<p>Junior, Class of 08
Birthplace: Siberia in 1989/ political ruin/labor strikes/ (all that good stuff for my essay showing diversity/ immigration/ challenges)
Race: White/ Russian
Region of Residence: IA
ACT: 29 (Will be retaking ACT/taking the SAT AND will study)
GPA: UW: 3.37 (horrible grades 10th grade, have only one B this tri/ HUGE upward trend i.e.: in one class I had a D+, next tri switched teachers and got a solid A) W: 3.8ish
School: Over packed and public
AP Scores: Euro (10th Grade): 4 Bio (11th projected):5 Gov (11th projected):5
Senior Year Classes (I will own these):
AP Econ
AP English
AP Stats
AP Calc AB
AP US History
French 4/5 H
AP Physics</p>
<p>EC's: 400 hours community service (since 9th grade, organization that sends computers to Africa)
Physics Club president & founder
French Club/ Leadership Club/ International Club/ BPA/ Model United Nations
National Youth Leadership Forum on Medicine
Northwesterns Center for Talent Development (3 week summer school)
Rockwell Collins Internship (90 hrs.)
Belin and Blank Gifted and Talented
Business Horizons
Tennis (10th grade/will do in 12th grade)/ Water Polo
The National Society of High School Scholars</p>
<p>Your chances are slim. 1) Your essay topic will not work. What happened in 1989 has no reflection of who you are now. If anything you should write about something significnat you did recently like your Internship 2) your UW GPa is the only one they look at and the avg uw gpa for Michigan is around a 3.7 uw. 3) Your ACT score is too low. a 29 is around a 1900 which is not too bad for Michigan but with your GPA, you should be around a 33 or 34 if you want your ACT to possibly make up a litlte for your GPA 4) your out of state. Taking only 30 percent of kids from different states, there will be many more statistically superior applicants than you. I would look into a fwe other colleges unfortuantely.</p>
<p>I concur with flong, you're a reach, primarily due to the lacking GPA. If anything, talk about your upward trend and what you did to make that trend occur; however, I would not make that the focus of any one of your essays.</p>
<p>Furthermore, make sure you have outstanding essays. Sit down, work on them for 4-5 hours at a time, working through mechanics, substances, and so forth; make them polished.</p>
<p>As a last point, you need to stand out. Immigrating from Russia isn't as novel as you might think; sorry to crash the news to you. There are individuals who leave countries every year for various reasons, such as political asylum. As such, do not just show them that you are leader in your school, creating clubs and what not. Show what was behind that: what drove you to do so? Idiosyncrasies are the key.</p>
<p>Probably not, unless there's some interesting angle behind it. Don't try to kiss the ass of the admissions officers by making references to Michigan and ascending it above other institutions; it'll come off as asinine and hackneyed.</p>
<p>Hey, sorry if I'm coming off a bit haughty, I can do that at times. But to be honest, I'm not quite sure. Do what feels natural and is you. Find a way to express some idiosyncratic quality about yourself.</p>
<p>For me, I talked about coming to the revelation of how I used self-deprecation as a way to cope with my ostensible inadequacies born out of my Asian heritage. Once I came to that revelation, I made great strides to do the converse, joining a diversity club, becoming president and promoting the values of diversity, all while learning much about myself, not so much in a cultural sense, but knowing the importance of pursuing one's passions as well as the balance between what is right and what must be done.</p>
<p>To be honest, though, I don't really believe my essays were my crutch. I was exemplary in terms of test scores and GPA, the two most important fields.</p>
<p>Yeah retake the ACt and do hope for the best. However, Michigan is a reach and the schools aroudn this field will be a reach for you as well. Look into schools like U of I, other state schools, Boston U, UIUC.</p>
<p>Being international is going to hurt you the most. If you rose your ACT a few points and applied early, you could get in. There have been students on CC who have gotten in with GPA's as low as your own. flong, if I'm not mistaken, you got in with a 3.4 uw. Granted, that was off the waitlist, therefore it probably isn't the best example to give.</p>
<p>Michigan is a reach. Why are you specifically interested in Michigan? Know that if you do get accepted, competition will be stiff once you get to Michigan. You need to make sure you choose the school you attend wisely based on your track record.</p>
<p>Excellent advice, everyone!
Yeah, Im not exactly sure what my status will be by the time I am applying, maybe it will not even be international, depending on the ebb and flow of the bureaucracy. I am taking the ACT again on the 9th and then I will take it again in September (when I will be sending all my stuff out to Michigan, early bird gets the worm). I am sure I can easily raise my ACT a couple points, thats no biggie. I will also be asking for a recommendation from an amazing teacher that knows what he is doing, which will help a ton. My GPA was so low because I took on a difficult course load sophomore year, and the teachers that were teaching those classes really didnt know what they were doing. I got a couple Cs because it was the teachers first year teaching; I got screwed over with my GPA. I will write amazing essays over the summer and I plan to go through them with my AP English teacher thoroughly before I send them out. I think Ive got a decent plan of attack down, and thats a start!</p>
<p>However, I didn't get in purely through stats. I made sure I did everything I could to make up for my lower GPA (i.e. i had a 2 year Microsoft Internship, my bosses who are Michigan Ross Alumni called in for me, i scored 2140 on my sat). So yeah, im not a very good reflection of the majority of applicants.</p>