<p>I applied to the University of Michigan last fall, and as many of the 30,000 students that got rejected, I was one of them.</p>
<p>My GPA and ACT were below their average for the 2013 applicants, and my essay wasn't as strong because I unfortunately procrasinated and wrote it the weekend before it was due.</p>
<p>Now I am at Wayne State and I'm not very happy. The classes are okay, but to me the students aren't as determined as I would imagine them to be at U of M. The campus life is also very boring, because by 4:00 pm mostly everyone is gone. In other words, I don't like the social aspect of it very much, and at times, I don't feel very challenged by the curriculum.</p>
<p>I really wanted to attend U of M but since I didn't get in last fall, some days I am determined to apply, but other days I am so afraid of getting my hopes up and then getting rejected again. My hopes are to complete a degree in neuroscience, but Wayne doesn't offer that - MSU does.</p>
<p>For some of you that were rejected, or wait listed, or even accepted to Michigan, or are in the same situation as I am, would you apply to U of M? Do you think my chances of getting accepted are as high? What would be some of the key things to mention in my essays? What organizations should I join on campus to make myself stand out more?</p>
<p>Michigan doesn’t accept nearly as many transfer applicants as some other big public universities. In 2012, for example, it admitted 1,335 of 3,844 transfer applicants, for a 34.7% transfer admit rate. That’s right around the same level as its freshman admit rate for that year. Of those admitted as transfer, 905 enrolled. That’s well under half the number of transfer students that enrolled at UC Berkeley that year (2,177) and less than a third the number at UCLA (3,174). It’s just a different system; California’s community colleges are designed in part to be feeders to the UC system, and the UC system is designed to take a lot of transfers.</p>
<p>What that means for you, though, is that it’s not so easy to get into Michigan as a transfer. By all means, apply, but don’t get your heart set on it. Michigan State admits and enrolls a larger number of transfers (1,961 admitted, 1,449 enrolled in 2012), but its transfer admit rate is also pretty low (37% in 2012).</p>
<p>I think the main thing they’ll look for is a strong college GPA. That’s going to help more than extracurriculars, especially if your HS GPA and ACT were below their averages when you applied for freshman admission. They’re going to ask for those numbers as well, but what will help you this time around is if you can show you’ve really applied yourself and done well in college, and the way to do that is by compiling a solid college GPA. I don’t think you should apply as a transfer until you have at least a semester’s college grades, ideally all in the A and B range, or even better, more As than Bs.</p>
<p>Try the U Michigan forum for questions directed at current students. Sometimes there are students who will come back and post in the individual college forums.</p>