Thanks for the clarity on that – as a follow-up, does attending school specific prospective students events (or zooms in this time) factor into the decisions from a “demonstrated interest” perspective?
… and then an inside baseball question (pun intended). I’ve heard that some schools/colleges at U-M don’t save spots for recruited athletes, while others are willing to hold spots for recruited athletes. Is there truth to that?
I talked to admissions and I’d say the earliest would be 3/26. She made it very clear there would be no releases this month or early/mid march.
So then there’s virtually no chance that postponed applicants get into Ross
Honestly I don’t know. But she said no waves this month of early march. Maybe earliest will be 3/12 or 3/19?
In the past years people got into Ross right to the end.
Well that’s disappointing, honestly we need to plan visits over spring break and this doesn’t really give us much time to plan a flight. This is the entire reason we applied EA was to be able to narrow it down AFTER we got acceptances with visiting only the ones they need to.
An evaluator could look up the student’s history if they wanted, but an applicant’s participation in an event does not appear on the file that’s being read. The Common App supplement has a section where students can indicate they’ve done a campus visit or recruitment event, or if they write about it in an essay, that would be make it viewable to the reader.
There may have been a time where spaces were saved in some schools for recruited athletes, but that’s not the case now. It’s more like a certain number of total athletes to expect/hold for each semester.
Though U-M isn’t offering tours this spring anyway. Were you thinking of just checking out campus on your own?
Yes, I’m not about to make the second largest financial investment of my life (other than my home) without looking at the campus even if it’s a self tour.
For me it’s the whole “we are going to do things differently than every other year, but we aren’t going to tell you that explicitly anywhere” that really makes this entire process way more stressful than it needs to be.
Unfortunately, it appears that many colleges are taking the same approach. Why is it so difficult to be more transparent on the schedule at least?
Do you think it is ever possible for an OOS “postponed” LSA-Ross-preferred applicant to wind up getting into Ross after all…or has that ship already sailed?
Depending on application essays, stats and Ross portfolio absolutely possible. Every year there are several deferred OOS applicants who get in at the very end.
This year sucks all around and colleges are going to just wait until the very end if they can. Two years ago I was beyond thrilled when I was done with each of my twins in mid December and we could just ignore everything for the next few months. Our biggest headache seriously was the LORs my daughter had to request for sorority rush! Until December though, with twins, it had been so stressful. I knew back then though, that this would be my easy kid. OMG, how wrong I was. Thank you covid!
Back then I remember watching parents crop up on the parent fb pages after their kids got in off waitlists and thinking, “thank god that is not us” as well as “that is never going to be us”. Why can’t a kid just be happy where they end up? One kid in their class I believe changed schools 3x when they were taken off multiple waitlists. UM is guilty of doing that to kids when they under accepted kids that year.
Now of course fast forward to this year, and schools are now holding the cards and in some way making Covid even more miserable for our kids. Protecting their yields, worrying about how many they accept so they don’t over/under accept. I get it. Some of it is caused by the TO issue, some of it is also caused by the students themselves applying to too many schools, but that’s their right. That said, there’s no reason UM which is not an IVY and doesn’t have the same agreement with it’s peer schools, needs to keep kids holding on like this. They absolutely have a list of kids already that they know they will never accept. Just reject them and let them move on. It’s sort of how UT doesn’t reject anyone until the very end. Makes no sense and leaves people hoping, and planning for visits, etc.
In our case, we visited 3 years ago, and haven’t been back, but may go back if there’s an acceptance. But, we are going to visit some schools over spring break where we have acceptances that are a plane ride away and squeeze in some other drive bys for schools my son is on the Waitlist for and just waiting for an RD decision as well. We also decided that some of his lower admit schools that he is into we have arranged an in person visit for in April. If he gets into one of his more deisrable choices he will just cancel that one and no skin or money off our backs. I thought about it and realized that seems to be a much easier way to go about it then run all over the place now. It’s senior year and if later he has to miss a class or two, no big deal, plus he can always log in remotely. With most schools not expecting commitments until May 3 that time will have to just be used for that. If no UM then it makes it even easier. These days flights are also changeable without penalty so that also makes things a lot easier and something to consider. But I’m with you, the schools are not doing kids any favors and it’s so frustrating.
For me too, I think just being up front with a “this is our anticipation for this year and here is why”. Other schools are extremely transparent about this, so I’m left with the whole notion of this action is more like they are forgetting who is the buyer and who is the seller.
I’ve told my husband this has truly soured me to a few schools for sure and made me see others in a very positive light. Mainly it’s just if you know a kid will be denied, just deny them. Don’t string them along. It’s really unethical in the long run.
Agree, yet the same schools do it over and over every year. The problem is that we as parents have one perspective of it, but our kids have a completely different perspective and often times if it’s their #1 school, they are happy taking the risk of waiting until the last minute, or dealing with a crappy dorm, or random roommate or not knowing where they may be going in July! Ugh, so not me, but I am thankful this is my last kid, not high maintenance and a boy. No sorority crap to deal with or drama like that. So however it shakes out it shakes and if I somehow have to figure out getting my kids to 3 different states on the same day to move in next Fall, I will be a rockstar mom and do it! LOL
If this has taught me anything, it taught me my kids can manage, considering the one went back to Texas by herself since there was no way we were going anywhere near there to move her in and then try to go to NY and quarantine with our other daughter if we had to first quarantine in IL for 2 weeks. So these kids sure are resilient and while we don’t like this crap, most of them figure it out and hopefully in 6 months, we too will be over it and be happy parents and happy with their choices! Maybe not our pocket books, but at least have happy kids!
As @danloeb mentions above, UMich is still reviewing RD apps. And I’m sure it’s due to a significant increase in number of apps UMich has received. Like many other top colleges. The UC’s here in CA received a 16% ish increase, IIRC.
We’ve heard rumors of just the EA apps increasing anywhere from 6,000-22,000 apps over their more recent normal of 40,000 EA apps. And then add on the RD apps.
It’s a strange year with Covid and test optional candidates, but I’d cut UMich a little slack, but that’s just me.
But at the same time when you are comparing schools every school he’s applied to has had a dramatic increase in applications. Many 25%+ more applications, they still figured it out? Most were still on their same basic timelines as prior years. So the ones that aren’t you have to question is it an institutional flaw (also highlighted in how some schools have handled covid) or is it covid?
I think what is stressing people out is that the decisions are being pushed way back (by lots of schools), but the commit date really hasn’t changed, so it’s hard to make any plans for visits (and sooo many kids haven’t been able to do visits). Kind of a perfect storm, sigh.
Unfortunately, I anticipate that the stress will continue beyond May. I would love to hear from Admission officers regarding the confidence in their school’s yield model. From my own experience, we added on a few target schools and maybe one or two more reaches. How many students held off a year rather that go remote? With solid credentials (35 ACT 12 AP (all 5s), Nation Merit Finalist, solid extracurriculars), we’ve been deferred or waitlisted at schools with non-binding EA. I’m guessing that with all of the extra applications in the pipeline, waitlists are going to come into play and trickle down through the summer.