Chance Me :)

<p>Hey everyone. I've chanced a couple of times before, but my high school has just finished with grades and it looks like the following stats will be on my transcript. Applying for Early Action. </p>

<p>Question: When would be the best time or recommended time to apply?</p>

<p>Applying to: LSA (Wanting to Major in Pharmacy)
School: Very Competitive. Top 5 High School in Michigan. About 40 Students Go Every Year
Grade: Incoming Senior
Nationality: Vietnamese
GPA: 3.833/4.00 (High School does not weight grades)
-Freshman: 3.8
-Sophomore: 3.85
-Junior: 3.85
Class Rank: Top 10%
AP Rigor: 8 Classes / 10 Tests
Honors Classes: Math and English (3 Classes Total)
ACT: 29 (Should I retake? 29.25..was very close to a 30)
-English: 31
-Math: 34
-Reading: 27
-Science: 25 :(
-Writing: 8</p>

<p>Teacher Recs: Good
Counselor Recs: Good
Essays: Drafts are written; needs editing</p>

<p>Delta Epsilon Phi (German Honor Society)
Geometry Student of the Year</p>

<p>ECs
5 Year Membership at Local Sangha (Meditation)
Middle School Tutoring
Public Library Volunteer
Freshman Mentor Program
Robotics
Key Club
German/Spanish Club
Bowling Club
Youth in Government</p>

<p>when you say that only 40 people from your school get admitted…do you mean like 40 people go but more than that get accepted at your school?</p>

<p>OP - If the 40 who are offered admission are from a class size of about 400 and you rank in the top 10% then you’re a match. You’re pretty much right in the instate range; the fact that you’re from a top HS should work in your favor, except that UM only takes so many students from each school. So apply early nonetheless. </p>

<p>Re: the ACT – if you think there are some outliers (eg. 15 - 20% rank) who will have very high ACT scores and great recommendations, it will not hurt to retake the ACT and aim to bump it up a few points. In essence, you’re “competing” against the best students in your school, according to UMich ad officers.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

<p>just curious, what school do you go to? i go to a top mi school too</p>

<p>Rochester Adams…yourself?</p>

<p>I don’t know how competitive pre-admit for the 6 yr Pharm program is (assuming that’s what you were going for), but the few I’ve met have been very strong students. You’d probably want to try to push that 29 up quite a bit if possible.</p>

<p>If this is a top choice for you…then you should apply in Sept. or Oct. My s applied by Oct. 15th OOS and was accepted by Nov. 5th. Knowing early makes your Senior year much less stressful. Just do a great job on those essays…be unique and personal. Be sure to include things you experienced on your visit. Use things that would make you stand out…they love diversity…which can come in many different forms not just cultural.</p>

<p>Rochester Adams isnt that competitive…</p>

<p>im confused. does michigan take a set amount from each school?</p>

<p>In a way, yes, although I don’t know if there is a FORMAL policy. They make offers to the top of the pool who fit their criteria, and consider how each student has performed WITHIN THE OPPORTUNITIES OR ENVIRONMENT GIVEN.
For example, my son attended a gifted-talented magnet program in a public district.
By rights, each member of that graduating class had better standardized scores (just to have been admitted to the school – as they were the top 5% - 10% of the public pool upon admission and typically perform better than the best at comprehensive schools in the district in terms of ACT ). That didn’t mean that UM offered admission to ALL THE KIDS. It seemed to take about the top 10% of the pool, give or take. Eg. the val, two sals, plus another handful who had distinguished themselves in a number of ways, though not strictly by rank or GPA. And last year, it lost out on two high-performing students that to my mind would have been super performers – because it deferred them (one received full ride to an exclusive LAC, the other very generous honors placement at another school…the latter had missed the early action deadline due to a paperwork snafu.) Both of those kids could have skated circles around most students from the comprehensive high schools. Both of those kids, btw, had stats similar to the OP from the next-to-leading program in the state. So it is worth it to both apply early, make sure you do not miss the deadline, and distinguish yourself with recommendations.
You are, as I mentioned earlier, evaluated WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF THE POOL AT YOUR SCHOOL.
Strong schools will likely have MORE admits than known weaker schools, but even a well respected program like the International School or East Grand Rapids do not have EVERY STUDENT who applied admitted, even though they might all out-perform students at other schools.</p>

<p>Hope that makes sense.</p>

<p>29 ACT score is generally the average at UofM, but since your Science is pretty low and you are aiming for Pharmacy, I would suggest retaking the ACT and raising your Science score to about a 30.</p>

<p>rochester adams is competitive…in football</p>

<p>At some schools, however, many kids take simplistic classes that allow them to have higher gpa’s than many kids who work hard and still maintain a legitimate grade point average for the university of michigan. does michigan take a look at the classes taken before evaluating those things? many kids take harder classes than others, and it really puts them at a disadvantage when the honors/aps are not weighted.</p>

<p>To tigersmash1, yes! Michigan looks at GPA but greatly takes account of a person’s course rigor.</p>

<p>so michigan will know if the class rankings and such are skewed thanks to lack of rigor of classes?</p>

<p>Yes since they look at your whole high school scheduled classes</p>