You don’t think professors should answer questions or want to talk with students. Trust me, their office hours aren’t utilized all the time. Students come before midterms and finals. Many are sitting in their office waiting to help students. Also this was prepandemic for us but not for ours friends kids that are freshman and Sophomores there now.
The point also is 80,000 aren’t doing it. But the essay is just one factor. You have too add in everything else and once again some luck…
Unfortunately it’s not that easy for a non-student to pick up the phone and meet with a professor nor should that be a requirement or advantage to getting accepted. It’s not even that simple for a student to pick up the phone and get a meeting with a professor. You can go to any umich parents social media group and see countless stories of kids not getting meetings with their professors. Trust me it’s not all 
and 
at umich.
It’s a game, like the SAT. You can study for the test and if you do enough practice and have good enough tutors you can see every question.
I think it is sad that they have taken a cool question where they could get 80,000 interesting and differentiated answers and yielded a template of clubs and classes and professor references that make it more boiler plate.
I hate to throw cold water on the process but 18 year old kids don’t actually know what they want to study or what they should be studying. They fake conviction and figure it out later. Like we all did!!
Simply saying I am not going to describe how we got feedback on a public forum.
And saying, who knows if it was accurate or real!! But it seemed to come through the proper channels. Because it was not positive, I hope it was a game of telephone and came from a bad source!!
All of my comments you mentioned are correct (while slightly incongruent). By design!!
Wow, 75 unread posts, I thought we had a decision wave. 
Did anyone see Michigan destroy #3 Purdue last night at Crisler? 
200+ posts is a normal day around here 
Decision day could be well over 2000! 
It was an unexpected boost! My student was there!
Day…or days…
Not sure if anyone saw this on the Parent Facebook page
My son visited Michigan in 2017 and absolutely loved it. He got deferred and was finally accepted from the waitlist. But by that time he had decided to commit to UCLA and was happy with his decision. Agree, if it is late in the cycle, minds change.
I fully understand what you’re saying here. I think, though, that other than academic rock stars, few academics have anyone randomly emailing them about their research. In addition to scholarship and teaching, leadership/service/outreach is one of the criteria on which professors are evaluated. It’s a recruiting tool, as well.
Through a friend of a friend, my kid met up with a researcher at an Ivy. Not only did that person give us a tour of their lab, but two other grad students who happened to be in the lab spoke to us at length about their research and projects. Boy, did we learn a lot. It was clear to us, however, that working in a lab can be a lonely and isolating experience. They seemed quite happy to take a break and share with us how what they were devoting their lives to was valuable, interesting and worthwhile.
Lol. Good catch.
I’m on multiple threads, for all the schools D has applied to. This one is by far the most active.
We certainly have a very passionate group of current and prospective parents!
Ya, but if you take out my posts, then there’s probably 12 +/- posts per day.
Good one! 
Congrats to your daughter on putting the required effort into this exercise. Assuming this is what it takes to be accepted by U Mich, it is fair to ask if this is the right approach. Are they accepting the best students or the best coached students? I argue it may be the latter.
I know tons of people that didn’t meet with professors also. Never been on the parents group in the 4 years my son was there. Glad your finding it useful. But it’s no different then people I know applying to UChicago where going through their course books and noting some classes is advisable. My friend teaches there and it’s a thing she recommends for the essay. Others just write one quickly and get it. Wish we had the secret sauce but just suggestions
This is interesting. We met with a math professor at University of Chicago during our tour there. My wife just called up to see if he was free. Head of the department just sitting there basically. He was all too glad to speak with us and had a blackboard in his office. He actually gave my son a calculus problem right there to show how they teach. My son was like “WTH”… . The professor was very kind but like he hasn’t spoken to someone in awhile… Lol…
Poor OSU thread. Maybe people don’t want to go there… Lol…
How they roll out early results is far more barbaric than what Michigan does.
I was feeling worried one day and my uncle said “you’re going to get offers and money from everyone!!! Just wait and see!” It annoyed me, actually, because I knew he doesn’t have a clue what it takes these days. He thought my 4.0/1540 was all it took to open every door. Pfff…I wish. Anyway, you’re not alone!! Best of luck to you!! Stay strong!
There was an article written by a former admission counselor that had some very insightful information it is on Facebook. It does say you should write in you Why Michigan and LOCI that Michigan is your first choice. I both my S19 and D22 included that in their why Michigan. My D22 is postponed and specifically said she will attend if admitted. Additionally her Dean wrote her a letter of recommendation last week. My son was admitted right away. I assume more applications this year.