I think they are using the map on the link I provided to show what states historically have the most applicants.
https://admissions.umich.edu/apply/freshmen-applicants/student-profile
@yikesyikesyikes it’s an opinion and unless you have objective data to support your post, then yours is an opinion too. 
Do you have a breakdown of applicants by state?
@Knowsstuff @Ezga3969
Note that the bold 1’s in that map indicate > 1,000 students, so those are the states with the MOST students, not the least.
In the old Michigan point system for admission (referenced in multiple court documents, news articles, and members of the CC community) being from an underrepresented state provided a boost for applicants. Feel free to look that up online and read about it if you are not familiar. Those aforementioned states are OVERrepresented. As Michigan is even more concerned with geographic diversity today (as evidenced in their strategic plan), it is safe to make the assertion that OOS odds of admission continues to be significantly tougher from states like CA, NY, NJ, IL, and they were certainly tougher under the old point system.
It is tougher for applicants from the similar stats/profiles from CA/NJ/NY to be admitted to Michigan than states like from Alabama/Dakotas. Denying that is sticking your head in the sand. I am not saying I disagree with this policy, I enjoy the diversity - but that is how it is.
Honestly I’m not sticking my head in the sand. My opinion is based upon the following.
UMich cannot admit students based upon race, thus isn’t UMich more likely to find a far more culturally diverse and potentially wealthier pool of students from CA, NY, NJ, IL, etc., and not from AL, SD, ND, WY, etc. As a sample of one, I believe I know the only student on that student map from WY, he/she is blonde and Caucasian. 
UMich is need blind, so it does not consider wealth like that. In fact, its strategic plan and how certain endowment funds are earmarked actually incentivize admissions to have preference for students of lower socioeconomic class (the old point system also did this), and rightfully so. The exception to this are development case admits (family who have or will donate a large sum of money to the University). There are more students from CA, NY, NJ, etc. simply because 1) those states have pretty high populations of high school graduates, 2) more of them are in a position to apply to OOS schools, and 3) UM Alumni are better represented in those states than other states.
@momzilla2d…I think we are saying the same thing. The map is showing where accepted applicants are historically from. It has been pretty much the same for a long time.
@sushiritto and @yikesyikesyikes i don’t know what proof to offer up but there is no question coming from one of the maps over accepted states as already accepted is very competitive. Coming from Chicago (Illinois) people are very surprised my son’s at Michigan since the competition is very tough. He is very deserving to be there but we constantly hear from others how smart he must be since he got accepted there from Chicago area. We constantly hear how many people didn’t get accepted there. He is reminded of this and to make the most of his time there since he is lucky to be there… But still very deserving to be there… Lol…
I think the Virgin Island and Puerto Rico have few people… I bet you if your a capable student from those areas your chances should increase.
Here’s my memory of the last admission’s cycle (Class of 2022).
Naviance for our local NorCal HS for the Class of 2021, showed 24 students were accepted from a total of 68 applicants to UMich. It’s a highly ranked (very) culturally diverse CA high school in a reasonably wealthy city, but 35% acceptance rate was well above UMich’s national average of 26% +/- two years ago.
I believe UMich is looking for culturally diverse class and at least in my sample of one high school, they found a large pool of students to select from. That’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it.
Your local NorCal high school is likely super competitive with many high stats students - it is silly to use it as a benchmark. It would be silly to use one school as a benchmark… period. With 24 students accepted, your school likely qualifies as an out-of-state feeder school to Michigan (and thus, an anomaly). I could easily provide a counterexample of my very culturally diverse Central NJ HS (which is not only VERY culturally diverse, but socioeconomically diverse and diverse in many other ways), for which I was the only one accepted and to matriculate to Michigan out of about 25 applicants. Feel free to stick to your opinion, but most people involved in college admissions/counseling would agree that admission from overrepresented states like CA are more competitive than from underrepresented states - and I have provided hard evidence to support that Michigan has historically operated this way and almost certainly still does.
ToS states CC is not a debate society. Thus at the risk of being moderated, I’ll move on.
