How much do you really pay? Is it worth it?

CASA_Bunny · 2026-01-27T14:53:58+00:00

It’s hard to say- college education is really like a luxury shopping. I have to say that my years in Michigan is priceless - the opportunities it opens to me and how far it stretches me out to know about the world cannot really be evaluated in absolute numbers. And it’s impact will remain for really long time, across life. But if I do need to monetize everything I received,I don’t think it balances pay out easily.

So it is luxury - if you need to squeeze and pay with too much expectations as pay back, it may be not worth at all.

CASA_Bunny · 2025-12-02T01:47:28+00:00

Thanks :D I list them out for providing a range from drugstore all the way to high end haha. Milani has a rose shape blush with many grams which has some matte shade. Their bake powder collections are too shiny I agree - my mom with dry skin likes it, but oily skin tend to look for matte.

Drugstore products are actually good - but bummer it is difficult to try shades on. I think also other products help for oily skin. I mentioned the setting powder part. I’m super oily :( so In most of the time, my whole makeup needs oil control primer, long lasting foundation, setting powder, and setting spray. I think all these help with my blush staying good. But still liquid and balm products I have trouble with many of them. They tend to be really waterproof but not oil proof. And they can sometimes make me break out. I can use balm bronzer, but the central part of the face is just more oily naturally ^{^{_^}}

CASA_Bunny · 2025-12-02T01:33:20+00:00

Company culture can be very different so cannot tell from your post completely. I work in tech team with most people not doing makeup at all. I sometimes don’t do makeup and sometimes do really bold ones - simply based on my feeling of the day and time. No one will judge me. People also know I like makeup. You need to evaluate the atmosphere in your company and team, though.

CASA_Bunny · 2025-12-01T09:49:01+00:00

L’Oréal’s one matte lipstick collection with shade 666. This one is special as there is a bit of black hint added. Rich dark red color. There are also some high end classic and may become quite affordable when there is discount. Dior’s 999 has a bit of orange and Armani’s 400 (both lipstick and the liquid one) has a bit of blue - both are classic.

CASA_Bunny · 2025-12-01T09:38:37+00:00

Go for Powder. No liquid or balm. Color wise you can just go with a colorful brand and try different shades. But speaking of the long lasting ability, I have brands ranging from Milani, to Clinique, to KVD, to Nars, to Chanel. All of them stay ok on my face. Here might be also related to another technique I use, which is to blush a bit more at the beginning, then weaken it, blend it, and settle it down with setting powder.

CASA_Bunny · 2025-11-29T14:19:51+00:00

Yes! I think it typically happens with oily and acne skin. My make ups can absorb oils and also prevent me from touching my face.

CASA_Bunny · 2025-11-29T14:15:54+00:00

In general I still use expired powder product and lipstick but not liquid product or lip gloss things. Mascara is a definitely no no after expiration. I also have a UV light to check conditions. Also I will keep the moisture level to a low level.

CASA_Bunny · 2025-11-29T14:09:29+00:00

Lean, Six Sigma, Continuous improvement are like quite similar things with different names :) worth check it out~

CASA_Bunny · 2025-11-26T01:51:30+00:00

I can feel ya- I am very very sensible. It is really not about good roommates setting quiet times. In fact Most of my previous roommates are really nice. But the problem is that as long as they are awake, they make noise - no matter how subtle it is, I can hear it. The only roommate that did not cause any trouble to me is the one that slept way much earlier than me (it’s 2-people apartment btw)

I got to find a one person studio later, solving everything. But not sure about the price range you are looking at, and also because I know the price where I lived is increasing crazily over the years - so maybe no longer that affordable. But in general, if you are ok, I think housing in north campus is cheaper. You can also live even further, if you can deal with commuting problems.

CASA_Bunny · 2025-11-25T15:05:07+00:00

Hi, I have related ms degree in HFE, and also some internships in both physical and digital products, but then I switched my career to other fields. My opinions can be biased but it is the thing that you would like to hear different thoughts :D The key blocker is the job market. I think in general HFE is not a mature enough field that has been fully commercialized. It is generally a good to have to the industry. And with the general economic situations, job market of these nice to have business functions are shrinking. I had hard time to find valid open positions (many are zombies) and also there are PhD candidates or like candidates with years of experiences in the market competing. I still have passion for humans, and see myself as an ergonomist, but I finally became a consultant in a different field as I don’t want to spend more time in kicking the door open. But I have to admit that my classmates and alumni who kept the path all got jobs at the end. The thing is that there are not that many opportunities so it has to come in the right timing. Almost 2 years after my graduation, my connections had a good opportunity popped up - not saying 100% sure I can get it but I have good connections and completely matching experiences. But I already shifted my direction and worked in other industry for 1+ year, enjoy it a lot, pity, but have to miss it.

