UM’s website also clearly states this…which you and everyone else consistently seems to leave out
“The Early Action decision will be one of three: admit; postpone for a final decision by early April; or deny.”
I’m sorry if your child did not get in early action, I’m sure that is a tough pill to swallow. If your child was fortunate enough to be postponed (vs being rejected) they now have the CHOICE to wait it out until early April or move on. Everyone on this thread who applied EARLY ACTION, got one of the 3 responses listed above. There is simply no reason to blame Michigan if you are unhappy with the outcome. They did exactly what they said they would do. Those that were accepted EARLY ACTION were already notified the end of January. Those postponed will hear in Early April. I don’t think it could be made any clearer.
If a small % was postponed then I might buy this. But, a giant majority of folks have been postponed and zero rejections were reported on this board other than 2nd hand anecdata. That proportion isn’t in the right spirit.
Add to this - other schools who postponed EA decisions like UIUC still maintained a slight preference to EA applicants. But UMich is basically going to review essays written in October relative to January essays - all as a reward for prioritizing UMich and applying early.
Except, as many of us noted, Michigan early action is not really EA for many. There have been many, many instances over the years where UM simply refuses to consider applications as EA and treats everyone from a HS as RD. Our HS is that, SIlvers above is that, and it’s not a hard search to find that is the case for many OOS.
They can write whatever they want on the website. But the problem people have is that every other school has a legitimate and much more transparent process. EA is EA for every single other school. Our HS has something like a 2% admitted rate for initial EA and then around a 36% after postponement over a protracted period of time. Enough of a sample size to tell us that UM doesn’t consider EA applicants from our HS. They simply boot them to postponement and a much later date. Those students submitted their apps 2 months early, and were then asked to submit a LOCI, which apparently matters very much. However you slice it…it’s not an “upfront” policy. Add to that a complete change to how they’ve announced in the past (and crickets from admissions on that)…well, I’m baffled how some people can’t at the very least say “I understand why these people are upset.”
Many of us have tremendous respect for the institution and the academics. Doesn’t mean we can’t call out inept and deliberate manipulation at the expense of the applicants. They are literally the ONLY school that does this.
As a wolverine, its pains for me to say this. UMich admissions process has been a terrible advertisement for the school.
That said, once you are in - UMich provides an amazing experience and there is world-class opportunities to do literally anything you want. No one frustrated by the process should hold it against the school but I can understand people moving on.
I’ve said this before, but Michigan rejections have always (since I’ve been here) been very rarely reported on CC. One, CC is a very small sample of the 80,000 +/- apps, B, rejections aren’t posted for one reason or another and iii) CC members (applicants and parents of applicants) skew very high stat.
We don’t know how many Michigan has accepted, how many were deferred or how many were rejected. And I think past historical precedent has obviously been a terrible predictor of this year’s admissions process.
100%. It also pains me that accomplished students often have to make the choice to game theory before hearing from UM- even if UM is their dream school. Each year we have students whose #1 is Michigan, and a very experienced college counseling office pushing them off of it. Solely because if they put their eggs in the UM basket, by the time they hear they will have lost the chance to apply early to other schools (I’m talking ED, etc.).
So, from our school and our area, UM students tend to be at their original second or third choice as opposed to their first. Maybe that’s expected for an OOS state school, except that UM doesn’t behave like a true state school for OOS students and is happy not to.
It’s seems as if they let in a large amount from the tri-state area. And there of tons of new parents joining the parents fb page since Jan. To think they’d let everyone in EA is unrealistic. I know people who were rejected as well and I know people who know people who were rejected. They are not increasing their enrollment, to my knowledge, but applications have increased, so naturally the amount of those postponed or rejected would go up, no? Where we live, lots of private and public hs, no one seems surprised by Michigan this year. I guess that’s why I’m so confused by the responses on this thread. I’ve had kids in Michigan before nothing seems different about this year. Other than the original release date, yes it was usually Dec. But even back then we weren’t given an exact date. My kids checked their portals from time to time. Kids were postponed kids were rejected and some were accepted. Same stuff different year.
We don’t know officially, only rumors. The number of apps did increase from 2020-2021 (65,000) to 2021-2022 (80,000). That’s all we know for sure at this point.
ETA: However, we do know that apps increased to the UC’s (e.g., 7% increase at UCLA), which may or may not be a good proxy for an increase at Michigan.
Yes, true. But schools like UVA have published these data sets and I think it’s fair to treat potential students like potential clients. They are in fact, spending up to 320K for this experience. Hiring a single person to compile this data, which is certainly known goes a long way to addressing this need.
If you can’t meet the need, then perhaps don’t have EA. That way kids can do ED or wait until regular decision.
UVA is frequently cited since they are the most transparent. Not trying to make it news. But the “news” is, UM has failed to share the data set with applicants. And that is an issue.
First, of course they are “within the framework posted”. But that bar is exceedingly low, and is not the reason for any complaints. I don’t think anyone is saying Michigan isn’t within their rights to do what they’re doing. What they are doing is a) altering the way in which they’ve released in the past b) remaining completely silent on that. If a huge school has released EA and then released steady and consistent waves for a bunch of consecutive years…and then deviates from that without informing their applicants, there’s going to be angst and a little anger. Noboody is saying they don’t have the right. What we’re saying is that a little decency to INFORM people that this will occur would lessen the stress. It would take absolutely nothing for them to have done so. Many of us are baffled why they didn’t.
To respond to your other question…No, there is no “conspiracy” against my HS. It’s simply a well-known pattern where UM has behaved this way with the vast majority of prep schools in the northeast. They don’t want to be second choice, so they wait to thin the herd. That’s a completely different conversation, but it’s relevant to our kids now because of how UM is manipulating this EA round.
Nothing with Michigan’s EA process has changed since 2014 as far as I’m aware, other than the release date. Which pushing it back actually makes more sense. They eliminate a lot of people who are ED’ing and and just using them as a “back up”. By end of Jan all those students who got in to their ED schools have had to pull their apps from Michigan so they are removed from the equation all together and not taking up acceptances that won’t be used. No?
Hey, my kid was accepted@UM. But, we signed up for EA in all cases to get early news. So the release date changing is the ONLY story. Nothing else matters. IF my kid was in limbo in March when they planned for an EA with a promised release much earlier and the school appears to have postponed many EA, that’s an issue. Even for accepted students. I like clear transparent communication.
I’ve watched a lot of back and forth frustration; I am sorry for all the emotions of the students right now as well as my own son. I am glad as I am sure several others are glad that an end is in sight. I remember back in early February when someone said that they had heard from the admissions office that decisions were not coming til April and maybe that there would not be waves like we all expected. Many were shocked but that person may have been right.
Maybe UM has changed their process this year and wants everyone to take note moving forward. They do not communicate as well as we like- that is a given. Maybe they are not happy with all the extra applications and extra work; they definitely don’t want to be considered as someone’s safety school. Perhaps this year’s cycle will make future applicants take note and that may be their way of dialing back the number of applications in the future. Does it suck for us? absolutely!
I struggle with being an alum and having one son there watching my younger son get so deflated about this process, but if he gets in, all will be forgotten very quickly. If he doesn’t- I still can’t take away that I am an alum and so is my son (soon to be). It is a great school or we would not be on this page chiming in.