Do you all know if there’s any way at this point to show demonstrated interest? Will it even make a difference? My son is OOS but getting very discouraged. He’s been deferred from the 3 selective colleges he applied to so far. 2 we expected (or rather were relieved not to be rejected from) but one was somewhat of a surprise not to be admitted. We’re fully aware of Michigan’s tendency to defer many EA applicants, especially OOS. Or to simply deny admission to strong students.
He visited campus and attended an official tour and info session this fall. The summer prior to his junior year he participated in one of their summer programs for math and science. It was 3 weeks long. One of his friends also has it as her top school which makes it more appealing.
How else could he show his interest in the school?
FWIW, OOS applicants represent about 7 out of every 8 applicants to UMich. So, just by their sheer numbers, OOS applicants have to be deferred at a higher rate than in-state applicants.
At this point, I wouldn’t do any more than in terms of demonstrated interest, but if an applicant were to receive a national level-type award, then that’s something I’d notify your AO about ASAP.
Was hoping he’d qualify for AIME after taking the AMC so we’d have a reason to update his EA schools but unfortunately he didn’t. We’ll have to wait it out. After this first batch of decisions we’re at least prepared for the deferrals by now.
That 7 of 8 OOS rejection figure is a critical but seldom mentioned bit of data. Assuming football mania (for two straight years) and general momentum, it seems likely there will be ~86k applications - or more (could it be?); assuming an ever slightly smaller desired class of, say, 7,000 again; and assuming an AO yield projection of 47% for both OOS and in-state: OOS acceptance rate is then very likely between 9.5% while in state acceptance is a whopping 72%. The numbers - based on the above assumptions - are only slightly off. Perhaps this is common knowledge but it is not readily spelled out many places (definitely not in common data set). Does this sound accurate? That 9.5% moves it up the selectivity ranks, at least for last year and presumably this year, dramatically.
It’s hard to hail Mary last minute interest. It sounds like you already showed it even by applying early. Many many students haven’t gotten in the first few safeties the last few years. Be happy to the schools he does get accepted to. Selective schools are just reaches for a reason. It’s a very long application season. This is only the start of it. Being deferred is more of the norm with oos students. Get ready mentally to not hear back till April. Good luck.
This is why I keep telling him not to fall in love with any ONE school and to keep adding to his application list, despite what people say. The system has been structured in a way to work best for those who ED and we weren’t willing to do that—not at those prices. Thankfully he does have several favorites and Michigan is one of them. We’re just going to have to ride it out until the end.
Yep. Like - lots of schools. If not then why are they on their list. It’s tough. My son BTW applied and was rejected to some Michigan high school programs so he went into the process as there was no way… He was accepted and finished industrial engineering last year. We are oos. They only had 55,000 total apps that year
Now its like 85,000…lots of students were deferred with the 55,000…it’s just par for the course. Michigan knows your interested or you wouldn’t have applied
Both my kids (two different schools) had one on one meetings with professors and heads of departments at most schools they were truly interested in. Did this help? I hope so but who knows. They used those meetings to discuss what they learned in their essays. Many students didn’t do this or show one ounce of interest and are at Michigan now. Luck comes into play also.
That’s awesome that your son got in, especially for Engineering since that’s very competitive. I’m not sure how competitive physics is which is what my son is hoping to major in.
The math program he did at Michigan the previous summer was humbling to say the least. He’d been used to always being one of top math kids in his classes but this was a rude awakening! He said he felt like the weakest link in his group and that really bothered him. I know he was being hard on himself but it was good for him to realize that he has a lot to learn and that Michigan is going to attract some top talent. It raised Michigan way up on his college list.
What level math would you expect math/physics majors to come in with? What would make an applicant competitive? My daughter just finished Calc 3 with University of Illinois at Urbana (A+). She has also taken college level Physics 1 and 2 (both A). Curious if you have insight after your son was there for a math summer program. We’re OOS which obviously makes it tough no matter what.
Both majors are extremely hard at Michigan. My son had Calc 3 in high school but at Michigan, Math was at a different level. What your son went through at that program is about what to expect once accepted. It’s a really hard school and I say this often.
My son isn’t as advanced as that. He attends catholic schools and they’re not known for their rigorous curriculum since their academic plans are set by our local archdiocese here. But some students choose to self study once they get to high school and realize they’re behind on math compared to students who came from more competitive school districts. But his counselor assured him that as long as he’s taking the highest classes his HS offers, he should be ok. For him that’s AP calc BC and AP Physics 2. It helped that he scored a perfect math psat, seems to be what the math summer programs noticed early on.
But that was the difference between the other students in that first Number Theory program at U-M who already knew how to solve proofs as sophomores and he was new to it. That’s why he felt like he was behind. He’ll get there tho. Just hoping colleges won’t penalize him for it since they claim they compare students against their classmates not applicants from other schools. We’ll see.
Ah— here we go— UVA publishes yield for instate and out of state applicants. Yield is 54% instate but 18% out of state. It’s pretty similar to UMich in prestige if not as STEM focused as UMich.
Interesting. That’s the only other public university (other than our state universities) that my son is applying to but he feels more confident about UVA than Michigan. Early on we weren’t on board with paying that high OOS tuition for those 2 public schools but we’ve definitely come around after his recent deferrals.