@jessica2018 I have heard the same. Visiting is used as a tie breaker sometimes at this school, I have read. But essentially pure speculation
I would word it as no one can give the impression that they are treating UMich as a safety. The 30% yield on OOSs would suggest people do.
Lower yield rate may be the direct outcome of the cost. Nothing to do with safety which means a very high admission chance.
@billcsho Agree 100%. It is amazing how every year high school seniors resurrect the “Tufts Syndrome” urban myth, suggesting that highly qualified students are being deferred as the university “fears” they are treating UM as a safety. Alas, the large number of candidates with outstanding qualifications recently admitted shows how baseless this suggestion is.
@jessica2018 You heard from whom? Other high school seniors? Certainly not UM admissions officers.
@aurangzeb1 Agree. It is pure speculation especially as UM has said “demonstrated interest” is not a factor in admissions. Moreover, they don’t keep records on who visits.
@exlibris97 According to my counselor, University of Michigan’s director of admissions said that demonstrated interest is a factor in admissions this year.
They don’t have an idea as to what schools you’re applying to so how would they know if you consider Michigan as a safety?
@indigoelephant You’re right, they would not know whether someone considers the school a safety. However, they can, and do, consider demonstrated interest, and have done so for years. See Michigan’s Common Data Set – http://obp.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/pubdata/cds/cds_2016-2017_umaa.pdf. There’s also a spot on the Common App that asks how you learned about the school, and “Campus Visit” is one of the options.
@exlibris97 , regarding Tufts syndrome, no one needs to tell you. Just go back to the beginning of this thread, count the numbers of students who got deferred vs admitted who applied to LSA from OOS with 4.5 and above wGPA, 1500 and above SAT and 34 and above ACT. You will have the answer. It is amazing to see how happy people to paint these kids with high stats as some useless dumb kids who don’t know how to write good essays or have good ECs. But somehow the mediocre kids who had 1300, 1400 SATs, 28,29,30 ACT and very low GPAs are very smart to write excellent essays and have spectacular ECs so Michigan had to accept these over others. “Holistic” is the word everyone in America uses to discard/disrespect hard work and merit and justify all the stupidity in the college admission process.
Rather than Tufrs syndrome, it is more like CC syndrome. There are far more high stat applicants on this forum, and therefore, you see more high stat deferral responses. I did calculated the average scores of EA admission from around 110 EA admitted students 4 years ago and the score was slightly higher than the final reported admission average by around 1 point in ACT. If they defer more high stat students, it would not be the case. After all, Tufts Syndrome can only be described (although it may or may not true) in lower tier schools.
For future applicants- don’t stress if you don’t have a decision that first day when it seems like everyone knows.
Got worried on 12/20 when everyone posted their results and even UM blogged that EA decisions were out.
Called admissions several times on 12/21 and 12/22. Was told on 12/21 that application was still being reviewed and finalized and that they have until 12/24 to release a decision- so believe they review every application sent in EA thoroughly.
Finally got an acceptance on Sat 12/23 via portal with an email late on 12/23.
OOS with an ACT of 33 and unweighted GPA of 3.96, and long term dedicated volunteering, no legacy.
I have been telling people how the EA results are released exactly like this multiple times. It does last for a few days.
Definitely think campus visit helped a lot in my case.
I was average compared to my classmate but I think I was one of the few to visit.
@bsms2018 it doesn’t matter if you score a 32 or a 36, if you meet the criteria then you get a check mark for standardized test scores. Also a 4.5 weighted GPA means nothing, gpa varies from school to school so the highest you could have after UM recalculates is a 4 which many may not even have if they have recieved any B’s. Test scores and grades get you to the door, and essays/EC’s get you through. Also there are plenty of kids that get in with 34s and above, and admissions was extremely selective this year. There is no “Tufts Syndrome” at UM
@Ballsandstrikes where did you get the 40k number?
@guitar321 a link from U-M’s Twitter page https://admissions.umich.edu/explore-visit/blog/youve-received-admissions-decision-now-what#overlay-context=users/dcjordan
@KDot19 I have to disagree with you there. There is years-worth of evidence that suggests that there is a significant amount of “Tufts Syndrome” at U-Mich, especially in the Early Action pool. Guidance counselors, college advisors, teachers, students, and parents have seen an extremely prominent trend of Ivy-League-quality students getting deferred from U-Mich for seemingly no reason.
Now I’m not saying I was a victim of this, but I was deferred with a 36 ACT, a 94 UW GPA (when converted to 100 pt scale), NMSF standing, top 10% of class, and an extremely strong list of awards and ECs (including 30+ hours/week of serious figure-skating training and various leadership/volunteer positions). Many other students of this high caliber who were also shooting for schools such as Harvard, Cornell, Yale, etc. were also deferred, with their only seeming flaw to be their failure to visit the school (a difficult thing to do when you’re OOS).
I know at least for me, being deferred from my EA reach school and then being deferred from U-Mich when I thought I had a serious chance was quite disappointing. And I’m not saying that the people who got in do not deserve to get in, but I am saying that there is a very significant trend that suggests at least some degree of “Tufts Syndrome” at U-Mich.
Tufts syndrome can only be described for lower tier school. When a school is a reach for any OOS students, it does not apply. In other words, when there is no “over qualified” candidate, there is no Tufts syndrome. Indeed, they even reject many high stat applicants in the RD round.
If anything, Michigan has had a problem with overenrollment, not yield rates. This was a very public issue in 2015-16, when the school took steps to control this problem, including deferring more students in the EA round. https://www.michigandaily.com/section/news/class-2020-begins-receiving-acceptance-decisions. It’s just more difficult to be accepted EA these days, and so there will be more students (including high stats students) who get deferred.
Yes, there have been over enrollment issue every few years. This is partly due to the unexpected increase in yield rate. The yield rate has been steadily going up by ~0.5% per year. With the improved financial aids in recent years, the yield rate increased faster.
@happysnappy , I agree with you completely. The numbers and stats don’t lie. As I mentioned before, you can see from this thread that more than 90% of the OOS kids with very high stats who applied to LSA were deferred. I don’t believe that everyone of these highly qualified kids were dumb that don’t know how to write good essays or have great ECs. If they were really that bad, Michigan would have rejected them but based on prior year threads, most of these kids would be accepted before RD processing. What I think is that a good number of these kids would have applied ED/EA to other high ranked colleges and got accepted. Michigan does not want to give acceptances to those kids. Their expectation is that those kids will not bother to express interest or send mid year grades and they can weed them out. Most of those kids will revoke their applications as well. Michigan will consider only those kids who respond back with interest and send mid year grades. So higher probability of them committing if they are offered. If this not not Tufts Syndrome, I don’t know what it is.