Slow news day: Why did you choose M?

For me it was pretty obvious -- I grew up in Ann Arbor in the 1970s and I think that every kid in town (more so than now) was obsessed with Michigan football back then. That said, I applied to a few Ivies knowing that they were longshots -- a conclusion that their respective admissions departments concurred with -- but can't imagine that I'd have been happier anyplace else. I met with my closest friends and wife at the University, and really enjoyed everything about it. 

My dad was accepted back in the day (1960s), but couldn't afford it.  My parents helped me with college and as an in-state high academic kid it was the only place I applied to.  Didn't make sense to go anywhere else.

I'd never actually been to Ann Arbor before being accepted.  Had a skip day Sr. year and visited for a couple of hours, but that was it before orientation.  I chose engineering because a girl told me she thought I'd be a good engineer.  I transferred to LSA because there were no girls on North Campus and the bus ride sucked.

I tried to transfer to the under grad business school but was rejected. Qualified for the general program but opted to go to state. 
 

still remain a diehard Michigan fan. No hard feelings, able to laugh about it with my colleagues 

Michigan had a Top 10 MBA program.

The irony is that I had no interest in Michigan sports when I applied.  They weren't a factor in my decision.  

I also applied to Columbia, Penn, and Harvard.  Not exactly killers in the big time sports department.  I got accepted at Columbia as well as Michigan.  I would have gone to Columbia but they did not give me any money and Michigan gave me full tuition . . . so Go Blue!

The big time sports at Michigan were a revelation to me.  I thought it was a trivial preoccupation.  But it meant so much more than I thought it would, especially after graduation. 

The utility of an MBA for most regular people is the placement department at the school upon graduation, and your first year or two on the job.  After that, it's all work experience that matters.  I have had consulting jobs where nobody knew I had an MBA or ever even asked.

But the utility of the big time sports that came with my Michigan degree actually increased over time.  I have directly benefited from it.  I had a Director who's son played AAU ball with MAAR in Allentown PA.  We bonded over that.  He would not know I even existed other than that.

When Michigan does well in sports I hear from former co-workers out of the blue who I have not heard from for years.  It's a common bond that persists across decades . . . long after the actual utility of the degree has expired.

When I applied I thought it was trivial, but now I tell my kids it's not trivial.  Don't just go chasing sports success (i.e. don't go to Ohio State or Alabama) but do indeed go to a place you are going to want to go back to the rest of your life and have something to bond over the rest of your life.  It has enriched me unexpectedly.         

It was the cool thing to do in 1976. It worked out pretty well for me since then. Otherwise I would have been a Bronco, and while cool, not AS cool.

Grew up in Ann Arbor thinking all university campuses were like Michigan. I was going to a state university due to cost and started visiting other campuses. Western, Central - no thanks. MSU? My brother was there and did not recommend it - at the time it was a lot of kids from rural Michigan.

So my choices were not vast and I was a huge sports fan. The bigger issue was if I would be accepted. I was deferred but got in and graduated from Ross. My son has since graduated with two Michigan degrees - a 3rd generation Alumnus.

Ann Arbor schools prepared me well for Michigan.

And by the way Ross also did not require language classes at the time either. Another language ignorant American. 

I was born and raised in Ann Arbor (Huron High School c/o '98) and have been a dyed-in-the-wool Wolverine since before I could talk. Once I got my undergrad admission letter, there was really no decision to be made. The day I found out I had been admitted remains one of the happiest days of my life, eclipsed only by my wedding day and the birthdates of my kids. 

Law school was similar. I didn't have the grades for the top three schools (Harvard, Yale, Stanford) and the marginal difference in prestige and employment prospects between Michigan and the other top schools (Chicago and Columbia) wasn't enough to justify the significantly higher price tag. Also, I never got sick of Ann Arbor, so I had no reason to leave. 

