OT: Who Should Claim UM Alumni Status
So posts on another thread inspired me to post this as I have wondered about it for a while. To be considere a UM Alumni, do you have to have graduated from UM? I myself had about 50% of my undergraduate credits from UM, but I graduated from another school (grew up in Ann Arbor, had to leave). I have never been comfortable saying I am an alumni from UM. We certainly consider athletes who don't graduate alumni. The UM Alumni Association will take anyone who wants to write a check as a member.
April 23rd, 2015 at 12:45 PM ^
April 23rd, 2015 at 12:46 PM ^
This is a sad situation. A degree is very rarely an accurate measure of the intelligence or worth of a person.
Often, you hear of people exaggerating the list of schools to which they were accepted. While an offer list can be impressive, are we really judging people based on whether or not they had their crap together as a teenager? Does someone who coasts through UM really have a greater worth than someone who busts ass, independently educating themselves at a MAC school?
In the big picture, does it really matter where you went to school or where you graduated from ??? At work, all I care is if you're ethical, competent, have your shit together, and have decent hygiene. I may hold it slightly against you if you're a Sparty or Buckeye fan or alum, but that's like rolling my eyes at my wife's refusal to roll up her tube of toothpaste neatly and her habit of twisting it into some avant-garde aluminum-toothpaste composite sculpture. I don't get the idea of where you attended school defining you as a good or worthy person. Are we adopting British-style classist memes now? FWIW, I'm a U of M undergrad alum, U of M professional school alum, and was faculty for a time.
I thought we were all here (except Sparty and Buckeye trolls) because we simply love U of M sports.
April 23rd, 2015 at 12:29 PM ^
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April 23rd, 2015 at 12:41 PM ^
April 23rd, 2015 at 12:46 PM ^
shut up
April 23rd, 2015 at 12:46 PM ^
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April 23rd, 2015 at 12:48 PM ^
April 23rd, 2015 at 12:48 PM ^
April 23rd, 2015 at 12:52 PM ^
I'm not insinuating that there isn't a difference btw, just that most people outside of our bubble don't really care. For undergrad I imagine it may be different for certain degrees, but nobody is too concerned about which place your liberal arts degree came from.
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April 23rd, 2015 at 12:57 PM ^
I don't really disagree (with the first part), and I don't really know how to speak personally about it. I went to grad school immediately following undergrad from UM-Dearborn, and went to UM-AA though it could have been anywhere. I don't know what it is like to find a job with just a UM-Dearborn degree.
My resume has both schools on it (undergrad then grad). Nobody has ever asked me about it in a professional context, but I've never been concerned to talk about it. I have no intention of misleading people. I liked the experience I had at UM-Dearborn.
EDIT: To add, I fully appreciate that the Ann Arbor campus gives you a more enriching experience, has superior faculty, and likely a more competitive peer group, but I'm not sure why some people who went to the Ann Arbor campus pretend Dearborn is like some breezy community college. If you're getting a liberal arts degree, there may even be some advantages (as well as many obvious disadvantages). The classroom sizes were smaller and I knew most of my professors very well. I regret not experiencing the campus life at Ann Arbor and access to some of the brightest minds in the world, but I don't think that I'm less"polished" for it or that I didn't learn what I needed to for success in my career.
I think you're generalizing a bit too much. I am a UMF grad and I claim to be an alumnus of the University of Michigan because that's what my degree says. But on my CV, Linkedin, etc. and if anyone asks, without hesitation I tell them I graduated from Flint. No, it's not the same campus or admission standards (for sure), but smart people come from everywhere. I was admitted to Ann Arbor for undergrad, but it was MUCH cheaper for me to live at home and commute to Flint.
In my field (chemistry), the ACS standardizes the curriculum for a certified degree and it's the same at every university. The same core concepts are convered and I guarantee that I could take any chem class in Ann Arbor and get all As just like I did in Flint. I'm now getting my PhD from NC State because I like the research that I'm doing here with a faculty member that's in an NSF collaboration with some of the best people in the country, including Melanie Sanford in AA. But having "Flint" on my degree didn't stop me from also being admitted to AA, Wisconsin, Washington, and UNC for grad school. Oh, I also had an NSF fellowship as an undergrad.
There are definitely people who try to "fake" going to AA, and I don't condone that at all. But your elitist attitude toward this subject is why many people view UM grads as arrogant and entitled. I'm an alumnus of the university and I do my best to represent it as well as I can. I wish everyone else could say the same. I hope my accomplishments are "polished" enough, because I'd love to climb up onto that horse with you.
People like you are the reason other fanbases hate us. You're basically insinuating that anyone who didn't go to Ann Arbor is a dumbass and can't find a good job.
Pompous, arrogant prick.
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April 23rd, 2015 at 12:44 PM ^
Since football is the ultimate decider, I will say that the ticket office agrees that Dearborn alums are equal alums. Before Gen Admission, priority football tickets were doled out by class. Seniors first, then graduate students with UM undergrads, then other grad students, juniors, etc. (my order might be imperfect but you get the point). My UM-D degree counted equally for ticket status as other grad students with UM undergrad degrees, meaning I had higher priority than your general grad student.
