<p>Hi. this is my first post to the forum athough I have been reading it for a while. my son is trying to decide between the two. they were not his first choices and he is a bit anxious about choosing a school as large as umich. </p>
<p>We have a somewhat unusual story. here is his story- he has ADD and gifted. he has been fighting his way up during hs from Bs to As in four current AP classes. his stats are GPA 3.8 (4.5 this year)/5, sat 760/740/660 sat2 800 world/800phys/770 chem. He is vp of his class and coeditor of the yearbook. he was at JHU-CTY for two summers taking existentialism and philosophy of mind. worked as only hs intern on a senate campaign last summer. He recieved letters from every top college identifying him as a "great candidate" and has a round of interviews where he was told time after time that he was a great fit for this schools- sev ivy league (legat at yale, harvard, and penn, deferred from Yale EA), uchic, emory, tufts, then was rejected by all of them!! He had outstanding teacher recs and guidance counsellor. so everyone told him his gpa would be taken "in context" ofhis disability- apparently it was NOT. only acceptances were umich and gw, wl at wash u and bucknell. he would love to go to washu at this point b/c it is smaller than mich and similar academics but ofcourse chances are slim.</p>
<p>so- he is interested in east asian studies/ econ but also possibly physics. Any thoughts on the two schools? size? intellectual atmosphere? strength in those areas? he has not seen either campus
right now he is very dejected. any words of encouragement would be apreciated. we are so sorry that these other schools could not see past the GPA. everybody who knows this kid is shocked.</p>
<p>If your guidance counselor has any relationship with Wash U, I would have that person call Wash U right now and say that Wash U made a mistake and should have taken your son.</p>
<p>no- that is part of the problem- he wasn't specifically concentrating on those schools although he has been on the gw campus for other reasons. he did spend several days at the big wash u recruitment weekend and loved it. I will take your suggestion about the counsellor- he told me that he wrote that my son was outstanding among his advisees. i know he was very supportive of him</p>
<p>I don't know how much ADD is going to play a part, but my daughter goes to Michigan and it is a great place to go to school. You do have to be a self starter, pro-active type personality to get the most out of the school. I'm not in love with the advising. </p>
<p>Don't worry about the intellectual atmosphere. There are a lot of smart people at the school. (They do like to have fun too. There are a lot of parties).</p>
<p>My daughter is an econ minor and may turn it into a major. The one thing that does bother me is many of the tests are multiple choice tests, even for classes like Econ 401, which are taught at a graduate school level. And
the class sizes do run from 25 to 150 even for juniors and seniors. </p>
<p>Having said this, my daughter has had very good relationships with 3 professors. Right now, she is a grader for one.</p>
<p>also- he was invited to apply to the honors program at umich, submitted an essay, and was then rejected too. is there any way to appeal that decision? we are going out there next week for campus day and could possibly meet with the administrators</p>
<p>My son graduated from Michigan last year, it was his first choice and he had the time of his life. My daughter will be going there in August - chose it over UNC - Chapel Hill and Penn State main campus. She got waitlisted by WashU, Georgetown and Wesleyan. It was a very tough and disappointing experience so I can totally empathize with you. I would recommend Michigan if your son is looking for a friendly atmosphere with tremendous school spirit and a great community (Ann Arbor). GW is a big and fast paced city school - much different than Michigan. I would say it might be a good first choice for those interested in politics, law, etc. but otherwise I don't think that it has as much to offer as U of M. I will say that the student has to take matters into his/her own hands at U of M - go to office hours, drop courses if the professor or teaching assistant does not speak understandable English (speaking from my son's experiences). I would expect that GW would not be much different. Not getting into the Honors Program may be disappointing but you can still graduate with Honors if you write a thesis and some other requirements. If your son wants to talk to someone who went to U of M, I'm sure my son would be glad to do so.</p>
<p>I vote for Michigan. While a bigger school is certainly intimidating, he will quickly navigate the process. It's all one big preparation for the professional world, so I am always a fan of a more real--and less sheltered--environment.</p>
<p>I two was rejected at my top choices, Georgetown, Penn, and USC, and am now deciding between UMich, GWU, or Arizona State. I got a full ride at ASU but no financial aid or scholorships at UMich or GWU. I want to study business and applied pre admit to Ross but was rejected.</p>
<p>I have visited GWU and liked it, but have not been to UM. I am having a hard time deciding becasue I know that UM is a better school than GW but I think that being in DC would provide many great opportunities for internships and networking that just are not avialbe in a small college town. </p>
<p>Do you think that UM is still better even with the possiblity of not getting into Ross next year?</p>
<p>My son went to U of M and graduated in May 06. The fact that Ann Arbor is "a small college town" does not at all dilute the internship opportunities There is heavy recruiting for summer interns (summer of junior year) at Ross. That includes major companies as well as investment banks, provided that you have the gpa (3.5 +) His internship was at Bear Sterns and he is now in his first year working at Credit Suisse. If you are interested you can go on the Ross/U of M website and get info and stats on companies recruiting there for internships and BBA full time positions.</p>
<p>Yes, I know that Ross is excelent, but I still strugle with the fact of possibly not getting accepted to Ross and therefore end up spending 40K a year to study somthing that I didn't really want to? Is the recuriting still really good for LSA?</p>
<p>Hello mdmom, your son reminds me of myself. I too have ADD. A challenging shool like Michigan requires more effort on our part, but we can definitely manage. </p>
<p>Given your son's interests, I would recommend Michigan. George Washington is a good university, but it is not in the same league as Michigan. Michigan has top 10 or top 15 departments in the three majors he is interested and the campus atmpshere at Michigan is much nicer than that at GW.</p>
<p>thank you so much for all your words of advice. goblue- i think my son might want to chat with yours. if that is ok email me privately and maybe they can trade messages.</p>
<p>U-M is a great choice for someone interested in East Asian Studies. It would be hard to find a better school. The faculty are top notch - many leaders in their fields. There's tremendous variety in terms of languages taught and classes. Great library support and special programs like lectures, performances, art exhibits and movies relating to East Asian cultures. Also, the classes in this major will be much smaller than in some of the more popular majors. For a specialty like this, usually a bigger school is better. At a smaller school, you can run out of classes fast.</p>
<p>Does your son currently qualify for any services from his high school? How competitive is his high school? I think it is important to remember MI is not for the weak. I think a prior post sums it up right -- </p>
<p>If you are a go-getter, independent, can decide on your priorities, and require "less hand holding", then a large research university like Michigan will be a good choice.</p>
<p>yes- my so qualifies for services but elected to give them up an go on his own for the last two years. therefore he gets no accomodations right now in his 4 ap classes including AP physics C. (which is very admirable to me- he didn't want the "special treatment". He is in a very competitve hs- 3 of his classmates got into princeton EA- he does as well as they do right now- but they had the grades all through school (and all richly deserved their admission btw). He seems to do best in smaller, in depth situations with other similarly bright kids. He will have to really make some adjustments to do well in large classes. but that's going to be necessary it seems at michigan. Thanks for the infor about east asian studies- that is a good point about the depth of the department.<br>
are there any specific things that we should know or ask about at the campus day? any advice on housing, advising, choosing classes? are there any course guides written by students so he can find out who the popular teachers are?</p>
<p>It's great that your son is doing so well. It says a lot about him. </p>
<p>I would still explore the services that Michigan and GW offer for ADD. It sounds like he may not need them but I would just explore it as a backup plan. You may be pleasantly surprised to learn that MI may offer services that may make it a much more viable choice than GW. I don't know this for a fact.</p>