University of Michigan

The University of Michigan (UMich, U-M, or Michigan) is a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1817 and is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. It is also one of the earliest American research universities and is a founding member of the Association of American Universities.

The university has the largest student population in Michigan, enrolling more than 53,000 students, including more than 35,000 undergraduates and 18,000 postgraduates. It is classified as an "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" by the Carnegie Classification. It consists of 19 schools and colleges, offering more than 280 degree programs. The university is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. In 2021, it ranked third among American universities in research expenditures according to the National Science Foundation.

The campus spans 3,177 acres (12.86 km2). It encompasses Michigan Stadium, which is the largest stadium in the United States, as well as the Western Hemisphere, and ranks third globally. The University of Michigan's athletic teams, including 13 men's teams and 14 women's teams competing in intercollegiate sports, are collectively known as the Wolverines. They compete in NCAA Division I (FBS) as a member of the Big Ten Conference. Between 1900 and 2022, athletes from the university earned a total of 185 medals at the Olympic Games, including 86 gold.

History

Origins

The proposal for establishing an institution of higher education in Michigan dates back to 1703, during the colonial period of New France. Just two years after founding Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit on the strait between Lakes Saint Clair and Erie in 1701, the French explorer and later colonial governor of Louisiana, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, wrote to King Louis XIV's minister, Louis Phélypeaux de Pontchartrain, from the settlement under the date of August 31, 1703. He urged the establishment of a seminary in the newly formed parish of Sainte-Anne-de-Détroit for the education of both Indigenous and French children in piety and the French language. It remains uncertain whether a seminary was ever established; the surviving registres make no mention of a seminary being created from the proposal. Jesuit superiors in Quebec probably opposed the idea of creating a seminary in the Pays d'en Haut, due to disputes with Cadillac and fears of rivalry with their own institutions. Parish records from 1755 indicate, nevertheless, that Jean Baptiste Rocoux was "Director of Christian Schools", a title likely influenced by Jean-Baptiste de La Salle. He kept a school either at his residence on St. Jacques Street or in a building under the patronage of Ste. Anne's Church. Mentions are made of a seminary of unknown founding at the fort that trained young men for the ministry, but it was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1805. Additionally, there was a French subscription school that stood near the fort in 1775, and an old account book preserved from 1780 contains tuition charges dated as early as 1760.

The colony was surrendered to the British monarchy in 1762 following the French and Indian War. The local French Canadians maintained the Christian schools, which became bilingual; however, the British, who viewed the colony merely as a trading post, did practically nothing for education, leading to stagnation during their rule from 1763 to 1796.

When the colony came under American control following the enforcement of the 1783 Treaty of Paris in 1796, the territorial judges were supposed to be called in to formally define the rights and legal status of the Christian schools under the new constitution. Thereafter, the interpretation of the American right to education in Michigan, grounded in Section 1, Article XI of the Northwest Ordinance, was laid out. Since 1806, parish-minister Gabriel Richard, who presided over the Christian schools and helped plan a new layout for Detroit after the fire in 1805, petitioned for land to found an "institution for higher learning" on several occasions and suggested that a lottery might be used to support the academies he headed. Subsequently, in 1817, during the postwar period following the War of 1812, the Territorial government, at the instigation of Fr. Richard and Judge Augustus B. Woodward and with the support of U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, passed "an Act to establish the Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania" within the Territory of Michigan. Enacted on August 26, 1817, the Act effectively consolidated the schools into one institution. Rev. John Monteith, a Presbyterian minister, was named as its first president and Fr. Richard as vice president. Its didactors had authority not only over the university itself but also over education in the territory in general. The legislative act was signed into law by Acting Governor and Secretary William Woodbridge, Chief Judge Augustus B. Woodward, and Judge John Griffin.

