We may get a better idea in a week or so when they announce the admission data. It has been behind schedule this year.
Everything where UM is concerned has been behind schedule…or “off schedule” depending on your perspective. Hope they get their s**t together next year. This year’s class has been treated rather unevenly to say the least. 
Hobothecat, that’s standard for most megaselective universities. You will have trouble with communications, trouble with timely response, and “unusual” acceptances and rejections. In fact, those are shared characteristics of all universities with highly selective admissions processes. No matter how well managed the admissions office becomes, you are going to have dissatisfied applicants.
Alexandre, I disagree. Not all universities, even mega ones or highly selective ones such as the Ivy League, are as disorganized as UM has been this year…and I have a pool of hundreds of students and dozens of universities to compare this to…which is not to say UM is the lone offender, nor that other universities don’t have other “issues” related to the process. I think based on this year, UM could learn a lesson or two about communication, including their social media posts (tumblr in particular was obnoxious, and I’m sure that was not their intent). I’ve noticed that you have a tendency to react to every observation that is less than glowing regarding UM with some defensiveness, rather than reflecting that perhaps a university with the reputation that UM has could benefit from some constructive criticism. I sure hope you either don’t work for the U, or aren’t reflective of the administration, because with that attitude nothing will improve, except perhaps the football team, although even that remains to be seen.
“Not all universities, even mega ones or highly selective ones such as the Ivy League, are as disorganized as UM has been this year.”
Well, perhaps it’s because Michigan is BOTH a “mega” and “highly selective” university that therein lies the problem?
“Alexandre, I disagree. Not all universities, even mega ones or highly selective ones such as the Ivy League, are as disorganized as UM has been this year”
I did not say that Michigan was the most effective, I merely said that all mega-selective universities are going to have problems when handling a large applicant pool.
“I have a pool of hundreds of students and dozens of universities to compare this to.”
That makes two of us. I too speak from experience.
“I’ve noticed that you have a tendency to react to every observation that is less than glowing regarding UM with some defensiveness, rather than reflecting that perhaps a university with the reputation that UM has could benefit from some constructive criticism.”
Constructive criticism I welcome, and lord knows Michigan needs to improve in this domain. I have often said that Michigan needs to tighten their admissions processes significantly, particularly where over-enrolment and timing is concerned. But it is unreasonable to expect a university that receives tens of thousands of applications to please all applicants,or to nor have lapses in judgment/communication. All very selective universities are going to accept a large number of “unworthy” applicants and reject a larger number of “perfect” applicants. In the race to protect the yield and admit only applicants who have clearly demonstrated their commitment to the university in question will be seriously considered.As for consistency in communications, there are going to be lapses and errors…some worse than others. Again, a university can work hard to avoid as many of those lapses as possible, but to eradicate them entirely is impossible.
“I sure hope you either don’t work for the U, or aren’t reflective of the administration, because with that attitude nothing will improve, except perhaps the football team, although even that remains to be seen.”
I definitely do not work for the U, so I cannot be reflective of the administration, but thank you for passing judgment on my attitude.
I’m not sure where unworthy candidates comes into play in this conversation stream. My comment was related to communication, and timing of announcements, not about who is or is not accepted. I have no opinion on that specific to UM, nor do I care to comment… Every competitive school, some more selective, some less, admits and denies a wide variety of students for many different reasons. For the record, my student was accepted into UM, perhaps you are assuming that is not the case since I am commenting in this thread.
I was covering the main reasons for complaint among applicants. Most of those do not have obvious remedies.
Hobo: several things worth noting: 1) with on the order of 50,000 applications, Michigan is going to goof up a few…if let’s say 3%, if so, then 1,500 applicants will find the process less than emotionally satisfying; thus while you may be familiar with the process, you may also be more familiar, purely as a matter of selection bias and raw statistics, with a handful of gaffes than with the general picture; 2) Michigan’s retention rate is stellar: 97%
( http://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/university-of-michigan-ann-arbor/academic-life/graduation-and-retention/# ), so it might be that the university wants to form an exceptional cohort and emphasizes the quality of the output over the the speed at which the output is produced.
Whether my assumption in #2 is applicable or not, Michigan seems to do a fine job relative to a job which is more art and rough carpentry than a scientific process. At the end of the game it seems that the matriculating kids love Michigan and Michigan loves and retains the kids it admitted. That is a pretty good outcome for both parties.
