<ol>
<li>There's a strong correlation between your ACT score and the amount of time it takes for your admissions rep to respond to your emails.</li>
<li>If your high school counselor is sharp you should thank God. Many, including me, were/are stuck with a lady barely fit to answer the phone at a nail salon. Srsly</li>
<li>Even so, do not make fun of her or any other faculty at your high school on social media. If you haven't already, start sucking up to them starting in August.</li>
<li>Remember: 1. GPA 2. ACT ...... 3. Everything else. If you want you go to U-M, don't waste your time on a bunch of app padding ECs you don't care about, especially if your GPA is only a 3.5 or your ACT is still in the 20s. Spend that time retaking the ACT and improving current semester grades.</li>
<li>Remember, U-M admissions GPA doesn't factor in +s or -s or non-core classes. So A-s are awesome ... B+s are the worst grade ever. </li>
<li>Seriously though, do not bother your U-M territory rep. If they take a while to hit you back, buckle down and retake the ACT or something. Trust me, the response to you telling her your admissions rep you just improved your ACT by 4 points will be swift.</li>
<li>The admissions web chat is generally worthless. Don't waste your time.</li>
<li>University tours are a boring waste of the day. They are honestly an entire day filled with stuff anyone can read on the website in 20 minutes, rah rah cheerleading and parents feeling special.</li>
<li>If you do tour, please don't use the Q&A portion to faux-coy brag about yourself or your kids.</li>
<li>Making a decision on a college after the tour is about the most immature thing I've ever heard in my life. I've heard some people say they're not going to U-M because some stranger was rude when they asked them about how they liked U-M or because their tour guide was obviously mailing it in. I mean, really?</li>
<li>As long as you go to a school within U-M's caliber, you're going to enjoy yourself. Like I don't think I wouldn't have friends at Cornell or Rochester or something. And if you have to go to one of your safeties, just enter their honors program to be around the highest concentration of super ambitious peers.</li>
<li>Best way to experience the University is to find a friend or cousin who goes there and spend a weekend night with them.</li>
<li>Summer camps are also cool too but honestly, half the kids are only there to throw it on their application/essay.</li>
<li>Don't write your why U-M essay about football Saturdays with your family or how you fell in love with it during your tour. #cliche ......BE UNIQUE & INTERESTING!</li>
<li>Unless your essays have been peer/teacher reviewed at least a few times AFTER EACH EDIT, do not submit them.</li>
<li>I applied early action but I wouldn't recommend it unless you're from a really supportive family who makes sure everything is super legitimate. I submitted an app with mistakes and in retrospect my essays were horribly cliche.</li>
<li>Depending on your high school, going to U-M either makes you a nerd/genius, or could even mean you couldn't afford Vandy or an Ivy you got into.</li>
<li>So when you get in, just be humble. A lot of students try and get rejected, don't rub it in their face.</li>
<li>While difficult, try not to laugh at people in the spring who got rejected and pretend they wanted to go to the college they now have to go to the WHOLE TIME.</li>
<li>Best investment of all time: the Michigan Grandparent t shirts are like $10each at mden. Send those to your grandparents on both sides and the checks for graduation will be very large.</li>
<li>During one of your visits after being accepted, make sure you buy your parents a meal and tell them thanks, for everything. Zingerman's or Cafe Zola are solid</li>
<li>At orientation there's a fine line between going out for some drinks at a frat party and... leaving in an ambulance.</li>
</ol>
<p>Correction to #4: GPA, course rigor, then testing. 
Testing is not the end all, be all that some ascribe it to be. With holistic admissions, there are 6 points to review, and there are people rejected from Michigan with high test scores and not much else to demonstrate who they are. It all goes together. </p>
<p>Early Action is recommended by the admission counselors at U of M, and there’s no reason why a student at the level of that school cannot get their act together and apply prior to November 1. </p>
<p>19 is mean, and I hope you wrote that tongue in cheek. </p>
<p>Outside of that, pretty good advice. </p>
<p>As the person who made the first list that keeps getting linked to these, stop making f***ing lists. Everyone. </p>
<p>Nobody learns anything applying to Michigan. Wait till you do 4 years.</p>
<p>Your negativity is unbecoming.</p>