Hey all! I’m having a lot of difficulty choosing between these three schools, any feedback would be greatly appreciated 
I’ll be going into engineering (first-year general) at Michigan and Austin and Astronautical Engineering at USC. I’ve heard great things about Ann-Arbor and Austin as far as places to live, and not-so-great things about USC’s area, but I’ve heard varying things about the quality of life at all three. How is each received nationally post-graduation? Is the weather really that hard to deal with in Michigan? (I’m a California native). Again, feedback in any area would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
I have the same question as a business major so if anyone has anything to add about that it would be appreciated also
All are great schools. Most important question: Do you have the financial means to pay for these colleges without taking on large amounts of debt?
I live in Michigan. It’s damn cold here now… wish I was in California instead. I can’t answer how you would handle the weather.
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They all are excellent schools, and major employers recruit heavily from all of them. Ann Arbor is a mid-sized college town with lots to do and see with the university as the focus of the town. Austin is a larger city with a huge tech and music culture plus state government, but can be beastly hot and humid in the summer months. USC’s location in LA if fine in the immediate area of the campus but questionable if you go a little further, plus you have the pollution and congestion of LA.
Ann Arbor gets cold - usually in the 20’s/30’s during Jan/Feb with an occasional drop to single digits but is quite pleasant in the fall, spring and summer (rarely above 80 deg) . Snowfall is modest and doesn’t affect you much as a student unless you commute by car (buses are free to UM students) , it rains and is overcast a lot more than in California but it is also much greener.
Most Californians get used to it quickly and enjoy the snow. About 6% of the student body are Californians, so I don’t think it is much of a barrier, and midwesterners are a bit more conservative and much friendlier.
@dadof1 I’m lucky enough to be able to pay for any of these schools, but USC is the only one that’s offered me money so far (and a decent amount at that). And @TooOld4School thanks for your response, to be honest I was/am a little scared about the change in weather, but I feel a little less intimidated now.
All great choices - can’t go wrong with any of them in terms of reputation and quality. Austin has a great vibe, especially if you’re into the indie music scene, and also a great place for tech startups, but beyond Austin, Texas is … Texas. (Yes, it’s hot in the summer but you might not be there during summers anyway.) Weather aside, Michigan is probably the nicest overall in terms of nature if that’s important to you.
Since you’re Californian why not take the opportunity to experience another part of the country, broaden your network, etc.
I can’t say anything about Austin, but I was accepted on scholarship to USC, and am currently attending Michigan.
People: Nicer looking people at USC, Nicer people at Michigan (you’ll be fairly surprised how nice Midwesterners are relative to the people you usually encounter in California).
Facilities: the USC is incredibly beautiful (Disneyland vibe). Michigan is more ordinary college town looking, with the exceptions of the Ross business school and Law School - both of those are gorgeous. Both colleges will give you more resources than you can handle, but USC will be more likely to spoon feed it to you because of the smaller size of the campus.
Academics: people at Michigan are smarter. I visited both schools for different programs and sat in on classes. From talking to a friend who goes to USC right now, the only reason USC has higher standardized test scores is because of it’s sizable international population with very smart students pulling the averages up. In your case, Michigan also has the better ranked engineering school.
Sports: it’s a wash. Both campuses are incredible and go hard with tailgates on game day. Both have their legendary rivals.
Resources: Tie. Both schools have advantages over each other. USC has LA, and it’s location in Cali serves as a ticket to the International trade routes of the Pacific (I’m a business major lol), so it’s extremely useful for if you plan on anything internationally related. Michigan has the bigger pure endowment in terms of money, and a better alumni network - it’s more spread out nationally and larger than that of the West coast focused Trojan family
Nightlife: Parties are everywhere at USC. You actually can’t avoid them if you tried. Michigan has a stuff going on al the time too, but because of the larger size, you can choose to avoid the parties whenever you want. USC is 3 minutes south of downtown LA, while Michigan has Ann arbor bars and clubs.
Weather: Cali will be much nicer. Michigan can get outright dreary looking during the winter. However, you will adapt MUCH faster than you’d think - I have several Cali friends who agree with this.
Feel free to ask for more info; just thought I’d help by providing personal insight!
/have you been accepted to any of them yet?
Umich has a really good engineering program. Other than that I can’t say much so I think it would be best if you visit them or if you can’t then research and look at their virtual tour.
I agree with most of what Wolverine19 has to say except for one item; resources. When it comes to resources, Michigan is significantly better off than USC. One must factor in the $270 million state funding that Michigan receives from the state annually, which is the equivalent of an additional $6 billion of endowment when comparing a public university to a private university. So if one is comparing Michigan to USC, Michigan’s endowment is in fact equal to $16 billion, compared to USC’s $4.7 billion. Since Michigan and USC are roughly the same size, Michigan’s endowment is almost four times larger than USC’s in relative terms as well.
Furthermore, while this is by no means an important factor, I think USC’s students are “nicer looking” because they live in a climate that compels students to stay fit, tan and dress accordingly…not that Michigan is hurting in that department. There are many attractive young men and women around campus, but they simply do not have the chance to flaunt it most of the year because their attire tends to be…well, fluffy! 
Alexandre, I have the utmost respect for you, as it was your posts that ultimately influenced me to go into Ross as a Preadmit this time last year. However, for the life of me, I can’t understand how $270 million in state funding can be transcribed into $6 billion. Could you please explain this?
