UMich 毕业生容易回弯曲工作的，一下是比较 UMich vs Stanford
Glad you asked!
I received tenure at Michigan (CSE) in 2006, and hold a visiting Professor appointment at Stanford for the first half of 2014, while also working at Google.
Let's start with cold hard numbers.
Topic followers on Quora:
for Stanford - 37910, for University of Michigan - 8757
(so, don't be surprised by the many upvotes for "Go to Stanford" ;)
Bloomberg rankings: Top 10 Colleges for Tech CEOs
Stanford tied with Harvard for 2nd, while Michigan tied with Berkeley for 4th
(Larry Page of Google, Dick Costolo of Twitter, Tony Fadell of Apple & Nest were undergrads at Michigan).
Undergraduate tuition:
at Stanford - $43K/year
at Michigan-Ann Arbor - $40.5K/year (out of state), $14K (in-state)
(with the cost-of-living adjustment, Michigan OOS tuition is higher,
although living expenses in Ann Arbor can be lower)
Endowment: Stanford - $17B, Michigan-Ann Arbor - $7B.
Both Universities have expansive (large) campuses near sophisticated university towns. Both universities have a parking problem (more so at Stanford), which can be solved by a 10min walk (or 20min at Stanford)
Undergraduate enrollment: at Stanford - 7K, at Michigan--Ann Arbor - 28K.
As pointed out in Dan Zhang's answer, Stanford engineering is 5 times smaller than Michigan engineering. In addition to CS/Engin, Michigan has a second CS program -- under Letters, Sciences and Arts. Also, Computer Engineering (not a separate program at Stanford), the School of Information (which recently started an undergraduate program), and CS-like programs at the Mathematics and Industrial Engineering depts. Even if we don't count the additional 25% of students with CS minor (Math, Physics, Business majors), Michigan has an order of magnitude more students studying CS, and proportionately larger career fairs. Aside from the much larger revenue stream and reinvestment into faculty and facilities, this is important to recruiters, as shown below.
The Wall Street journal Rankings by Major based entirely on employer feedback ranked Michigan CS 3rd (after CMU and Berkeley), while Stanford was not in top 10 -- probably because of relatively few students produced. When I teach algorithms, students often mention that our homework and exam questions appear on job interviews (no need to take separate courses on how to interview). Michigan CS courses use unique and very effective infrastructure for software projects that other universities lack - we checked. The very best Michigan CS students make it to ACM ICPC world finals (including this year), and took gold a few years ago.
Among classic CS researchers who were Michigan undergrads: Claude Shannon (information theory), Stephen Cook (NP-completeness, P vs NP), Bernie Galler (ACM President) and Fran Allen (first female Turing Award winner).
The differences in ranking, perception and various wholesale numbers are dwarved by the significance of your own academic performance, accomplishments and connections. To this end, Michigan CS programs give you flexibility - the two CS programs are quite different, not to mention other related programs. Michigan produces and places a lot more CS graduates than Stanford, hence better networking opportunities, especially beyond the Silicon Valley. I doubt that Stanford has anything like MHacks - the largest hackathon in the US, with students coming from CMU, Illinois, Berkeley, GA Tech, Purdue, Maryland, and so on. While Stanford is in the Silicon Valley, the Silicon Valley comes to Ann Arbor's huge career fairs to hire students (Facebook doubled their target for Michigan interns last summer). And not only the Silicon Valley - Seattle, Austin, NYC, Chicago, etc. There is also significant VC activity in Ann Arbor, including start-up incubators in downtown - to paraphrase Jessica Su, they are only open to Michigan students. Major automotive companies, including German, Korean and Japanese, have research labs not far from Ann Arbor.
The two CS programs at Michigan are on a steep upward trajectory. CS is the most popular major in the College of Engineering and also hugely popular in LSA (Psychology is larger so far) - this brings in high-quality students. Most of the CS faculty at Michigan are young or mid-career, working in hot new areas.
Michigan has more diverse and accessible faculty. For every Andrew Ng at Stanford, we have a Honglak Lee (Andrew's first Ph.D. student). But I can't think of a Stanford professor who would match Alex Halderman. Both Michigan and Stanford employ faculty who graduated from the other university, although recent hiring at Michigan has been biased toward Princeton graduates. Professors at Michigan do more research with undergraduates than Professors at Stanford (e.g., I just published two conference papers with only undergrads).
