<p>OMG...ROTFLMAO!!!!!!! So much for being obsessed with that almighty selectivity ranking!! The hell with GPA and test scores for ranking purposes...now you've moved on to the kinder and gentler holistic admissions standards?!!
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And alexandre, I think you're trying to have your cake and eat it too when you say that "qualified" students who should get in get rejected, yet you still think the university should be more selective. Certainly if the university got even more selective, these students wouldn't get in.
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So, what exactly defines selectivity and what elevates the U with USNWR? Having a 2.5 GPA, 20 ACT, and being able to kick a football an amazing 70 yards in the Big House?</p>
<p>LOL, I got an application and an invite from U of M Dearborn today, saying I didn't need to do the app fee, and it wasn't too late to apply and go there, lol. I'm really getting sick of this university. This all before I have received my final decision!</p>
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If any student is top 10 in the country in any area (be it academic, athletic, musical, etc.), they're going to get in to Michigan.
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I'm top 10 in the country (not just of students, but of everyone in the country) in one of my extracurriculars. So I should have been admitted, right?</p>
<p>Okay, I don't think you are aware at all about the "recruits" for the Michigan football team, thinking that they are "top 10" in the country.</p>
<p>Michigan has 90 players on their football team. About 5-6 of them get drafted each year, and actually make it to the NFL, meaning they are "top 10" in their position in the country. There is only about one athlete every 5 years (Braylon Edwards, Charles Woodson) that is actually "top 10" in the country. </p>
<p>So to believe that all the athletes on UM's F-Ball team should be getting a free pass in admissions because they are "top 10" is just ridiculous, because that's about 5% of the team.</p>
<p>And these aren't "world class athletes". Only about 5% of them are world class athletes. You should know this, you go to a school that has an elite football team. Only about 3-4 of them have the measurables to make it to the next level. In fact, no one on Michigan's roster was a first day draftee this year. </p>
<p>So if you're talking about the "many of these individuals" being "world-class athletes", that's simply not true.</p>
<p>sorry, I haven't followed this thread closely, but I think you are mistaken A2Wolves. About 5% may turn out to be "world class", but the entire recruiting class has potential. These are all at least two star recruits.
Also, maintaining a great football team is critical to UM. It is a tradition they must uphold. Being good at football helps the university as a whole.</p>
<p>That's entirely false. I thought Michigan was supposed to be smart kids?</p>
<p>There are almost no 2* recruits that have NFL potential. </p>
<p>A sensational football program has about 10 players drafted in a good year, average, about 6-7 (Ohio State, Miami, USC, etc. would have this trend). Of their HS recruiting classes, they usually land 1-3 5* recruits, and 8-12 4* recruits. These are the players with NFL potential. Half of these kids won't perform well, won't win the spot, and be nothing more than a backup. That leaves you with about 4-8 kids who actually make it, and can be drafted (and we're not talking about first round, we're talking drafted in the top 250). </p>
<p>I'll take Michigan for example. Their 2002 recruit class had 1 5<em>, 10 4</em>, and 8 3* recruits. 2 of those prospects were drafted, and neither in the top 100 (Jason Avant and Gabe Watson). Although I should change that number to 3, because Steve Breaston will be drafted next year.</p>
<p>So to say that the recruits are many world class athletes, I don't buy. In fact, it's ridiculous. There are a few world class athletes on each team, and besides those few, the rest are mediocre and won't go on to a sports career.</p>
<p>I'm not debating whether or not the football team is important to the U. Because it's probably the single most important thing at the U. I'm just saying that to say that all these recruits should be getting free passes because they are world class athletes shows a lack of knowledge about college athletes.</p>
<p>You guys may have higher test scores, but you don't have a clue in sports.</p>
<p>Whoa, easy A2Wolves. You say that a sensational program, and I assume you're including UM, has about 10 draftees a year. With about twenty recruits, that's 50%.<br>
To get recruited by UM is not easy. Maybe not a world class athlete, but certainly a remarkable one. These kids are almost all all-state players, and have numerous accolades.<br>
I certainly don't think that they deserve to get free passes, but I think that football recruits do deserve significant advantages in the admissions process. They have different talents than you and I (assuming you're not a recruited athlete) and they bring diversity and greatness to a university. They've worked hard all their lives, just maybe not at school.</p>
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I think that football recruits do deserve significant advantages in the admissions process...They've worked hard all their lives, just maybe not at school.