Also, OP, he reminded me of an important point I forgot to mention: finances. USC gave me 2 scholarships, which combined with my gift aid ended up at nearly 40k dollars off the total price. By contrast, Michigan is very, VERY stingy with need-based financial aid for OOS kids. I didn’t get anything from them merit-wise (although to be fair, this was a due to a technicality in the system), and I was in the minority of kids getting somewhat substantial gift aid. They do give more merit scholarships to engineering students, but I’ll warn you right now, you’re probably not going to be too pleased with your overall financial aid package. In the end though, I’d still call both sides equal simply because the cost of living in LA is much MUCH more expensive than living in Ann Arbor, so it balances out as rent for houses is much lower in Michigan (most students in both schools move out after freshmen year). Be sure to check the local area housing prices so that you can scope out for yourself how much the difference in aid is really worth relative to where you’d attend
Looks like the previous poster’s assumption is that the endowment produces investment income at a 4.5% annual rate that can be used for things other than increasing the endowment. Of course, any investment fund’s returns can vary from year to year, as can the amount of funding provided by the state. Economic downturns are often bad for investment fund returns and funding provided by the state.
Wolverine19, universities are restricted to using 4-6% of their endowment on an annual basis. The annual state funding received by public universities is used entirely during that fiscal year. So it is safe to say that each dollar a public universities receives from the state annually is roughly equivalent to $20 a private university’s endowment generates annually. In some instances, public universities generate far less income from tuition, but that is clearly not the case with Michigan, where 40% of the students come from OOS and pay high tuition fees while receiving virtually no financial aid.
@2020classx I’ve been accepted into all three programs, but I got a half-tuition scholarship to USC while UT and UMich haven’t given me anything as of yet. and @Wolverine19 thank you for your detailed response, that really helped I know it sounds petty, but the change in weather is my biggest concern about Michigan. I’m all for having 4 seasons but I’m worried that I’ll get all depressed from October to March as the weather turns south. I love the idea of a college town, so Ann Arbor sounds amazing, but USC is by the beaches and downtown LA even though its in a pretty shady neighborhood.
Also, you brought up something that I noticed at USC. The engineering buildings actually looked nice! At almost every other college that I’ve visited, the business and liberal arts schools were beautiful while the engineering buildings were older and outdated (at UT they were still using chalkboards in the Aerospace Engineering building). Does Michigan fall more into the second type? I know it sounds weird but I feel like having all my classes in old/outdated buildings would get to me after a while.
Unless Mich or UT offer money, go to USC.
Rower1738, are you waiting to hear from any of the UCs?
Berkeley or UCLA (in-state) would cost you ~$17K/year less than Texas or ~$25K/year less than Michigan.
For what it’s worth, USNWR ranks Berkeley, UCLA … and USC … a bit higher than Michigan or Texas.
Why would you want to pay a very high price premium to attend a peer school?
If we’re trying to compare the financial resources of public and private universities, I would think it makes sense to compare total revenues (rather than simply comparing private school endowments with an estimated, hypothetical public school endowment). Here are some revenue figures I get from the IPEDS data reports:
… USC … UCLA … Michigan … Texas
Total Revenues … $4.8B … $6.1B … $7.8B … $3.5B
Enrollment (FTE students) … 39K … 41K … 42K … 49K
*
Revenue per Student … $123K … $149K …$185K… $72K
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So by this measure, Michigan’s financial resources are indeed greater than USC’s, but not 3 or 4 times greater.
How do these revenues translate to resources available to enrolled students?
That’s a difficult question.
If you look at instructional spending per student, USC seems to compare more favorably:
… USC … UCLA … Michigan … Texas
Instructional Spending … $1.6B … $1.7B … $1B … $0.8B
Instructional Spending/Student … $42K … $41K … $24K … $16K
However, this couldn’t be a perfect apples-to-apples comparison (since each of these schools may be dealing with a rather different set of cost factors).
The one figure that the OP is in a good position to compare, on a more-or-less apples-to-apples basis, is his net costs.
@Rower1738 From my experience, the buildings at USC were nice on the outside, but they looked pretty normal on the inside (which isn’t to say bad by any means!) And Michigan typically uses projectors for larger lectures, and whiteboards for discussions. From what I understand when talking to high school friends/peers attending Carnegie Mellon, Duke, MIT, and Harvard, its basically the same setup everywhere. Even when I was in classes at USC during my visit, the technology used there was the same as in Michigan. Smaller, math intensive classes will naturally gravitate towards chalkboards wherever you go!
@insanedreamer can you please explain why you think USC is a better fit for OP?
Only thing with Texas state universities is starting in the fall kids can carry guns to class.
If money is not an issue, go visit each and decide. If weather is an issue, then USC vs Austin gun toting students.
@Wolverine86 if USC offered half-tuition scholarship, I don’t see any compelling reason to attend Mich or UTA for at a higher price.
That’s true, but one of the main reasons to attend college in the first place is that it is supposed to give you the sufficient skills to earn more in the workforce. I was in a similar situation with both business programs I was accepted into; I’d received two scholarships and gift aid such that about 70% of estimated total cost was paid for at USC. By comparison, Michigan offered me enough aid to cover about 33% of estimated total cost. In the end, I checked business placement statistics and earning potential, as well as calculating the cost of living in the two areas and total cost for the schools (Michigan’s was about 58k, and USC’s was 67k), and found to my surprise, if I was an “average” student in terms of placement by the schools, I’d earn back the additional gift aid offered by USC in less than 2 years given Michigan Ross’ higher salaries. This is only on a pure numbers calculation; it doesn’t take into account post college location: the cost of living is higher in the West Coast (where most Marshall grads end up) than in the midwest or east coast (where most Ross grads end up).
My point is, pure numbers are important, but it’s more important that OP take into account ALL the factors in terms of financials.
UMich>USC>UT Austin