The LSA Honors college application has to be turned in by April 12th, do you think that the Admissions office will take this into consideration when they are releasing decisions? Since according to their timeline it looks possible that a student could only have a couple days to work on the Honors Application if they did not receive a decision till early April.
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UMich has released their EA decisions, one month + delayed on 1/29. Typically, UMich has RD releases on or about 2/1, 3/1 and 4/1.
The 2/1 RD release was obviously eliminated. Right now, UMich could release RD decisions next Friday 3/5, which would put the 1st wave of RD decisions this year right around the typical 2nd wave on or about 3/1.
“Institutional flaw”? Right now, I’m working from home due to Covid, I wish folks would just have some patience, because I’m sure UMich has made accommodations for their employees in the AO.
As for my D21, we’re waiting for decisions from all the UC’s, which will come mid-to-late March.
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80,000+ applications. 50,000+ applications for Early Action. Reviewing applications with no test scores for the first time. Some high school transcripts listing just pass/fail grades for second half of junior year. Assessing students’ transitions to virtual learning platforms with varying levels of connectivity. Predicting yield of in state and out of state students during a pandemic, where few families have been able to visit campus before applying or after being admitted. Uncertainty of how the fall term will be administered or what kind of capacity the dorms might have. Salary and hiring freezes for their staff. I’m not too shocked that some things are working a bit differently this year.
Back in July it was stated that Early Action decisions would be released by late January, and deferred or Regular Decision students would hear by early April. So far that’s been delievered.
Serious question- would people prefer they only do two rounds of decisions? I’d think students being admitted appreciate knowing a bit sooner and having more time to visit and look at the financial aid implications. The downside is that with each passing round, students not admitted or denied feel more strung along and disheartened.
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I think more waves and knowing sooner would be best.
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Well, there’s a mic 
drop. Wow.
The last 2-3 years has been around 65,000-66,000 total apps.
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It’s really not just UM that is having this issue. UM made it clear that applying EA only meant you would have a decision sooner this year, not that it was more advantageous to apply EA in terms of being accepted which is what many schools do. The issue to me and I can’t say whether I speak for others or not, is that schools that have some sort of a rolling release of decisions, which it sounds like UM does in the past, and the HAIL email also seems to imply decisions won’t all be on one date, should just reject students on those dates as well instead of stringing them along until the end. If Ross already knows a kid they’re going to reject, which I’m sure they do, then just tell the kid. My kid is deferred, has a HAIL interview next week, so I have no idea where he stands, but if they already know they’re going to reject him, them don’t waste our time. Or for an RD candidate they know that of, and we all know there are plenty like that who shoot way too high, then do it at the first wave and just let them move on. That is the issue with a lot of these schools, not just UM. UM however, has a history, not just this year, of protecting their yield, and then going into their waitlist. Everyone knows UM is a great school. They don’t need a magazine like US News and World Report or other publications to tell them so to worry about their yields, nor does any other high caliber school like this. In fact, their biggest issue this year is going to be how they come out of their handling of Covid. Perhaps if they were more aggressive with their acceptances they might have gotten more to commit early on, but instead people may have a wait and see attitude. I know UM isn’t high on my son’s list, I think it would be great for him, but I admit even if he got in, I am 100% taking the wait and look approach to see if they clean up their act on that front. I already have a kid at a covid suck school and if she weren’t a sophomore already socially acclimated, I’m not sure things would be so great for her right now.
So ultimately after what our seniors have been through, I think we all have a right to be frustrated with the process and feeling like our chains are being yanked, but again, it isn’t really exclusive to UM. Many are acting similarly.
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Same 20% or so increase at many schools. I know people who have been accepted to UM where in past years it would be a HUGE reach. Same with UW.
This is what our college counselor has told us- they wont even look at an app for Ross until admitted into LAS.
