Which is better: UMich or Northwestern?

<p>Calvin. I am sure your brother is very intelligent and will be an excellent student. Columbia is an excellent school. Northwestern and Cornell are excellent schools. Michigan is also an excellent school. When you make a comment like "“However, Northwestern’s weakest program is Engineering, whereas UMichigan’s strongest program is Engineering” it just shows your ignorance. Michigan has departments and schools that are higher ranked than it’s engineering college. For example, The Ross School Business.</p>

<p>Well you can’t really say that one college of a university is better than another by comparing its ranking to other schools. But whether I said “UMichigan’s Engineering college is better than its other colleges” when it’s true that “UMichigan’s Engineering college is one of the best it offers” isn’t really relevant. The point I was trying to make was that Northwestern’s Engineering was on the weaker side in comparison to the programs that it offers, whereas it’s the opposite for UMichigan. And I said that statement in support of UMichigan as well, not to imply that other programs in UMichigan suck.</p>

<p>" I’m just trying to defend the prestige of the college, since a lot of people are making biased remarks against it."</p>

<p>The only one making biased remarks, besides my one sarcastic one about Cornell over Columbia for engineering, is YOU.</p>

<p>Your lack of reading comprehension skills is irrelevant to my potential bias.</p>

<p>^^That’s the third time you’ve made that statement. When someone makes remarks in the superlative, they need to be able to back them up. So far you have failed to do so.</p>

<p>I’m guessing novi is a business major, lol. Yeah really Michigan’s unique in that it literally has no weak areas - not a single program is ranked lower than 15th in the nation. In addition, it actually has the genuine state-college feel (a.k.a. larger campus, good sports teams, etc.) yet can still almost guarantee admission to the most elite private universities out there. It’s recognized for its prestige, and while that prestige may not be as great as that at NU, it is easily the top public university in the country. I see both sides of this argument.</p>

<p>Berkeley is the top public in the nation liv. Even I concede that one. :-)</p>

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<p>The fact that I needed to state it to you three times supports my statement more than enough, thank you.</p>

<p>Shhh! They only admit in-staters though. Where are you planning on going to grad school? NU has a really great business school.</p>

<p>OP: rjkofnovi is a KID. He’s even more of a buffoon than lesdiablesbles, which I never thought possible. Don’t believe me? Ask any of the senior members here.</p>

<p>Unless we’re talking about grad school, Northwestern is MUCH better than Michigan. Fact.</p>

<p>“Unless we’re talking about grad school, Northwestern is MUCH better than Michigan. Fact.”</p>

<p>MrPrince, care to prove your statement? </p>

<p>Share with us departmental rankings, faculty awards, graduate school and professional placement figures, academic reputation rankings etc… that prove that Northwestern is “MUCH” better than Michigan. </p>

<p>If anything, it is your comment that qualifies you as a buffoon.</p>

<p>■■■■■, ■■■■■ ■■■■■, your boat gently down the CC sea, . . . merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, rjkofnovi is back in full steam</p>

<p>Just passing by.</p>

<p>“Cornell Engineering > Northwestern Engineering > UMichigan Engineering. It’s fact, get over it.”</p>

<p>Calvin, I am not qualified to rank Engineering programs, but most independent undergraduate engineering rankings I have seen have Michigan ranked slightly higher than Cornell and Cornell slightly higher than Northwestern.</p>

<p>“The point I was trying to make was that Northwestern’s Engineering was on the weaker side in comparison to the programs that it offers, whereas it’s the opposite for UMichigan.”</p>

<p>Your statement above is way off Calvin. </p>

<ol>
<li><p>Northwestern’s college of Engineering is one of its most distinguished (ranked between #1 and #15 in the nation) undergraduate programs/departments. Northwestern has 7 standout programs/departments; Chemistry, Drama, Economics, Education, Engineering, Journalism and Music. </p></li>
<li><p>Michigan’s college of Engineering is one of 15 or so distingished (ranked between #1 and #15) undergraduate programs/departments at the university of Michigan. The others include Anthropology, Architecture, Business, Chemistry, Computer Science, Economics, Geology, History, Mathematics, Music, Nursing, Physics, Political Science, Psychology and Sociology.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Alexandre: We are not talking about graduate school. I’ve mentioned this already. </p>

<p>Northwestern is ranked 11th in USNWR. It’s endowment is very high. UMichigan’s endowment, although high, isn’t only for Ann Arbor, its for the entire system.</p>

<p>Northwestern is more selective. SAT score average is higher which means students are generally have a higher aptitude. Classes are smaller.
In High School counselor rankings, Northwestern is 4.6. Michigan is 4.4. This is a good indicator of undergrad prestige.
<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-col[/url]”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-col&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Northwestern(21) has better placement UMich(30)
<a href=“InPathWays - Discover latest hot new trending topic, insights, analysis”>InPathWays - Discover latest hot new trending topic, insights, analysis;

<p>The only thing Michigan has against Northwestern is that its cheaper and its PA score is higher. Michigan grad schools are possibly better than Northwestern’s.</p>

<p>Simple, concise, sweet. Also, Northwestern undergrad and grad is acceptable for IvyPlus Society (look it up) membership.
UMichigan grad schools only qualify. It’s undergrad doesn’t make it up to par.
That should tell you everything you need to know about prestige.</p>