I know... Cool story bro.
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April 23rd, 2015 at 12:56 PM ^
Good question. Do you put "University of Michigan" and leave it at that? There are vstly different admission standards and the quality of student you are up against is different. A 3.7 in Ann Arbor is different than at Dearborn.
April 23rd, 2015 at 12:36 PM ^
Vocab backs it up that you just need to attend a school not graduate. However, that just feels weird. Do I claim IU too because they ran my study abroad courses in Greece? No, I don't and I don;t know who would. I claim the school based on the degree I have.
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April 23rd, 2015 at 12:42 PM ^
April 23rd, 2015 at 12:52 PM ^
April 23rd, 2015 at 12:55 PM ^
That's true on the cost, but I went to UM-Dearborn over Ann Arbor (and yes, I was actually accepted) because I got a scholarship to one and not the other. I had half of my tuition paid for at Dearborn along with some other scholarships that made it reasonable to work through undergrad and pay for my all of my much lower tuition. I came out with zero student loan bills (until grad school).
I didn't have someone to pay for "the experience" and didn't have anyone to tell me a modest student loan bill wouldn't be a big deal given the expanded opportunities I would get in Ann Arbor. When you don't come from much and don't have much guidance or financial help, it's a different decision as a 17 year old kid. As a grown man, I'd probably give myself better advice and tell me to go to Ann Arbor, but that's the beauty of hindsight. Don't assume people who make that choice are all just "slackers."
You're talking ~$2,000 per semester diffierence in tuition... so call that $16,000.
Never mind cost of room and board (significantly higher in Ann Arbor), especially if one already has a residence within driving distance of Flint/Dearborn.
April 23rd, 2015 at 12:55 PM ^
Satellite locations vs Ann Arbor makes a difference in some cases, but not others. I think we all know it's apples and oranges, but it's Michigan Apples and Oranges, so we're all family.
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April 23rd, 2015 at 12:58 PM ^
So, yes I would call myself an alum.
This might be the dumbest fight there has ever been on MGoBlog.
This is always the most hilarious part of the off-season. I can't remember an offseason where we haven't gotten into a satellite school scuffle.
My girlfriend took orgo I there summer after freshman year and got an A+. I glanced at her coursework and it was a complete joke. She took orgo II at michigan the next fall semester and failed, as the dearborn class hadn't prepared her for michigan's expectations for orgo. really messed with her confidence and she completely switched tracks. she's fine now, but i feel sad that she doesn't take the same pride as i do in having a michigan degree.
I get the feeling that about half the posters are still virgins too
Not a big deal.
If you went to UM-Flint or UM-Dearborn, be proud of where you received your degree. My dad has become incredibly successful and went to EMU. He's a proud Eastern alum.
You trumpeting your success and that your UM-Dearborn degree is the root of it says something to elevate the reputation of your university.
Piggybacking on the name "University of Michigan" only when it is generally understood to exclusively be the Ann Arbor campus is being intentionally misleading.
Be proud of your degree.
A good friend of mine, from Detroit, went to Eastern. He's been very successful and happy. We do laugh about that football incident last year with the brick wall that the team couldn't knock down, but other than that, respect. He didn't need a fancy degree to make something of himself.
Michigan law grad, somewhere-else-undergrad, Rhodes Scholar of bad posture and bad timing.
If I could, I would give every regular reader of this blog, and every Michigan fan I know, an honorary degree. In fact, maybe I will just pass out honorary degrees to all who kneel before the three-foot Bo Bobblehead at the NE corner of Hoover on Greene (aka Buddy Sykes Way) on September 12.
With apologies to any aggressive non-believers, we all worship in the Big House, and it's big enough for all of us.
For me it all comes down to "What is the motive behind this question'? If it is truly to define what an alumnus is, then I would believe it would be graduating from said institution. If it is about loving a school as much as someone who didn't go to it, then I believe you can be as big of a fan of the Maize and Blue if you went there or didnt. I was accepted to Williams and Conneticut College but wanted to go to a small private Christian school and did (Palm Beach Atlantic University). I don't consider myself less of a Wolverine just because I didn't attend U of M, even if I could have.
this thread is just full of assholes.
I hate to break it to you, but there are a few Michigan graduates out there who suck, and who think they're a member of an elite club that you can't possibly belong to. There's a mom in my kid's school who went to Michigan and when she found out I had graduated from Michigan, she said, "YOU went to Michigan?" Yeah, I went to Michigan. I did pretty well there, too. She ended up going to Harvard Law School so I'm sure she's smarter than me, but yeah, I went to Michigan.
Smart people realize that they aren't intrinsically better or worth more than others because they earned a degree from a specific institution.
I was at Michigan the same time as Harbaugh, too. He lived at the end of our street senior year (He was in a little house on Packard, at the end of Greenwood). He was also in one of my classes. The only thing I know about him is that he didn't come to class. Maybe he transferred out after the first class. Who knows?