Describe the unique qualities that attract you to the specific undergraduate College or School (including preferred admission and dual degree programs) to which you are applying at the University of Michigan. How would that curriculum support your interests?
On the CommonApp for Michigan, they ask which school you would like to apply for, with two different choices for LSA: College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, and Residential College (LSA). If I applied for the Residential College, would would they only consider me for the RC applying to that instead of LSA as a whole? In the prompt for the essay, I was going to talk about the qualities of both LSA and the RC within it. Would it hurt my essay if I included the RC in it, but they were full or something, so they would only consider me for the LSA?
If you mark RC on your Common App, you’re just applying to LSA with marked interest in RC… If/when you are accepted to Michigan, you will have been accepted to the school of LSA. You will then receive information from RC to see if you’re still interested in applying to RC as well. If you are, it’s pretty much you say so and you’re in I believe. I strongly recommend visiting and doing very thorough research into RC before simply joining, as it’s a unique place that isn’t for everyone.
It definitely would not hurt you to include aspects of the RC within it. It would probably even help you if the RC is something you’re truly interested in. It’s a very cool, unique concept to the University of Michigan that gives you a small college feel within a massive campus environment. They’ll like to see that you’ve done your research into that program.
The application is considered independently of your interest in RC. The people reviewing your application are only interested in whether you will succeed at LSA… From there, once they say “yes you will”, you can further that into the RC. Even if they are full when you get your commitment in, you’re already accepted to LSA, which is a pretty good fallback I would say. =)