-State: Michigan
-Ethnicity/Gender: white female
-Cumulative uwGPA: ~3.9
-Class rank: top 11%
-ACT(June): 29C (E:32 R:30 M:25 S:29) (will retake in September, hoping for 31-32)
-3 honors, 7 APs, and 2 community college classes (no AP scores back yet)
-Intended major: psychology, neuroscience, or international studies
-officer of a writing club
-Founder and editor-in-chief of my schools literary magazine
-Student ambassador
-2017 class council class coordinator (responsible for sending emails to the class, designed our senior tshirts)
-Participated in a 2 week summer program at university of Michigan
-Cross country for 4 years, Track for 1 year
-Had a peice of artwork shown in a county art show
-Most improved runner award
-Varsity letters in track and cross country
What are my chances for these schools?
University of Michigan (#1 choice)
UIUC
Boston university
Michigan state university
University of Wisconsin
(I have safeties and matches but they’re not listed)
Thanks! Any helpful advice or constructive criticism is appreciated!
UMich- Accepted
UIUC- Waitlisted
Boston U- Accepted
Michigan State- Accepted
UWisconsin- Accepted
Bump! Really need more insight on this!
Don’t quote me on this but if you write some really nice essays, then you are golden. Even with those low (relatively speaking for the college and not intended any offense) scores. I’m also am planning at applying to UMich so good luck to the both of us because people have been saying they might be more competitive and thus more selective for the Class of 2021.
It’s funny, I read this and was amazed at how similar my scores/GPA/extracurriculars are to yours. And in terms of the 29 on the ACT, I’m retaking in September, too because I have the same score. It’s really frustrating I’m sure because you seem very smart, you probably worked hard all year to do well on the test, and then the 29 is so close to what you want to get that it’s heartbreaking! My boyfriend gave me the best advice, though, he always says that at the end of the day if a school doesn’t accept me based on everything else on my application just because of a lowish ACT score, then they aren’t the school for me. He got into all of the schools he applied to without submitting any test scores haha, but the sentiment has really stuck. Just keep working hard, take it again, and whatever happens, happens. You will do well no matter where you go. Good luck with everything!
@"Dhaval G @holycannoli thanks for replying! I was actually pretty happy with my 29 because I got a 25 on the April one! (No prep) hoping to get a 32 in September!
University of Michigan
— reach
UIUC
---- target
Boston university
----- target
Michigan state university
----- back up school
University of Wisconsin
------ target
Listen, I’m going to give you advice that my guidance counselor told me. If you are not in the 30-34 Range of University of Michigan, you cannot expect anything. It sucks, but it’s how it is. Get your score up, and I think you have a good chance. People look down at U of M and overestimate there chances to get in! I’m from Michigan as well, and I know of a girl in Livonia who applied to LSA at U of M with a 4.0 and a 32 and varsity sports among other extracurriculars… She was DENIED!! Don’t expect anything for U of M with a 29 or even a 30-31
Umich is actually accepting about 600 more freshman starting from the class of 2020 (I’m 2019) so competitiveness still isn’t super high.
@collegeguru2017 I wouldn’t say that. I have several friends who have gotten in with a 26/27 but they had very good essays. That just means that girl may have BS’d her essays.
So because your ACT isn’t really at average yet, your essays need to be spectacular 
International studies is cool. I honestly would not recommend studying psychology since it is the #1 major in LSA and that really makes you one graduate in a sea of psychology majors and won’t help you in jobs.
MSU is not hard to get in so you’ll have no problem. As long as you have an ACT over 26 and a 3.5 gpa you’re set.
@silverkangaroo thanks for the advice! Also, do you think it will hurt my chance of admission if I write about psychology in my essays? Im starting to change my mind about majoring in it but I don’t want to write my essays about some other passion of mine that isn’t really explained in much detail in my common app. I’m not sure if universities pay attention to majors when students send in their applications, so do you think it will hurt me if my essay is primarily about psych? Or should I write about something different?