Is it very competitive to apply as a b-major compared to a girl in engineering, or language?
Are you from in state or out of state? The admission rate for Ross pre-admission is lower than CoE. While a girl applying to CoE may have some advantage.
@billcsho i am from oos. thanks for the input!
Although CoE is relatively less competitive when compared to Ross, they are both very competitive (~15% vs ~20% admission rate).
@billcsho do you go to umich? which major is the least competitive do you think?
Michigan doesn’t admit by major but by school. Nursing and Kinesiology reportedly have lower stats for admission but it doesn’t mean it’s any less competitive since there are so few slots. LSA is probably the “easiest” school but it’s still really hard for OOS.
LSA is the main school at UMich and the admission of LSA would be very similar to UMich overall. I used to work at UMich. Now my D is an engineering major there.
Hi @cowycam7! My son applied EA to U Mich and was accepted into Engineering, but not into pre-admit Ross. In hindsight I wonder if applying to Engineering was possibly a mistake.
We are OOS and therefore, we had a pre-conceived idea about what “we” (actually my husband and I) would consider justification for the huge OOS tuition differential with our own strong, in-state flagship…either acceptance into Ross and/or some merit dollars. Even then we would have had to discuss and re-visit the school, since an extra ~$80K is a sizable sum…and note: we feel this way even though we can afford it without loans.
So understanding from where we were coming, I’ll address why I think engineering may have been a slight disadvantage. First, at the Ross portion of the Campus Day we attended, (out of all of those in attendance) my son and only 1 other, indicated they had been accepted into engineering…everyone else was LSA. (fyi - my son figured if he didn’t get Ross he would go into IOE.) Later, when speaking to the Ross representative, he mentioned that engineers can/do apply to Ross, but be sure to take the correct writing class freshman year…it’s different from the one that is required for engineers. He also assured us that the GPA from engineering is viewed differently from LSA.
The next reason I think engineering may put a student who wants to get into Ross at a disadvantage has more to do with the feeling I got from reading about merit $s on these boards. Yes, I was aware of U Mich lack of OOS merit aid, however remember I was seeking a “sign” from the school. 
It may sound silly, but I felt that if the school offered $s to my son (maybe $5-$10K at least) it would show that they wanted him and that it was a good fit from their end. And this is where I think engineering may have been a disadvantage to him. I could be wrong, but it appeared to me that a lot of the merit $s went to LSA students.
We’ll never know if going ‘LSA’ would have made a difference, but at times I do wonder. He is a strong student [4.0 UW GPA, NMF, 2 sports for 4 years each, strong academic and service ECs, 2 leadership positions, 35 ACT, lots of APs…AP Gov, APUSH, AP Calc BC, AP Macro/micro, AP Lang, AP Chem, AP Physics, AP CS, AP Stats] who is very happy with his final decision - UIUC business as a James Scholar and Campus Honors.
I do believe things happen for a reason and I’m really happy the way things worked out. Good luck to you!
@88jm19 thanks so much!
@88jm19 CoE does have merit aid even for OOS, however, it is much more competitive as there are many students with high credential there. GPA4.0 ACT35 would be around the cut off if it is a girl. UMich, just like other public schools, does not give need based aids to most OOS students. Their merit aids are actually quite generous even for OOS students.
Thanks, @billcsho! It’s good to know that about CoE. I was just curious if his applying for pre-admit Ross was a possible factor. I think if I was involved in “awarding engineering scholarships” I would choose a future engineer over a possible future business student with similar stats.
And a confession: I admit I will continue to wonder if applying to LSA would have made a difference. I harbor no bad feelings, it’s just in my nature.
Anyway, I hope this thread helps future OOS prospective students hoping for merit $s. 4.0 UW/4.6 W, 35 ACT, etc is not necessarily enough for CoE merit $s…the precise reason I decided to share my son’s stats.
@88jm19 Just one more thing. Those scholarships are school specific and not transferrable. In CoE, there are probably over 10% with ACT 35 or above among admitted students (>25% at 34 or above). It would be hard to get a merit scholarship even with that score.
