Deferred from Engineering but Reapply to LSA?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Michigan
1

<p>I got deferred from the College of Engineering 12/16, and although I can't say I didn't see this coming, many of the people in my school and in the area were accepted into LSA - people with lower stats than mine. Knowing about acceptance rates for deferred applicants, and that I want to attend Michigan no matter what - regardless of LSA or CoE - do you think it is worth reapplying to LSA regular decision? Here are some of my stats:</p>

<p>ACT: 33 (35 E, 33 M, 30 R, 33 S, 10 W)
GPA: 3.775 weighted, 87th percentile in school (ranked about 13%)</p>

<p>Curriculum: Very rigorous. Will have taken a total of 8 AP classes throughout high school and numerous honors classes. Have taken 5 AP tests up to this point (4's & 5's; AP Scholar with Distinction) and will take about 8 more this year, mostly through self-studying.</p>

<p>EC's in school: Varsity Swim Team, 4 years (3 letters), National Honor Society, Student Council, Key Club
EC's out of school: Sunday School for 10+ years, unpaid summer internship at hospital, helping out at local retirement home
Volunteering: Over 400+ hours logged though NHS, Key Club, etc</p>

<p>Essays: Great - incisive, demonstrated interest, were reviewed many times over by teachers and UMich alumni.</p>

<p>Rec Letters: Great - from Calculus and Biology teachers, written very well with glowing recommendations.</p>

<p>Other: In-state, male, Asian</p>

<p>So, is it worth it? I called UMich Admissions and the counselors there were very unhelpful with any guidance, they just told me who to write to should I go through with this. Again, I just really want to attend Michigan, regardless of what I end up studying there. The only reason I had applied to Engineering was because of my strong math background but after seeing people with lower stats get accepted into LSA, I'm now worried that this will be a negative. If I end up getting rejected/waitlisted, I'll be going to MSU... something I don't exactly want to do, haha. What do you guys think?</p>

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<p>I don’t think that you are allowed to apply for LSA after you applied to COE. I think you are allowed only one bite of the apple. It is possible that if you really wanted to go to LSA your engineering essay may not have been persuasive. I would suggest talking to your high school counselor who may know what you are allowed to do.</p>

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<p>I already talked to the offices at UMich Admissions, they said it was possible to do so, I’m not worried about that. And my high school counselor was similarly unhelpful, he told me to go to talk to people at UMich. I’m just not sure whether it would be the smart thing to do, statistically…</p>

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<p>What’s your unweighted GPA?</p>

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<p>My transcript didn’t include unweighted GPA but if I had to guess, it’d be in the 3.55-3.65 ballpark.</p>

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<p>

Are you referring to people with lower GPA?</p>

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<p>^ Yes, some with lower GPA’s, and some with lower ACT scores as well.</p>

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<p>The reason why universities (especially the elite) commonly (and it is very common indeed) accept some students with lower stats than deferred or rejected applicants with better stats is because admissions are, to a degree, random and increasingly holistic. By random, I mean that the admissions committee does not look at all 17,000+ EA applicants at once but each individually, so there cannot be consistancy. Even if there could be, admissions officers will look at more than just grades (by far the most important criterion), standard tests (not very important), essays (about as important as standardized tests), ECs (about as important as essays) and background (as important as ECs). </p>

<p>So, admissions decisions are (1) somewhat random and (2) holistic. Result: some students with stronger stats are rejected over applicants with weaker stats.</p>

<p>As for changing from Engineering to LSA, I honoestly don’t think it will make a difference. LSA is actually more random than the CoE.</p>

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<p>I don’t think it’s worth the hassle. If you get into LSA, you’d have to go through the transfer process (which may or may not land you a spot in CoE) and you would have to play catch up with your engineering peers by taking the intro to engineering and intro to programming classes later than they do. It’s best just to stick it out with the deferral and hopefully you’ll get accepted to CoE.</p>

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<p>@goblue515 I’m just curious, what decision did you end up making? And were you admitted into the college which you decided to apply? I’m wondering because I am in the same position as you this year. I just found out that I was deferred from the CoE, and as much as I would love to study Industrial Engineering at Umich, I ultimately would rather be able to attend the school than be in that particular college. </p>