University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Top Questions

Going to a school so far away from home, many people worried for my parents, wondering how they would handle their "baby girl" being so far away. However, I do not think that I was personally prepared to miss my home. I could not wait to leave my high school and my home and create a new identity for myself in a far-off state. I wish I had known that the first week away from home would be horrible, no matter how ready I felt. After the first week was over, I would be perfectly happy in Michigan.

I wish I would have known how intense, scary, and crazy this school can be. It's all what you make of it, it can be great or it can be a truly horrible experience. Get and stay involved. Don't live in the dorms after freshman year.

Extra information on what housing options are preferable. There are multiple choices for on-campus living, and some extra information would have been very helpful.

Getting involved in research early on as an undergraduate and making connections with professors will be key to future success.

Being a top-notch university in a state where academic institutions define its greatest value/offering, Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan has a wealth of resources and talents to tap into- culturally as well as academically. There are so many different departments within each college that hold amazing lectures, shows, brown bags, and discussions that most students don't come across. Many invite guest speakers that are globally renown. Seek those out to find your true specialized interests and enrich your college experience. Also, there tends to be good free food at these events.

I would have liked to know how competitive the students at the school were. I did not know that the University of Michigan had so many distinguished students and faculty. I was shocked to learn that everyone worked so diligently, but I was glad to see that my peers put forth so much effort in their studies, and it inspired me to try even harder! Even though the curriculum here is challenging, there are so many resources and helpful students, graduate students, and professors willing to elucidate any issue imaginable.

I wish I'd known that I can RELAX! I don't have to fret everyday about the rest of my life. I don't have to worry about living up to everybody else's expectations. I fulfill my own expectations. I can afford to breathe, trusting myself that I'm at a world-class institution for a very good reason. There is room for fun. There is room for enjoyment. College isn't about powering through classes like an academic machine. College is about exploring everything available, to find what I'm best at and to succeed in it.

I wish that I would have know that the school would be as challenging as it was. I came form a small highschool of two hundred fifty students and it was a little overwhelming to enter a university with thrity five thousand students.

A campus this big is not very friendly on the large scale. You have to find your smaller niche to feel a part of a comunity. I didn't really find my niche until sophmore year - freshman year was very lonely.

I wish I had known to seek out and try different student groups - whether it was as a participant or audience member or supporter. I wish I knew to try more activities and pursue new hobbies, which would have provided a broader group of peers and friends, with more diverse knowledge bases and interests. I wish I knew to explore as much as possible.

I wish I would have known how to balance work with school. I wish I would have know that it is OK to take out loans. I wish I would have applied for more scholarships before/during school so that I would not have had to work so much. I also wish I would have tried harder to become familiar with campus resources my first year so that I could have fully appreciated all that the University has to offer.

Though college is the place to explore new ideas and opportunities, I wish I would have known myself a little better before moving to Ann Arbor. There are countless groups to be a part of and also a huge list of academic concentrations to select from. Had I known more about myself prior to my first year of college, I feel it might have been easier for me to discover what I wanted to be a part of and what I wanted to pursue.

That was so expensive that i cant affort it

I wish that I had been more informed about scholarships available to students.

I wish I had known how many opportunities there were to get involved early on. I came from a small high school and was very shy so I did not start getting involved in clubs and such on campus till later and I missed out on a lot of awesome opportunities. I also wish I had known about more resources on the campus and taken advantage of them as well earlier on in my college career.

How big the school and classrooms were. I really wish I had attended a smaller school. I also wish I would have learned about the career paths earlier and been able to pick one, it seems very rushed to declare a major.

Before attending the University of Michigan I attended a few events, including orientation, that prepared me well for the 2010-2011 school year. I suppose if anything, I could have been given more information about the dorm I would be living in. I didn't know anything about it.

I wish I had known to apply for more scholarships before coming to school here. Many scholarships are offered exclusively to high school seniors who plan to attend or haven been accepted to an accredited college program. Certainly there are also scholarships available to college students, but high school students (especially during the summer before college) tend to have more time to complete various scholarship applications.

I wish I was better prepared for such a large school. I come from a very small high school, and having large classes and such a large student body was disconcerting at first.

There's no need to change yourself. You are who you are, and the real you will emerge in the end anyway.