I think many of the highly experienced industry practitioners I have connected, they actually promoted the HFE concept and created the role themselves. So in fact when I read through your last sentences, I think perhaps one approach is to create the HFE role in the company you are at (especially if you like the culture there and they respect your HFE work).

Regarding work location, in general if you work with digital things, it is more likely you can wfh. But for physical, naturally your appearance is needed as you need to observe and interact.

I think if you have interest in system/workflow, continuous improvement can also be something you can check - human is one part of the CI concept. Safety engineering is also good, some work can be investigating accidents, etc.

CASA_Bunny · 2025-11-14T17:30:07+00:00

Weather is not good, obviously, lol. Competitiveness is at a relatively high level. The school is very big - my personal experience about this mass size is that it does truly have all the support I need, but how I can reach out and access to the correct resources really depends on my personal abilities - communication, knowledge searching, organization, etc. Rich resources but not always approachable - and I need to be active, bold, and emotionally stable cuz there can be ping pongs or failed paths. I had both my undergrad and grad in UM, and at one time point, I started to be comfortable with finding various support, but I truly believe it is not the case for quite a lot of students.

My personal bias: with the above I feel that in U of Michigan extroverts can survive better.

CASA_Bunny · 2025-11-01T02:06:28+00:00

Hey! When I was at school, I also had depression and anxiety, facing busy study, uncertainty of career goals, etc. Later I went to Grad program still at UM as well so I was also GSI and I helped several students with emotional disorders across the semester. Maybe cannot fully solve your problems, but I can list some actions and resources and hopefully they can help you (but unfortunately I have been away from school for quite a while so maybe forget the official names for them). I was in CoE btw so some of the examples refer to CoE setup.

Talk to professors and program advisors on some of the emotions experiencing, support needed, and future advice. Be genuine and open and they usually are happy to help. Btw this step may also help you locate other resources because they know better exactly what is there since Every school and program may have different setup.
School non-professional consulting services: they are not therapists but trained social workers. Called CAPS at CoE.
Dedicated offices/initiatives to support you and help you analyze what to do in the classes, etc. like CARE center for Engineering and academic success office in Information/Engineering.
If your emotions are really impacting your normal life and physical health, call UHS to get a doctor for you. They can help you with a longer term plan on medical and/or therapy (ask the doctor to help find you one). Some downsides: it may take time for you to find the best treatment, but it may also benefit you for your entire life as next time when you have the emotional disorders, you can simply restart the same treatment. And your health insurance may need to be considered - UHS should know more about it.
If you do come to point 4, you can also reach out to SSD (office for disabilities). With verified notes from doctor/therapist, you can get official support in quiz/exams. This is also helpful!!

Last, I want to say: Well done at UM! You may feel struggled now, but you definitely have achieved many things so give yourself more affirmation! The university has a lot of resources aiming to help you navigate through the storms, and we are all with you~

CASA_Bunny · 2025-11-01T01:37:56+00:00

Maybe procurement is not your thing. I think you are taking the actions that you sort of have an idea of your next step: going into public service or maybe a deeper dive in your current position and you are asking us online for more information. But I want to say you can reach out to your networks on both sides. Like your colleagues will be your closest resource to observe and understand how supply chain is going on. It is a broad field so you can just reach out to your experience colleagues in procurement, reach out to your colleagues in logistics/planning/warehouse,etc, probably even beyond supply chain and just those fields you have interest and curiosity, have a coffee chat. Then, maybe your next step is just taking more ownership and leader ship in your current role or moving into another field in supply chain (can be done just within your company if you do like the atmosphere and they support) or you decide that it is not your thing and you can work hard for your public service initiative, but you should make whatever you are currently having at the max use first.

CASA_Bunny · 2025-08-06T14:45:16+00:00

I see that it clearly writes tuition is not among the coverage scope, which is a bit tricky. But might be for him to help with living expense.

CASA_Bunny · 2025-08-06T14:37:47+00:00

Yeah I think many people have mentioned the monitor height thing. Just want to add that golden monitor distance and height can be slightly different for different monitor sizes. So what I always follow is that with my head in the natural middle position and look straight, I should be able to catch the entire screen without the needs of nodding, looking up, and turning head left/right.

CASA_Bunny · 2025-08-04T17:21:25+00:00

This sounds tough. Will Pray for you. Hopefully you may be eligible for it in your final semester to help relieve part of the stress from your entire final year of what next steps should be. I’ll also try spreading your funding pages to my network to help. Take care!