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Fine, in one breath you say give the recruits (and it's not just in football) the admissions edge with lowered academic standards, but then in the next, many kids on these boards get all wigged out about the U's precious selectivity ranking. Anyone familiar with the life of a dedicated athlete knows these young men (and women) have worked their butts off at their sport, but everything comes at a price. Is this just lip service or are you truly willing to accept the trade-off?</p>
<p>A2Wolves, "Michigan would have to change their name and their location if they were to go private, and that's not happening ever."</p>
<p>Recall the University of Pennsylvaniva, a private university. Nowhere, to my knowledge, is a name change required if changing from public to private.</p>
<p>Ok UM recruits top notch athletes for its athletic programs for a reason: to maintain a powerhouse program in intercollegiate athletics. Therefore, academics is not the reason for these kids being accepted. Also the most talented students in America that apply to UM, (top 10% in the class, along with above 2200 SATs, and amazing extracurriculars) do not get rejected. The people who tend to get rejected are not mediocre but have middle ground scores that many people that got accepted share. However, the university is looking for different things and this group of people can't all be accepted. Therefore, there are many hurtful rejections. The college decisions process is not perfect and many talented students get rejected every year, but I believe UM does as good a job as its peers in evaluating applicants.</p>
<p>One must remember that super-athletes who get into Michigan for athletic reasons are very few. Roughly 100 or so each year. Those students aren't take anybody's place. Their applications are handled separately and the scholarships they receive are provided by the athletic team they will play for.</p>
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So if you're talking about the "many of these individuals" being "world-class athletes", that's simply not true.
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<p>Likewise, very few of the academia-oriented applicants are "world-class intellectuals." In both cases they are far above average applicants who deserve the same edge.</p>
<p>Gobluealummom, I'm not sure where you get the impression we're all a bunch of rankings-and-selectivity-driven robots. I don't think anyone on these boards cries when UM drops a level in USNWR or scratches it off the list of schools to apply to when they see that people with a 2100 can actually get in. Like any elite school, Michigan is looking for a solid, well-rounded class, and if you are truly spectacular at what you do (be it sports or anything else that may add to the university's overall quality), you will get accepted, plain and simple. If your specialty is academics, you get a bigger break than everyone else, because Michigan will accept somebody who's in the 90th percentile of their high school academically for academic reasons, but they won't accept somebody who's in the 90th percentile of their school athletically for athletic reasons. Essentially, academics is the only area Michigan accepts "mediocre students", so athletes are the last of the Michigan students we should be calling "mediocre" because they are better at what they do than most Michigan students. I don't think anyone on these boards should have a problem with athletes getting in with lower grades because they've dedicated themselves to a sport, much like most of us have dedicated ourselves to academics; only, chances are, they've accomplished their goal to a further extent than we have.</p>
<p>"I don't think anyone on these boards should have a problem with athletes getting in with lower grades because they've dedicated themselves to a sport, much like most of us have dedicated ourselves to academics; only, chances are, they've accomplished their goal to a further extent than we have."</p>
<p>I never thought of it that way. Makes sense.</p>
<p>Thank you...you nailed it in your posts and I valued your astute understanding of the situation. How incredibly impressive that your alma mater shows that kind of appreciation and reverence toward its alums and their offspring. It can be done and it should be done. In our son's seven-month long admissions saga, H. and I personally did not hear a single word from the U on any level, not from LS&A, from Ross (H. has his MBA and is a guest lecturer), from the Development/Alumni Affairs Office, Admissions, no one. Until, of course, the unfortunate "show me the money" e-mail landed in H's inbox last month. Sure, we both know all too well the depth of Michigan's impersonal nature, we lived it as students, and it's a serious flaw in the character of this institution. Up until now, we had been loyal alums with our time, our financial support and, above all, our affection for the U. Despite the ridiculous suggestion made on this thread about our giving to the U all these years as a form of bribery, we never expected any special favors for our applicant S., and certainly didn't receive any, that's for sure. A simple acknowledgment that a double legacy was passing through the admissions process, perhaps even a kind word of encouragement during a brutal admissions cycle, would have gone a long way with us. Bottom line, no human being likes feeling invisible or, worse, feeling used. You're absolutely right, all we wanted was a real and fair relationship with our school, something authentic, not something one-sided and indifferent. Yes, doing the right thing always makes sense with anything in life.</p>
<p>This thread was started by a student feeling hopeless because he was rejected by the school of his dreams. It has become a parental whine-a-thon.
I would just like to tell the original poster that your dreams in high school are not the only dreams you will follow. Both of my older sons had to change directions as they did not get in as freshmen to their top choices. One transfered into his top school as a junior, the other (who wanted UMich) went to a different, but very good school, as an undergrad then went for the dream as a grad student. Both are professionals with satisfying careers and good college memories and friends. Penn State honors is nothing to apologize for and could turn out to be the best path for you at this time.
My d applied to colleges this year that she would have gotten into a few years ago but that waitlisted her now. She has chosen a school she did not initially consider seriously and I am sure she will find wonderful things when she gets there.
And do listen to the earlier post that advised you to have fun and be young.</p>
<p>If the admission process took 7 months......is it that surprising that a letter asking for money came in that time? My parents are both alumni and it's not that uncommon to see letters from the school asking for something every so often.</p>
<p>Lots of kids don't get in where they want to, it's part of learning to deal with the real world. Unlike in high school, mommy and daddy can't complain and make everything better. There were a bunch of places I would've rather gone than here, but I dealt with it and made the best of it.</p>