Michael Moore's "Roger and Me" kept me from going to school in Flint.
The recently had a story in NYT about U of M Flint attracting foreign students by saying basically, "Hey, you get a degree that says 'University of Michigan' on it at a third the price," or something. Apparently, a number of these students--mainly from poor countries--have been a bit dismayed at their first trip to American being Flint, MI, as the streets there are not exactly paved with gold. I've lived close to Flint my whole life, and I think I can count on one hand the number of times I've visited.
Yeah... but it woulda been worse for me 'cuz I was accepted to GMI. So in addition to "flint" it would also have been 5 years with no vacations and an 85/15 male-female ratio. Not only that, all their internships were in - wait for it - Detroit. I knew it would have been grim but Roger and Me pushed me off the precipice.
The flip side of that is GMI (now known as Kettering, and where I assumed you were talking about, because, well, no one goes to UM Flint from anywhere but locally) is a fantastic school if you want to do automotive engineering. I know several people who went there; none had a college experience they raved about, but all landed fantastic jobs. I have no idea if they have any pull outside the industry, however.