If you are waitlisted and get accepted, do you still get FA?
called the office of FA this morning. they made it sound like nothing will be changed, and that there is a good chance i’ll hear by the end of the week.
@BrownHopeful27 Just saw your post. Re your stats, etc…part of the job of admissions is to gauge how likely they think you will actually attend if offered a spot. Often, and your screen name suggests, students use Michigan as a safety school in lieu of, typically, not getting into an Ivy. This is particularly true in the NOrtheast, esp in NY and NJ. Some very highly rated districts with kids who have scores similar to yours or beyond, have very poor track records with acceptances into UM. That doesn’t mean they pass on every high stat kid, they obviously want top students to boost their numbers and “selectivity”, thus, they try to glean who will come if accepted, looking at essays, alum/legacy connex, your particular schools matric rate, and, in the case of this year…they deferred a ton of highly qualified students and then played the game of send us a letter of continued interest/burning desire, etc (a somewhat smart but also slightly lazy and unsophisticated method of trying to manage their accept rate and yield…and one that might end up boomeranging on them, as many students were turned off by the extra hoop they had to jump through and also felt miffed when they either saw students with lesser stats coast in or, more likely, saw the game rules regarding early decision change rather late in the college planning and application game. Our guidance office for one said they created a lot of problems for them, and, for many students, it just dragged things out, especially for those who ultimately ended up on waitlist (or, as our guidance office referred to it in an email today, “limbo”). As many a person who has broken up with a girlfriend/boyfriend has said, “it’s not you, it’s me (UM)”. In this case it couldn’t be a truer statement.
The rules started changing the last few years Hobothecat. Perhaps your “guidance office” should be paying more attention. Michigan should not be treated as a safety anymore, even for top students. If anyone applies to Michigan, he/she should put time and effort into their essays.
@rjkofnovi , I disagree…the rules this year did change, and if have the letter from guidance that UM sent to all guidance offices n December to prove it. This pertains specifically to EA students and to the deferrals that occurred. I did not say it should be treated as a safety, in fact, as I noted, there are schools in particular, where this is a known, and UM has taken note (reread where I stated about students with stats close to the original commenters or better who are typically passed over). Anyone who has been following any of the UM threads is well aware that this year was a big departure for UM in terms of both EA and RD and how they are managing both acceptances and utilizing the waitlist. If UM had been on top of things several years ago they would not have had two years of over enrollment followed by a messy admissions cycle in this current year. Hopefully they’ll hire a smart and savvy admissions director, build some smart models to project admit rates and yield, put better thought into their social media which was sloppy, misleading, and occasionally insulting, and present themselves as the world class institution we know they have been and not the Brady Hoke bumbling fumbler they’ve presented themselves as, particularly this past year. BTW, my student was admitted…in case you’re wondering if this is just a case of sour grapes.
^ It is more than 2 years in a row with over-enrollment. Indeed, there was only 1 year in the last 5 years with less than their 6200 freshmen target set a couple years ago. It was around their target of 6000 before that except for 2006 which was significantly below target. Obviously, they had more concern with under enrollment. When it was just a couple dozen students more than the target, it did not cause much trouble. Last year, it was 300+ (5%) over-enrolled which set a new record since 2010 mainly due to the increase of yield rate. As the yield rate is getting more unpredictable these days, they have to deploy new policy to avoid the same problem happening over and over again. Nevertheless, don’t blame everything on the new policy. It is also the ever increasing applicant pool that make the admission rate lower. They did decrease the number of EA admission slightly from last year, but the change is far less drastic then a couple years ago. Many more students got deferred mainly because of the larger EA applicant pool. Note that around half of the total applicants applied EA where they tried to fill 1/3 of the upcoming freshmen class. So 80%+ were deferred.
@billcsho the reports I read said it was 2 years of over enrollment…I believe that was a quote that came from a um admissions person at last years NACAC mtg. regardless, with apps increasing even a year ago (plus a dorm going offline for Reno, further compounding the housing crunch), UM should have scaled back the admits and placed more on waitlist a year ago. The rise in EA apps this year was probably offset by fewer RD, but actually poses another question that UM admissions will need to address regarding whether to continue EA, try an ED model, or scrap EA altogether and just go RD like UIUC…although their demographic is so different, not sure what the impact will be…but a savvy Admissions Director might have some solution. It was the EA admit rate that through everyone a curve. Admissions knew this and sent the letter to Guidance Counselors to try and explain what was about to happen, a couple of days before the EA release date. I think the most egregious thing about this admissions year has been the communication from UM Admissions. At the very least, UM needs to define a date or dates when admissions decisions will be released. Even last Thursday they were posting there would be no decision that night…cute (not), since they likely knew that at 12:01 (Friday AM) WA would update. Today they post on their tumblr that most decisions went out on Friday. And let’s not even talk about the accidental tumblr post on Thursday that was a mix up/mash up of last year and this year, announcing decisions were out. I’m a parent, it’s been stressful, but I’m an adult, I know it’s not life or death, but for the 17 and 18 year olds going through this, I feel really sorry…the stress of not knowing if you are in or out was just further compounded by their not knowing if or when the decision would be rendered. That’s something UM could have and should have controlled. Instead they continued to make contradictory and deceptive statements related to the release last Friday. The applicants deserve better, and, frankly, UM can and should do better…their admissions process needs an overhaul.
