<p>The downsides of getting deferred at UM are:</p>
<p>1) merit scholarships are being given away and will likely be used up by the time you get admitted, and</p>
<p>2) if you are trying for a Pre-Admit, like to Ross, they don't even start to read your application until after you have been admitted to LSA or Engineering. So again, if you are admitted late, there are few if any Pre-Admit slots remaining.</p>
<p>Is there anyone who was deferred here who has given up on UM, and are making plans to go somewhere else?</p>
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1) being a URM he said that since all that drama happened with the affirmative action stuff in the admissions process that they have some sort of strategic process for admitting minorities and such so as to not cause contraversy
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<p>I guess this is somewhat true, in that they are relying on demographic factors (like socioeconomic status) to make sure that people who had fewer resources aren't unfairly disadvantaged when it comes to access to U-M. But something about the way that person put it makes it sound far fishier than it is. Whatever they do, a non-URM in that income group or from that high school has the same chance of benefitting from it as a URM. That's the only way it's legal, and believe me U-M has no interest in being dragged through the courts (again!) over this. Everything they do is carefully vetted by attorneys, and the University has consulted with Washington, Texas, and California officials to hear about their experiences and strategies. It's a thoughtful process.</p>
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[quote]
2) he said something happened with the Michigan computer system where at the beginning of their admissions terms the computer accepted a much higher % of prospectives than it was supposed to so they are deferring a large number of students until they figure it out
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<p>Not quite right. There was a computer glitch early on, where some bad data got loaded, and that slowed evaluations for a time. This happened before anyone was admitted. That's why the first admit decisions this year came out a little later than usual (It's usually mid- to late-October). It has long since been straightened out. No one was wrongfully admitted, and they're not deferring people to "buy time" while they figure it out.</p>