Class of 2014 Applicants!!!

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Michigan
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<p>Hey guys.</p>

<p>Time to be thinking about college... sighhhh =P
Sooo done with high school, but just the thought of going to college next year is pretty crazy haha.</p>

<p>I hope this thread can help everyone with comparing stats with other applicants and sharing info with each other. We can share our plans and help each other out. The point is to get into U of M pretty much.</p>

<p>I am applying early decision so U of M is my safety school. I also plan on applying to Northwestern, Chicago, Columbia, Yale, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and a few others I'm considering. </p>

<p>Here are my stats so far:</p>

<p>SAT: 1970 (retaking in October---will send if its good =P)
SAT II: World History, Math II, Chemistry----> Taking in 2 weeks (wish me luck!!)
ACT: 32 (retaking in 3 weeks)
GPA: 3.94 weighted/3.9 unweighted/3.92 Michigan GPA
APs: 5 Total, everything else is accelerated
IBs: None
Rank: Top 10%</p>

<p>EC's:
200+ hour Lab Work at U of M
Youth Group Bible Study Leader
Youth Group Planning Committee
Varsity Track Team (State Title 2006, and hopefully 2009!)
Chamber Orchestra 1st Violinist
Piano (10+ years) SATD level 9
Lifechangers Volunteer Summer Camp 40/hr week, 3 years
National Honor Society (Club)
Spanish Honor Society (Club)
Global Improvement Society (Club)
Fellowship of Christian Athletes (Club)
Outreach (Club)
Orientation Guide (Tutoring/Tours of School)
Food Gatherers and St. Andrew's Free Breakfast Program volunteer
Couple more I can't think off the top of my head....</p>

<p>Job/Work:
Art Fair-- 40hr week, this will be my 5th year</p>

<p>Location/Person:
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Public School
Male</p>

<p>Other: I live in Ann Arbor, and can pretty much walk onto campus whenever. This probably helps a lot with admission. In addition, a letter of recommendation from my U of M professor that I will work with this summer can secure me a spot at U of M I hope. Also, 15% of the graduating class at my high school attends Michigan- nearly 70-80 students.</p>

<p>Any comments are appreciated. Feel free to post your stats as well.
We're here to help eachother!!!</p>

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<p>You’re in. Absolutely nothing to worry about, believe me.</p>

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<p>University of Michigan- Ann Arbor, surprise to see anyone say safety. I also plan to apply to the school, as well as Michigan State University. A common con for MSU is only 10 minutes from my original my house.</p>

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<p>I don’t think Michigan is a safety. Raise your SAT to 2200+ and I agree that it would be a virtual safety, assuming you submit your entire application prior to November 1. But with a sub 2000 SAT, Michigan is a match.</p>

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<p>^He goes to my Highschool (or what used to be my high school) I think. The vast majority of reasonably qualified applicants from here get in. Michigan heavily favors our highschool over just about any other public highschool.</p>

<p>They’d just look at his ACT, and everyone with a good schedule, 3.9, and 32 here get in pretty much.</p>

6

<p>Appreciate the comments.
I’m working on my SAT’s and SAT II’s right now. Critical reading kicks my ass XD. Also hoping to raise my ACT by a point or two hopefully!</p>

<p>How are your stats coolbreeze? </p>

<p>Yea I’m submitting my application on the first day its due: September 14th =P</p>

<p>Anyone else, please feel free to post and we can all collaborate.</p>

<p>Also, anyone have any good recommendations on other schools? And how I match up to the other schools on my list? I’m interested in medicine.</p>

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<p>You should also look into Michigan State University, and most of the other Big Ten schools. My stats are not competitive as yours, though I think they are good… just not as good as it should be.</p>

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<p>Well, I know I’m going to give most people on CC a heart attack, but Heplayer I would recommend that you not apply to all of those schools. Maybe pick 1 or 2 other than Umich, but honestly, it would save you time, money, and lots of stress to apply to fewer schools. My friends and I went through the whole application process earlier this year, and my school (large public feeder to U of M, perhaps more than 15% attend) had 0 students accepted to HYPSM and a very select few to the other ivies (Penn, Cornell, etc). A kid with a perfect 36 ACT at a different high school was deferred from Yale! As far as out of state private schools like Northwestern, really what’s the point? Are you (your parents) realistically going to pay 50k a year for an education maybe marginally better than that of U of M, where you’ll pay 20k a year (or less w/ merit scholarships)? U of M is in your backyard, and it’s awesome. Apply to U of M and pick your favorite 1 or 2 from the ones you listed. You’ll get the interview experience out of the private schools, but the highly selective ones are going to be a reach for anyone who hasn’t discovered a cure for cancer or Alzheimer’s or something (hey 200 research hours maybe you have), so don’t get your hopes up. Sorry for that rant, god I wish I could have told myself this in September.</p>

