<p>For a Va. resident, the current sticker price difference for a U. Michigan degree vs. a UVa degree is $136,000. Then add in the additional travel expenses, particularly if you want to fly home during Thanksgiving break, when fares greatly increase. Then add in the fact that U. Michigan only promises to meet the financial needs of in-state students.</p>
<p>No, they are sharing their opinion and or facts. Just as you shared yours. That is all.</p>
<p>I also brought up about the funding which was an inaccurate statement you made. This is not opinion but fact.</p>
<p>charlie, the OP is international, so the tuition is probably about the same.</p>
<p>OK well I already addressed that my statement was ambiguous and not a fact, and I have no more sports opinions maybe we can talk about something else maybe not I guess we’ll see… ;)</p>
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<p>UM is the all time leader in NCAA football wins, numerous national championships in football and packs 100k people into every football game. So that’s a big characteristic of student life at UM (as it is at ND, LSU, Texas, Penn State, etc.). Its athletic department prints money and is the epitome of big time college sports. </p>
<p>UVA’s football tradition is relative indifference while having a good cocktail party. UVA has strong programs in lax and soccer and now baseball. Those pack in maybe 3k per game. A nice excuse to observe coeds working on their tans. I prefer UVA’s version of sports, but it definitely is a small aspect of student life and a totally different animal than UM.</p>
<p>Excluding the Fab Five and Ralph Sampson, both have middling hoops.</p>
<p>Fyi, UVA sports tickets are not free. To keep the athletic department afloat (since it can’t generate revenue like UM does), UVA charges all the kids a mandatory fee to support the D-1 sports programs. The kids pay whether they go to games or not.</p>
<p>UM is bigger, more urban, more northern and better funded (by a significant amount). UVA is smaller, in a more rural town, more southern, preppy, genteel (snooty to some). UM has the feel of an big state U. UVA feels like a combination of Penn State and Princeton.</p>
<p>Prestige is a very slight nod to UVA, but not enough to make a difference in the decision.</p>
<p>Among academics UM has FAR more prestige as Sullivan readily admitted last year and she should know. UM’s research program is over 3 times larger. For undergrad it probably matters less. UM’s biology program is ranked much higher than UVa’s. UM is colder but not that much colder. It’s not Minnesota or Alaska. Financially UM is in good shape as it like UVa now gets relatively little from the state. And that amount is stable now.</p>
<p>Agree with that. </p>
<p>UM is definitely more prestigious (like Berkeley) among academics for research, particularly in the hard sciences. UVA has a slightly better rep as an undergrad school – smaller, a bit more selective for admissions, more focus on liberal arts. A few notches higher in USNWR for whatever that’s worth.</p>
<p>Internationally, UMich has much higher prestige than UVA, mainly because of its research reputation.</p>
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<p>USNWR has UM with a 40.6% acceptance rate vs 33.3% at UVA for 2011. Since UM has a higher amount of OOS undergrad students (40+% vs. 33%) that suggests that UVA is a decent bit harder to get into OOS undergrad than UM, which is what my anecdotal experience has been. So if undergrad selectivity is your measure of “prestige”, edge to UVA.</p>
<p>But since they rank in USNWR as the #2 and #4 public universities, their prestige differences aren’t big for an undergrad applicant.</p>
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<p>UVa’s endowment per student is higher than UM’s:</p>
<p>UVA
Total Endowment = 4.761 billion
Total Enrollment (according to USNWR) = 15,762
Endowment per Student = $302,055</p>
<p>UMICH
Total Endowment = 7.835 billion
Total Enrollment (according to USNWR) = 27,407
Endowment per Student = $285,875</p>
<p>That UVa enrollment number is wrong. It is around 20,000 total grad and undergrad. I’m not sure of the full-time equivalent (probably 18 to 19K) - most of the part-timers are people working on a masters in education. You might make an argument that Darden, Medicine and Law are not subsidized by the endowment, so those students could be deleted from that calc. The med school is very heavily subsidized by the net revenues from the Medical Center. (Also, the UVa Medical Center has around $1 billion of its own endowment.) </p>
<p>I think the numbers in US News were intending to include only undergrads, but then the number is too big.</p>
<p>For enrollment stats see: [UVa</a> - Enrollment by Full-Time / Part-Time Status](<a href=“http://avillage.web.virginia.edu/iaas/instreports/studat/dd/enrl_ftpt.htm]UVa”>http://avillage.web.virginia.edu/iaas/instreports/studat/dd/enrl_ftpt.htm)</p>
<p>Fall Headcount 2012 = 14,175 FT undergraduate students and 5,918 FT graduate students.
PT undergraduates =466 and PT graduate students =536.</p>
<p>Dean J’s answer is still the best for OP. Both are great schools with different feels. One will get an excellent education at each of them.</p>
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<p>State Funding per In-State Student</p>
<p>2009-10 General Fund
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill $26,034
University of Maryland $17,620
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor $15,595
University of Virginia $8,601</p>
<p>Source: U.Va. 2010-2011 Budget Summary</p>
<p>UM also has more OOS students (42.6 vs 33%) who pay higher tuition. Better funded than UVA, as Prez Sullivan (from UM) frequently points out.</p>
<p>Yes, people need to make a differentiation between universities that are well known for very strong graduate programs and that are research powerhouses, vs. universities that place a greater emphasis on undergrad education.</p>
<p>In the comparison of funding, UNC-CH really is the outlier. In the charts I’ve seen, no other state university receives anywhere near that level of funding. I know the funding provided by PA per in-state student for U. Pittsburgh, Penn State and other universities is much lower than for UVa.</p>
<p>Charlie – among state flagships around the country, tops for state funding are Carolina and Cal. Lowest are Penn State and Colorado. Michigan is about double UVA (which is what this thread is about). </p>
<p>State funding is going down everywhere, but it has gone down more in some places than others.</p>
<p>UNC operates a very large hospital system that gets significant state funding which scews their numbers. Most U hospitals now get little or no state money–have to make it on their own.</p>
<p>Barrons – all of these numbers (which are from a few years back) exclude hospitals (which most state flagships operate) but may include med schools (which most also operate).</p>
<p>As noted above, UNC is tops; Colorado and Penn State are at the bottom; UVA is average to below average and is behind Michigan. Since these numbers are coming from UVA and President Sullivan, UVA seems to think it is less well funded than Carolina, Cal and Michigan. </p>
<p>[State</a> appropriations and tuition per in-state student FTE | PBA](<a href=“http://www.colorado.edu/pba/peer/0607/appfte.htm]State”>http://www.colorado.edu/pba/peer/0607/appfte.htm)</p>
<p>Then that’s pretty impressive. I tried to sort through UNC budget myself but it is not as well designed as UVa’s which is easy to read and follow. I know UNC also keeps instate tuition very low and has fewer OOS so it needs big state money to work.</p>
<p>I’m really glad someone asked this… I’m waiting for my decision from UVA but was accepted to Michigan EA. I’m planning to visit Michigan for sure and UVA if I get accepted, but it’s nice to hear some opinions as well.</p>
<p>^ That’s precisely my situation. If I get into UVA I’ll have an incredibly difficult decision.</p>