I agree with @Hobothecat that Michigan’s Tumblr this year was off putting. It created enough of an issue that the college counselor at our school called her contact at Umich and told them she felt it was providing information that was either ill informed or done with ill will. She says her contact indicated that they " didn’t disagree that our messages took a tone that wasn’t always appropriate" and that they would be working to improve this next year.
“…the college counselor at our school called her contact at Umich and told them she felt it was providing information that was either ill informed or done with ill will…”
“Ill Informed”…that is possible. Done with “ill will”…because the university wants to intentionally offend its “customer” base? Sounds like this person/counselor fundamentally lacks either social IQ or maturity. One wonders what sort of advice that “counselor” is proffering to his/her charges.
@blue85, I think you are passing judgment on the GC that @maya54 quotes, and again, any comment related to the U’s communication, or criticism, per se, is met with the criticism somehow being turned around on the messenger, similar to Alexandre’s reaction to my observation and critique of the U’s off tone messaging. I am glad to hear that not only did the GC call the U with feedback, but, importantly, it sounds like the U was aware, and intends to improve communication going forward. I work in marketing, I understand messaging and branding, and suggesting, as Alexandre does, that it is the bandwith of large applications and the size and stature of the U that is to blame for the communication failures, including social media posts that were not reflective of an institution of UMs stature, is not an excuse…and it sounds as though UM knows it needs to tighten this up. It can be done whether they have 5,000 or 50,000 applicants, it requires strong leadership, standard processes and procedures, staff training, communication from the top down, and hiring the right people. I think there’s an exciting opportunity here for the right person to make improvements next year in the admissions office that will be tangible.
Actually it may or may not be behind schedule for the news article. As there is a new president at UMich last year, the arrangement of these news articles may be changed too. Obviously, the admission procedure this year has been changed.
“@blue85, I think you are passing judgment on the GC that @maya54 quotes, and again, any comment related to the U’s communication, or criticism, per se, is met with the criticism somehow being turned around on the messenger, similar to Alexandre’s reaction to my observation and critique of the U’s off tone messaging.”
I see an assertion made about the university acting with ill-will on the basis of the tumbler page. I see no support via a snippet or exemplar from that page (or pages). I also find it unlikely that the university would act, intentionally, with “ill will”. Who working for the university would intentionally do that and why? I see no support for this theory. As to your post, you are turning around my statement as well: I find the proposition strange, I’m curious as to support for the contention, I’ve made that point elliptically, and now you are challenging my challenge. Again, there is no support other than your word as to the underlying events. I’m too empirical to take that at face value without some support. If you make a statement as the first affirmative you have to be prepared to back it up with facts, not with unsourced and undocumented assertions.
“ I am glad to hear that not only did the GC call the U with feedback, but, importantly, it sounds like the U was aware, and intends to improve communication going forward. I work in marketing, I understand messaging and branding, and suggesting, as Alexandre does, that it is the bandwith of large applications and the size and stature of the U that is to blame for the communication failures, including social media posts that were not reflective of an institution of UMs stature, is not an excuse…and it sounds as though UM knows it needs to tighten this up. It can be done whether they have 5,000 or 50,000 applicants, it requires strong leadership, standard processes and procedures, staff training, communication from the top down, and hiring the right people. I think there’s an exciting opportunity here for the right person to make improvements next year in the admissions office that will be tangible.”
So you work in marketing and you think that there is an opportunity which you have somehow identified. So, in sum, you have made an assertion without support and work in a domain which would allow you to benefit from your criticism. So my points remain: 1) show some support for your assertion; 2) take yourself out of the running for a job which requires strong leadership in your field and I’ll take your criticism under advisement; 3) yes, this process can probably be improved, but suggesting scale invariance in a service business is farcical.
Michigan may indeed have problems which require fixing, but if you don’t understand how anecdotal your comments are, you don’t understand statistics. With 50,000 applicants, satisfying 2.5 standard deviations below the mean would leave over 300 dissatisfied “customers”. Finding 300 out of 50,000 kids dissatisfied is pretty anecdotal. In the same spirit, you never addressed the 97% retention rate which Michigan has been able to achieve without your “strong leadership”.
The " ill informed or ill will " was rhetorical. It was made in reference to the " no admissions decisions tonight tumblr post that was followed by a 12:00 am release. Several of us who volunteer in the office discussed that we found that and other tumblr posts off putting. The College counselor said she was given the impression by her contact that it was a situation of being too cute by half…not an internal communication failure. And that U MICH recognizes it’s tumblr needs to do a better job in the future to not give the impression it’s toying with applicants.
