Hi Everyone. I am an international student from the UK and I have been admitted into both UVA and Umich. I am hoping to study a STEM subject (probably chemistry), but social life is very important to me as well (I enjoy partying, drinking etc). I would also be potentially open to joining a fraternity.
Annoyingly however, due to travel bans, I will most likely be unable to visit either of these universities before having to make my final decision, and I have never been to either of the campuses, or even states.
Could anyone help me shine some light on which university is right for me?
How would we know “which university is right for you” if we don’t know what you value? The differences in size and climate comes to mind. There are plenty of parties and drinking and frats at both places.
UVa has a reputation for being more elitist and is smaller (think Durham in the UK). For UMich, think a more massive Edinburgh except in a college town (kind of like Durham or St. Andrews) and with more school spirit and big time sports (nothing like that in the UK). UVa has sports too but it’s nothing like Michigan football.
As International rankings are based on research, UMich does much better there than UVa (just as Edinburgh does much better than Durham). Americans would see them as equal (2 of the best publics just below the Ivies/equivalents).
THink about which school can the easiest land you top jobs
Think about the location, which college is at the best location especially if you want to find a job there after four years
The money label may be true in most cases but the aid office differs by school to school too. Like a state uni thats less competitive in terms of rank likely has a less financial aid package for you. School with higher ranking may has a higher financial aid for you and cancels more and left less in its amount.
Think about each’s national level ranking which affects tons (on USNWR).
Now left you to decide and look on the national rankings .