@Hobothecat Not sure if the rise in EA got offset by RD but I do think most of the 5000 increase went to EA. Since when UIUC just go RD? Is it new this year? You know UMich does rolling in RD (it was rolling for all admission before several years ago) so there is no fix day for admission notice. This is the way rolling admission work no matter you like it or not. It does not matter if they knew there was a batch of announcement on 3/27 or not. If you look back, they would never announce an upcoming batch of admission notice as they don’t want to have tens of thousands people checking WA at the same time. For the change in admission policy, UMich actually announced it on their web the month before EA deadline which is the same info they sent to the GCs of high school. They actually provided more information (like the admission target) than ever before. Here is the link to their blog: http://admissions.umich.edu/explore-visit/blog/ea-or-regular-decision-which-best-you
Here is the link to UM’s enrollment report from last year: http://www.ro.umich.edu/report/14enrollmentsummary.pdf
Just found UIUC cancelled the priority admission this year. Not sure if it is a good thing or not. Harvard and Princeton also tried to eliminate Early Action and have a single admission date around 8-9 years ago, but they brought back SCEA instead. We will see if UIUC will keep their new admission policy or not. From the news article I read, they are blaming the EA deferral for the low yield rate. I don’t think that is the reason.
@billcsho Re UIUC this is the first year that they moved to the RD only…although they said students who applied by Dec. 1 would get some benefit in terms of honors consideration and merit scholarships. For us this did not bear out…we are OOS, and my S got accepted (CS but in their Liberal Arts college, not engineering). His friend got accepted CS, in same school and got invited to honors, despite lower test scores, grades (and he was rejected by UM). My S, meanwhile, got invited to LSA Honors. Go figure. My S also visited the cornfield…I mean campus…and met with an admissions officer when he visited our home state. Not sure what their strategy is, but it is clear they are wrestling with a number of strategic issues related to recruitment, read this: http://www.wsj.com/article_email/international-students-stream-into-u-s-colleges-1427248801-lMyQjAxMTA1NTIzNTUyNTUyWj. You can bet most of those students are heading into engineering and CS. Thx for sending the enrollment stats link for UM. It paints a different demographic in terms of international student matriculation…and, to be honest, the UIUC numbers are a red flag…while it doesn’t break out undergrad v grad, I suspect a lot of their Chinese students are undergrad. UM is in the lucky position of being viewed as a “public Ivy” with strong alumni and stature in the NE. UIUC does not…although anyone coming out of their engineering/CS program is not going to have difficulty finding a job… My S is still deciding where to go…although I think UIUC is now off the table (had been his first choice…but UM has done a better job selling themselves post acceptance, with the Honors invite and other communication that is more sophisticated than UIUCs silly emails with reason #X why you should accept (UM also send letters, etc…). Getting back to my original point re UM admissions, UM has done a great job post acceptance…I think they can replicate that experience pre-acceptance if they hire the right leadership. They don’t need to hard sell on applying, they’ll get the apps, but they could make the process so much classier. Your thoughts?
@Hobothecat I do agree they need to improve their admission process. They have this over enrollment problem for many years and yet did not admit less student while make use of the waitlist more until this year. Every 5 years or so, they ran out of dorm space which has been the bottleneck. First, they made the Northwood 1-3 undergraduate housing. Then, there are luxury apartments on campus (more to come this year). These are not really dorms and do not give the dorm experience to students. Unfortunately, there has been more dorm shut down that new dorm opening. This year, they will open the new housing for graduate students. That means they may make more Northwood apartments available as undergraduate housing. Hopefully they will decide to tear down some NW buildings and turned them into a new dorm. But still, they do need to have a better control on the admission numbers. At least, they are trying to do that this year and I can tell many people are not happy about that.
My son applied for Mech Engg at U Michi Ann Arbor. He has been waitlisted.
- IF he is offered from the waitlist, from past experience, will it be: a) Undeclared incl arts etc, b) Major u have chosen ie Mech in his case, or c) Undeclared but within CIT ie Engg
- If a or c, at end of first year, will the allocation be based on PCM & mech engg grades or a separate test or something else?
c is the answer.
FA got updated in WA. Will be paying less to go OOS to umich than a smaller IS school. it’s too good to be true.
Congratulations @uofmPlease! Happy to hear it all worked out for you.
did anyone NOT get their decision yet?? 
We didn’t and a handful of other kids from same school.
@uofmPlease Congratulations!!!
Oh my GOD I am mortified. I was looking over my Common App today and there was a GLARING typo in the first paragraph of my essay that I never noticed. Not just misspelling a word but totally misplacing and the sentence made no sense. I can not believe I sent that to four different schools without ever noticing 
I read that thing like a hundred times before uploading it. Stupidly, I never had anyone else proofread it because it was so personal. I now understand why my Honors English teacher emphasized peer edits so much.
I doubt it was the sole reason for being rejected by my other top choices/waitlisted at Michigan but it must’ve raised a few eyebrows while the admissions offices read it
@Jamesesesess so sorry to hear that. Do you have other acceptances further down your list?