Process of elimination. As a tyke, I attended the 1972 Rose Bowl, where Michigan lost to Stanford 13-12. Until that time, I didn’t know that my dad attended, but didn’t graduate from, Michigan. He was a closet Wolverine.

When it was my time for college, I knew I wanted to leave SoCal, so I applied to Michigan Engineering. The only two colleges outside of California to accept me were Michigan and Penn. I visited Penn but hated it – too many pot smokers at Penn (little did I know!) and Philly was grimy and rough. I then visited Ann Arbor, which felt just right to me as a small-town kid.

I pretty much immediately fell in love with all things Michigan. Ufer, Bo/Woody, Rose Bowls, central campus, fraternity life, the engineering grind. Truly the best years of my non-parenting life. To date, I’ve indoctrinated three neighborhood kids about Michigan and they are now all proud Michigan grads. I should get a commission. Unfortunately, my own children aren’t among them even though they were both accepted. 

My boss made a pass at me after work, which freaked me out a bit and I decided to get out of that work situation, and my entire life situation by going back to school and somewhere away from the east coast, where I'd spent all my life.

Michigan, unlike most other schools I was considering, was still accepting applications (it was already spring). It piqued my interest to go to a big sports school; I grew up without a college affiliation and my undergrad was an Ivy, so... I became a Wolverine and a few months later we were football national champions

My Father indoctrinated me 

I got in.

Bob Ufer, Drake's, Second Chance, Dooley's, very affordable in state tuition for Engineering degree, Shakey Jake, Dr. Diag, School Kids records, PJs, The bowling  Alley in the Union, Very affordable MBA, Steve's lunch, Children of Yost...

1971-  

I was accepted to every school to which I applied including MIT and Stanford, but Michigan was a fraction of the cost and a top five school in any discipline in which I might become interested.

I had NO idea where I wanted to focus my life. So the very very best public university as a launching pad? Where do I sign? Went to Michigan and never looked back. I still use the skills I learned there every day. That's quality education. 

My parents met while attending Michigan (Dad also got a Law degree there) and I was an avid fan from as far back as I can remember. We had season tickets and I loooooved traveling to Ann Arbor on Saturday afternoons. We typically made a whole day out of the game, sometimes Zingermann's, sometimes Blimpy Jim's, sometimes Angelo's etc. We had several families that we hung with on those days and we tailgated a lot, would go hang/pre-party at my father's fraternity or that of one of his friends. At this age, it was all I ever wanted. Listening to Bob Ufer on the radio relieved the extreme boredom of raking leaves on away game weekends. Yes, I'm old.

My older sister went to M and even though I already "really" wanted to go there, I also started to visit her and got to experience "student life" in all it's glory in dorms and at bars. Being in high school on the border of East Lansing I got to experience a fair amount of "student life" at MSU as well, but it didn't hold a candle to M. This only made me want to go there 1,000 times more. I continued that tradition with my younger brother who went o UM a few years later.

Of course when it was time to apply I looked around and thought about a few other schools, but I got early acceptance at M and never really bothered considering anywhere else after that. It was my dream school and I was in. I never applied anywhere else, which drove my mom nuts, I was by no means guaranteed to get in.

As for my major, I messed around in all kinds of classes for a few years and didn't pay much attention to any progression or distribution (read, partied a lot). I took a lot of different courses with no real idea what degree I was aiming at; chem/organic chem, computer programming, computer animation, film, literature, calculus, biology, american culture, political science, Italian, cosmology, economics, psych, etc., etc. There were a bunch of 300/400 level courses I wanted to take, but didn't couldn't get through all the pre-reqs for them without being in school for 6 years and meeting with a counselor they pointed out that if I declared as B.G.S., I could go talk with professors for these courses and they could possibly grant a waiver for the pre-reqs (non-science) in some cases release a spot reserved for someone in a particular major after giving  me reading/independent study and sometimes papers/tests to complete. I also had more leeway in registering for classes in grad schools, like real estate law in the law school and some business school courses. I know a lot of people on here see it as an easy degree b/c a lot of athletes do it to avoid having to take a language, but it actually designed to be a more difficult progression with more upper level credits required and it is focused on being interdisciplinary by offering the ability to take a greater number of non-LSA credits. I loved it, this is my sort of plug for it as an option on the outside chance there is an undergrad M student on here that might be interested. 