Like I said previously, I don’t think it’s a matter of patience, I think people see the impending time crunch as decisions are pushed back but our students still have to commit at the regular time. The students aren’t being given 2 extra weeks of wiggle room even though they, like the institutions, are in a crazy year with a lot of uncertainty, haven’t been able to visit, etc. Why in the world wouldn’t parents and students be feeling anxious if they applied early, got deferred, and now have no idea when they might know? It seems like a very reasonable reaction. (Personally, I’m just trying to stay as Zen as possible over here 
).
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I need some zen! Send it over!
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@etlindy Just wanted to clarify what you mean in your message - did your counselor tell you there is virtually no chance postponed applicants will ever be accepted to Ross? Or are you clarifying that postponed students won’t be admitted to Ross on 3/19 because their applications will not yet have been reviewed by Ross? Thanks!
UMich did this same song n’ dance 3 years ago when my son applied – pre covid. My opinion is that it’s a selfish process, weighted heavily in their favor. Absolutely they should release the applicants that killed themselves getting in EA and tell them upfront if they have no chance. Instead they let the students break their necks making the EA deadline, only to defer huge amounts of applicants they have no intention accepting.
And here I sit again, still feeling their practices are unfair, and yet my twins applied and we’re deferred again. They are doing this, not because of covid and a lack of scores (i.e. going through this the first time), but because they can. It preserves all advantages for them. In my opinion it’s a selfish process on their part.
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I think it’s also funny colleges preach needing patience, but yet I can’t ask them for the same patience when my college decision and deposit is due.
Somehow they get to use covid as an excuse for my having to be patient and understanding and yet I don’t when we can’t easily visit schools due to state restrictions and quarantine protocols upon returning.
Somehow it keeps being the students, who have been totally screwed up one side and down the other this year, who need the patience and the understanding.
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Penn State included in their President’s welcome letter to admitted students (one of them being my D21), that they received 95k applications this year. I have trouble getting my mind around that.
Such an unprecedented year on countless levels.
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To clarify, our counselor’s comments need to be taken in the context of our high school…we are in a very large OOS feeder school to UM. Our high school has ton of Naviance data and experience on this (school has 250 applications/50-60 admits/25-30 attendees per year). Based on this data, our counselor’s point was that historically there is an extremely low probability of getting into Ross if a student was deferred EA and then picked up LAS in RD. Her rationale on the historical data was that if the student wasn’t a clear-cut LAS accept in EA, then the student probably wasn’t going to meet the criteria for admittance into Ross.
That doesnt mean there is zero chance as long as the student gets a read at Ross, just a very very low probability as evidenced by the admit data. Unfortunately this is exactly the situation my DS finds himself in.
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Ya, but you know some really smart families. 
As I mentioned way back, UMich, just like any school, is building a diversified class of less-than-perfect applicants. They could probably fill most of their classes with uber high stat students, but that’s what they’re really looking for each year.
@danloeb @sushiritto - do we know where those numbers have come from? that is astounding! i feel for these AOs in the current environment (and obviously painful for many parents/kids as they wait)
It is my assumption that @danloeb has some connection to UMich admissions.
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thanks…also, along those lines, does U-M publish anywhere (that you know of) how those applications distribute among individual schools (i.e. Ross, Stamps, etc.) to get a more granular look at selectivity among majors? (current year notwithstanding - too soon obviously). I didn’t see that in CDS stats
True and some not so smart. But don’t we all? Hah
Separately, I heard our school already has 2 Ross acceptances which is unheard of. While we are a feeder school to UM, we never get more than 1 Ross, and some years none. Great news for those kids if they attend. I think 1 has committed, the other is holding out for other schools and there are some others still awaiting RD. Crazy year for sure. These are all bright kids!
I think when UF comes out tomorrow we may see some more commitments and things fall into place. Then it’s a waiting game. Maybe more after our spring break next month. I don’t know how the kids aren’t ready to fall apart when us parents are all so agitated. Of course, we’re anxious for our kids and opening up the pocketbook or seeing how the monetary stuff shakes out for them.