dstark

Adelphia, thanks. Michigan had a good year.

hoedown

Yeah, I've been waiting for them to make the acceptance rate public. That's a real change. Nice for U-M, bad for all the hopeful families who ended up hearing "no."

Christine123

On those stats, are the individual verbal and math SAT scores from individual times or taken from the highest composite score?

I wish they would post out of state acceptance rates and stats.

Alexandre

If those stats are accurate, Michigan is on the right path. The mean SAT score (1350-ish in one take), class rankings (90% in the top 10% of their class) and average unweighed GPA (3.8ish) are all excellent, but the acceptance rate of 62% just 2 years ago really hurt Michigan's image. Improving to 57% in 2005 and 47% this year is an excellent trend. Michigan does need to drop below the 40% acceptance mark if it really wants to get the respect it deserves from high school students, and I see happening in the next 2-3 years.

A2Wolves6

Those are some real interesting numbers.

The class size is down 697 people from last year, that's pretty drastic (11.4% less). They accepted 1414 less applicants this year (to compensate for the anticipated lower class size), and there were 1851 more applicants (which is a 7.7% increase in applicants). And the admit rate went down 9.6%, (is this the first time ever it's been below 50%)? Yield stayed consistent, around 44%.

Is all this due to the closure of the dorm and the overenrollment the past few years?

And I don't think that all this means it's on the "right path".

Alexandre

I'd say is a combination of things.

1) Demand and supply. Yes, I know, this is such a terrible cliche, but I cannot put it more succinctly. The number of qualified applicants increases at a faster rate than universities can cope. In a few years, all top 50 universities are going to hve acceptance rates lower than 35%.

2) Michigan's optimal freshman class is roughly 5,300. For the last two years, Michigan's freshman classes have exceeded 6,000. That means that Michigan's resources (dorms, faculty, etc...) are streched to an unhealthy level.

3) The closing of a major dorm made it impossible for Michigan to risk another 6,000+ class.

All in all, I don't see Michigan enrolling more than 5,500 Freshmen for the next 2 years.

By the way, A2Wolves, when I said Michigan was on the "right path", I meant that in this day and age, a university cannot be considered elite by the majority of high school students it wishes to attract while maintaining a 60%+ acceptance rate. Not gonna happen. I personally know that acceptance rate means nothing. But I am not the majority of students. The majority of students, as petty as it may seem, actually care about acceptance rate. If Michigan wishes to remain a university of choice for the bulk of the talent out there, it is going to have to accept some modern-day restrictions, such as a lower admission rate.

Adelphia

A2Wolves,

The admissions rate was 49% for the fall '02 freshman class.
For more info: http://sitemaker.umich.edu/obpinfo/f..._freshprof.pdf
This link has freshman class data for '00-on.

wolverineFromChi

I just wonder whether or not the higher stats and lower admissions rate are evidence of a "trend", or if this was just a particularly selective year at the university. While a lot of us would like to see the class size continue to decrease, who says the university isn't planning on enrolling 6,000 next year or the year after?

One one hand, as Alexandre says, the trend may continue that "The number of qualified applicants increases at a faster rate than universities can cope"... and our admissions rate goes down to 45%, 40%, 35%, etc. But on the other hand, what if this is just a freak year and by next year the admit rate is back at 55% or 60%? I think it's a little premature to label this as a trend.

hoedown

I don't know if it's a trend either, but it seems apparent that applications are bouncing back from the dip they took when the app changed to include multiple essays. Whether or not the rise in apps will continue? Dunno.

As for whether the U would like to enroll a class of 6000, that would surprise me. However, we do have a new provost; I don't know what her opinion is on what the right size class is, what the right size student body is.

There is a big push in the state to increase the number of college graduates, but U-M's role in that isn't direct. If U-M admits a large class, it's not going to be admitting students who otherwise weren't going to college at all.

Skipperdee

Any stats on transfer student admissions?

Alexandre

The transfer stats change wildly from year to year because the size and makeup of the transfer class is usually deatermined by the sort of freshman class the university has just enrolled.

MatthewM04

Out of curiosity, is this the lowest acceptance rate ever for Michigan? It certainly is since 2000.

At 47.4%, the acceptance rate beats fall 2002's 49.0%. At 25733 applicants, it nearly beats the fall 2003 number of applicants (25943), which is impressive considering that it now has all those essays added to it since the Supreme Court decision.

Alexandre

I'd say that this year was probably among the top 3 years as far as percentage accepted and number of applicants are concerned. I think this coming year will break all the records. I expect 28,000 applications for 5,400 spots with a yield rate of 45%. So we are looking at a 43% acceptance rate next year. Of course, that's just my personal estimate! hehe!!!

CCRunner123

I don't know, I think next year will be sub-40.

Alexandre

Sub 40% is certainly possible, but that would really require a huge jump in applications. I'd say at least 30,000 applicants.