<p>OP, here’s what you can do:</p>

<p>1) Go to a better overall school + extra money –> Work hard and end up in both a better overall grad university + Best grad engineering program (eg, Stanford, Caltech, etc)</p>

<p>2) Go to a university that isn’t good overall but with a stronger undergrad dept + no extra $30k –> Work hard and end up in both a better overall grad university + Best grad engineering program (eg, Stanford, Caltech, etc)</p>

<p>Look back at yourself 10 years from now. If you pursue both ways, you’ll still be having great degrees assuming everything goes according to plan. Assuming you still want to be in engineering too.
My point is, you don’t have to feel pressured into picking UMichigan because it has a better engineering program. To me, honestly, it doesn’t make a difference in the undergraduate level. </p>

<p>I would personally go to a university that’s overall better so I can explore my options. I used to be so bent on engineering, but now I’m into Investment Banking. Its crazy, I never thought I’d change.
Its you life. I wish you good luck. Much of it also depends on financial status. </p>

<p>In the end, its not about programs but about where you come from. Want an example? You got really excited when you heard rjkofnovi was from Novi High School. You didn’t ask him his GPA at Novi or his rank, etc. The fact that he’s from such a prestigious high school was enough to garner respect for him.
My point is, however twisted it seems, where you go DOES matter. Not as much as what you do in there. Fact of life.</p>

<p>Novi High School isn’t prestigious… It’s a random public school in the same county as Detroit. Granted, it’s nicer than an Detroit Public School, but I’m sure my HS (albeit public) is considered much more elite. The only reason I got “excited” was because it’s close by. Thank you for all you input, though! It was very valuable.</p>

<p>P.S. Why should I ask him his GPA or rank? He got into Michigan, didn’t he? How do HS stats matter in this situation?</p>

<p>Mrprince, if there’s a kid on here i think it’s you, based on the unbelievably immature posts you made on every single thread on CC. Grow up! There is no significant difference between NU and UMich like you are shouting. There is none. They are both very fine institutions with global recognition and world-class faculty and students. Saying NU is better than UMich is like saying BMW is better than Mercedes Benz.</p>

<p>“Novi High School isn’t prestigious… It’s a random public school in the same county as Detroit. Granted, it’s nicer than an Detroit Public School, but I’m sure my HS (albeit public) is considered much more elite.”</p>

<p>Novi High School is in Oakland Co. Detroit is in Wayne Co. I never attended NHS. Too many assumptions are being made in this thread without accurate knowledge. I’ll just leave my remarks at that.</p>

<p>MrPrince, your post #54 shows how little you know about universities.</p>

<p>“Northwestern is ranked 11th in USNWR.”</p>

<p>The USNWR ranking is not an exact ranking of academic quality or reputation and should not be used as such. It is a ranking according to a subjective and impossible-to-measure varriables that attempt to separate peer universities of equal calibre by exaggerating tiny differences.</p>

<p>“It’s endowment is very high. UMichigan’s endowment, although high, isn’t only for Ann Arbor, its for the entire system.”</p>

<p>Actually, the University of Michigan endowment belongs almost entirely (quite literally over 99%) to the Ann Arbor campus. And remember that Michigan also receives hundreds of millions of dollars from the state annually. Financially, few universities are truly better off than Michigan, and Northwestern is not one of them. This said, NU is at least as well off as Michigan, if not slightly better off. Either way, the difference is negligible.</p>

<p>“Northwestern is more selective. SAT score average is higher which means students are generally have a higher aptitude.”</p>

<p>True, just as Caltech students is more selective than MIT and WUSTL is more selective than Stanford. I don’t think it makes a difference in both cases. </p>

<p>Classes are smaller.</p>

<p>Not really. The average class at the intro level is indeed larger at Michigan, but still large at both universities (as they are at most research universities). Intermediate and advanced level classes at roughly the same at all top universities. The class size arguement (as well as the TA use arguement) is useless since they varry very little from school to school. At this stage, most private universities have adjusted the way they report class size in order to do well in the USNWR. Michigan is one of the few that does not. In real terms however, class size does not varry that much from top school to top school.</p>

<p>“In High School counselor rankings, Northwestern is 4.6. Michigan is 4.4. This is a good indicator of undergrad prestige.” </p>

<p>Actually, I think the peer assessment score is a better measure of prestige, and Michigan edges NU out 4.4 to 4.3. However, regardless of whether you choose to use high school counselors or university presidents as a reference, neither school has a true edge in reputation.</p>

<p>“Northwestern(21) has better placement UMich(30)”</p>

<p>When you adjust for quality of the student body, the two perform roughly the same. I fully admit that Northwestern is more selective and has a slightly stronger student body. But somehow, when you adjust for student quality, Michigan seems to places just as high a percentage of its students into top graduate programs and companies.</p>

<p>“Also, Northwestern undergrad and grad is acceptable for IvyPlus Society (look it up) membership.”</p>

<p>The IvyPlus society you are referring to is is not really a convincing arguement. It is a group founded by a young Yale alum. I respect her opinion, but not ascribing to her ideal of social elitism does not really convince me of a university’s rightful place.</p>