Ann Arbor is growing quickly --- more industry in and around (than 5 years ago), many new buildings in the downtown, new infrastructure (parking lots, grocery stores, bus terminals, bridges) --- but still very affordable due to a temporary oversupply of residential housing. While Stanford is connected to the Silicon Valley, the University of Michigan is connected to the (reinvigorated) automotive industry (Ford, General Motors and Chrysler are just an hour away) -- a new car has >100 microprocessors and more software than an iPhone. Ann Arbor is at least as interesting as Palo Alto, but of course, San Francisco is more fun than Detroit on Saturday night, even at half the size.
Both Michigan and Stanford graduates are heavily represented in the Silicon Valley. Michigan graduates are also heavily represented in the Silicon Hills in Austin, in NYC (financial industry), Seattle (Microsoft and Amazon), Portland, OR (Intel, Mentor Graphics, etc), Chicago (financial industry) and throughout the Midwest. If you are comparing Michigan and Stanford from the perspective of employers, they are close enough that your academic performance matters a lot more than your affiliation. The location is also less significant than it may seem because of the huge job fairs in Ann Arbor, where you see every major company represented, and many start-ups. Ann Arbor is 25 mins away from a major hub of Delta Airlines (DTW), which is <2hrs away from the each coast, so many companies from outside Silicon Valley come to Ann Arbor to hire. Google and several other companies have significant presence in downtown.
Graduate school prospects are good for both Michigan and Stanford students.Our former undergrads are doing well in our graduate programs, and also at Stanford, Berkeley, UT Austin, etc. One of the undergrads who published with me in the past just started as an assistant prof at Berkeley (after having done a Math PhD at Princeton). Again, your personal accomplishments make all the difference when you apply to graduate school.
Being a large state school, Michigan admits a nontrivial number of mediocre students, who "pull down the average". This poses some challenges for professors, but we have structured our CS programs to challenge even the best students, while weak and mediocre students still learn something. I recall students taking Algorithms and Data Structures three times; some passed and learned a lot, and some didn't pass - we do not compromise the quality of education. Perhaps, "the tail" is less of a problem at Stanford. On the other hand, Michigan has an unusually large number of out-of-state students (for a state school). In particular, in the last 5-6 years we are seeing a stream of very strong and motivated undergraduates from China (thanks to an agreement with Shanghai Jiaotong U.), who are making our courses much more competitive at the high end. Out-of-state tuition at Michigan is within 10% from Stanford tuition in absolute terms, but would be greater if you adjust for the cost of living. Needless to say, out-of-state admissions at Michigan are very competitive.
In case you care about the weather, Michigan has all four seasons, whereas the weather in Palo Alto changes a lot less. Stanford sports don't quite match Michigan sports :) But there's no good downhill skiing (comparable to Lake Tahoe) anywhere in Southeast Michigan, nearby Indiana or Ohio.
Both Stanford and the U of M excel across the board - Engineering, Sciences, Business, Law, Medicine, Arts, Education. There aren't many universities like this in the US. For example, most universities ranked high in CS do not have medical schools (MIT, CMU), which is why Berkeley is collaborating with UCSF across campuses.
On the balance, the comparison of undergraduate programs is not as clear-cut as the answers from Stanford claim. Depending on your preferences, Michigan or Stanford may be the better choice.
The reason for why Michigan is a better choice is simple: Michigan is bigger. A lot bigger. Stanford's entire School of Engineering has a mere 1,220 undergraduate students. Compare this to 5,819 at the University of Michigan. Along with other factors, how does this affect things?
- Course selection. Michigan has a lot more courses offered, and you can take these courses whenever you want. Since Stanford's class sizes are so small, certain courses are only offered at certain times.
- Number of connections. 5x more students means 5x more potential connections. The connections may be lower quality overall, but definitely not 5x worse. Michigan's CS program is still Top 10 after all.
- Degree Practicality. I'm not sure how Stanford's courses are, but Michigan's tend to be difficult and highly practical rather than theoretical. Thus, Michigan is one of the top targets for CS companies around the USA, not just for the usual software firms (Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) but also the major players on Wall Street.
- Price/performance ratio. As a public in-state school in a city with an average standard of living cost, a degree from Michigan would be several times cheaper than a similar degree from Stanford. Michigan's ranking isn't as high as Stanford's, but it's still Top 10. If money is at all an issue, this is worth considering.
- Michigan winters are fucking cold. The way that it affects you career-wise is simple: after graduating, you will no longer be afraid of the cold, which means that you can work anywhere in the US. Don't laugh, this is actually a real phenomenon: I've heard a lot of students here at the University of Texas who choose their job partially based on the weather.
