Well with everyone trying to figure out if their essays n/apps were good enough ex baseball player and current announcer Alex Rodriquez 
wants his 17 year old daughter to go to Michigan. He is asking Jim Harbaugh and Tom Brady to talk to her about it.
I hope she has the grades /stats… Lol…
Can you imagine being the AO and seeing those 2 recommendations come through…??? Lol…
Think of the donations those guys could make, or have made in the past!
More admissions craziness… our neighbor’s daughter applied to UofM for engineering. She is a 4.0 GPA, lots of APs, President of National Honor Society, Captain of her HS varsity soccer team, etc. I do not know her SAT/ACT, but she is a motivated student and my guess is it is strong. She did campus tours and attended info meetings that required registration. UofM was her top choice, and she went out of her way to demonstrate interest in essays and visits, etc.
Despite all this, she was waitlisted. Meanwhile, other students from her HS with lower grades and standardized test scores were accepted. When she asked her HS guidance counselor, she responded that the other students asked her to call the UofM AO to emphasize that they would attend if accepted. My neighbor was incredulous because all through the process they made clear that UofM was her daughter’s top choice and she would attend. Why didn’t the GC make a call on her behalf? Did the GC’s calls make a difference, or were there other factors? (As TLAT says, “There are only so many slots and the school needed a trombone player for the marching band more than a middie for the soccer team.”)
The good news is that she is in at Purdue, and MI Tech is waiving scholarship money at her.
It’s crazy out there.
IW8910, He would not have attended if accepted. He did not like the campus, and other schools on his list provide better opportunities for coops, internships, etc. If he was going to go with a Big10 school, it would have been Purdue, despite their general engineering to major track.
I see that as promising. Can you reapply to the Honors Program in later years? (At Pitt, you can apply for their Honors Program anytime you are enrolled.) If she took honors track math and physics, and performed well that might help her get in later.
Michigan Hockey is playing Denver in the Frozen Four semi-final tonight at 5:00 PM EST. Go Blue!
for those who have asked about scholarships in here - the COE scholarship office told me on Monday that they have given out every offer they were going to make and that their scholarship process for the year is complete (they will not be re-awarding any either, trust me i’ve tried to convince them otherwise and failed). I am still struggling to make peace with this but i’m assuming it is probably the same for LSA unfortunately
Congrats - you will be very happy at Wharton!
No answer on the scholarship timing, but I’ve had a student in honors. The value is 99% in the guaranteed spot in South Quad. The other 1% is that it is nice to reduce a freshman class of 7,000 students to a cohort of about 400 that she’ll be in the same dorm with (the honors kids are spread in specific wings of 2-3 floors but there are other students in the rest of the dorm which holds about 1,200). The program also offers some bonding activities at the start of the school year which helps them meet each other during a time that can be overwhelming, and there is at least one required class (and some optional honors-only classes) to be taken the first year that they will then be able to see familiar faces. There is not a lot of extra work or other hurdles that more robust honors programs offer, so just an FYI that it does not actually translate to graduating with honors and you can drop after your first year or stick with it. But I see no downside.
Thanks for the information
My freshman told me he wishes he had done honors. He is in South Quad and has become friends with a number of the kids on the honors floor there. My understanding is there isn’t necessarily an academic boost (like HS) but being part of a smaller group of like minded kids is a big plus especially that first semester. UMich does nothing to get small groups together and the RA situation is very inconsistent. If your kid is attending with lots of friends or is looking to go greek then the social piece will probably be fine but if for kids who come in solo it would be a big plus.
My daughter said same thing and sees that participation would have been a positive.
Biggest disappointment this freshman year has been RA situation. Her floor is on their 3rd or 4th different RA and none of them have put in any effort. The dorm experience has not been what she had hoped…not overtly bad, just very bland and UM has done nothing to really improve freshman involvement. She found a nice group of girls as friends, but when I share my dorm experience she just shakes her head in frustration.
Same for my son. It was a very rough first semester.
For parents of incoming freshman I would say encourage your kids to take advantage of what tools are there to connect with other students - social media, learning communities etc. - because UM does nothing to welcome them or provide opportunities to make new friends in anything other than occasional massive large gatherings. Orientation for 2022 is virtual again this year.
We have a very active Facebook page for those newly admitted. I had one for my son’s class and then there is another private one for all parents. It has been invaluable for me as an out of state parent. The Wolverine parent community is very warm and helpful including a mom run local parent group who go above and beyond if your kid gets sick and needs chicken soup or cold meds.
This is why it’s so important to have your kids join something early on. Anything. Great way to meet people. Lots of clubs /activities like 1600 of them. Or start a new one like my kid did. No excuse not to. Intermural sports are alive and well at Michigan. Join study groups, which is really a must to do well anyway. I told both my kids to go outside your comfort zone. They both did and flourished.
My wife stopped telling him about her adventures in Michigan dorms /school. It was a long time ago and different times. These kids are glued to phones and computers which we didn’t have so we had to be more social. Kids today start being antisocial so early…
BTW - Hillel I think still delivers chicken soup when asked if your kid is sick 
This sparked so much joy, thank you for sharing!
I love the Hillel soup delivery!
There is another really great grass roots organization that has been so helpful to so many. In early fall of 2020, a Michigan mom (from NJ) started the aMAIZEing Blue Crew to help kids who are sick. As kids got moved to quarantine and isolation because of Covid, she identified a need for extras help that the school didn’t provide. (The school provided food, basic linens, and a few more things). She developed a big network of local AA moms who would delivery a care package to the kids in quarantine housing, if their parent requested it, and would also pick up/drop off medication, deliver a special treat, take a holiday treat, etc., for any kids who might need it.
It continues to function even with so few kids in quarantine housing. They don’t limit themselves to Covid patients, either. They will help out with any sick kid, and will even take them to doctor appointments or the ER, if necessary.
We are OOS and when my student landed in isolation in fall of 2020, it was a huge relief to know there were people there to help. One member contacted me directly, told me to feel free to contact her if I needed anything, and made a terrible situation slightly easier.
They run completely on donations, so I tried not to use them for anything that we could handle otherwise. But they did pick up her mail for her because it had something important to her in it and they delivered it to her isolation door.
(The isolation/quarantine situation isn’t so grave these days, plus my daughter is now a sophomore with a network of friends who could help. But in those early days, pre-vaccine, and with my younger daughter at home with covid at the same time, it was a lifeline.)
Just wanted to share another way that Michigan is pretty cool for all of you making your decision.
This made me cry. Thank you for sharing.