Two years ago my son and I went to a traveling college show. It was Michigan, Berkeley, Vanderbilt, Northwestern and I think Washington University St Louis all together in one room. They all went over how they make admission choices. They went over like 5 real applications. It was very eye opening who they choose and why. High scores /stats was only one factor. They let us vote also. Everyone picked the wonder kid with high stats and great essay and ecc. No one picked another perfect score kid with poor essay and OK ecc. Everyone picked a 3.6/ 31ACT kid that had to work to help his family and unbelievable essay. Then there were two kids. Bubble kids and it was really tough to either accept or deny the two kids. They described the process and what readers and admissions people go through. I personally would not want to be one of those people. I think it’s much harder to make a school diversified class then what we all think.
@Colaboy82 @arewetherenow @2018hurryxx @Jm4042 They did reject applicants during EA.
@Fukuro I haven’t seen evidence that they have. On their blog describing the early action results, there were only two options: deferment or acceptance. Also, I believe some people called the office and they said they did not reject this round. Don’t quote me on the second part but their blog saying that is true. I attached the link.
https://admissions.umich.edu/explore-visit/blog/youve-received-admissions-decision-now-what
@Colaboy82 I have a friend who got rejected. I did not see his rejection letter as I did not want to pry, but I don’t see why somebody would lie about getting rejected.
@Colaboy82 I agree that it would be too late if one wait for the EA result before trying to improve their test score, but why would they wait if they ave a less than ideal score to begin with. Many students would try to improve their score while submitting application. For schools that reject applicants in EA, those with weaker score would not apply EA anyway. As it does not harm to apply EA at UMich, they would just apply and expect to be deferred anyway. The applicant pool is self selective that not many are totally out of the admission range. If you look at the almanac, there are around 5% enrolled freshmen has GPA below 3.5 or ACT below 25. There are also around 20% with GPA below 3.7 or ACT below 29. So around 15% have GPA between 3.5 and 3.7 or ACT between 26 and 29. The percentage is low but not totally impossible. Part of these students are recruited or for certain majors that are less academic score dependent but certainly not all 20% or 1300+ of freshmen.
If you applied to any of the other top 25 schools you will not hear ANYTHING from most of them until the end of March. And that included anyone deferred from those schools. I guess some of you would rather Michigan followed the practice of those schools? And to say you would rather be rejected? Or you’re going to pull your application because you’re tired of waiting? That’s a little bizarre. I understand anxiety, but there is an awful lot of entitlement showing through in these posts. Do you think they care if you withdraw your application? There are 59,999 other interested students. As others have said, just assume you will not hear until the end of the March, like thousands and thousands of students are doing at schools all across this country.
http://prntscr.com/ik8ww7 Is this a bad or good sign? 33 ACT and a 3.6 GPA UW with a straight A sr year
@jj1999 That is all you need to do for the LoCI. The rest is out of your control.
I’m curious why people keep sending a LOCI when the deferred letters the applicants received ask that they send in their midterm grades and that the most successful applicants don’t send in beyond what they’ve asked for? Our college counselor has told my son that they’re looking for kids that follow directions. Do we really think a LOCI can help and not hurt ur chances? Just curious.
@Crazy for candy - There is a difference between a short letter saying that Michigan is your first choice and you will be sending in those grades as soon as they are available (arguably following the directions)- vs sending in an update ed resume, or video of yourself singing the Michigan fight song (not following the directions). If you think about it, in the latter case, you’ve given them something additional they need to review (taking more of their time) in deciding on your application. At my S’s large public school, sending in the mid-term grades is done automatically. It shows no extra genuine interest on the student’s part.
@Crazy for candy
For everyone who continues to ask: why a LOCI? Consider your application as the resume and their communication of “deferral” as the job interview. Your LOCI is the thank you letter for their time, and the opportunity to “ask for the job” before they complete their hiring process.
It is not sending in more than what is asked, it is a courteous gesture to express continued interest - aka letter of continued interest: LOCI
BUT…if you haven’t sent one in by now, the moment has passed.
Did they release a big wave of admissions on March 3rd last year? If so, that was also the Friday of their spring break. In that case, the chances of a wave of admissions this Friday looks very good
A big wave of admission was on March 10th last year.
OK. In that case, it will probably be March 9th this year.
@billcsho they clearly did not take adequate time to review each applicant’s application, otherwise they would have at least rejected some kids. they had to have expected high application numbers this year. they should do something about it instead of moving 32,000 applicants into the regular decision pool because they didn’t have sufficient time to view everyone’s application.
edit: review everyone’s application for more than five minutes*
@curveboi Rejection has the lower priority than admission and they usually release them in the later rounds. That is always the case. When they had 50k applications, they hired over 50 readers, so the ratio is less than 1000 application per reader. If less than 5 min as you said, it would be all done in less than 10 days.
@billcsho My question is this … once the reader reviews the application what happens? Do they make the decision of acceptance/deferral/rejection?
@Brownsl You should read the article I linked a few weeks ago from an interview with the adcom. Basically they would match it with the adcom’s review and made decisions.
Would like to read tha article @billcsho but searching in CC is not that great.