Applying EA. Engineering - Mechanical or Aerospace, but also some interest in Civil.
SAT 1550 - 790 math. National Merit Semifinalist.
GPA is out of 100 with minimal bump for honors/ap so unweighted average around 97.5 and weighted around 98.25. Nothing unweighted below a 93 so I guess it’s a 4.0. No class rank. No APs allowed til 11th grade. He took Econ (Marco) on his own in 10th and got a 5. 11th took APUSH, AP BC Calc and AP Physics and got 4s, though a 5 on the AB part of the BC Calc exam. Was fully remote for much of 11th grade and feels the 4s will hurt him. Taking AP Comp Sci, AP Stat and AP Chem this year.
No real engineering activities - not really offered at our school. This year for the first time they are offering Project Lead the Way Intro to Engineering and he felt he had to take it (it meant not taking AP Euro which made him sad). Part of a two year Science Research program, but couldn’t find an engineering mentor due to COViD so did an economics/real estate based project but with a lot of comp Sci/coding and some civil engineering implications.
Activities are good not great - and not engineering based. Tennis 4 years, Academic Challenge 4 years (president), honor society, band 4 years, tech for theater productions (assistant stage manager), temple youth group (leadership grades 11 and 12), model un (went to Harvard sophomore year, cancelled last and this year).
Essay is very good, but not outstanding.
Very shy - if he had an interview it’d be mediocre.
Thanks. Only my 2nd and 3rd post. I’ll get better. He does not want a purely technical school like RPI or WPI and didn’t like Union (we visited last April). Working on the likely schools to add - maybe that’ll be another post!
Chance me threads are always difficult. The overall acceptance rate last year was about 20% with record # of apps. Of course, OOS acceptance rate will be lower than that 20% #, maybe 3-4% below that based on prior years.
There are roughly 1,400 Engineering “seats” +/- in the typical Michigan freshman class of about 7,000 +/- enrollees. By comparison, LSA has about 4,400 “seats.” At least 1/2 those CoE seats likely go to in-state students.
Having said all that, the CDS for UMich changed this past cycle. Test scores are considered “important” now, instead of the prior “very important.” The two most important factors are GPA and course rigor, which your child seems to have. Obviously, the test score improves your kid’s app.
The essays were always “important” as a factor, but now they’re just as important as test scores. So, I think the essays and LOR will be critical to an EA acceptance. Otherwise, deferral/postponement and then I’d say good possibility of acceptance in one of the RD/postponement cycles.
What helps even more IMO is if your kid’s HS has a good track record of yield to UMich.
Folks who have been here for a while know my story but my D’s friend was val of her school with a perfect GPA and test scores (not near perfect, but actually perfect), super ECs, great kid, etc… He was deferred and eventually wait listed. OOS for engineering.
As stated your in the running. Michigan likes to know you want to be there. Make sure your essay reflects this without stating their rank etc etc. Give them a reason to choose you. OOS Is difficult. Have safeties as stated.
Thanks everyone. I wish we’d been able to visit before the EA deadline but we were very COVID safe and didn’t travel last year at all. Heard of three additional kids from our small school (graduating class of 130) applying, so there’s that - two to Engineering (both want Aerospace) and one to LSA. Kiddo’s scores are stronger than the two engineers, but barely; LSA kid is test optional. All have rigor. Will be interesting to see what happens, but now we can manage expectations. Two years ago a strong student got in off the waitlist and is attending. I can’t imagine waiting for a wait list to come through - this waiting is brutal enough. Thanks again.
Thanks. He is unfortunately not interested in Alabama, Arizona, Oklahoma (which keeps sending us mail), or really anything South of DC or West of Cleveland. Though he is making an exception for Purdue.
Funny you mention on OU - we visited. At the time, my son was leaning toward atmospheric sciences as a major and OU is tops.
Their visit day - the set up, the individualization is tops - they are really good at marketing and following through. I wanted to be a Sooner after our visit
He’s got a lot of great choices ahead.
Good luck to him.
The main thing is - just to ensure you have a back up - wherever it is. Purdue is not a back up for engineering. It’s almost a peer. So like a Pitt.
btw - last time I checked Michigan is West of Cleveland.
Agree with others. OOS is tough so your son has to express in his “Why Michigan” essay why exactly he wants to be there. They want to know your son will choose them if offered a spot. I would recommend requesting an interview as it shows interest. My daughter is shy too but interviews well. We practiced a lot with her prior to college interviews making sure she had answers for common interview questions, was comfortable talking about her accomplishments, could express why she wanted to attend the school, and had a list of questions prepared to ask the interviewer.
Michigan is the outlier geographically because - well - it’s Michigan. He said he wants to be able to drive - and you can drive to Purdue - we did it and it took us 15 hours - so his definition of driving distance is skewed. Also, he’s 16 and his brain is … well, underdeveloped. Last night he said - what about Wisconsin and I was like “have you looked at a map lately?” (which is ironic as he’s a geography fiend). He definitely has some likely schools (I guess we don’t exactly say safeties anymore). Maryland is on the list as is Penn State (his dad went to Penn State and was in the honors college there as an engineer). And yes - those EA deadlines are key. As of now he has 7 for the EA deadline - and he’s close but not done (I’m stressed, he’s not). Thanks again everyone.