Deferred from CoE
Weighted GPA: 4.49
Unweighted GPA: 3.98
(top 3% of class of ~400)
1460 SAT (780 math)
white, female, OOS (virginia)
9 AP’s (including senior year)
ECs include:
founding and being treasurer of a volunteer organization.
consistently volunteering with my church and animal shelter
president of robotics club
girls who code/coding club
4 year varsity athlete
president of spanish club (i am biliterate, certified by state)
treasurer of two school clubs
spanish and national honor societies
very strong teacher rec from my physics teacher and counselor
essays were very strong
by my user you can clearly tell mich wasn’t my top choice but i definitely wouldn’t have minded going to umich. guess we’ll see what happens
Just thought it was funny and I had to share - the Naviance College Fit meter labeled UM as a “safety” school for me with an 88% fit … if only haha
Applied for Aerospace Engineering, 3.6 GPA unweighted, 9 APs including BC Calculus and Physics C. 1480 SAT. 10 seasons of sports in high school - Cross Country, Indoor Track, Outdoor Track. Achieved the rank of Eagle Scout. Essays I thought were pretty good, rec letter from counselor and AP Physics teacher. Hoping for the best going into RD pool.
3.6 unweighted is low for Michigan engineering. Avg is 3.93… Cross your fingers and send in hopefully great senior grades.
also depends in-state or out
The stats are great for most of you. Recently, I was talking to an alumnus about the reasons for deferral to students who are good and fall at the upper range of the class profile of the recent admits. He is a very succesful alumnus and his reply was: " In cases of prospective students who are very qualified, the admission staff look for the past track record of students of similar profile and how many of them finally had accepted the admission offer. Also, they look into the past record of the schools from where these students are applying and how they responded to admission offers. What is the use of offering admission to students who will ultimately decline the offer on grounds of prestige and other tags which are not linked to quality of education?" I think he has a valid point. Those who are expressing their genuine feelings on the issue of deferral, in many cases, will not hesitate to dump Michigan for some other universities, primarily, due to the perceived brand recognition. Do all the students really evaluate all the aspects before taking the decision?
So it basically goes back to the issue of yield protection. Really wish they offered an ED path so that students who genuinely consider UMich their first choice don’t have to deal with this.
Ezga3969. There seems to be rumors every year that Michigan might go private. They dont get much if any local government money. They have like $11 billion dollars and think recently they just raised another $5 billion. (you would think they could reduce everybody’s tuition by like 30% without skipping a beat… Lol)
ED is not only for students that have the “interest” to go. They typically also have the money to go since a lot of times you don’t find out about financial aid/merit to later on in the process. This would shut out a lot of students to even think about applying ED. Michigan is already like the school that parents have the highest wages. Michigan’s initiative seems to be to increase the amount of students that can compete academically but not financially. Hence more applicants apply and more applications to read through hence the deferrals on an extreme amount of capable students. More money to disadvantage students.
I really don’t know what the answer is. They could attempt to add more housing and then accept more students. But how large do they want to become?
Would save the Michigan taxpayers at least $300 million a year probably but would require a Michigan constitutional amendment I believe. I also believe that privatization is not anywhere on the Regents or the admins radar screen. If they did privatize then they could also raise tuition and wouldn’t be locked in to any percentage increases set by the state of Michigan however. ED is highly unlikely. Instate students don’t need it because if they get in and can afford it they will for the most part attend unless they choose a different instate and get a huge merit scholarship and many out of state students are seeking tuition discounts in the form of merit money so would not want to give that up to potentially commit to a college that only provides financial aid based on need and where they would pretty much know what the costs were going to be before they applied. There’s nothing inherently “wrong” with how admissions operates other than some students don’t think they got a fair shake during the application cycle which stretches from September to May. 42,000 is a big uni and Michigan has two of them that are gigantic research unis, so while they have grown in the last decade, at one time the freshman entering class was around 5,000 it is absolutely very controlled growth regardless of the number of applications while Michigan State last year enrolled 8400 freshman out of around 35,000 applications and just over 23,000 acceptances.
Does anyone know how many decisions they release Feb 1st or 2nd?