Michigan
Standing out. If you've gotten into Stanford but attend UM, you'll probably be one of the top students in every class. If you apply yourself & work hard, you can stand out very easily. Your professors will notice you, they will be extremely nice & friendly to you, and you may find opportunities to work with them on research projects or have them mentor you.
Great Professors. The Professors at Michigan are amazingly warm, friendly & patient. They are extremely nurturing, and will patiently work with you on any issues you might be having, or help you might need. Profs like Igor Markov (whose class I took, and has posted here as well) are perfect examples of this. Professors at Stanford are also friendly in general, but can be more cut-throat as well. They have much less patience for students asking "stupid questions" or wasting their time. To use the common phrase, they do not suffer fools gladly.
Big guy on Campus. Your friends & classmates will quickly notice that you're smarter than the average student. People will respect you for it & want to be in study groups with you. If you do extracurriculars, it's easier to stand out & get to really cool positions. This is kind of minor, but it's nice not to be just another face in the crowd.
Well-rounded school, much more so than Stanford. Great party scene, social life, football Saturdays. Humanities, Engr, Sciences, Business, Pre-Med/Law, are all very well represented in Michigan. Your friends & classmates range all over the spectrum as well. Some have very average, ordinary & simple/crazy mindsets. Others are extremely intelligent, ambitious & motivated. Personally, I really enjoyed having friends & interacting with people who were on completely different sides of the spectrum. It made life more interesting & taught me a lot about wider society.
Stanford
Amazing networking opportunities. Stanford has the highest concentration of smart, ambitious & entrepreneurial people. If you want to found your own startup, Stanford's the best place to meet your co-founder or early hires. If you want to join a hot early-stage startup, Stanford's the best place to make friends & meet people who will eventually found them. If you want to meet VCs, you can find them on campus; they are often roaming around trying to find the next Larry Page or Evan Spiegel. If you can get close to your Professors, you'll find every one of them has an amazing rolodex of contacts.
Great career opportunities. I'd say both schools have an equally amazing career fair; the difference is in how people perceive your resume. Telling someone you're from U-M buys you another 30 seconds to impress them. Telling someone you're from Stanford gets the job done. People are very impressed by the Stanford brand name. It opens a lot of doors. Even in something completely unrelated, like the social scene.
It pushes you to the top of your game. At Michigan, since your classmates are less ambitious/smart (relative to Stanford), it's very easy to sit back & coast by. At Stanford, you'll really feel the need to apply yourself & be at the top of your game, just so you can keep up & compete; both academically & in career opportunities.
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Overall, both colleges are amazing places. Looking back, I personally feel that doing a BS at U-M and MS at Stanford, was the ideal combination. And I'd never change that.
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P.S. You didn't ask, but I should also say that Michigan is the most elite University you'll ever find, that still has all 4 strengths that I listed above. I would recommend U-M over any other public university, no questions asked.
- My machine learning class had a poster session and venture capitalists came to look at our projects.
- During recruiting season there might be two or three tech talks a night (where students drop off their resumes in exchange for free food). Google and Facebook came to our campus multiple times. LinkedIn even brought Jamba Juice to our career fair, which they never did when they visited my undergrad institution.
- Every so often I get emails inviting me to apply for funding from some startup accelerator that's only open to Stanford students.
- Stanford has classes on how to do well in technical interviews. You can sign up for resume critiques and mock interviews, and they're done by experts from the industry.
I base this on having visited over 200 CS departments over the past 30 years and taught at several of these on an adjunct and/or full time basis. I've been a computer science accreditation program evaluator since 1986 and have visited about 25 CS programs in that capacity. I've also visited another 200 CS programs around the US (and a few outside the US) for various speaking engagements. I recently retired from a career in several hi-tech companies, where I recruited a lot of people with CS degrees. What matters most is not the school you came from but what YOU accomplished while there.
In selecting a program, you should consider some pragmatic issues and how well the program fits you and your interests, such as"
- a small program with a lot of faculty attention and small classes vs a large program with a lot of opportunities but large classes, lots of competition for resources, and less individual attention (I've taught at a private school with a class of 15 and a large state school with a class of 175 - the same course (operating systems) in each case!).
- who actually teaches the undergraduate CS courses - graduate teaching assistants, adjunct faculty, or full time faculty. Note that sometimes the GTAs and adjuncts are actually better teachers - you have to ask current students and recent graduates.
