Hey guys, I’m planning to apply for the University of Michigan College of Engineering early action. U of M is by far my best choice but I don’t think I have the stats to make it. What are my chances?
ACT: 32 (taking it again next week)
Math: 31
Reading: 31
Science: 32
Writing: 35
Essay: 10
SAT: 2150
Math: 670 (720 the first time I took it, dunno what happened)
Reading: 710
Writing: 770
GPA:
UW: 3.73
W: 4.05
My UW GPA has been on a downward trend since 9th grade and my W GPA has been on an upward trend.
I’m at an IB school, and I take 10 IB classes a year.
EC:
Soccer from 4th grade until 11th grade
10th grade student government
NHS member 11th and 12th grades
Spanish honor society member 11th grade and co-leader 12th grade
School badminton club co-president
Member of Science Olympiad 11th and 12th grades
Volunteering:
Random volunteering positions, helping at a fair, food bank, etc
Consistent library volunteer, reading to a struggling 2nd grader for 30 min. a week from Nov. until June
Won a school district + county award for volunteering service, including awards from the local police and letters from my state representative
Nominated and won an award in my school for being an exemplary student in 10th grade, appeared in a local newspaper.
I’m applying in state.
@billcsho is the expert in this area, but I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that he says that your GPA, ACT and SAT are all on the low side.
I also don’t understand this statement: “I’m at an IB school, and I take 10 IB classes a year.” That sounds very fishy to me. Doing IBD with 6 subject areas plus EE, TOK and CAS is standard. Taking 10 subject IB classes does not sound either feasible or permissible.
Whoops, sorry, meant 7. I’m not sure what I was thinking there.
Are you IBD or certificate?
I’m not sure if it helps any, but I’ve been playing saxophone for the school band since 5th grade, wind ensemble throughout highschool.
Yes, I think OP’s GPA is likely on the low side but that may depend on the school profile. Nevertheless, I also have concern with OP’s math section scores in both ACT and SAT that are not very competitive at CoE. Although UMich does not superscore, but OP should include both SAT scores as they will look for the best Math section score. I know an in state student from one of the feeder school in town with 3.8+ GPA and ACT 33 got rejected at UMich CoE this year. So it is likely a low reach for you.
Diploma after this school year.
Would I be correct in assuming that the chances would be pretty much the same if I applied to LSA?
Your chance at LSA would be a lot better. ACT 32 would be right at the admission average while GPA 3.73 may be near the 25th percentile. For in state student, you should have decent chance as the admission rate is near 50%. For CoE, the admission average GPA was 3.9 and the admission average ACT was 33 last year. I don’t have the data for this year (2015-2016) yet. But the UMich overall admission rate has dropped from ~32% last year to ~26% this year. The CoE admission rate may drop from ~27% last year to ~22% this year. The in state student ratio is slightly lower at CoE than UMich overall, so I think the bias in admission stat for in state student may be less.
If you really want to get into UMich CoE, you may apply to LSA and transfer later. However, an even better way is to apply to UM at Flint engineering. There is a guarantee transfer agreement between the engineering school of the 2 campuses. You just need to meet the minimal GPA requirement which is fairly easy considering your ACT score.