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<p>Heplayer, Harvard and Yale are very unlikely. You may have a hook we are unware of, or you may end up writing essays that defy the norm and break the mold, but short of that, I don’t see it happening. Columbia is also very unilkely. The other schools on your list (NU, Chicago and JHU) are all reasonable reaches/reach matches. </p>

<p>Somehow, I agree with anon115. Michigan is as good as NU, Chicago and JHU…and in terms of undergraduate setting, more pleasant than Chicago, JHU and even NU. Unless you expect major financial aid coming your way, Michigan will cost roughly half the price, and since you want to go to Medical school, you may want to save money in college.</p>

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<p>Appreciate the advice very much guys.</p>

<p>I know Ivies are a pretty big reach for me right now, but I hope to raise my ACT/SAT scores, especially my SAT score by a significant margin.
I don’t know if this helps much, but I will be a first-generation going to college in my family. My parents/grandparents etc never attended college. I heard this is a “tip”, but how much do you guys know about this actually making a bit of a difference?</p>

<p>I still have some time to improve test scores. I am also doing a science fair project with a university of chicago alumni, whose son he helped won the National Science Fair about 15 years ago, but he’s still pretty good at what he does. How much would winning at least the State Science Fair help me out? Also, I am sending research papers to the Intel Science Search. I am hoping those will boost my application.</p>

<p>Any other comments are very much appreciated!! I hope to hear from other applicants from around Michigan/applying to U of M as well.</p>

<p>Anonymous…thats pretty damn good helpful =P How did you do in high school?</p>

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<p>By the way, the more critical you are, the better =)</p>

<p>Thats what will help me out.</p>

<p>I have a LOT to improve on.</p>

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<p>Your an ambitious kid but that’s ok because I am too! lol
But yeah, seriously I would totally advise you to not apply to Harvard. Do you really, and I mean REALLY want to go to top notch Ivies? I had a friend got a 3.95+ GPA (I don’t know his exact one but I know it was near 4.0 and higher than 3.95 for sure) who went to a school that is ranked top ten in the US NEWS. He was a IB diploma student. He received 2350+ (I forget but he had a near perfect) and he applied to most of the Ivies (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Upenn) and was rejected by each one and was waitlisted on Harvard.
I had another friend who received 4.0 (and he took Calc III (multivariable), Linear Algebra, Discrete Math at a college during high school) and he also went to state science fair and did a research project at MSU for 6 weeks. His SAT: near perfect too. He was deferred by Yale when he applied SCEA.
Seriously unless those school are your dream school of attending (not because they are reputable, but because they are a FIT) don’t apply to them, they are a waste of time and money.
Oh also I know you are doing a science fair project but I since you are a senior, it won’t help your application at all because science fair is not until the spring and nor does ISTS (Intel) reveal their decision until the spring. So you can’t put it on your application that you are a winner.</p>

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<p>^By what I mean is that do you want to go to Ivies because they are well known or do you want to go there because you think they are a fit for you?
Its not the school that you go to that matters, it is how well you do at the school. I would rather go to UM and receive a 3.9 than go to Harvard to receive a 3.0
College is a match/fit, not a prize
You are applying to all the Ivies, you have to know that their classes are way harder than any other colleges and so far, your test scores aren’t really close to what they want (this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t apply)</p>

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<p>Mhmm thats pretty good info =P Appreciate it cdz512.</p>

<p>Yea, unfortunately thats what I was afraid of about the science fair. We were supposed to enter it this year, but we did not get our data from the lab in time and my mentor got extremely sick 2 weeks prior and to the fair and it took him well over a month to recover =/</p>

<p>Hah, I realize I have to work ridiculously hard on my test scores =P</p>

<p>Thats important to realize… which colleges sounds good vs. what would actually fit! Thats really good advice. I think my current list will go down by a few, but a lot of my college friends and my counselor inform me that its worth a try; the worst they can do is say no.</p>

<p>To me… Ivies are like a lottery right now haha =P
Does it matter to them that I’m a first-generation college student?</p>

<p>Anyone else?
Again, I’m interested in other peoples’ plans in Michigan/applying to U of M!</p>

<p>We can all help eachother out.</p>

<p>This is proving to be very helpful to me =) Again, thanks to you all!</p>

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<p>Sorry I’m a bit late here…</p>

<p>I had 4.0 unweighted with a rigorous courseload (I’ve taken 8 AP tests, other honors courses), 34 ACT, decent E.C.'s and a full time Co-op position. Plus I was a 4-h president, NHS, Math club, etc etc. My app stuff wasnt bad either - they’re just looking for much more than good grades/ intelligence.</p>

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<p>BuMp…</p>

<p>2014 Applicants??</p>

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<p>^You’re just too early…</p>