I’m not an extremely competitive candidate for umich and I got deferred. Should I send a loci or is that mostly for students that have high test scores etc, that would go to an Ivy League school?
@FrenchHorn240 thanks!
Writing a LOCI wouldn’t hurt. If U-M is your first choice, you should make that clear. Don’t reiterate your EC’s/awards, but include new ones (if applicable).
Guessing from your handle, did you apply to LSA for FTVM?
@marime32 My son is still waiting for his packet (in the mail), and we live in-state.
My son is also still waiting for his packet (TX)
Actually I applied to LSA for biology or some sort of science, I plan on using their pre-dental courses. I just work at a cinema lol
Decision: Accepted to LSA
In-State, low income school
Female, minority
*On a scale of 1-10 (10 being phenomenal)
SAT: 1310
GPA: Weighted 4.2, Unweighted 3.9
Extracurriculars: 8 (President of multiple clubs, over 500 volunteering hours, Active in and out of high school)
Essays: 9 (Very unique among people who applied from my school)
Lots of competitive kids in my grade who had higher SAT scores and similar extracurriculars were deferred. Not sure why. Maybe essays?
Hope this helps.
@mckate I live in-state and also have yet to receive my packet.
Has anyone registered for Campus Day?
@romns116 yes, my DD and I registered for Campus Day session (LSA) on Monday, Feb 25. Saw that Michigan was playing Sparty in hoops on the 24th, so we’re planning to come in on Sunday and watch the game (we’re OOS)
Nice! DS just registered for Feb 22 (LSA Honors). We’re OOS also (TX). Great idea catching a game! Checking now to see if any games are on while we’re there.
Edit: There’s a women’s basketball game vs Rutgers Thursday night, but we may stay for the Sparty game 
Registered my son for LSA Campus Day Feb 1
accepted: LSA
OOS; fem; fin aid; no legacy
1520 supercore 720 eng 790 math
gpa: 4.01 UW:3.8 (3 aps jr year, 4 aps senior yr)
ec: v strong, focused on my major, leadership roles in serious ones
essays: 9.5 (risky essays but guess it worked!!)
recs: strong ones from teachers w/ different perspectives of me (submitted 3/4 teacher, 1/2 optional)
strength: definitely the essays and recs–alot of people with higher stats were denied in my school
Son still hasn’t received packet. Those of you going to Campus Day, did you visit the campus previously for the info session and tour? We already have, so my son is debating if it’s worth going to campus day…
Never visited. First time on campus, first time in the MidWest/NorthEast. We’re coming from TX, so climate will probably be a shock, but DS says he likes cold.
@mckate I am encouraging my S19 to attend even though we went to regular and engineering info sessions this summer. We are in-state, so it isn’t too hard to get there, and I hope it will be helpful to him to hear from chemical engineering faculty and meet other admitted students. He is excited about Mich. but hasn’t made any decisions yet.
@midwest mom9 My son has decided but I was thinking the same, that it might be worthwhile to go to the LSA-specific sessions. We’re in-state as well, so it’s easy enough and probably worthwhile. Not much else to do around here in the winter/early spring anyway! @romns116 February in Michigan will probably be a huge climate shock for y’all! Bundle up!
does anyone know if international students receive packets?
My Kinesiology major son, in-state, has also not received his packet.
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 1560 800 Math 760 R/W Essay: 8, 6, 7 (21)
ACT (breakdown):
SAT II: Math 2 - 800; Chemistry - 780; USH - 760
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Weighted GPA: 4.44 (before 1st sem senior, 4.5 after)
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): school only gives decile so I’m in top 10%
AP (place score in parenthesis): BC (5), AB Subscore (5), Chem (5), APUSH (5), CompSci A (5)
IB (place score in parenthesis): nada
Senior Year Course Load: AP Chemistry Teacher Assistant, AP English Lit, AP Spanish Lang, PE Racket Sports (lmao), AP Stats, AP Bio, AP US Gov’t, AP MicroEcon
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):
-Congressional Award Medal from US Congress
-Recognition Certification from World Taekwondo Headquarters
-Taekwondo medals at comps
-AP Scholar w/ Honor
-NMS Letter of Commendation
(tbh nothing too big)
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
-Interned at Stanford Medicine’s Department of Ophthalmology to work under renowned PI for eye and heart research.
