A long shot...but still a shot?

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of Michigan
1

<p>I'm currently a freshman at Michigan State University. I applied for sophomore transfer for the Fall 2012 semester at LSA. Could anyone do me a favor and chance me? I submitted my application last week and submitted my college transcripts a few days ago.</p>

<p>Current school: Michigan State University
College GPA: 3.78
College credits: 30 by the end of this year
High school GPA: 3.3
High school ACT: 27
Miscellaneous:
Took 7 AP classes, 5 honors classes and 2 IB classes in high school
Voluntary research at Field Neurosciences Institute at St. Mary's
Volunteered at Covenant Health Care hospital
5-6 clubs including JV tennis for 2 years
Hook (if any): ADHD </p>

<p>Could anyone tell me what my chances are, also when I might be expected to receive my response? Thanks!</p>

2

<p>Michigan usually doesn’t accept soph transfers unless they did/could’ve gotten in as a freshman, so you’ll probably have to wait and apply for junior year transfer.</p>

3

<p>One girl from my high school applied but didn’t get in as a freshman (deferred then rejected like me) and she came to MSU then transferred to Michigan after one year. According to friends of hers she had similar stats as I had.</p>

4

<p>You’ve already applied, so you should hear your decision pretty soon.</p>

5

<p>What the hell? How is ADHD a hook?</p>

6

<p>He’s trying to say that he was “facing adversity” or “dealt with struggle” because he was diagnosed with ADHD. I don’t want to offend anyone, but it seems like so many people try to use ADHD as an excuse for poor performance. OP, however, has achieved a 3.8 at MSU which is very commendable. It may come down to how he spent his year in college regarding extra-curriculars because his high school profile is far from stellar, but personally, I think he has a good chance.</p>

<p>You have a good chance. (In my opinion. but what do I know.)</p>

7

<p>How rigourous your course load at MSU will also come into play.</p>

8

<p>Thanks, Dan. That does help a bit.</p>

<p>Also, I knew some people would get the wrong idea that I’m using my condition as an excuse or cover-up for my dissenting performance. I wanna clear up by saying I’ve always known I’m 100% responsible for any shortcomings in my academic performance, and there is no one/nothing to blame but myself. The only reason I decided to throw in ADHD as a hook was because I couldn’t really think of any other interesting hook to include, and one of the essays asked about “Any other extenuating circumstances that may have prevented you from displaying your true potential within your transcript.” I had to write something, and my ADHD was honestly the only thing I could think of.</p>

<p>But anyway, I truly appreciate all of your responses regardless. It means a lot.</p>

9

<p>In your defense, your high school course load does look very rigorous with Lots of APs, Honors and IBs.</p>

<p>I can’t really tell what I think the decision might be though. I’ve seen a lot of admissions stuff over the years (before I applied as senior in HS my brother applied, deferred, rejected, applied as transfer, got accepted. Then I applied, deferred, wait-listed, rejected, applied as transfer…) so all this admissions stuff is common place in my household for the past so and so years. From what i’ve gathered, it has to do a lot with your major of choice as well as your grades and such. </p>

<p>What I mean by this is that if 500 kids are applying to transfer as Political Science Majors (or any particular majors) there are only so many spots for classes related to Political Science. This could mean a lot of things. But what I have gathered it to mean is that they take into account your major when they make a decision (This is also why Transferring to Engineering is a lot different than LSA). </p>

<p>From what I can tell (your volunteering) you are likely pre-med or along those lines? (Let me know :D!). So that would mean you are competing for transfer positions with other pre-med transfer students. To mean it would not make sense for a pre-med student to fight over a spot with a computer science student when the Comp Sci kid is taking Advanced C++ and Matrix Algebra while the Pre-Med kid is taking Orgo Chem and Bio. </p>

<p>This is all just my opinion however (so don’t look too far into it).</p>

<p>As for your chances, I can’t really tell. I know credits are big when transferring. On their website they state that the people around 55 credits gain priority for transfer decisions. You are a semester or so short of that magic number, and there is no telling how far the admissions office would be willing to stretch for that.</p>

