OT: University of Michigan ranks as the top public university in the latest WSJ rankings
I can't link the article due to it being behind the paywall, but UM Ann Arbor came in 24th overall in the latest WSJ rankings, and was the top public university to make the list.
The biggest issue for the public institutions was the resources ranking. Resources were defined as "instructional spending, student-faculty ratios and research output". Due to tighter budgets and funding, the publics took a bath in this category, which was 30% of the overall score. Only three public schools were in the top 100 for resources. Outcomes for graduates was the #1 factor for rankings, with student satisfaction also being important.
Overall, still a rock solid ranking.
The rest of the B1G:
13 Northwestern (no surprise there)
37 Purdue
48 Illinois
62 MSU
66 Wisconsin
70 OSU
95 Penn St.
99 Maryland
109 Minnesota and Rutgers
128 Indiana
164 Iowa
469 Nebraska (ouch)
BTW, Berkeley came in a 37th place tie with Purdue. Stanford was #1.
September 28th, 2016 at 8:40 AM ^
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September 28th, 2016 at 10:22 AM ^
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September 28th, 2016 at 11:34 AM ^
September 28th, 2016 at 1:11 PM ^
Sarcasm is a dialect.
Like Cajun.
September 28th, 2016 at 10:04 AM ^
September 28th, 2016 at 10:22 AM ^
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September 28th, 2016 at 8:28 AM ^
September 28th, 2016 at 9:47 AM ^
September 28th, 2016 at 9:55 AM ^
If that's true, then about 52
September 28th, 2016 at 8:31 AM ^
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September 28th, 2016 at 8:56 AM ^
September 28th, 2016 at 9:03 AM ^
That's especially true in the Chicago area.
At the same time, for professional categories, I would still argue that Michigan has as large if not larger network - the exception being Kellogg and the MBA program.
In any event, both are great schools, and I would proud be to send my kids to either.
September 28th, 2016 at 9:26 AM ^
In a few weeks (my daughter is a senior in HS), but her first choice is Michigan, naturally.
She wants to major in art history, so since she's going to be working at Starbucks for the rest of her life, I'd prefer for her to go to whichever school is least expensive.
September 28th, 2016 at 9:55 AM ^
People painted stuff. Here's your degree.
More seriously, good luck on the travels and visits. She may end up changing majors anyway, so the feel for the school is just as important as the program too. But I'm sure you know that.
Now, about that skim grande iced carmel machiatto no whip double shot...
September 28th, 2016 at 10:02 AM ^
at least talked her into a double major. She did a shadowing program with an art history major last summer in A2. He was from India, so naturally his parents made him double major in econ (thinking about how that conversation went in his house makes me laugh).
She's applying to Williams College too (best art history program in the country), but I don't know if she wants to go that far from home. Her mother and grandmother are pushing her to stay close, whereas I and my father in law are encouraging her to go where she can get the best education.
September 28th, 2016 at 9:56 AM ^
September 28th, 2016 at 10:04 AM ^
since we're in state for Michigan.
Interestingly, MSU is significantly more expensive than Michigan. Their tiny endowment doesn't allow them to offer much in financial aid.
September 28th, 2016 at 10:18 AM ^
September 28th, 2016 at 12:22 PM ^
I can't tell you about the Chicago market for MD's, but since there is a nationwide shortage in many medical specialties, it's a definite seller's market. While Northwestern is certainly a good school, I also have a hard time imagining that its networking comes close to touching what Michigan alums enjoy. It's a numbers game and Michigan's size dwarfs Northwestern's.
September 28th, 2016 at 1:29 PM ^
September 28th, 2016 at 9:57 AM ^
For the professional categories like doctors/lawyers you get a second round selection for selecting those schools anyway. So could do UM undergrade then Northwestern law, or medicine, etc.
My graudate degree (law) is not from UM but I'd still consider myself part of the UM network given that I went to undergrad there.
September 28th, 2016 at 9:24 AM ^
September 28th, 2016 at 8:35 AM ^
September 28th, 2016 at 8:37 AM ^
The "N" is for nowlidge.
(Apocryphally attributed to Bob Kerrey.)
September 28th, 2016 at 8:38 AM ^
Nebraska
September 28th, 2016 at 8:39 AM ^
Other public universities:
#26 UCLA
#30 UNC
#43 UC Davis
#49 UC San Diego
#51 Georgia Tech
#51 UT Austin
#56 Univ. of Florida
#56 Univ. of Virginia
#59 Pitt
September 28th, 2016 at 8:56 AM ^
The medical school is outstanding too.
September 28th, 2016 at 1:31 PM ^
September 28th, 2016 at 8:45 AM ^
September 28th, 2016 at 8:52 AM ^
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September 28th, 2016 at 8:57 AM ^
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September 28th, 2016 at 9:10 PM ^
Purdue is a prestigious brand name and they have a number of programs they are known for. But I also think for most people any accredited university degree (not including the for profit schools) are great. In certain jobs pedigree is important but for most people the degree just opens the door...you have to land the job based on what you offer the employer.
September 28th, 2016 at 8:45 AM ^
September 28th, 2016 at 8:51 AM ^
September 28th, 2016 at 8:55 AM ^
-signed
Rcmb
(the same rcmb who couldn't get into LSA/General Studies)
September 28th, 2016 at 1:14 PM ^
tl;dr - it is actually a hard degree, language req waived because requires more upper level coursework, eff the mofos that be dissin' my deg
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Of course I'm biased because I have a Michigan BGS, but it isn't actually easier, except for foregoing the language requirement (I still took Italian, so didn't get that as a break), which is the main reason football players got steered to it as a major. Yes, I'm sure you could also use the flexbility to create a somewhat easier path, but only slightly moreso than a more traditional degree and that would likely be more than offset by having more 300/400 level credits required.
