University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Top Questions

My freshman year, I took an English seminar entitled "Beowulf and Hip-Hop: A Four-Beat Tradition". The course focused on the evolution of four-beat poetry, and compared ancient texts to lyrics from Lil' Wayne, Outkast, Biggie, etc. The professor was dedicated to the class and took a genuine interest in his students. Overall, the course was an enlightening experience. This year, I am taking the course "Persuasive Politics". There are no tests, instead we work in small groups and "run" political campaigns. The lectures outline effective campaign strategies, while the discussions allow us to bounce around new ideas with our fellow students. We react to current politics and change course accordingly to promote our campaign. Ultimately, a valuable hands-on lesson in politics. These two courses are unique, but fairly typical of a class at the U of M - interesting and instructive. Students learn how to apply their knowledge to real-world concepts and situations in a way only U of M academics can offer. Michigan's courses prepare students for their careers and guide them toward success.

Yes, lectures here are large and, for some, can be intimidating. In the real world, you have to work hard to stand out, and it's no different here. The biggest advice I would have for incoming students is to go to office hours--professors WANT to get to know you, and they are the greatest resources at the University. If the professors know your name, they are more likely to care about your success; with an academic curriculum with such rigor as Michigan's, your prof knowing you can make a difference. Lastly, if you come here, you better be prepared to challenge yourself, think outside the box, and engage in intellectual argument and discussion--it's a great experience, despite the difficulty.

I think the academic experience varies widely by major. I'm a double major in English and History, so most of my classes are smaller. I have friends in Engineering, on the other hand, whose entire schedule is made up of big lecture classes. Either way, the faculty is great and they are really interested in getting to know the students. I'm in a gen-ed science class right now, and the prof learned all 150 of his students names! that's rare, but it does show the effort made by faculty to connect with their students. GSIs (graduate student instructors) are also really great resources.

Michigan has everything - all majors are different, and you can pick yours based on requirements and class sizes that you like. Students are competitive in the sense that they are dedicated to their work and want to succeed, but are also totally willing to help each other out and often study together. Im in a new major called International Studies with a specialization in Global Environment and Health, and I get a lot of freedom to choose classes that interest me.

Horrible. This school totally failed to provide competent instruction.

Michigan is tough. I didn't necessarily consider Michigan a "reach" for me and was a little shocked with the workload--though I shouldn't have been. As an out of stater I didn't realize that unlike in the Northeast, the best of the best don't go to the Ivies or Duke...they go to Michigan. So far, my professors in English and French have known my name since those classes are kept small. Your GSI's (graduate student instructors) who lead discussion sections will also get to know your name. Granted, if you take advantage of office hours (which I could do a better job of) your lecturers can certainy know your name. My favorite class is actually the research program I'm in called UROP (Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program). It involves a twice a month seminar, and I get to work in a Pharmacology lab six hours a week. I'm not a lab rat. I run experiments and compile information that contributes to the ultimate goal of my lab: finding safer treatments for heroin abuse. The fact I can do this as a freshman is really amazing. Students aren't generally too competitive, although pre-med kids can be high strung. If you are coming in intending to do business and did not get in pre-admit you are going to meet a lot of competitive people. Business school applications are submitted at the end of your freshman year. I like to say that at the beginning 50{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of freshman come in pre-med and the other 50{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} are trying to get into the Ross school of business. Econ and Calc are the pre-reqs for the business class so be ready to WORK if you take any of these. The business school is near impossible to get into so these classes will prove quite competitive. Chemistry and Organic Chem can also be pretty competitive. My advice- if you think any tiny little part of you might be interested in business...apply pre-admit when you apply for admission!!! Once accepted into the B-school though, I don't think its quite as competitive. Michigan's requirements suck. We have a "fourth term proficiency requirement" which means unless you place into a higher level you have to take four semesters of language. For people like me who do not enjoy learning languages this is the worst. There are also two writing requirements: freshman and upper level. Your freshman writing requirement will suck. Luckily, upper level can be fulfilled very easily, from a typical composition class to one of the physics lab classes. You can find a class that fulfills upper level writing in almost every department. There is also a race and ethnicity requirement (hint: many people fulfill this in their first two years either through intro to anthropology or intro to women's studies), two quantitative reasoning requirements, natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, and math and symbolic analysis. However its not as bad as it sounds. Also know that if you are an engineer these requirements don't apply to you. I haven't really taken any unique classes because I came in pre-med (surprise surprise) and took some really boring stuff. I have enjoyed some of my standard classes like Intro to Statistics and Abnormal Psych. However, some cool classes I'm hoping to take and that my friends have taken and loved include Criminology, Environmental Journalism, Tibetan Buddhism, International Politics and Anthropology of Nutrition. Do yourself a favor, even if you come in with a track in mind take some unique off the beaten path classes. One of the best way to do this is through Freshman seminars which are small and focused on some really cool topics, and some even fulfill your first year writing requirements.

There is a lot of visiting/adjunct faculty, and they always know your name. In some of the larger classes professors dont know your name but in those cases you will have an additional class (a recitation of sorts) with a GSI (Graduate Student Instructor) and they tend to know your name. The art history department offers a variety of very interesting classes that you would be hard pressed to find at any other university. There are lots of clubs and interest groups at the school, some in correlation to academics some not. I would say that I was never really shown how to get a job, and wish more had been required of me as far as taking classes or seminars that are geared towards job searching.

You can become best friends with your professor or simply a number on a page to them - it's completely up to you. Likewise, your class participation might range from complete anonymity in 500-person lectures to intimate class discussions. The Graduate Student Instructors (like TAs) and the professors usually work well together to help the students, making themselves available with extensive office hours and through email. They tend to be very flexible to fit the students' needs. Michigan students are hard working and competitive, though with the help available from instructors and tutoring centers on campus, the workload is definitely manageable.

Freshman and Sophomore yeasr you take a lot of large classes where most likely your professor will not know your name. This really doesn't bother anyone. In the sections your GSI will get to know you pretty well. I feel the GSI's here have too much of a say in your final grade. The student base is very intellectual in class and outside of class. Psych 101 is a great starter class at Michigan.

My favorite classes have been Econ 101, Stats 350, and Bio118. They were my favorite classes because I had amazing professors in each course. I only like the classes here when an intelligent professor is teaching. My largest complaint about Michigan is that there are too many horrible teachers flown in from community colleges around the country. I did not pay to go to an amazing school in order to take classes from GSIs who don't speak english or professors who use an online website as their substitute.