<p>I am a white male attending a College Prep School outside of Chicago.
All Stats and ECs through my Junior year</p>
<p>SAT Dec 2009: M 710 CR 650 W 710
SAT Jan 2010: M 770 CR 750 W 640
SUPERSCORE 2230</p>
<p>Freshman Year 3.0
Sophomore 3.75UW 3.9 W
Junior 3.8 UW 4.23 W
Total 3.5 UW 3.7 W
Class Rank 38/115
My freshman grades really killed me. My class rank sucks because of those and because its a competitive private school with entrance exam.
NOT ELIGIBLE FOR FINANCIAL AID</p>
<p>Nation Merit Commended PSAT 209
1 year of latin club
2 years of latin team
Silver medal national latin exam
State Qualifier for Illinois Latin tournament
3 years math team- lots of awards
Latin Honor Society
Math tutoring
3 years of Lacrosse- Captain Junior Year
Influential in starting of Lacrosse Team
Decent amount of Community Service
2 years football, might play again senior year too
3 years rotc- held leadership position</p>
<p>that looks solid, i’m not sure about chances but make sure you apply early and on time. that will give you the best shot.</p>
<p>U of M looks at a number of dimensions, including trend. Your trend is very upward and even if they took unweighted, you are above the deadly 3.5 that in some cases is a loose cutoff (though not nearly as high as the average). Now that they take weighted GPA you’ll be in better shape.
So IF you school is well-regarded --which I suspect it is – and if your recommendations are great, strong essays, etc., I’d say you have a strong chance even though you have (in theory) a statistical challenge in the GPA. Your standardized test scores also are strong enough to suggest your freshman year was the exception, not the rule.</p>
<p>If I were you I would make sure I explained the factors influencing the freshman grade (but take responsibility for same and tell what you’ve learned) and also make clear how that is affecting your rank. Ask your guidance counselor, for example, to also give a junior year rank approximation (as they do look at rank) so they see where you “really” sit in the talent pool (you want to be in the top 10, maybe 20 percentile generally, but this can widen at a strong prep program.) My son had a similar situation and upward trend and was admitted last year from a strong magnet school. So it’s do-able. He did have exceptional recommendations and strong support from his GC, which I feel made a major difference.
Good luck.
PS - Most importantly of all, APPLY REALLY EARLY AND SHOW YOUR INTEREST LEVEL. With rolling admissions, the spots fill up and your chances narrow as time passes. That means having everything in from your school by Nov. 1st. I would aim even earlier.
My son was told during junior year (on a tour of U M) that if there’s anything “sub-normal” about your application that requires explanation, such as a lower GPA etc., to apply as early as humanly possible.</p>
<p>reach/slight reach.
GPA is low.</p>
<p>I’d say you’re a solid fit for Michigan. Your stats are very slightly lower than mine, but your extracurriculars are better than mine were. Four kids from my (public) high school with lower stats than me got accepted, and one kid with higher stats got accepted. Applying to LSA, I’d say you have a solid 95% chance of getting in.</p>
<p>If you apply to Ross, however, that’s up in the air ;)</p>