-Taekwondo - 8yrs, 2nd degree black belt (3rd IP), instructed classes, competition team by audition, local medals, awarded Iron Tiger (ik sounds cheesy) for being first student to complete an extremely rigorous examination, National Dan.
-Lead organizer of TEDx event and licensed by TED
-School science club to help prep for olympiads and internships (Founder + President)
-Teen Advisory Board Member for city library, planned large events for city, team thanked by mayor for work
-Library volunteering: 150+hrs
-Varsity Parliamentary Debate team, won 40+ official rounds, competed at prestigious invitationals like NPDI, member of NSDA, Seal of Honor, Merit, and Excellence
-Orchestra (violin) 6yrs, played in paid entry concerts, ranked 2nd in section
-World Core Scholar tutor for humanities, tutored underclassmen for writing and such, chosen by teachers by being a top student in humanities
-Jr Olympic Archery Courses from USA Archery instructors
-Officer of Volunteer Coordinator for United Veterans Coalition
-another 1 -2 small officer positions
-Worked with a professor in local community college to build a device to measure fruit ripeness using chlorophyll degradation patterns.
Job/Work Experience:
-Stanford Internship
-Taekwondo teaching (couldn’t get official job tho I was offered cause of Visa)
Volunteer/Community service:
-Library Volunteering + Teen Advisory Board (150+ hrs)
Summer Activities:
-Stanford Internship
-Helping run taekwondo classes
-traveled a lot
Essays (rating 1-10, details):
Common App essay: 8-9 (closer to 9) Spent a lot of time, thought it was pretty original, but could either be a “good” essay or an “amazing” essay depending on adcomm.
Why U Mich Essay: 10/10
Activity Essay: 8/10
Community Essay 10/10
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
Teacher Rec #1: 10/10 for sure. AmLit H teacher she’s one of the nicest/most understanding people I know and had a realllly close bond with her.
Teacher Rec #2: 9.5/10 AP Calc BC teacher, we were pretty close and I hung out at her room pretty often. Got her into a FB math memes page lmao
Teacher Rec #3 9+/10. AP Chem teacher. I TA for him now and did really well in his class. I know he wrote a pretty good one just don’t know if it’s a 9 or 10.
Counselor Rec: 8/10. Our school counselors don’t know anyone so we had to submit a questionnaire and get interviewed. My interview went really well and pretty personal, and I’m sure he wrote a decently good one
Additional Rec:
-Stanford PI/Professor: 10/10. Spent 3ish months at his lab, and he understands my goals and how important any boost from rec letters is. He was actually a humanities major as an undergrad and ik he wrote a really good one
-Teen Advisory Board mentor and library volunteering coordinator: 10/10. Worked for him a long time and do a lot.
Interview: (8/10) Bit shorter than expected but good. Thought I gave solid responses and slipped in jokes so we laughed regularly.
Other
I made the science club to help people get ready for science (Chem/Bio etc) olympiads because of my backstory. I prepped for months and spent hours into the night to study. But during signups I found out that my Visa status doesn’t let me participate. I was p devastated having wasted so much time, but I wanted to help people who could participate.
Applied for Financial Aid?: always
Intended Major: biomedical engineering
State (if domestic applicant): CA
Country (if international applicant): USA
School Type: 610 population super competitive public school in Cupertino
Ethnicity: Indian
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: 200k ish
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): nope
Reflection
Strengths: ec’s, grades and scores, courseload, rec letters
Weaknesses: no big awards
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Had the grades, a few great ec’s, and amazing re
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Acc: U Mich, U Minn, U Wisc Madison. Waiting on a ■■■■ ton of colleges for RD.
General Comments:
I feel like I worked really hard for the last 4 yrs. I was quiet and introverted, which was augmented by my move to CA from TX at start of 8th grade. I broke and remolded myself so many times to get to where I am. I know everyone has put in effort, and every single person who submitted a college app (and even if u didn’t cause of reasons) is a champ. You got through it, and you’re a survivor. Never let anyone tell you otherwise. You WILL be successful.