<p>The reason being is that admissions will only transfer a max of 60 credits over to Umich (also on website). So once a student goes well above 55, a lot of their credits may not transfer. So while you may have an amazing 4.0 with 30 credits, a person with a 3.6 and 58 credits will most likely gain priority because you have more time than he does. </p>

<p>I am in the same boat with you with only 44 credits (so still a semester away from that magic number). </p>

<p>I really hope everything works out for you though! Sorry if I rambled a bit :confused: I hope any of this was helpful?</p>

<p>Good luck!! :D</p>

10

<p>@fuzzwaz</p>

<p>I consider any response to be helpful, so thank you for such a well-detailed, wholehearted one. As for my major, well you’re correct in saying that I’m pre-medicine but the actual major I selected while applying (since pre-med doesn’t necessarily count as one) was human biology, if that changes anything regarding the major basis you described in your post. Although I applied to LSA I figured I may have different classes as compared to students with other majors within that college, but as far as I’m concerned that may have nothing to do with acceptance as a whole. It could all be about the number of applicants and the number of spots that remain unfilled. </p>

<p>Anyway, I definitely see where you’re coming from in regards to the favored number of credits. Granted, a higher number of credits would indicate a greater emphasis on college transcripts alone (and hence, a connection with a higher rate of transfers) but prior to even considering applying, I had heard so many (or, at least, more than enough) stories of students who attended 4-year universities such as MSU, EMU, even Grand Valley and SVSU, for one year before transferring to University of Michigan. As I have recently done, they also applied during their second semester of freshman year. Their acceptance is what convinced me to go forward with applying once again as I did my senior year. One girl even went to the same high school as me and attended MSU for a year before transferring to U of M, and apparently, had similar stats as I have. I realized that although it may not be easy or likely, it was definitely still possible, and that was definitely good enough for me (I went more into this in one of my essays). </p>

<p>So anyway, thanks again for the response and yes, it did help quite a bit, as do any other response I’ve received regarding the matter.</p>

11

<p>Hey no problemo.</p>

<p>I hope it honestly does not matter how Umich does there transfer admissions and both me and you hear back asap and are discussing housing on these forums instead of chances and credits and such-That would be ideal. </p>

<p>What I meant by my post earlier however, is that there are just too many factors to make an accurate guess as to whether you or anyone else who hasent heard back yet has a good shot or not. You have GPAs and majors and credits and then you got to consider the applicant pool and high school transcripts and BLAH! Lol, it can get overwhelming just to think about! </p>

<p>What I can give you is some encouragement. I really hope you get it. I really hope we both get in. And if we don’t get in, I really hope we find ourselves posting our stats again for Winter 2013. (i’m going to pretend that the chance of one of us getting in and the other not just does not exist ;D). This college admissions process can get really emotional at times. Why do you think I check CC at 2:43 in the morning? lol, my mind obsesses over this. But no matter what happens, if we stay dedicated to this college, we will prob run into each other in AA one day. </p>

<p>Good luck to ya!</p>

12

<p>I understand your determination and emotionality with our shared scenario here, and I can say that at least to a degree, I know how you feel. I know how frustrating/disappointing/hurtful it can be to experience this kind of rejection or “not being good enough,” so you can believe that I have the same foreseen goals of enrolling for classes and planning out housing in Ann Arbor. </p>

<p>I also do understand how confusing it is to get an idea of what one’s chances may be (my own stats are a prime example) especially when there are so many various scenarios of people getting in and not getting in and admissions being the way that it is…this can be frustrating all on its own. One minute someone says I won’t get in because of my high school GPA (understandable) and the next someone else says that I have a very good shot because of my college transcript…it makes it nothing but harder while waiting for a response. Unfortunately, I probably have around two weeks before I hear back.</p>

<p>Like you said, all we can hope is that we get in at some point (you’ll probably get it before me since you have more credits, better stats, etc.) but sooner or later I just know we’ll (albeit inadvertently) walk past each other on campus only to later stop for a few seconds thinking we just passed someone we knew. And in retrospect, we actually kind of did :)</p>