Thanks again, @billcsho. I “get” the selectivity of CoE merit scholarships and that my son’s 35 isn’t that special…again, I have absolutely no hard feelings. I’ve moved on from our situation to a larger discussion…“does seeking a Ross pre-admit adversely affect the ability to receive merit $s?”
My point is (since as you said “those scholarships are school specific”) I suspect prospective students who declare their interest in Ross may be viewed differently by their admitted college. In addition, if you look at the ‘merit thread posts’ it seems that a lot of the merit $s were distributed BEFORE Ross pre-admit decisions…although I could be wrong on this point.
I also found your comment about scholarships being non-transferable interesting and the implications intriguing. Let’s say a student IS awarded a merit scholarship from CoE. Then afterwards receives a Ross pre-admit. In that case, would the student be able to keep the merit $s, since he/she was technically admitted into the CoE for their freshman year? OR in other words, what college is the Ross pre-admit?..business?..and as a result do they have to forfeit the merit $s? (just curious)
Then taking it one step further, applying to LSA (vs CoE) may NOT make any difference for the merit-seeking, OOS student applying for pre-admission to Ross.
What would change this discussion is if a merit awarded (LSA or CoE) OOS student, who applied for pre-admit would step forward. Then we would have an example where declaring Ross intentions did not adversely affect the receipt of a merit award. Unfortunately with the frenzy of the May 1st deadlines behind us, I believe these types of threads are going to see less visits and we may not see a reply.
In closing it’s just a topic to ponder for prospective applicants in the future. Knowledge is power. Good luck to all. 
I am not sure if the merit scholarship for Ross pre-admit would be coming from Ross or LSA/CoE. I do believe Ross would have more resources for merit scholarships than LSA/CoE though. Perhaps they probably would pick up the bill if one was granted a merit scholarship from LSA/CoE. I know a former Ross student who received merit aid from Ross but decided to transfer to LSA later on (don’t know why). The money still showed up in her student account for 1 or 2 semesters until she notified Ross again to have the money returned. The FA said they will announce the scholarships by April 15, so they probably would sort things out by then ahead of the decision deadline.
My son is a Ross pre-admit who got that news as early as it was given, March 13. As he had been offered them from other schools, we were curious about merit scholarships and after much inquiry, learned that Ross pre-admits are in a merit award “black hole”:
LSA will not give pre-admits merit awards because they will not be getting a degree in LSA, and Ross merit awards don’t begin until sophomore year. We were then told by someone very directly involved that Ross is aware of this “problem” (only a problem in so far as Ross pre-admits are ostensibly very valued students that they would clearly want to have commit to Michigan… and yet upon acceptance, they are offered nothing). He said they would be addressing and fixing this “catch 22” in the future, but unfortunately not in time for my son.
Still, my son turned down merit awards at other schools to commit to UM.
Interesting! Thanks for sharing! It may help future applicants.
I hope your son is a merit recipient his sophomore year!
Btw it would still be interesting to hear if ANYONE who APPLIED (but did not necessarily get accepted) for Ross pre-admit, received any merit $s.
@88jm19 I got some merit $$. I know of a couple engin preadmits that got around 5-10k too. There’s one guy I think that basically got a full ride (lsa PA). I’m not in the same year as @jazzshreddermom’s son though. @jazzshreddermom is correct that PA’s do not get alot of merit aid in general.
Thanks for sharing, @YellowWolverine!!
Also, do you know if those getting merit $s were in-state?..or if there was “need” as well?
I noticed looking at the scholarship list that there are some that are given not as straight merit, but there is a need component as well.
fyi - I’m trying to help those who are out-of-state AND who do not qualify for any need-based aid.
@88jm19 my family income is 80k, and my dad works at gtown for over 10 years so I heard i get a little more fin. aid more than others. do you think i qualify?
@88jm19 I’m instate. But the others I mentioned were out of state, and I don’t think they qualified for financial aid. Their credentials were extremely high though, and I think they got into a couple of ivys, duke, etc but chose umich instead.