uwGPA: 3.4
wGPA: 3.7
ACT Composite: 28
AP Scores: 3 (APUSH) 2 (AP Bio - not submitting) 2 (AP Human Geo - not submitting)
currently taking AP Calc and AP Physics 1
~30 hours of community service and volunteering
-only taken honors and AP classes
-3D Animation merit award Junior Year
-played soccer and baseball all my life
-had a part time job
-multiple classes in locally well known stem program at my school
-great letters of recommendation
-great essay and questions
Other: (showing serious interest)
-signed up for mailing list
-applying early action
-probably send letter of interest/intent
I know my chances are low, but how low? And would I be better off applying to LSA for computer science or CoE?
Improving your very ACT significantly - say to 33-36 might help. GPA is very HS dependent and can be somewhat mitigated by very strong essays with a compelling story and recommendations. Check your HS Naviance for more info. Your current ACT is well below 25th percentile and would probably only work for a recruited athlete or other hooked applicant. Are your soccer and baseball skills good enough for a D1 walk on spot?
You should recompute your GPA using Michigan GPA - all “A” = 4, all B=3 etc. Conceivably if you have almost all “A-” grades with an occasional B, your GPA would be in-range.
LSA has slightly lower standards than engineering, so that is where I would apply. Kinesiology is lower still, so you may want to apply there and transfer to LSA after you are admitted.
Can you re-take the ACT. Have you tried taking the SAT? Sometimes students do better on one than the other.
Do you have any leadership positions that you can highlight?
Definitely look through the accepted student threads here, just looking at OOS students, and get some ideas of where you would need to be at to get in.
Well, the interesting thing is that I got a 1200 on SAT. I’m not sure why I did worse, but I did. I can take the ACT again in December, but that would mean I can’t apply EA, which was the goal. And for leadership, I was captain of the JV soccer team a while ago, but that wouldn’t matter, would it?
That SAT score is about the equivalent of a 24 on the ACT. Not encouraging. Your low AP scores are concerning to me, because UMich is very academically rigorous…it’s challenging for kids coming in with a deck of 4’s and 5’s in their AP classes.
Out of state competition is insanely fierce. Competition for Computer Science is really fierce…LSA isn’t a cake walk.
Average GPA for getting into LSA is 3.87
Average ACT composite is a 30-31.
Not saying folks who have slightly lower scores have never gotten in…but you’d need to have a hell of a hook. Something that makes you stand out significantly.
In 2016, UMich had about 55,000 applicants. They accepted about 16,000 and enrolled about 7,000. (lotta these kids have Ivy League stats and are using UMich as a back up plan)
I posted in the official thread for chances about a month and half ago and no one responded. Maybe this is a better spot as the focus is already on engineering in this thread.
Early Action 2021
[ *] College (LSA, engineering, etc.): Engineering
[ *] ACT: 33 Composite (36 on Science, 34 on Reading, 33 on English, and 30 on Math)
[ *] SAT: 1370 (ACT equivalent is 29)
[ *] UM unweighted GPA: 3.65
[ *] Rank: school does not report
[ *] Other stats: 3.9 weighted GPA, 6 IB classes per semester for junior year (& upcoming senior year). 6 honors classes per semester, every semester in 9th and 10th grade .
[ *] Subjective (ECs, special circumstances, etc):
50 hours of community service through a variety of different events/causes
Tutored elementary school students for about 30 hours this winter (unpaid)
Head Coach of Powderpuff Football Team (Leadership position & took about 40 hours a year)
2 time state finalist of the National Economics Challenge
Finished in top 30% (roughly top 700 out off 2300+ teams) of “The Stock Market Game” two years in a row
Economics Club
Spanish Club
Model UN
Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD Club)
Soccer Club (an after school club at school)
Basketball Club (an after school club at school)
AYSO Soccer (12 years)
Competitive club baseball (9 years)
Before HS ECs (prob irrelevant):
National Junior Honor Society
7th and 8th grade middle school basketball teams
7th grade football team
4th and 5th grade Science Olympiad teams (district gold medalist in multiple events, both years)
[ *] Essays: 8/10.
[ *] Teacher Recs: 9/10
[ *] Counselor Rec: 8/10
[ *] Hook (legacy, recruited athlete, etc.): None
[ *) Location/Person: In-state
[ *] State or Country: Michigan
[ *] School Type: 4 year public high school
[ *] Ethnicity: Asian (Indian)
[ *] Gender: M
[ *] Major strength/weakness: Really low GPA because I attended the International Academy of Macomb where you must take 6 honors classes per semester for the first 2 years and 6 IB classes per semester the last two years
[ *] Other Factors/questions: Attending this high school also could be a positive because it was ranked the second best high school in Michigan and the 12th best HS in the nation by USNews (hopefully this somewhat makes up for my extremely low GPA?)
I know my GPA is definitely weighing me down right now but I was wondering how much a taking large load of IB/honors classes, me applying early action, and me being an in-state applicant would help me. I was under the impression that I would be okay but lately I started thinking that I am being overly optimistic when assuming in-state status and EA would really balance out such a low GPA.
