Who’s everyone? The entire UMich Class of 2023 that posted here on CC or are you referring to my kid’s class, the Class of 2022?
I’m not an AdCom and no one here sees the applications. What we can see is that the CDS lists 15 areas of interest to AdComs. So, an admissions decision is based on those 15 factors (or lack thereof). As I mentioned above, I don’t think essays did the trick in my kid’s case. I think high stats and our HS yield were the top factors. Lots of disaffected California parents around these parts.
Ok well both the kid’s parents went to Michigan. The dad was a prof there and the kid himself lived in Ann Arbor for 15 years. So I can’t be 100% certain, but I don’t know how many other males in Virginia have these sorts of stats. Unless he’s a total idiot about his essays, he is 100% going to be very disappointed about his alma mater’s football team for many years to come.
Hey, if getting into a “New Years 6” bowl and having a better recruiting class than OSU for the Class of 2023 doesn’t meet your expectations, then come watch Cal and Stanford play football sometime.
The schools in Southern California that I am most familiar with are not so different I gather @suhsiritto. Basically, if the kid really wants to go to Michigan and he or she has the stats to get into, say Berkeley, UCLA, or USC, then they will get in Michigan if they tailor their essay to the school.
Problem is, even if a kid wants to go to UMich, they probably don’t know the culture well enough to write a compelling enough essay to guarantee the admission. And then you have to ask, why does the kid really want to go to Michigan? And why do the parents really want to send their kid to Michigan?
That’s a good question. My kid knew nothing about UMich. Zero. At least by 11/01/17, which was the EA deadline. I’m the one that really liked Michigan and I stuck UMich on the list. After EA acceptance and visiting Ann Arbor in March 2018, the decision was made. Ann Arbor is a really cool town, one of the best college towns. My kid loves sports, like I do, and discovered that UMich really gets behind ALL their teams, like winning the rowing championship this year, losing in the championship game of the College World Series to Vandy this year or winning back-to-back Big 10 basketball titles in 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 or losing to Villanova in the title game two years ago and losing to Texas Tech in the Sweet 16 this year. Tennis, soccer, gymnastics, LAX, etc. Sports are big at UMich.
Academics you say? UMich has one of the top business (Ross), CS and engineering departments. And LSA has at least 40 programs in the Top 10 in the country. So, if you want to switch your major a few times, there’s a good chance you’ll be in a Top 10 program.
@sushiritto , your child is one of the lucky few, and deserves all the credit in the world. I can’t be certain, but I am sure your kid seemed like an amazing fit to the Admissions committee in Ann Arbor. What I am certain about is that the only clear way to differentiate yourself from the pack is through the essay–provided that you are part of the pack in the first place (top grades, scores, ECs, etc.)
With regards to the sports, we all know, however, that there is only one sport and one game that matters.
