<p>I have already applied to umich EA and it is my very first choice. I am certainly qualified (75th percentile ACT, great ECs, etc.), I just am worried about not getting in because of inner-school competition. I know of at least 10 people applying who have better GPA and ACT than me (they have 34s, 35s, etc), but I would bet my life their essays are not even close to as good or passionate as mine. I have true passion for michigan and I am positive that is conveyed in my essay. However, they can't take all of us (OOS) early action. (Umich is a huge "safety" school for the ivy bound kids at my school). So my question is, would they ever take me over kids that are clearly more qualified than me, just because they know I truly want to go there/enroll? It seems hard to believe they will reject evidently smarter kids who MAY go. I'm starting to get really nervous. :(</p>
<p>Yes, despite what UMich may say, it is a very numbers oriented school. So your 34s and 35s are probably going to make it in for sure if they also have a 3.8+ unweighted GPA and a decent courseload. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t also be accepted. If your scores are decent and your essays are top notch you still may be accepted (don’t know what you’re stats are like). Even if you’re deferred, some of the “smarter students” might choose different schools (Ivy) rather than Michigan, so that will also open some spots.</p>
<p>cakebatter, last year, I know of several Ivy League-bound students who were flat out rejected by Michigan. Treating Michigan like a safety now is very unwise. Many of those students will end up with a rejection. Michigan was a safety to some students prior to 2012, but the last couple of years, the number of qualified applicants has forced Michigan to refuse many highly qualified students. </p>
<p>That being said, I do not think Michigan will reject an applicant whom it wants simply because it has accepted many other students from the same school. If you are all qualified and if Michigan wants all of you, it will accept all of you.</p>
<p>By the way, I do not think Michigan cares whether an applicant has a 33 as opposed to a 34 or 35 on the ACT. As far as Michigan is concerned, any score over 32 is the same.</p>
<p>cakebatter: On 10/2 you started a thread “15+ kids from my school applying ED…help” where you said that Penn is your first choice:</p>
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<p>So, are you still applying ED to Penn and EA to Michigan? Sounds like you’re one of the Ivy hopefuls using U-M as an alternate. No?</p>
<p>Michigan has and will continue to reject people who apply only in passing and show no interest for the school. That said, I don’t think showing extreme passion is going to change anything either. There are a lot of people who are absolutely obsessed with Michigan. If they don’t have the stats, they still wont get accepted.</p>
<p>If Michigan is now your first choice, you can afford it and you will attend if accepted…tell them. Never hurts to show the love to your first choice college. If you don’t know, then sit back and see what happens between December and April…just make sure you have a financial and admission safety you are willing to attend - everything else is icing on the cake.</p>
<p>Someone from my high school with great gpa (3.5) and 2390 SAT, as an experiment, wrote gibberish on his essay and got in. Also got into UNC doing so. Pretty much shows that “passion” counts for very little.</p>
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<p>How many years ago?</p>
<p>@ChoatieMom I applied ED to Penn, but I know I won’t get in and definitely have no expectations there; I only did it because I did not want to waste the benefit of ED. If Michigan had ED, I would have applied there. You do have a valid point; however, in my head Michigan is my first choice and where I want to go, despite what I did for ED… if that makes any sense. I may technically be “ivy-hopeful,” but sure as hell not “ivy-bound” haha. </p>
<p>@bearcats that is a bit discouraging haha. Maybe that person exaggerated “gibberish” and really just wrote a mediocre, albeit passing, essay?</p>
<p>It happens, far more frequently in years past. Heck, in the 1990s, Michigan only read the essay of admitted students. I know someone who got into Penn using his Cornell essay, even though the prompts were completely unrelated. He even kept the name Cornell in the essay. But this happened far more frequently in past years. Nowadays, most essays are read and scrutinized.</p>
<p>It’s safe to say having a passionate essay about your love for UM and what you would bring to it is definitely a plus. Not as big of a plus as your grades and test scores, but a significant plus. There’s a reason after all that you UM makes you write 2 essays after all.</p>
<p>“How many years ago?”
Too depressing to think about. 6-7.</p>
<p>"@bearcats that is a bit discouraging haha. Maybe that person exaggerated “gibberish” and really just wrote a mediocre, albeit passing, essay?"
No. It was gibberish, like not even words gibberish. He was never going to attend Michigan or UNC.</p>
<p>“If Michigan is now your first choice, you can afford it and you will attend if accepted…tell them.”</p>
<p>Right, I don’t understand how that is a plus. I wrote that to every school on my list. There’s no reason not to do so. It’s not binding and there’s no negative consequence. All is fair in love and war (and college admissions).</p>
<p>^^can’t disagree bearcats but if you are an admissions person holding 2 applications that are virtually identical (which many, many UofM apps are vitually identical on surface), and one app says “I can afford it. You are my first choice. I can attend.” you might be more likely to put that one in the admit or defer pile instead of the reject pile. Many OSS kids apply that really can’t afford it (hence the lower yield rate for OSS acceptances.) and Michigan can figure that out fairly easily from simple socio-demographic info in the app. Michigan is pretty good about figuring out the yield but it never hurts. </p>
<p>If you want to argue that the lower OSS yield rate has to do with acceptance at “better” schools…I’d argue/guess that a huge percentage of that is FINANCIAL not USNWR ranking related.</p>
<p>fair enough. not arguing anything just questioning how effective it is that’s all since I am sure I am not the only one who tells every school I applied to from top to bottom that they were my first choice, I would for sure attend if accepted, and the finances are in order.</p>
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That is the game.</p>