduate debt free from BU, a perfectly fine school in one of the best college cities in America, graduate from UNC with $60k in debt, or graduate $100,000 in debt from Michigan? Personally I’d choose BU in a heartbeat.</p>

<p>ennisthemenace, the NRC rankings aren’t very reliable. I am not sure many agree with them. For example, according to the NRC, Harvard and the University of South Carolina are better than MIT in Electrical Engineering. University of Central Florida is better than Cal in EE! LOL! Brown is #1 in Mechanical Engineering. Would you agree that ASU or Wyoming have better Econ departments than Duke or Michigan?</p>

<p>The USNWR peer assessment score is the only rating that makes sense when it comes to department rankings, and according to that, Michigan is significantly better than UNC in CS. The difference between 4.1 and 3.6 is significant. </p>

<p>“At any rate, an undergraduate shouldn’t notice a difference between these two schools in the rigor and resources of the Comp Sci department compared to Stanford or MIT for instance.”</p>

<p>Actually, in terms of resources and on-campus recruiting, there isn’t much of a difference between Michigan and MIT or Stanford when it comes to Engineering/CS…I am not so sure UNC is in the same league. Michigan has the resources of an entire college of Engineering. The CS department is part of a larger EECS and CE department. UNC’s CS department does not have such an infrastructure to support it.</p>

<p>

Alexandre, neither of us are experts when it comes to assessing the strength of doctoral programs across all disciplines otherwise we would be highly cited PhDs producing our own set of rankings.</p>

<p>The NRC is considered the gold standard of evaluating graduate program strength for liberal arts programs. Their engineering and medical specialty categories are hard to interpret since they are so specialized and include subjects like Pharmacology and Material Sciences so they may be off the mark to the casual observer.</p>

<p>Their doctoral rankings of the “bread and butter” liberal arts subjects pass the eye test easily however. Your last statement is wrong however as Duke and Michigan have much higher ranked programs reputationally than Wyoming or ASU.</p>

<p><a href=“https://chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-/124724/”>https://chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-/124724/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>The top schools according to the R-Rank in exact order are Harvard, MIT, Chicago, Berkeley, Princeton, Stanford, Yale, Maryland, NYU, Columbia, Penn, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Duke, CalTech, UCLA, Michigan, Brown, UCSD, and Boston U. ASU is #28 and Wyoming is not even in the top 50. </p>

<p>Please ignore the S-Rank as that is a more subjective ranking unrelated to strict reputation.</p>

<p>Take the better weather at UNC.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/04/29/3820125/heavy-rains-headed-for-triangle.html”>http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/04/29/3820125/heavy-rains-headed-for-triangle.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Boston University (BU), located in one of the most desirable college towns in the country, at $10K/year is, IMO, is the better choice. Hopefully you have visited all the 3 universities, and perhaps had a chance to stay overnight to get a sense of the place & the students.</p>

<p>The NRC is not the “gold standard” (the USNWR reputational ratings are more accurate), but in more traditional disciplines, it does seem to do a better job than it does in the Tech fields, although even then, there are some strange results. Maryland is excellent in Econ, but it is not on par with the likes of Columbia, Michigan, Penn, UCLA or Wisconsin, and does not come close to Northwestern. </p>

<p>However, in Engineering and CS fields, the ranking is laughable. UNC equal to CMU in Computer Science?! LOL! I have no personal reason to dislike it. According to the NRC, the universities I am associated with are both ranked very handsomely. But there are way too many discrepancies. UNC is an excellent university, but it does not come close to Michigan in all things Engineering, including CS. In the case of the OP, UNC makes much better sense financially, but let us not spread misleading information about the quality of the departments in question.</p>