Hi, I’m a sophomore in highschool, nearing midterms, and I constantly hear classmates talking and bragging about their chances of getting into some of the world’s most prestigious universities. I started looking at some schools that excel in my interests and found the University Of Michigan as one of them. It has quickly become my first school of choice, and would love to know my current chances and what I can do (as there is much to improve upon) to have a chanve of being accepted.
After a freshman year in which I stopped caring mid-year, I finished with, in 3 Honors classes, a 3.92 GPA (very disappointing). Over the summer I realized I had to buckle down, and in my first marking period of sophomore year, I had a 4.2 GPA, which raised my cumulative to a 3.97, and am top 25% of my grade (slowly moving up). My current grades are:
CP Accounting H- A
English 2 H- A-
Geometry- A-
Driver’s Ed- A
Chemistry H- A-
Pre-AP US1- B+
Spanish 3- A-
I have about 15 service hours (beginning to get more and more), and play on the JV soccer team. I’m going to get involved with key club, and want to take at least 2 AP classes next year, as well as 3 or 4 honors. I would just love to know if, as I continue to improve my GPA, I have a chance to, in 1-2 years, be accepted to UMich. Thanks!
The grades posted above are weighted, and my uw gpa is about a 3.5-3.6, as my school does not show both unweighted grades.
The admission average uwGPA at UMich was 3.87 last year. So your GPA of 3.5-3.6 appears low to them. Since you are only half way through in the cumulative GPA for college application, you may still be able to bring it up to the admission range. There are a couple things you can do now to figure out your target uwGPA. First, check the Naviance data at your HS to see what is the average GPA needed for UMich. Second, try to re-calculate your uwGPA without subgrades to see if that helps. If you have mostly A-, the recalculation will bring up your GPA.
As a Class of 2022 admit, I agree with @billcsho ; 3.5-3.6 is under their average, and doesn’t look as great as a 3.9. However-- I’ve been talking to a lot of people with friends with perfect test scores and gpas who didn’t get admitted. My advice would be over the next two years to join clubs, find some leadership positions, and use your summers wisely (internships, job experience, research, etc)–they also really look at your application essays, so make sure to take your time with those, and of course, legacy always helps. Best of luck!
@Student25050: A couple of observations and thoughts:
(1) Will you be an in-state or OOS applicant? That will likely be important.
(2) “I constantly hear classmates talking and bragging about their chances of getting into some of the world’s most prestigious universities.” Stop listening to these people. Whether a university is prestigious or not has NO bearing whatsoever on whether it is a good place for you; don’t fall into the trap of tying your concept of self-worth with where you ultimately get accepted to college or university.
(3) Don’t obsess about U of M, and don’t develop tunnel vision about where you plan to attend a college or university. The guidance counselors at our school like to say, “Don’t fall in love with a school; fall in love with several schools.” If you focus on only one place, and you are denied what happens then? You should look at the CC forums for other “prestigious” universities, and see how many students with exceptional test scores, GPAs, and EC are getting rejected from the “school of their dreams.”
(4) Read this article: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/15/opinion/sunday/frank-bruni-how-to-survive-the-college-admissions-madness.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Ffrank-bruni&_r=0 . This is an excerpt from Frank Bruni’s book titled “Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be”; which is worth the read, in my opinion.
(5) Enjoy high school, and have some fun along the way.
Best of luck to you.
Ganfalf78 et AL… Great advice!.. Student 25050, I have noticed a lot of schools want more specialists then generalists. Join clubs, organizations, teams etc for 3-4 years to show commitment. Also and I wish my own kids did this, talk to your counselor at your school and there is no reason that you can’t reach out to your regional counselor at University of Michigan or any other school right now. Build a relationship with your questions. Ask for guidance. Meet them at your school fairs or go to a regional fair. If they have a part in who they recommend, let it be you! Visit the colleges before your junior year if you can. Have meetings with departments heads /professors (they Love meeting potential students that are interested in what they teach)not just doing the basic tours /information sessions. Again, listen to the wise advice above. Also take the most rigorous classes that you can. Use your summer wisely. Doing nothing doesn’t look good on your app but also have some fun time for you. Michigan is a very hard school and the pace is much faster then what you learning now. Good luck.
Thank you for the advice, i forgot to add that I am an OOS student looking to get in. My current worry is bringing up my goa, but are there certain ecs i should look to do, and are their any tips for raising gpa? @gandalf78
@Student25050: Do ECs that you are genuinely interested in doing, not simply “drive-by” ECs or ones that you participate in simply to fluff up your resume (and admissions officers can tell). Admissions officers want to see you doing things that you are passionate about, not what you are mercenary about. If you can demonstrate leadership in your ECs, that is also a plus.
I don’t know about raising your GPA by any way other than keeping your nose to the grindstone, doing your homework, “picking the low-hanging fruit” in your classes, etc. For raising your standardized test scores, you might want to consider taking a test prep course (my kids did this with a live person, although there are internet test prep courses available – Khan Academy comes to mind).
FWIW, here is link to the U of M Common Data Set: http://obp.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/pubdata/cds/cds_2016-2017_umaa.pdf . Part C7 tells you what admissions factors are considered, and how they are weighted, by U of M; Part C9 of the CDS gives the median 50% for both SAT and ACT scores, as well as the percentage of the entering first-year class falling within certain ranges of SAT and ACT scores; Part C11 gives the percentage of entering first-year students falling within a range of unweighted GPA on a 4.0 scale, and Part C12 gives the average high school GPA of first-year applicants.
Note that the CDS shows the enrolled freshmen stat, not the admission stat.
^ Yes; but I am assuming that the data for the enrolled students will not be too dissimilar from the data of the admitted students.
Admission data is usually higher than the enrolled freshmen stat as stronger applicants may pick a more elite school or one that provide better merit aids. The admission data is also available on their web. You can easily compare them.