I know U of M places a large emphasis on diversity, especially through their application workshop days and others way of recruiting applicants, but how much does being an underrepresented minority (Hispanic, African-American, ect.) help in admissions decisions?
According to Section C7 of the Common Data Set for U of M, “racial/ethnic status” is “not considered” as a factor in admissions.
This is a result of an amendment to the Michigan Constitution that prohibits publicly funded colleges and universities from using race as a factor in admissions. See, for example, here, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/23/us/supreme-court-michigan-affirmative-action-ban.html
It no longer plays a big role, but students do refer to their personal background and identity in their essays, and to suggest that those do not play a role in the decision would be very naive. Clearly, self-awareness, identity and background are sometimes going to sway the admissions officers, consciously or subconsciously.
It is against the law in the state of Michigan for public universities to consider race in admissions decisions. They actually do not place a large emphasis on diversity, as evidenced by the exceedingly small percentage of URMs at the college. However, they are trying to change that by actively recruiting for economic diversity and placing greater emphasis on helping economically disadvantaged students – of any race or ethnicity – attend the university.
@Alexandre 's answer is perfect.
Certainly it affects a lot if you are asian, but negatively though.
It makes no difference if you are Asian or any other ethnic group. If you are in-state NA you get a tuition waver though. The percentage of Asians at UM is 5x the state population percentage.
Great please keep doing so UM. One of the affirmative action cases I read in ap gov class takes place in Michigan so I was assuming it still existed today. Sincere apology for my ignorance. I hope that UM proves this to me through my ea result.
@onionknight Your personal admission result does not “prove” anything at all about the consideration of race or ethnicity in the admission process.
@onionknight If you look at the number of Asians admitted as a percentage of the number of Asian’s who live in Michigan, they are certainly not discriminated against.
@brantly The improvements to financial aid, and the recent expansion of Provost Awards for OOS students, is significantly increasing the number of high achieving, low income students. For these students, UM is virtually free. I’ve seen some of the FA awards, and they are extremely generous.
@Alexandre You are correct. Zip codes also refer a great deal. Moreover, the US Supreme Court expressly stated that socio-economic diversity could be considered in admissions, and went so far as to advocate such policies. Michigan is now making great efforts to attract students from underrepresented schools.