<p>I've been told that the Michigan winters are almost unbearable for people from the west coast. My older brother actually went to visit a friend in Michigan over the winter and told me that there's no way people from the coast like ourselves can live in Michigan for four years.</p>
<p>I have come to believe that UMich is one of the best colleges for me and would definitely like to attend, but are the winters really bad enough to seriously consider not going?</p>
<p>Also this a pretty dumb question too, but people have told me that the Detroit area is also one of the most dangerous areas in the US. Does the campus itself have a safe environment?</p>
<p>The campus is for the most part safe. I say "for the most part" because safety is only found with good judgement. For example, you'll probably run into trouble if you walk down a dark alley alone during the middle of the night, but that is true anywhere. If you're smart about what you do, you should be fine. Also, no, the winters are not unbearable. I know someone from the Bay area, and she's doing fine here. You just need to get used to the winters. Maybe even try to have a liitle humor with the situation. (For example, my friend from the Bay area took a few of us out for ice cream on her birthday. After we had our treats, we went over to the Diag to have our snacks. Her birthday was at the end of January, and it was freezing. Needless to say, we weren't out there for a long time, but she was planning on doing that for a while. :))</p>
<p>Ann Arbor != Detroit. Ann Arbor is one of the most desirable places to live in MI. Detroit, no explanation needed there. That said, Ann Arbor is still a city and still has crime, but it's nothing like Detroit. The two cities are quite separate from one another.</p>
<p>We have multiple weather threads around here, if you dig a bit you should find one...</p>
<p>Okay, let me tell you a little bit about the history of Michigan.</p>
<p>Back in the prosperous era after WWII all the big name auto manufacturers were set up in Detroit and other surrounding cities. The area was extremely prosperous. As the industry began to deteriorate, the areas began to do less well and because of the problems associated with economic slowdown, the rich moved away and the poor were left.</p>
<p>This created a situation known as white flight, where all the whites left to other cities, creating extremely rich areas, and all the po' folk were left in the city. Now applying this to Michigan, you can see that Flint and Detroit were totally ruined, and now all the whites reside in prosperous suburbs of Michigan. Oakland County is one of the richest places in the nation.</p>
<p>That said, crime should not be on your mind. Even in Detroit crime really isn't that bad if you know what you are doing. This isn't Africa where you can get kidnapped at any second; you really have to make some enemies or buy some drugs in Detroit to get into trouble. Otherwise, you are fine.</p>
<p>Ann Arbor is extremely safe. Don't worry, you probably have a higher risk of being robbed and killed in Pasadena than you do in Ann Arbor :)</p>