Is Michigan weak in any way?

Acceptance rates for Class of 2022:

UCLA 14%
Cal 15%
UMichigan (OOS) 19%
UCI 29%
UCSD 30%
Cal Poly SLO 30%
UCSB 32%
UCD 41%

My CA 2022 kid pretty much had the “pick of the litter” of that list and other OOS schools but chose Michigan. And was not alone in that decision. Many kids around our locale are fleeing the state due to State budget issues, overcrowding, worker strikes, campus protests, etc. OTOH, my younger kid appears to want to stay in-state.

Michigan has the 8th largest endowment in the US, roughly $12 Billion, far more than the ENTIRE UC system.

California has almost 40 million documented people living there (probably a few million more who are not). That’s 40,000,000! That’s a lot of people overall to be gunning for UCB and UCLA. Naturally the instate admit rate will be low. It has to be! You are conflating admit rates with overall excellence. Sorry but I don’t care what USNWR says, UCSB is not “right behind” Michigan for best public university.

Just curious for the California people on this thread. Is Cal Poly Slo like the sleeper school here. It seems to have a lot going for it but not really talked about much especially in the Midwest. I know there’s threads on CC on it and it all seems to be very positive.

Have to agree with the yield protection and demonstrated interest statement at UM. The one freshman I know really well at Harvard, Michigan was the only college that waitlisted her. In RD, she got into H, UPenn, Cornell, Brown, Duke and UCB Regents among others.

Yes, it is a sleeper school. Very good engineering and comp sci, good business school (many UCs don’t have undergrad business), and part of the CSU system so in state tuition is less than $10K vs $14-$15K in the UCs. It’s more regional, but I know someone up in Seattle who said it’s very popular up there too. San Luis Obispo is a great college town. 15 minutes to the beach and 30 minutes from Paso Robles (wineries). Probably comparable to a UCSD or UCSB in admissions requirements.

Shhh…don’t tell anyone!

@sbdad12. It’s funny since by son’s counselor 2 years ago went up to visit the school and was pushing my son to consider it. He would show the engineering faculties then switch to a picture of mountains, then show a picture of a lab then show more mountains… Lol⛰️. I now know it’s a great school but every other sentence was like “when you wake up there’s mountains all around you”.

Sounds right, although the GPAs and ACT scores are almost the same. (UCSB has a wider 25%-75% split with 28-34 and Michigan 30-33). UCSB average GPA is 4.01-4.26. The UCs calculate GPA differently than U of M. 9th grade scores are thrown out and so it’s 10-12th. (and more like 10-11). UCSB has almost 50% more applicants than Michigan, but obviously gets more apps, likely because of the ease of adding schools to the UC application process.

BTW, Berkeley’s average GPA is 4.45 Weighted and ACT is 29-35.

The top students in Michigan likely apply to one school, Michigan. Maybe Sparty. The top students in CA apply to Berkeley, UCLA, Santa Barbara, Davis, Irvine, San Diego, and Cal Poly SLO. Increasingly SDSU (talked to someone last night whose niece got turned down at their Nursing School with a 4.4 and 35 on the ACT). The overlap is crazy.

^ 2017-2018 CDS states UCSB ACT middle 50% was 26-32; Michigan was 30-33.

% ACT Composite 30-36:
UCSB 51.31%;
Michigan 78.5%

http://bap.ucsb.edu/institutional.research/common.data.set.2017.18.pdf

http://obp.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/pubdata/cds/cds_2017-2018_umaa.pdf

Compare enrolled student statistics (CDS). Those stats for UCSB are for admitted students, which includes students who enrolled elsewhere (most often, UCB, UCLA, UCSD, USC, etc.).

Straight from the horse’s mouth: http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/santa-barbara/freshman-profile/index.html

UCLA received 113,000 applications in 2018. They make something like $5M in application fees alone (a number of applicants get fees waived).

Time to get a new HS college counselor! Location is important to happiness but one would think quality of education is more important!

Nobody gets admitted to Michigan with over a 4.0 gpa. ?

That we agree on. Please keep this under wraps for a couple more years. ?

Michigan’s middle 50% for 2018-2019 is 31-34.

https://admissions.umich.edu/apply/freshmen-applicants/student-profile

^ Compare:

https://admissions.umich.edu/apply/freshmen-applicants/student-profile (“current as of June 2018”):

Average GPA: 3.88

ACT 31-34
English: 33-35
Math: 29-35
Science: 30-35
Reading: 32-35

SAT (new scale) 1380-1540
Writing/Evidence-Based Reading: 680-750
Math: 700-790

2018-2019 CDS (“12/14/18”):

Average GPA: 3.86

ACT 30-34
English: 31-35
Math: 28-34
Science: No data
Reading: No data

SAT (new scale): No data
Writing/Evidence-Based Reading: 660-730
Math: 670-780

http://obp.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/pubdata/cds/cds_2018-2019_umaa.pdf

This may indicate the effects of “summer melt” and changes in enrollment decisions due to waitlist activity.

Of course, both data sets are exceptionally strong.

@sbdad12. He was just joking around but it seemed that Slo wanted some of our kids was the point. It’s the number 1 school in our state with avg ACT of 31. Engineering kids are like much higher with great gpas. He did stress possible scholarship opportunities. They try to match kids with merit. Merit is typical at the school. They do a good job of matching kids /families. Enough of this since it totally off track.

Listen, we all agree that Michigan is a phenomenal school. Mostly because it’s my school. Michigan is always in everyone’s top 5 public universities without fail.

But there are now a lot of good schools. You would have mentioned UCSB 15 years ago and people would laugh. Now, not any more. There are schools like UGA and Washington that have competed hard for good students.

We look at stats and draw conclusions. I’m guilty as charged. But things like geographic diversity, socioeconomic and ethnic diversity (not in CA), extracurriculars, leadership qualities, and more that go into decisions. Which is a good thing as we need fewer robots and more well rounded students.

It’s nice we live in a country with so many options,even if they are very expensive!

Speaking of, does anyone know if your admission at Michigan is positively impacted by being a legacy and also being Hispanic? My D is both.

I think we will hear a lot about SLO in the coming years. They have some nice new facilities and are in a picturesque place. Academically strong, and a relative tuition bargain compared to other schools both in state and out of state.

While the CDS states legacy is “considered,” there were numerous disappointed legacies on the UMich admission threads.