Hi guys! So this year, as always, most of the senior class at my school applied to U of M, as we are all 45 minutes away from campus.
When decisions came out, many were deferred (as there was a HUGE pool of applicants this year), but there were quite a few that were accepted that made everyone basically say “what the f” (lol easiest way I could express the reaction). Most, if not all of the people who were surprisingly accepted were legacies. I saw people get deferred with 31s on their ACTS and 3.9+s, while some who were accepted with legacy were admitted with barely 3.7s and 28 and below ACT scores.
Not only did this infuriate the people who overachieved their entire high school career, but it also made us really question how UMich’s admissions process really works. I am honestly asking if legacy matters THAT much. If so, then it is really sad that even your best work won’t get you to that dream college if you don’t have connections.
I know that other factors come into play (recommendations, essays, etc.), but if you knew these people, you would understand where I am coming from. I highly doubt any extracurriculars or essays were the determining point for admitting some of these students. The worst part is that all of us who were deferred are sending in our grades to the university, while many of these accepted students have B/C’s in the courses we have A’s in, except they don’t need to send anything in (obviously they need to send end of the year reports, but of course the university will be more lenient on grades that are below A average IF the student has already been accepted).
Basically I just vented out everything, but you can only imagine how frustrating this must be for a high school student who has busted their back all 4 years.
I can understand your frustration and anxiety, but it sounds like you are looking for answers where there aren’t any. The U of M received tens of thousands of applications and you are looking at a small sample. You can bet that in the thousands of deferrals, many, many of them were legacies. Many legacies will get rejected as well. Michigan could probably fill its freshman class with legacies, but obviously it doesn’t. And Michigan is clear that it does not just consider stats. No matter how much you think you know about these other applicants, you don’t really know the whole story. As hard as it is, you need to focus on YOU, not what has happened to everyone else. There will be plenty of job interviews in your future where you will be facing this same scenario, and it doesn’t really benefit you in any way to dwell on what others are doing or what you perceive to be as unfair. You need to keep looking ahead and have dreams that are not focused on one school, one job, one spouse, etc. Life doesn’t work that way, and you need to be prepared. Consider this a difficult but ultimately useful lesson. And, you are deferred, so there is still a lot of hope! Hard work is almost always rewarded, though perhaps not always in the exact way we think it will. The trick is in recognizing the reward, which may come in a form we don’t always anticipate.
@blprof thank you! That is exactly what my parents said lol. I do try really hard, and fortunately, this school wasn’t my first choice and I am already committed to my #1. Although I would love to be admitted to UMich, I am perfectly happy to have another great school in line. I do believe everyone has their own path they must take in life, and sometimes when things don’t seem clear, it is just because that’s the way they were meant to be.
Note also that admission selectivity may differ between different divisions (e.g. LS&A, engineering, business, etc.) at some schools. If this is true for Michigan, it may have a larger effect than you may think.
Of course, from a policy standpoint, a public university favoring legacies is basically saying that it favors some of the already advantaged (legacies cannot be first generation college students, and are likely to have higher income and wealth than the population as a whole). Whether or not you agree with such a policy is another matter.
@ucbalumnus all of whom I wrote about applied to LSA. I think legacy has a huge impact on my community because I live less than an hour away from Ann Arbor and we are one of the top feeder schools. I believe that legacy has a much larger impact instate within a close radius of the school, rather than out of state.
I don’t think legacy status is considered strongly at public schools.
To be fair 31 v 28 ACT (96% v 91% percentile) and 3.7 v 3.9 GPA isn’t that big of a deal. I would say differences in eca and essays would show a much larger difference in applicants. Also institutional requirements i.e. diversity or full-pay need to be taken into consideration.
Legacy likely correlates to less financial need, so a school trying to conserve financial aid money may consider legacy more strongly to get a less needy admit class without overtly being need-aware. Of course, that is not the only adjustment to admission criteria that can be done to make the admit class less needed without overtly being need-aware.
Interesting comments. I was admitted EA as a double legacy but I don’t think I was a “surprise” admit based on legacy. ACT is a 34 and 4.0 GPA with 3 indepth ECs and 5s on my APs. However, there were surprise deferrals at my school too, a few kids with 32s and 4.0s who everyone thought was for certain in for EA. Our school did have one recruited URM athlete get in EA with a 29 and 3.85. I think it all boils down to perception based on what pieces we can see, which isn’t much considering all the applications they get
@96blue There of course were legacies who had the grades to get in, but I think you all would need to have met these people who were accepted. It’s just all extremely confusing for many of us since we grew up with these people and know exactly what they’ve accomplished. This is just all perspective.
I don't believe publics generally care so much about legacy.
However, UMich definitely does care about demonstrated interest.
As @bomerr stated, the differences between the 2 stat lines you stated just aren't that big.
If you already committed to your top choice, what are you so worked up about? Do you mean admitted? If so, then it seems that UMich did the right thing in deferring you. After all, they are looking to assemble the best student body that they can. Someone who is not coming does not help them do that. They are not in the business of boosting egos of applicants who will reject them.
Indeed. It’s too bad, but school doesn’t seem to set kids up for life in a way. At school, everything is ordered and predictable. Life isn’t like that. With life, you can only control what you can control, and you have to learn to roll with the punches (not to mention, be practical and be able to dispassionately analyze any situtation).
Approximately half of MI applicants eventually get in to UMich, so chances are good that high-stats MI applicants will make it in. Does it matter so much that they still have to work hard in class instead of slacking off? That may actually be a blessing in disguise.