- how much the school emphasizes effective teaching -- are the instructors non-native-English-speaking individuals whose lectures are hard to understand or people who speak in an articulate way so you can learn from them
- what student organizations (ACM chapters, IEEE-CS chapters) are there and how active are they (you often learn a lot via these organizations - the good ones provide helpful but less formal opportunities to work with other CS majors, to learn more than what is taught in the classes, etc.)
- do the faculty view their mission as 1) to prepare you for graduate school, 2) to prepare you for a career, or 3) to flunk out as many students as possible so as to reduce enrollment in the upper level classes.
- what courses are required and what courses are available as electives for the CS major.
- what resources are available for BS level students and how accessible are they (computers, labs, equipment). It doesn't help you for the campus to have the world's fastest supercomputer if it is only available to faculty and doctoral students.
- what kind of help is available for CS students who have difficulty with their assignments, particularly programming assignments?
- are you competing with a lot of top students or do your classes have their share of "not quite so top" students
- is the school in a climate you like (or can tolerate for 4 years)
- is the school in an urban or rural setting
Note that for many of the issues raised above, different students will have different preferences.
In looking at the above, pay particular attention to what current students have to say - the faculty (and I can say this because I've been one) tend to have a very limited understanding of what life is like for the actual students, especially the undergraduates. It also helps to speak to recent graduates of the program. I once had a student at a highly rated but not top notch undergraduate program who went on to a world famous graduate program and came back for a visit. He told us how the facilities at the undergraduate program, which he had often complained about when a student, were substantially better than and more available than the facilities at the "world class" school he was now attending as a graduate student. And the courses he had taken at the undergraduate program actually taught him well, so that he was head and shoulders ahead of many of his graduate school classmates who had come from "bigger name" schools.
Note too that although many students say they hope to work for Google or Apple or one of the other "big" names in the field, the list of which companies are in that category tends to change rather often (nobody wants to work for Digital Equipment or Univac any more, although they were "big" names back in the 1980's. More importantly, collectively, these "big" companies hire a very tiny portion of each year's CS graduates. Almost any company today will be interested in hiring CS graduates, so it may be worth thinking about what kind of industry you might want to work in and whether companies from that industry recruit at the school you are considering. (Check with the placement office of the school to see what companies recruit CS majors there.)
Bottom line: choose a good school that fits you, and don't worry about rankings and reputation.
The one strong point about Stanford that my professor would stress on is- the aggressive tech transfer trend. The technologies developed at Stanford are aggressively translating to the hands of the people. So, you can actually not just say that you did some cool project while fulfilling your academic pursuits but also make a impact on the society at large. I think that thought is very humbling as well as empowering.
In Silicon Valley, Stanford name carries a lot more weight, mostly because every other company has a number of Stanford grads already, we know what you learned and we speak the "same language".
As a Stanford grad myself I am obviously biased, but I think the experience you'll have, the professors you'll study with and the network you'll build will open a number of doors and provide the opportunities that will be worth the higher price tag that comes with going to Stanford.
I had a headhunting firm in Silicon Valley and we specialized in engineers and computer professionals.
Getting a degree (even an undergrad degree) from Stanford (and to a lesser extent, Berkeley or Santa Clara) comes with alum connections and a network of possible internships. WHERE do you want to be in ten years? Do you want to have a home in San Carlos or Kalamazoo? You can learn what you need to know to get a degree at either institution (or CMU or Texas A&M or MIT or Cal Tech or Cal Poly Pomona or Monterrey Tech) but WHERE do you want to spread your wings and develop your life?
As a Michigan undergrad, I noticed that there were large volume problems in the CS program. Therefore, there is a benefit to going to a much smaller department that does not have volume problems. I noticed that a large number of computer science classes at Michigan are taught by lecturers rather than by professors and I suspect in a smaller department, more of your classes will be taught by professors.
If you are studying computer science, there is definitely a geographic advantage to being near Silicon Valley. You will be much closer to places you want to intern/work and it will likely be easier to make connections with people at these companies.
Michigan also has a large student body, with lower admission standards, where the average student is not that strong. If you are smart enough to be admitted to Stanford, that would mean at Michigan, you would need to be careful about which students you choose to work with since the average student is not very strong. In upper-level computer science classes, you are required to work in groups and it is much better to work with and learn from talented students as compared to mediocre students.
If I had the opportunity to go to Stanford, I would have taken it in a heartbeat. You will be taught by top-notch faculty, be geographically close to many desirable companies, and become colleagues with some of the smartest students in the world.