Campus

The University of Michigan's campus in Ann Arbor is divided into four main areas: the Central Campus area, the North Campus area, the North Medical Campus area, and Ross Athletic Campus area. The campus areas include more than 500 major buildings, with a combined area of more than 37.48 million square feet (860 acres; 3.482 km2). The Central and Athletic Campus areas are contiguous, while the North Campus area is separated from them, primarily by the Huron River. The North Medical Campus area was developed on Plymouth Road, with several university-owned buildings for outpatient care, diagnostics, and outpatient surgery.

There is leased space in buildings scattered throughout the city, many occupied by organizations affiliated with the University of Michigan Health System. In addition to the University of Michigan Golf Course on Ross Athletic Campus, the university operates a second golf course on Geddes Road called Radrick Farms Golf Course. The university also operates a large office building called Wolverine Tower in southern Ann Arbor. The Inglis House is an off-campus facility, which the university has owned since the 1950s. The Inglis House is a 10,000-square-foot (930 m2) mansion used to hold various social events, including meetings of the Board of Regents, and to host visiting dignitaries. Another major off-campus facility is the Matthaei Botanical Gardens, which is located on the eastern outskirts of the City of Ann Arbor.

Central Campus Historic District

The original Central Campus spanned 40 acres (16 ha), bordered by North University Avenue, South University Avenue, East University Avenue, and State Street. The master plan was developed by Alexander Jackson Davis. The first structures built included four Greek Revival faculty residences in 1840, as well as Mason Hall (1841–1950) and South College (1849–1950), which functioned as both academic spaces and dormitories. Only one of the original faculty residences remains today; it has been renovated in the Italianate style to serve as the President's House, making it the oldest building on campus. The Chemical Laboratory, built by Albert Jordan in 1856 and operational until 1980, was notable for housing the nation's first instructional chemistry lab. After the completion of the Old Medical Building (1850–1914) and the Law Building (1863–1950), an open space known as The Diag began to take shape. Among the notable structures on the original Central Campus were University Hall (1872–1950), designed by alumnus E. S. Jennison, and the Old Library (1881–1918), designed by Henry Van Brunt, who was also the architect behind Memorial Hall (1870) in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Organization and administration

Governance

The University of Michigan is governed by the Board of Regents, established by the Organic Act of March 18, 1837. It consists of eight members, elected at large in biennial state elections for overlapping eight-year terms. Before the Office of President was established in 1850, the University of Michigan was directly managed by the appointed regents, with a rotating group of professors responsible for carrying out day-to-day administrative duties. The Constitution of the State of Michigan of 1850 restructured the university's administration. It established the Office of the President and transitioned the Board of Regents to an elected body. The state constitution granted the Board of Regents the power to appoint a non-voting presiding president to lead their meetings, effectively elevating the board to the level of a constitutional corporation independent of the state administration and making the University of Michigan the first public institution of higher education in the country so organized.

The Board of Regents delegates its power to the university president who serves as the chief executive officer responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of the university, that is, the main campus in Ann Arbor. The president retains authority over the branch campuses in Dearborn and Flint but is not directly involved in their day-to-day management. Instead, two separate chancellors are appointed by the president to serve as chief executive officers overseeing each branch campus. All presidents are appointed by the Board of Regents to serve five-year terms, at the board's discretion, and there are no term limits for university presidents. The board has the authority to either terminate the president's tenure or extend it for an additional term.

The presidency of the University of Michigan is currently vacant, with Domenico Grasso (PhD '87), former chancellor of the Dearborn campus, serving as the interim president. Following the immediate resignation of Santa Ono, the university's former president, the board of regents named Grasso as the university's interim president on May 8, 2025. He will continue serving as interim president through November 30, 2026; president-elect C. Cybele Raver, appointed as the university's 17th president, will take office on December 1, 2026. Laurie McCauley has been serving as the 17th and current provost of the university since May 2022, and she was recommended by former president Santa Ono to serve a full term through June 30, 2027.

