I’m facing a monumental dilemma trying to decide between Umich and WashU. And what makes my decision even harder is that my life-long dream school is Cornell. I got into Cornell through Guaranteed-transfer option, which means I have to spend a year at another institution before I get to Cornell. And I’m trying to decide where to spend my first year amongst Umich and WashU. I visited both, and both schools had it’s ups and downs. WashU campus was beautiful and everybody seemed extremely happy there. However many people there struck me as sort of “Type-A,” and I might not fit in entirely well. Michigan people seemed more down-to-earth, and I thought I could fit in more socially. However the sheer size of the school daunted me and coming from a small private school background, I would prefer more personalized attention.
My thinking is that if I spend my first collegiate year at Washu, I could probably prep better academically for Cornell, and because of WashU Art & Sci’s academic flexibility, I can explore various fields and figure out what I really want to major in. But If I choose Michigan LSA for first year, I can experience the fun “traditional” collegiate experience meeting so many different people, catching football games and going to frat parties before I go to Cornell to buckle down and focus on my studies. Michigan would also provide good intellectual experience, but probably not as focused and personalized as WashU.
What is your opinion? What makes my case even harder is that i’m an undecided major. I know my final destination is Cornell no matter what and both WashU and Umich would be a stepping stone for me, to explore more places before I reach my final destination. I’d love to hear any feedback.
I would seriously reconsider your Guaranteed Transfer Plan. It will be extremely hard to be happy, or form connections with your peers at whichever school you choose based on your knowledge that you will only be there for a year. Cornell in many ways is not better than WashU or Michigan. Why is it that you want to go there, really? The prestige? You will also have to adjust to Cornell’s environment where you will be with people who have already formed tight bonds.
My advice? Decline the Guaranteed Transfer option. Love the school(s) that loved you.
Also, is money a factor? In state Michigan would be significantly cheaper than WashU.
Money is not much a factor. And I’m not in-state at michigan. I see the guaranteed transfer option as more of a blessing because it allows me to explore one other place for a year before i settle down. And because it is non-binding, I can stay at Washu or Michigan if I really love it at either one of those places. And if I don’t think I fit in quite so well at either, I can always take the seat at Cornell.
To be completely frank, I think Cornell is the best fit for me in many aspects. i’m extremely competitive and intense. I’m too much of a douchebag to fit in at Washu but too much of nerd to fit it with many party-goers at Umich. I could be completely wrong and probably doing great injustice by generalizing both of those schools. But that was the genuine sense I got when I spent more than 2+ days at each schools.
I want to make the most of the opportunity I was given from cornell.
too much of a what for WashU? You do realize you posted this in the WashU section?
I agree that you are doing an injustice to both schools by generalizing them so much.
And then TBH if you have your heart set on Cornell why not go someplace exciting for that year. Not somewhere fairly similar at least in diversity of students and difficulty of courses. Why not study abroad your first year? Or do something really cool near your home while taking community college classes?
I’m frankly opposed to the idea of you starting at WashU or Michigan your first year with the intent of leaving because
a. It’s an unethical practice
b. it hurts the school you end up matriculating at
c. it hurts you in regards to developing close connections
IMO you are looking at this somethat the wrong way.
Just decide now whether you’d prefer to attend Wash U for four years, or U Mich for four years. Proceed accordingly.
Then your job next year will be to give that school everything you have, and really see whether that is the place for you.
Only in the odd chance that it truly isn’t, then you can reconsider exercising the GT option. In addition to out and out transferring to someplace that may be yet more suitable.
If you have a GT it is probably not from the Arts & Sciences College there, right, it is likely from one of the statutory colleges. So there are different curricula and course requirements to consider, too.
If you choose wisely now you probably will see no reason to be thinking about the GT later on.
It’s nice to have something like that in one’s back pocket, as an option , Options do have value. But when it gets moved to the front pocket prematurely it can become disruptive.
I agree with the other posters: you should decide which school you want to attend for 4 years; you can still transfer if you want to do so later. I have a senior son at Wash U and a freshman son at Michigan. Both are great schools. The smaller size of Wash U is nice, and the school spirit of Michigan is also nice. Michigan hasn’t really seemed “too big” for my son and his friends are very serious students so certainly there are not all party goers. At both schools the students work very hard. Wash U is a fabulous school, as is Michigan. You really have to go for fit. I sometimes describe it as Wash U living in the suburbs (with its beautiful surroundings) and Michigan living in Manhattan (with so much always going on). It is just a personal choice.
I taught math at Wash. U. for many years. I would not advise that you go there, especially not for engineering. Go to my blog, look at A Tale Out of School and the posts that contain “Content Deflation.” I think you will be shocked.
There is a reason why recruiters rank U of Mich number 6 in engineering, while Wash. U. is not in the top 25, and why linkedin ranks U of Mich 9 in software developers and Wash. U. number 24.
Here is my advice to engineers. (I once was one.)
Don’t judge a system just by its inputs - in the case of universities SAT scores - but judge it by what it does by those inputs.
My friend’s daughter was in a similar situation last year. A GT into Cornell business school. She reluctantly went to Stern for first year. She was 100% sure she would transfer. Forward one year and she absolutely doesn’t want to transfer. She loves where she is. She formed bonds and friendships and doesn’t want to leave. So as previous posters suggest, find a school that you will be happy in for next four years because you never know what you will want to do next year. And btw in terms of prestige, washu is a higher ranked school then Cornell.