<p>Good luck all the same.</p>

13

<p>From all the stuff i’ve gone through (and i’m sure you have similar experiences) with UMICH admissions- I don’t think it is ever safe to say that Person A will likely get in/hear first over Person B because they have better stats. UMICH is just crazy like that, lol. </p>

<p>Any new news? I check CC everyday like… 5 Times a day and it get’s kind of boring when none of the prospective transfer students are talking. Has anyone around you heard back yet (as in at MSU)?</p>

14

<p>Well I don’t know anyone else here who’s expecting to hear from them soon, I just know of one other person who just started applying. From the looks of it people have been hearing around three weeks after everything is submitted, so my guess is I’ll be hearing back near the end of this month or by the first week of February. </p>

<p>Also, like you, I’ve been checking Wolverine Access/my e-mail for quite some time now. I’ll probably just wait for the e-mail to come in since that’s much easier to check on my phone so I can just check it anywhere, but as for how/when they send their admissions depending on the student I think you’re right about that. They don’t send certain students decisions earlier than others depending on how much better their stats are, since it’s rolling admissions it’s of a “first apply, first response” basis. </p>

<p>So since you applied before I did you’re likely to receive your decision before me. Let me know what happens when you do! I’ll be waiting to hear about it and wish you the best of luck :)</p>

15

<p>I obsessively check whenever I can… It is a bad habit but I have good reason for it. </p>

<p>Every time I have ever found out of a decision it has been through a third party of some sort. When I read my email about me getting deferred during my senior year it was through my friends iphone. When I found out I was wait-listed I had been using an automatic WA checker (that I found on CC last year) which informed me of my decision without me checking manually. When I got rejected as a winter transfer student it was discovered by my friend who opened my email to get something for out school project and noticed I had some mail from UMICH admissions. </p>

<p>I have never once checked my email/WA and found a decision ON MY OWN, and the results have always been negative. I am DETERMINED to discover this decision by my own power. Maybe it will bring me some better luck. I switched emails just so I could have gmail send me an text-message every single time I get an email. If it comes to my email I will be informed immediately. I check WA whenever I can too… </p>

<p>Call it paranoia but hopefully if I discover it myself, it will be a much more pleasant decision :D</p>

16

<p>lol, I check WA, I discover the decision… I’m in! It’s magic… Good luck man!! I really hope I see you there next year! :D</p>

17

<p>Whoa, congrats! I didn’t know they’d be sending them out around this time. </p>

<p>I’m not keeping my hopes up or anything, mainly due to my dissenting high school performance, but I did call the office of admissions and the woman replied that because I’ll have 30 credits by the end of the year they’ll place more emphasis on my college transcript at MSU than on my high school transcript, so I have slightly more hope now than I did before, but still not much. Hopefully 3.78 is good enough to get me in. Do you think you could tell me when you applied and when Michigan received all of your transcripts and everything?</p>

<p>Hoping for the best, and congratulations again!</p>

18

<p>Thank you :D!</p>

<p>I applied at the end of November but the app was not processed until December 5th. My transcript was not received until January 12th. So I guess they were very speedy once they got my transcript, it is just a week after that they sent out the decision.</p>

<p>GOOD LUCK MAN! You never know what can happen!</p>

<p>As for the time, i’m not really surprised. I got my waitlisted decision at 12:16 am and i’ve heard many stories about odd morning hour times.</p>

19

<p>Transfer timeline - applied in September for Winter. Denied for Winter so switched to Spring in November. First Semester transcripts received Jan 6th by U of M. Accepted today.</p>

<p>Stats posted elsewhere</p>

<p>Keep the faith!</p>

20

<p>Thanks for the encouragement, fuzzwazz, it really does help. Hopefully I’ll get to see u next year if I do get in! </p>

<p>If you were to guess, how good would you say my chances would be? I understand the relatively low amount of credits and dissenting high school performance but with all else into account, do you think I at least have a somewhat favorable shot at admission? I realize it’s hard to decide based on my rather limited criteria, but even just a rough prediction would do me good. Thanks!</p>