<p>Hi Everyone,</p>
<p>I got accepted into U Michigan this year. and have a few other acceptance offers.</p>
<p>I know U Michigan is ranked 27th. But the rankings are not my only criteria when choosing a college.So I would like to ask you guys which shcools are Michigan's peers?
How's Michigan's reputations?</p>
<p>Thanks a lot!!!</p>
<p>Public universities: UC Berkeley, UVA, UNC, UCLA, Wisconsin</p>
<p>Private universities: Notre Dame, Duke, Wash U, Vanderbilt, Emory, Cornell, USC, CMU, Chicago, Northwestern and Georgetown</p>
<p>I wouldn’t call any LAC’s peers with Michigan because it is impossible to compare a large university to a college with 2,000 students. This is not a criticism of LAC’s but it is like comparing apples and oranges.</p>
<p>This is not a scientific list and is not necessarily a complete list. It is just based on my observations. Alumni from these institutions will be similar types of students. If Alexandre drops in, he may have a more thorough list. I’m sure the anti-Michigan crowd will also be dropping in and bashing this list.</p>
<p>I would consider most of the Ivy schools, MIT and Stanford to be in a different league although there are a number of students at Michigan who would be peers of the students of these schools.</p>
<p>One of the best things about Michigan is that it has a strong program in almost every field so you are not pigeon-holed into a specific area if you change your mind as to your course of study. Also Ann Arbor is a great college town.</p>
<p>What constitutes a peer? I have been thinking about that question for a long time now. How is a school like Harvard or Princeton, ranked higher than Michigan? Every single discipline Michigan offers is ranked top 10 or top 15, and at the very minimum top 20. No ivy league school can say that, in fact, most schools can’t say that. So why isn’t Michigan near the top? And if Michigan is so great in everything it offers, what makes a school its peer? I know Ivy league schools have a stronger student body and have larger endowments, but is that it?</p>
<p>@WolfPachfan, I think it’s the student body. It’s like a vicious circle(probably not vicious), Ivies have better student so they’re ranked higher, then they attract more top students. Off the top of my head, Harvard’s CS or ECE is no peer with MIT/Standford/CMU/Cornell, but Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg did choose it for their college and then dropped out</p>
<p>I feel the same way WolfPack. We have top ranked departments in every sector of academia, from physical and biological sciences to business and engineering to humanities and social sciences. Hell, we even have extremely prestigious law and medical schools. We offer hundreds of majors and concentrations, and nearly every one is highly regarded. None of the Ivies can say that.</p>
<p>“I know Ivy league schools have a stronger student body and have larger endowments, but is that it?” </p>
<p>Most of the Ivy League schools do not have larger endowments than Michigan (or Northwestern, my alma mater).</p>
<p>Tenisghs, my bad. I was just going off assumptions instead of doing a fact check.</p>
<p>Garage12, Bill Gates was an undecided major and I have no idea what Mark majored in. I agree that Harvard’s EECS program doesn’t hold a candle to Michigan’s.</p>
<p>OT: If a school’s excellence is dictated by the strength of its student body, then most rankings are completely invalid. A school’s student pool should not be the sole reason it is ranked above another school, especially when its academic disciplines are weaker than anothers. </p>
<p>I am not going to say Michigan is the number one school in the world, but it always baffles me when I see people claiming the Ivy League schools are the best institutions in the nation. Wharton is best for business (obviously), but on the undergrad level, what Ivy league institution can claim it is number one at something? I know they are strong in the humanities, but once again, so is Michigan.</p>
<p>Sorry for the rant, I just believe the Ivy League schools are the most over rated schools on the planet.</p>