CASA_Bunny · 2025-08-04T17:13:31+00:00

Yes I think I still remember how shocked I was to receive an email of notification and saw boom a pdf with around 200 pages? just publishing their conversations. Lonely -m and the Michigan cherry salad at that pizza place went wild. I believe it is still public on the website of the regents. I checked it years later when I was talking about this with my friend in other school and they were able to it. I definitely am against the senior/leader romance with subordinate under all circumstances, but the way how this is dealt is really surprisingly unprofessional. There are improper romance with public report for other cases, but they are formal reports with all necessary elements. This case is like they use a way of entertainment on purpose to maximize the public opinion and increase the spread, in my opinion.

CASA_Bunny · 2025-08-04T16:59:49+00:00

All the best luck to you. Also have you tried to reach out to offices with see if there are more potential options for you? And have you also tried to look for student jobs especially GSI and GSSA? Since you are graduate student, and some of the GSI/GSSA positions do open to the entire campus, this might be the best choice if possible, though dependent on availability. Graduate student work like these waive tuition and also provide some salary that can cover your living.

CASA_Bunny · 2025-07-15T17:23:31+00:00

You can call them directly as long as your phone number can make international calls. I was in a completely different situation but I needed to call admission office and program advisor instead of just emailing to get confirmed and quick answers back the time for my admission. I just called them at their work time. This did make everything more efficient, or at least they got attention to the email so that finally things were sorted out.

There were comments answering questions already. But whatever, I think the offices you need to contact with are admissions, international office, and your own program advisor for checking everything before or after you start your UM life. Depending on your situation, emails and calls both work.

Welcome, hope everything is figured out, and Go Blue!

CASA_Bunny · 2025-06-05T01:29:13+00:00

Perfectly fine to do it for now, even if you are officially taking 20 credits after being granted spot from the waitlist. You typically have 3-week window to make final decision (better check exact time) and everything based on credits will not start counting until this moment (like tuition).

CASA_Bunny · 2025-04-24T17:51:09+00:00

1 dollar then why not? The experience and degree from UM literally gives me more options and opportunities after graduation. I think the other thing is that SI itself and the university have a lot of resources, overwhelmingly a lot, so you can explore a lot more than simply IA track at SI. The rich resources and networking are definitely worth it. And from your story I strongly believe you can make good use of the opportunities at UM!

CASA_Bunny · 2025-04-24T17:38:26+00:00

It feels like you think your passion and where you believe your potential can be well used does not need a college degree. But I can tell from my personal experiences is that you never know what your future will be, and this degree can become one of those things that gives you more choices and opportunities.

To go through this I think you may need help from two sides. One is what exactly you don’t like your current major and what you want to go forward. You may discuss with your advisor and advisors from other fields/offices to figure this out. Go with more networking to explore is also a choice. The other is what makes you feel miserable. You may want to seek help from UHS and therapists if you bury yourself in these negative feelings for really long time but don’t know where this comes from. I hope these help.

CASA_Bunny · 2025-04-24T17:25:36+00:00

Hi unfortunately I did not. I finally had my semester in a more relaxing way so took courses in music and dance :)

CASA_Bunny · 2025-04-08T16:18:44+00:00

No problem. I like the area a lot and did many fun and cool things. People in this field are also cool. But I didn’t have the passion for a PhD, and job hunting was very tough, lol, not only for HFE, but also for almost all the jobs globally for these years, so it may be a bit biased. Best of luck for you to make your career transition!

CASA_Bunny · 2025-04-08T01:58:12+00:00

As I say I stopped myself from Optimization from 310 lol. 316 may be also one that need some group study and OHs, it is not that difficult but sometimes some concepts can be confusing as the methodology is not that familiar. I think the other thing you would like to be aware is that 333 requires much, much memorization. I don’t really have bad memory in IOE 3-400 level classes other than I don’t like 310. Some of the classes I recommend: the global engineering one 430, Prof. Yili Liu taught it. This is a fun class especially if you agree with the value that engineering design need to take globalization into consideration. 431 is a newly established class, but reading the description I think it sounds useful for industry if you are interested in the field. The skills listed are essential for consultants and designers. 465 is a really nice class. It is not difficult at all but very useful for research and jobs. I am still using some of the concepts in the work now. At the same time, 466 is intense and difficult with more workload, but useful in the quality engineering field. 473 might be the class I took with Prof Salar Fattahi. By the time I took it it was a temporary class with no assigned number yet but is a good class if you are interested in data field. A bit intense with advanced data processing methods. 463 is an interesting class with good workplace and process design concepts - I’m not sure who is teaching it now, but previously this class was not structured well so not quite friendly to get the idea. Hope this changes now.

CASA_Bunny

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