They are the ones that should know your school well. They have the school report memorized and know what rigor, types of Aps and overall reputation of your school. They most likely have some analytics on how previous students have performed.
They are often an important part of the application review of your child in committee. They can “fight” for your child since it’s in their district when comparing to others etc. At Michigan the applications get several reviews (why you all are waiting so long), one should be with the AO regional person.
Scroll up to posts above (in the late 4600s before the exciting post about waves) - I was in your boat but others on the thread showed me what we had missed.
My son didn’t have the midyear grades request either, but his mid year report had already been submitted to the Common App by his GC. He had to have it done for GT and since it’s one and done, it looks like Michigan downloaded it before he was even postponed, negating the need to request it. Could that be the case you guys?
@Stephanie_Embree_Rob and @california78,
On the portal if you look under Messages → Review → Decision Postponed, do you see this statement?
Your high school counselor should submit any new fall-term grades that are available on your behalf through the Common Application/Coalition Application.
I would have to wait until he gets home and have him log in to check. If my memory serves me right (which let’s be clear is not as good as it once was, lol) when he first got the postponement their was kind of a checklist of things to do and submitting fall term grades was not there, just the LOCI. I thought it strange at the time, because everyone on CC was talking about grade requests, but when we called the school said that’s because they have them already. The statement you are referencing might very well be in his portal, I am not too sure. Sorry if I gave out any bad information, it certainly wasn’t my intent.
No worries at all @Stephanie_Embree_Rob. Just trying to confirm if you have that statement as well for the benefit of other postponed applicants (and future applicants browsing here next year)
I am not sure about the formal job description for a Regional Admissions Counselor, but we contacted ours when our son was a junior to clarify admissions requirements.
From what I have gleaned from speaking with our HS GC and the UofM Admissions Counselor, I think a large part of their role is twofold. FIrst, the RAC is the liaison with HS GCs and applicants in their area. Second, they are the in-house experts on high schools in their area to advise the admissions officers on the schools curriculum, student body, etc.
My son’s school uploaded all grades as well to all schools no matter if they request or not. All the students know this and keeps them performing well also. Many schools do it differently.
Personally I think it just makes it more efficient for the schools. Not having to juggle so many requests. If the kids sent anything else it was just an update loci if needed.
I live in Fairfax County and have friends whose kids go to TJ. The academics are intense but the kids are collaborative. They are exceptional test takers, obviously. The entrance exam for TJ weeds out nearly 80% of those who attempt it (or something like that). The acceptance rate is something like 4%. The issue that TJ has is that every student performs well on the SAT and gets great grades and each university can only take so many from the same school. So, TJ kids have a harder time getting into the most competitive universities. It’s fascinating.
One of the issues (not specific to UM necessarily) is that, according to our GC, those roles have had more turnover in the past two years than in the ten years prior combined. Regional AOs used to have lock down info on all of the schools. So they could look at a transcript from school A and immediately understand the rigor and the results. Furthermore, they often understood actual teachers. If Sally received an A in Mr. Bright’s AP Bio course, wow- he is strict with those. But apparently that position has now taken on significantly more geographical footprints, as well as not having the longest average tenure. Which, of course, adds to the luck factor with schools as large as UM.
My son (one the many postponed students - COE) recently made All State for his sport. Should be email his regional admissions officer or AO? He thinks no because it is not an academic achievement. I think it shows dedication to an activity. He does not have an existing relationship with his RAO.
He also learned that he made NMF, but that doesn’t seem worthy of an update given that NMSF was included in his application.
Unfortunately he submitted his LOCI weeks ago (right after postponement - I didn’t even know he had done it) so cannot submit either update that way. Thank you for any advice!
Seems like they are incredibly busy and don’t want to receive extra info unless relevant. Debate in this house is therefore whether his updates are relevant.