This doesn’t mean michigan was intentionally trying to do something bad. Just that they may not have considered that students under the stress of an application process aren’t keen on this sort of tone. I should add that this contact was from what I understand someone who the counselor has had a Longstanding relationship with. Not any sort of official spokesperson.
@maya54 if u volunteer at the office, do u have any idea about when the waitlist applicants will get their decision?
@niboss96. Sorry if I wasn’t clear. I volunteer in the office at my kids HS. several parents help out to make sure all the paperwork is in order, help answer routine questions from kids. We monitor info from colleges where we have heavy application rates ( about 100 of our students apply) and help the overworked college counselors lighten their load. As our seniors have graduated our job is over.
“The " ill informed or ill will " was rhetorical.”
You should explore the fact that putting quotes around a statement means NOT that you are making air-quotes, but are quoting someone. If you are NOT quoting someone, implying a quote where none exists is inherently deceptive and dishonest: either the person said something about “ill will” or they did not…leaving aside of course the telepathy which it would take to reach that conclusion. You also don’t appear to understand the proper use of rhetorical…it has several meanings, but one not appropriate in the context in which you are using it…i.e., where persuasion is achieved with a misrepresentation.
“It was made in reference to the " no admissions decisions tonight tumblr post that was followed by a 12:00 am release. Several of us who volunteer in the office discussed that we found that and other tumblr posts off putting.”
Sure, because in light of no release at all, a late release is a bad thing? Help me out: I would assume no release is bad in your view but the earliest possible release for the next day is also bad? Would a post of 00:01 qualify as no release for the prior day? Did the university miss your approbation by not ensuring that the clock had rolled over to the next day?
“The College counselor said she was given the impression by her contact that it was a situation of being too cute by half…not an internal communication failure. And that U MICH recognizes it’s tumblr needs to do a better job in the future to not give the impression it’s toying with applicants.”
Hilarious: an unnamed contact of undetermined dimension as to expertise is offering up a speculation which is unsupported by a University proclamation and processed through the emotional lens of an unpaid volunteer whose unique expertise in telepathy and anthropomorphism consists of exactly…what? I’ve looked at the tumblr and it appears to be written and pitched at level consistent with the day KIDS communicate with each other: it is funny, snarky, and sarcastic. It takes serious comprehension deficits to see the tone as anything other than facetious. If you want the institutional ethos to be more sober sided, well fine, let the stress which pervades the process grow in direct proportion to which people such as you believe it should. That will be a fine stress reducer.
“This doesn’t mean michigan was intentionally trying to do something bad.”
Exactly my point above: your disapprobation is appears to be at variance with the knowable facts and made up of whole cloth.
"Just that they may not have considered that students under the stress of an application process aren’t keen on this sort of tone. "
The entire tumlr is written in that fashion. I assume that there is a degree of free will at play here: people who are about to become adults need to become a bit labile.
“I should add that this contact was from what I understand someone who the counselor has had a Longstanding relationship with. Not any sort of official spokesperson.”
Yeah, so Feris Beuller’s sister’s brother’s gardner’s cousin has heard that…therefore…Michigan must be toying with the tender emotions of those who would matriculate. I smell a lawsuit…
Yes I was quoting someone. I used rhetorical for this common meaning : (of a question) asked in order to produce an effect or to make a statement rather than to elicit information.
The idea was that it seemed Michigan knew that there would indeed be a release “tonight” but was being sly ( Midnight is technically tomorrow…not " tonight" ha ha ). The same with a post saying hey stop being obsessed with a certain day of the week. Decisions can come out any day. And then the next release was the very day students were focused on. There was something about these posts that felt not quote nice. If you read the tumblr carefully there seemed to have been a definite shift after the " not tonight one" To a more mature and helpful tone. I personally believe that our counselor wasn’t the only one who mentioned their dissatisfaction. But no I don’t have any proof.
“The idea was that it seemed Michigan knew that there would indeed be a release “tonight” but was being sly ( Midnight is technically tomorrow…not " tonight” ha ha ). "
I guess I have much more to add to this thread beyond what I’ve posted further above, but I will congratulate you on your telepathy and knowing what is in the minds of the various people you have no direct interaction with nor direct contact with the material facts used by people behind the wall to make their decisions. With that telepathy, I would think the stock market would provide a more ready focus for your talents than the college admissions game.