Waitlisted student's creative plea wins over University of Michigan admissions

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of Michigan
1

<p>Wow...this is genius. In an attempt to stand out from thousands of other students on the U-M waitlist, Lawrence Yong created his own version of a classic Jackson 5 song to show just how much he wanted to be a Wolverine. </p>

<p>"'In all honesty I only expected it to get maybe 100 or 200 views. Maybe from a couple of my school friends and then some people at church,' says Yong."</p>

<p>It not only went viral, but eventually made its way through the U-M admissions office, and apparently satisfied their requirement for a "demonstrated interest". Yeah, I'd say so. Really, though, how could you say no to this guy?</p>

<p>Accepted:</a> Unusual methods by wait-listed University of Michigan student bring success</p>

2

<p>42 out of 14,600…I can’t even comment on that…</p>

<p>Congrats to the young man though…!!!</p>

3

<p>This seems like a trend this year. A Yale Early-Action applicant made a music video to send in!</p>

4

<p>this video makes me gag…congrats to the kid, though</p>

5

<p>Pretty cool. Good for him.</p>

6

<p>My friend knows this guy from high school. He’s a pretty funny kid, or so I have heard. Good luck to him at UM.</p>

7

<p>Wow that was awesome - anyone reading this should definitely check out the video.</p>

8

<p>I feel sorry for the admissions office, because I think they will get 14,000 of these videos next year!</p>

9

<p>Hopefully one of the UofM a cappella groups will snag him as well. He can sing!</p>

10

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<p>This.</p>

<p>That’s awesome, but it’s kinda depressing that you need to do something like that to ensure you get off the waitlist…</p>

11

<p>What an awesome kid.</p>

12

<p>Well it shows creativity and drive. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to do something like this to get off the wait-list, but he did something unique and appealing, and I’m sure he had the grades and credentials for Michigan. Sure many more waitlisted students might do this next year but obviously it won’t be as unique (and maybe not as talented either!).</p>

13

<p>And admissions officers don’t even have to watch the videos they get. Haha.</p>

14

<p>I remember seeing this video when he first posted it and really hoping that he’d get in. I’m very glad to see he did!</p>

15

<p>Interesting - he mentions in the beginning that he hasn’t been to Michigan, but then sings about the campus and how Michigan is unlike anything he’s seen. That would be a FAIL to me.</p>

16

<p>Why would a school offer to put 14 <em>thousand</em> kids on the wait list?</p>

<p>Is there some logical reason for doing this? What is the point?</p>

17

<p>^ The “Logical” reason they give is that they need a wide pool of applicants because they never know what kind of student will reject their offer of admission. They might lose something like a violist who is interested in geology, and their logic is that it takes 14,000 students to cover all of the possible combinations. Of course, it’s excessive, and pretty messed up in my opinion, especially since many schools say they don’t exactly try to replace a student who decided not to attend interest by interest but rather the next most qualified student. </p>

<p>On the video: loved it, he can sing!</p>

18

<p>Five years ago, UMich’s waitlist was offered to 5000 students.</p>

<p>They never took more than 100 off of the list in that time.</p>

<p>14,000 seems pointless, and ridiculous.</p>

19

<p>this means they either accept or waitlist someone. what a tease! lol</p>

20

<p>Michigan = overated. He’d been better off spending 25k on a different school and putting the balance in Apple stock.</p>