<p>He got rejected because there were plenty of other students who applied that simply were better than him. Admissions this year were crazy with the overwhelming number of applications. Michigan accepted too many people during the first round and ran out of room quickly during the RD period. This is why many people ended up getting waitlisted. Furthermore, Michigan had a higher % yield for accepted students. They overshot their expected amount by around 600 (~6600 were ENROLLED). This was noted during my orientation before they even thought of taking people off waitlists.</p>