The BGS degree foregoes the language requirement for a reason and that is because, when applied properly, it is actually a pretty difficult path. It requires you to get at least 60 of your 120 credits in upper level classes, but allows you to use more "non-LSA" credits from other M schools and can provide better access to those upper level courses.
The BGS option was petitioned for by students and added in 1969, you can read more about it and its history here. The idea is that some people do not want to categorize themselves as one thing vs. another and to have the normal load of required precursor courses in a normal major/concentration/path. I'm equal parts left/right hemisphere (weird brain, also ambidextrous) and wanted to try it all.
I had a very tough time in my freshman year trying to decide whether I wanted to go a science/engineering or humanities route and the trade-offs that were inherent in either choice. One option was a dual major that would allow me to satisfy separate distribution requirements, but still sort of locked me into two mostly set paths and would actually further constrict my opportunities for electives in satisfying two distributions. BGS allowed me to pick and choose from almost any school/program on campus and not have to worry about satisfying a more traditional criteria for any given major. As a result, I got to take classes that included:
- computer animation
- computer science/programming
- political science
- economics
- undergrad and graduate business school courses
- law school courses; real estate law and intro to constitutional law
- film...LOTS of film courses, because marijuana and Peter Boland
- writing/literature courses, because writing and Peter Boland
- american culture - paper on Wonder Woman: hmm...invisible "plane", fends off men's bullets and then ties them up and makes the tell the truth...heady stuff at 19
- psychology: psych 475 Deviant Individual, never missed a class
- chemistry
- cosmology
- sports and daily roman life - actually hard b/c it was so boring
- Vietnam and the Artist - because Buzz Alexander rocks
- Strategic Minerals - don't laugh, it was a cool mini-course
You get the idea, a disparate set of coursework, to say the least.
The other major advantage of BGS, at least when I did it, was that it was very focused on getting you into the 300/400 level courses earlier and not having to always wade through the 100/200 level sequences. With classes like chem and econ and such, you simply had to have the prerequisites to get into upper level courses, but in many cases, pysch, poli sci, history....I could petition a professor to do independent study and write papers, converse, exam with them directly to skate things like Psych 101/201, to get into Pych 475. Lots of extra work, but well worth it. The 300/400 (500-800 in the grad schools) level courses to me were like school Valhalla...typically not huge lectures and infinitely more focused and interesting in terms of material.
I don't regret it one bit, I run a tech company (no longer a start-up) in Silicon Valley (go to a Verizon/AT&T store and check out the demo platform on all their display devices, that's us) and I came up having roles as a developer, product manager, business development manager and I now spend half of my time doing technical stuff (managing engineers, designing/architecting systems, solving problems) and the other half communicating with customers, doing business development, evangelizing, working with marketing, etc. and my degree and the skills it provided serve extremely well in every respect.
I know, "cool degree bro", but sometimes you have to vent.
September 28th, 2016 at 8:22 PM ^
September 28th, 2016 at 9:20 AM ^
studies you know. 60% of the time Michigan is the #1 public university every time. Yup...its got bits of real wolverine in it. So you know it's good.
September 28th, 2016 at 12:33 PM ^
It's quite pungent.
September 28th, 2016 at 5:23 PM ^
September 28th, 2016 at 9:20 AM ^
I'm surprised that Wisconsin and Minnesota are so low. I figured they'd be higher.
September 28th, 2016 at 10:05 AM ^
September 28th, 2016 at 10:15 AM ^
September 28th, 2016 at 10:27 AM ^
I'm in the middle of my career. I've hired dozens of people. I absolutely look at and consider undergraduate and graduate college pedigree. Obviously there are many other factors, and success post-college is way more important, but I can't say that it "doesn't matter much" to me, because it does. I also like to help fellow Michigan grads when I can.
September 28th, 2016 at 12:04 PM ^
And the biggest thing I've noticed is that the better the school the more likely the person is interested in learning.
The top 5 or 6 are almost always bright, Stanford, Yale, Harvard, MIT, Princeton.
The next 20 are likely pretty smart, but there are are chances that they don't have what is needed. This includes the Michigans, UCals, UVA, publics and then the other good privates UC, Emory, Duke, ND, Rice, etc
Once you get below 50 it becomes much more individual based. I've had employees from Sparty that couldn't spell and another one that was outstanding.
September 28th, 2016 at 8:35 PM ^
September 28th, 2016 at 1:53 PM ^
I sure wish they included "emotional intelligence of graduates" in this ranking. I've met way too many alums of the top 10 who can work an Excel spreadsheet like a champion, but when it comes to talking about the rough spots of life, they struggle.
September 28th, 2016 at 4:59 PM ^
I can assure you that the Michigan brand attracts many bright students with leadership skills.The average GPA on an unweighted 4.0 scale remains at 3.87 with over 55,000 applicants for the Freshman class. This year, Michigan is looking to increase the number of out-of -state enrollments to 50% while MSU remains at 29% out-of-state. Michigan non-resident tuition for freshman/ sophomore will be $ 45,410 this year.. Michigan is the only public university to be ranked in the top 10 of endowments among all schools - ranking 8th or 9th with slighty more than $ 10 Billion.
Having top ranked teams in major sports across the board is a bonus. Alabama can brag about having the # 398 best school in the WSJ report; Louisville #360.
Go Blue !