OT: University of Michigan ranks as the top public university in the latest WSJ rankings

Probably true but you can say that about a number of topics

...are totally meaningless until after Week 5.

...but I can't take a ranking seriously that has Illinois way ahead of Virginia or Michigan State ahead of Wisconsin.

If that's true, then about 52

My wife and I are alums of both (respectively), and I can tell you for sure that it "depends." If you're heading into professional categories with advanced degrees, I'd make an argument that NW has an unbelievable network, particularly for doctors and lawyers. Kellogg is also ridiculous for MBA given the networking opportunities and support after your degree. You can't go wrong either way, obviously. But don't underestimate NW networking.

To the school that suits their educational and career goals best. I'm not really sure how you loose by going to NW or M.

It's interesting to see Virginia down that far. It seems as though every ranking in the past several years has had them, Berkeley, and UMich at the top.

I didn't realize Purdue was so highly regarded.

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. 

It's quite pungent.

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.

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. 

It certainly does if you come from a poor background, and the data reflects that. Attending an elite college is almost the only path left to going from lower to upper class out of undergrad. It's not a guarantee, certainly, but it gets you interviews you never would've had