My son wrote a letter about a new major achievement and uploaded as a pdf via the portal.
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My son got in Michigan. We live in Ct.
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My daughter was also admitted to Michigan last Friday
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I also got into Michigan last Friday :))
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My son (OOS for Michigan and UVA) was also admitted to Michigan EA last week. I have heard that UVA is more competitive than Michigan for OOS applicants; but this theory is based on hearsay… I’d love for the results to be the same at UVA as Michigan as well!
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My oldest got into both 2 years ago. My recollection is that the acceptance rate is fairly similar even though Michigan has a tremendous number of applications. I have heard rumors that they defer many out-of-state kids early action simply because they cannot read it all prior to the deadline. I think they have about 70,000 applications every year 
. My current senior didn’t apply - way too cold:joy:
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My daughter also admitted to Michigan EA.
We visited UVA over the summer and had a current student show us around. My daughter couldn’t be more in love with UVA! She wants to go there for grad school if she doesn’t get in for undergrad. It’s the perfect size town & environment for her…beyond the academics. Fingers crossed!!
UVA is a smaller school and also more restrictive on the percentage of OOS students, so I think it is likely harder to get in OOS than Michigan (but they are both extremely competitive, obviously).
Does anyone have an idea when the result will come out? Or historically, when did people usually hear their decisions?
I posted this above but the Last couple years have been on different days in late January (at least from what I saw on prior threads), so I don’t think that there is any way to know this year. Plus the increase in apps make it even harder to know.
I am really really hoping for this friday but feel like that may be too early. Last year, EA decisions were released on a friday and the release date was announced the Wednesday before. So we could possibly expect to hear something tomorrow if decisions are coming out on friday. Again, I feel like this is unlikely
Per last year’s thread, they were released on Friday, Jan 29. You can look it up in prior threads…
“For 2020, we moved our Early Decision deadline to November 1, so our reading started two weeks later. That being said, we are still confident that we will have decisions for that group ready by the middle of the month. Similarly, we are still planning to have Early Action decisions ready by the middle of February. As has been the tradition for the 15 years that I’ve been writing this blog, I will post an update here with a specific dates of the decision release days when we are certain of them . Decisions are posted in your applicant portal, so make sure you have know how to use your login credentials.”
This message is intended for Dean_J and any other admission officers.
As a parent, I am concerned that “holistic” review of admissions applications is outweighing some aspects of a candidates file. For example, my daughter has now taken 13 AP classes in her high school career. We know of only one other child at her school who has taken as many. My daughter has challenged herself greatly while also being a varsity athlete.
My daughter made a B as a high school Junior in one of those classes. Yet someone who got into UVa Early Decision only took 8 APs at our same high school and never even attempted the class as a senior that my daughter got the B in as a Junior (Calculus BC).
I guess I just want the admissions officers to know and respect that kids who take hard classes do so at the risk of their GPA faltering. I really think that is where test scores and academic rigor can help admissions officers grasp the difference between someone trying to push herself to be the best versus someone just trying to look good to an admissions committee by protecting their GPA.
I am concerned this year that “academic rigor” and “test achievement” aren’t being weighted as heavily as extra curriculars.
Of course, I hope I am wrong. Waiting on UVa…
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what are you trying to say? deanJ has made it clear multiple times that gpa is meaningless and they analyze transcripts instead as I’m sure many other schools do as well
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I can definitely relate to this since my school doesn’t do weighted gpa, and my relatively poor performance (a B+ and a B) when I was a sophomore taking Calc BC (even though I scored a 5 on the AP) dragged me down on pretty much everything (rank, awards, gpa).
Again, a “B” isn’t gonna hurt anyone’s chance and the process considers way more than one grade earned in a single class.
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Agree - I also think the essays are important as well. UVA has prompts that really lets you be creative and show a lot about yourself.
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Hope your daughter gets into her school of choice. Given her choice of classes, she would probably rank better for transcript strength dimension amongst the students that have similar available options to take such classes (some schools don’t offer very few APs).
If you are questioning the entire holistic process as BS and that one should only consider the academic merit, that’s a different discussion altogether. For example, in some other countries a four hour exam determines the ranking to get into a given college.
Irrespective of what system you like, these kids can’t get a job just with a transcript and focusing on holistic view sooner or later will be necessary.
First, one B in an entire transcript is not a problem, which I’m sure you understand. 13 APs is commendable, but it seems odd to criticize another student for taking 8 APs, which is also commendable. Each school’s admissions has their own approach in assessing applications, and an anonymous post on CC is probably not going to sway them to change their approach. Additionally, ED usually offers a slightly better chance of admission since the decision is binding, so that would have been an advantage for the student you mentioned. Best of luck to your daughter.
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I think universities like UVA have learned by now that different schools offer different “strengths” of courses. I am not sure if that is how I should word it, but what I mean is that some schools hardly offer APs and others have tons of them. For example, my high school offered only 2 APs my junior year and has taken them away because we do not have the right resources to prepare students for the exams. I took those 2 APs and got an A in the class but failed the exam. Thankfully it was an AP/DE class so I got the college credit anyways. We may not have APs, but we do have tons of DE classes. I think I racked up around 60 credits. We just have to leave it up to UVA to analyze each student’s transcript. Every high school is different and I am sure UVA knows that by now.