<p>Mei, I’m also a UMich alumna. My son was accepted twice – undergrad and grad school – and turned it down twice. 
Actually, he made the right decision for him, but it would have been fun to have had a third generation Wolverine.</p>
<p>Is your son planning to apply early to Michigan under their rolling admissions policy. If he does that he would know one way or another before he has to finalize his entire list. If accepted he could use Michigan as his safety.</p>
<p>This doesn’t address the financial issue, but rather the “fit” issue. If your son’s top choices are medium sized privates, perhaps he should add some less selective medium sized privates to his high-match category, like Johns Hopkins, CMU, Emory or Rice.</p>