Academics

Teaching and learning

The university offers 133 undergraduate majors & degrees across the College of Engineering (18), College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (77), College of Pharmacy (1), Ford School of Public Policy (1), LSA Residential College (3), Marsal Family School of Education (3), Ross School of Business (1), School of Dentistry (1), School of Information (2), School of Kinesiology (3), School of Music, Theatre & Dance (16), School of Nursing (1), School of Public Health (2), Stamps School of Art & Design (2), and Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning (2). The most popular undergraduate majors, by 2021 graduates, were computer and information sciences (874), business administration and management (610), economics (542), behavioral neuroscience (319), mechanical engineering (316), experimental psychology (312).

The Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies offers more than 180 graduate degree programs in collaboration with fourteen other schools and colleges. Nineteen graduate and professional degree programs, including the juris doctor, master of business administration, doctor of dental surgery, master of engineering, doctor of engineering, doctor of medicine, and doctor of pharmacy, are offered exclusively by the schools and colleges; Rackham does not oversee their administration. The university conferred 4,731 master's degrees, 892 academic doctorates, and 738 professional doctorates in 2021-22.

Undergraduate students participate in various research projects through the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) as well as the UROP/Creative-Programs.

Undergraduate

Admission to the university is based on academic prowess, extracurricular activities, and personal qualities. The university practices need-blind admission for domestic applicants. It does not consider legacy preferences. Admissions officials consider a student's standardized test scores, application essay and letters of recommendation to be important academic factors, with emphasis on an applicant's academic record and GPA, while stating an applicant's high school class rank is 'not considered'. In terms of non-academic materials as of 2022, Michigan ranks character/personal qualities and whether the applicant is a first-generation university applicant as 'important' in making first-time, first-year admission decisions, while ranking extracurricular activities, talent/ability, geographical residence, state residency, volunteer work, work experience and level of applicant's interest as 'considered'. Some applicants to Music, Theatre and Dance and some applicants to the College of Engineering may be interviewed. A portfolio is required and considered for admission for Art, Architecture and the Ross School of Business. Submission of standardized test scores is recommended but not compulsory. Of the 55% of enrolled freshmen in 2025 who submitted SAT scores; the middle 50 percent Composite scores were 1370–1530. Of the 18% of the incoming freshman class who submitted ACT scores; the middle 50 percent Composite score was between 32 and 34.

Student life

Student body

As of fall 2023, the Ann Arbor campus had 52,065 students enrolled: 33,730 undergraduate students and 18,335 graduate students. The total number of employees reached 53,831, which included 21,475 individuals working with Michigan Medicine, 6,114 supplemental staff, 7,820 faculty members, and 18,422 regular staff. The largest college at the university was the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts with 21,973 students (42.2% of the total student body), followed by the College of Engineering (11,113; 21.3%) and Ross School of Business (4,433; 8.1%). All other colleges each hosted less than 5% of the total student population.

Students come from all 50 U.S. states and nearly 100 countries. As of 2022, 52% of undergraduate students were Michigan residents, while 43% came from other states. The remainder of the undergraduate student body was composed of international students. Of the total student body, 43,253 (83.1%) were U.S. citizens or permanent residents and 8,812 (16.9%) were international students as of November 2023.

As of October 2023, 53% of undergraduate students self-identified as White, 17% as Asian, 7% as Hispanic, 4% as Black, 5% as belonging to two or more races, and 5% as having an unknown racial composition. The remaining 8% of undergraduates were international students.

According to a 2017 report by the New York Times, the median family income of a student at Michigan was $154,000. 66% of students came from families within the top 20% in terms of income. As of 2022, approximately 18% of undergraduate students received a Pell Grant.

Groups and activities

By 2012, the university had 1,438 student organizations. With a history of student activism, some of the most visible groups include those dedicated to causes such as civil rights and labor rights, such as local chapters of Students for a Democratic Society and United Students Against Sweatshops. Conservative groups also organize, such as the Young Americans for Freedom.

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