Is UM Alumni Association membership worth it?

Just joining won’t change your life imo, if you want the full affect of it you must go to events, you must introduce yourself, you must be able to make relationships with other members. If you can do that, then imo it’s worth every penny. 

The DC chapter has its Annual Hookers and Blow extravaganza.  You don't want to miss that.

Join for one year and then cancel, you seem to get all of the same stuff in the mail, forever, anyway.

100% worth it IMO. I am having a meeting today after work with a recent grad who pinged me through the UCAN system. If you are active in the Alumni network it is hands down the most powerful tool in your post-grad networking arsenal

Just do It

Well WORTH IT.

Can you stay connected to the University and alumni without joining UMAA? Yeah, probably. But IMO you should join if you intend to participate in any alumni activities. Generally whatever you learned/did in the classroom at UM has little value after a few years of experience (referring to book learning, obviously the broader experience can shape your character for life), but the alumni network can be valuable for your entire post-school career.

Also, it's an easy way to stay connected locally. I'm in Houston and are chapter does a sendoff every year for local students and their families in August before they go to UM for their freshman year. There are watch parties, volunteer events, networking events, etc. Yeah, you could probably find out about these and participate in most without joining UMAA. But again, why would you (assuming you are able to pay for some level of membership, which I get may not be in the budget immediately following graduation). 

Another thing is the lifetime membership is discounted to $750 if you buy it in your first 5 years out of school.

As a donation to the school, it also counts toward your priority point total should you ever want season tickets for football or basketball games.

There are tons of great resources associated with a membership, but as others have said it's ultimately what you make of it. The local chapter of whatever city/region you live after school usually provides discounted tickets to their events for alumni association members, as well.

If you're dedicated and active, maybe? If you think you'll be a casual participant or less, no. 

I was a one year member...and maybe there was an event or two that seemed interesting but otherwise I didn't see the value. And if you move away from SE MI or aren't in a major metropolis with the larger association groups, the value erodes a bit. There's value for priority points and some exclusive apparel but there may be more of a point benefit for donating directly to the athletic department in lieu of the Alumni Association. 

Alternatively, you can put that $900 in an S&P500 ETF. When you are 65 it will be worth something like $25k with an 8% annual return. Use that to cover 3 weeks of your kid's future UM tuition. 

EDIT: Other things like Alumni Association events, game watch parties, etc. are still available to you with or without being an official member. Usually there's a facebook group and you can always look at the association page hosted on umich.edu for events. 

I think so, and this is after I waited to pull the trigger.

The nice thing about lifetime membership is that you'll never have to worry about it. Say you suddenly lose your job and want to leverage the alumni network, or if you're new to a city and want to quickly make some connections personally and professionally. Do you want to go through the process of buying a membership again?

And (inshallah) you'll live for 70 more years. You're basically paying $1 a month the rest of your life. It's a decent deal for such a small amount of money.

I like the membership because it includes the alumni magazine. I enjoy reading about the accomplishments of my fellow alumni. 

I am a lifetime member and haven't really taken advantage of it.  I did go to Michigania twice (you have to be a member) and it was awesome.  Lot's of high powered people there (and medium powered cool people.)    Curious how other people use it to network.

I did the cheap "new alumni" annual rate for a few years, then kept opting in for 3 or 5 year discounted rates when the deals came up. Did the same recently for the Lifetime. I added up my annuals and the others and the discount they gave me on Lifetime and it will overall cost me about $1000. So waiting didn't hurt much.

I also figured out that from hotels and rental cars alone, I have saved nearly $800 already in the 20 years I've been a member. 20% is no joke on some of those. Not to mention some of the good deals I had received from football tickets back when they had the alumni seats, etc. 

I have also used it for staying connected to Alums when I've lived out of state or even a few hours from A2. The events are good for networking and just getting a piece of the old town/campus feel years and miles away.

It’s not worth it for any perks but it’s helpful for getting a future kid into college to consistently give money to the school 

I have a lifetime membership. I can't say I use it a lot. I did to to support the association. They have a job board - I haven't used it.  It is a way to stay connected. 

I typically try to donate to scholarship type funds to help the students. 

The best part of being a member is the magazine. It details all the new building and doings of the University.

Go Blue

I was a member right when I got out of college.  Coolest thing that they did was give me two free, front row tickets for the game at Jerryworld when we played Alabama.  I had just returned from Afghanistan and the University had used a video at the spring commencement of a fellow alum and I singing, Hail to the Victors, in front of the "Welcome to Camp Leatherneck" sign.

Depends on what you use it for. If you're just the casual member who uses it only to go to football watching parties, the value you get back may be minimal to none, unless you also treat those events as networking opportunities. 

If you use the association for networking, professional development, as well as some of the other fun stuff like football watching parties or charity events, then yeah I'd say its well worth the $900 over the course of your lifetime. 

I'm a lifetime member and I don't use it to the extent that I should. Don't have a good excuse, either. So yeah, it is potentially a great investment, but you've got to be the one who makes the effort to make that happen.  

Does a one-legged duck swim in a circle?

There was a deal last summer that you got a pair of free away game tickets if you bought the $900 lifetime membership. I bought it to get a free pair of tickets to the Notre Dame game last year. Those tickets were going on the secondary market for $300 each at the time so was totally worth it for me to buy the lifetime membership for $300 essentially. I'd check to see if they have a deal like that before buying

No.

I was a member and asked for any guidance suggestions on getting kids accepted into Michigan. They offered exactly zero help or advice. The local Novi/Northville chapter was less than useless - the chapter in San Diego was actually very helpful.

I understand that they are not part of the University and cannot influence admissions, but I would have really valued some guidance/coaching over a discount on insurance or a trip to Greece.

I suggested that it might be a valuable service to provide alumni given the competitive nature of admission to Michigan, and I got crickets.

My company offers a college coaching service which was helpful overall but I was disappointed in the response of the Michigan alumni association. I know it's not a core responsibility of the association but I had hoped for more.

I donate to the University instead of the alumni association.

I paid for the 1000 life Alumni membership when I could 2 years after graduation.   I just felt it was worth it for all the offerings (some of which are not event based).   If you can afford it go for it, otherwise...

I haven't renewed since they stopped offering football tickets. 

Otherwise, I  don't see much value in it if you live outside of a major metropolitan area.

Camp Michigania. Going next week.

If you decide to join, wait for a good offer. When I signed up, I got a U of M fleece jacket for me and my wife. We also got access to purchase Ohio State tickets - which we did.