All my friends were going to MSU so I was too.  But UM came through with a scholarship and my parents convinced me to go to Michigan.  Needless to say I'm glad I did. 

Max Fischer

Michigan was a school that many smart kids from my suburban St. Louis high school attended. So it was always on my radar. I applied in early November, was accepted four days later, was invited into the Honors Program about a week after that, and never applied anywhere else. And was never sorry (well, I'm sorry that I didn't do an Honors thesis, though a professor published one of my two senior seminar papers, and I think my other one was even better, if you don't mind my bragging). 

I have two daughters. To my great pride, they were both accepted at Michigan but then broke my heart when they chose small liberal arts colleges. But my older daughter is now doing a post-doc fellowship in Ann Arbor and loves teaching Mich undergrads, even though she has to do it remotely. (As I said, I hope you don't mind my bragging.) 

Parents met at UM and my mom is a Michigan football nut so I was brainwashed early. Only applied to Michigan and a backup school that shall not be named. The rest is history. 

I was a finalist for full ride academic scholarships at UM Law and U Chicago Law. Came in second at Chicago, first at Michigan. Easy choice. The football was better in A2.

Michigan fan my whole life but I also was accepted into Inteflex and couldn't really turn that down.

That one is easy, since I was 6 I liked Michigan football back in1969 and I grew up really liking Michigan even though my Father was a big ND fan. When I applied and got accepted I was so excited and knew I would be on north Campus. I wish I was athletic enough to join the football team but I knew I was not, so I did not even try.

I'm just the dad.   My son applied to Michigan (from the midatlantic / out of state) because I put it on a list for him knowing that it was pretty well regarded and I wanted to make sure he had good options.   He was accepted and we visited on a late April weekend in 2018 with lots of freezing rain and cold and clouds but nonetheless he loved it.   The enthusiasm Michigan students/alums had for the school definitely stood out, but it took a good bit more research for me to convince myself to pay for it.   But almost 4 years later, I've just sent in the last check and his experience there has been fantastic.   

I/we certainly didn't choose Michigan because of sports...I can't imagine that now given how expensive and exceedingly difficult it is to get admitted OOS.   But I grew up loving college sports and went to a school that won a basketball NC when I was an undergrad and loved that experience.   Watching sports becomes a bit of a luxury when you are in the midst of a career and are trying to spend time with active and athletic children but with him at school I started watching Michigan football his first year, went to the Penn State game parents weekend, just loved the whole atmosphere, and realized how much I'd missed college football and sports.  For this past season I wavered after 2020, but finally decided since he was a senior to get season tickets and try to make 3-4 games to enjoy with him in his last year there.  November 27 was the most fun by far I'll probably ever have at a sporting event and I got to see great college hoops as a student. As others have noted, I have also also re-watched / re-lived now a couple of times and was especially fun when he was home at break to to pour a drink with him and watch sitting together the first time!  

I grew up with two religions. One I worshiped on Saturday at the Holy Shrine of Michigan Stadium (or, more often, watching it on the TV) and the other I worshipped at a regular old church. 

I didn't have a chance in hell of getting into Michigan out of high school because I was a spectacularly average student. 

Joined the Marines because I knew I needed to grow up. While in the Corps I was lucky enough to be able to take college courses (first at Chaminade University and then U. of Maryland).

My college transcripts were good enough by the time I got out that I decided to apply to Michigan and hope that admissions would hand wave my high school grades. Thankfully they did. 

Because it’s Michigan fergodsakes.  Why would I go any where else.  

Because of the football helmet.