Does coming from a really competitive school help?

[darkomi]

<p>

Hey,</p>

<p>To answer your question, I just graduated from Brother Rice High School (a private Catholic school in Bloomfield Hills, MI) which is a extremely competitive school in Michigan athletically and academically. Rice is one of the top schools in the state of Michigan.</p>

<p>I applied to U-M in November of my senior year (NOT early action) with a cumulative GPA of 3.21 and an ACT score of 28 and I was admitted.</p>

<p>Can you believe it?</p>

<p>No, I am not the son of an ambassador or rich donors, I’m just a regular guy who debated in high school.

</p>

<p>i.) Sorry, you’re not a “regular guy” when you attend a private school in Bloomfield Hills that costs $11,000 per year.
ii.) I’m assuming you’re an URM?
iii.) Are you joining the debate team at Michigan? Did you place in any events in high school?</p>

[Mde]

<p>Well I guess I’ll give anecdotal observations:</p>

<p>For class of 2014 (admitted 2010)</p>

<p>From NYC (OOS) so had a 92/100 average (Weighted) unweighted was 90. Not sure how the conversion to gpa works.</p>

<p>Had upward trend: 87, 89, 91, 92, 95, 96, 98, 99. Those are my weighted average per semester.</p>

<p>Was ranked outside 25%.</p>

<p>Was in top 20 high school in nation, top in NYC for a period of time (that crappy humanities school in Flushing).</p>

<p>2100 SAT, 30 ACT</p>

<p>Lacked extracurriculars until senior year (robotics and science
olympiad… won stuff in both teams)</p>

<p>We had a joint college-class program so in my senior year I had basketball, orgo, AP US gov, AP calc BC, and college astronomy, college humanities, and college physics of sound.</p>

<p>Also poor and asian.</p>

<p>Got admitted in March.</p>

[nacomar]

<p>darkomi,</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Yeah, I’m a regular guy. Brother Rice’s tuition is irrelevant to who I am.</p></li>
<li><p>I’m not an under-represented minority.</p></li>
<li><p>Not joining the debate team at Michigan. I never placed too high in any events in high school.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>I don’t appreciate the sass. You don’t even know me.</p>

[alopez14]

<p>I know a few Cass Tech students, non-athlete that were admitted with ACT range of 21-24. The only catch was they had to enroll in summer classes. Food for thought, the avg ACT score for a minority in the state of Michigan is something like 17-18.</p>

<p>I also have friends at notable public schools in Oakland County that “gamed” their application and got in with 3.5 and 27 ACT, which are pretty “meh” numbers at their school. A 3.7 isn’t going to disqualify you at all and if it’s from a notable school you’re probably fine.</p>

[Alexandre]

<p>Every time a poster brings up students who got in with low GPAs or standardized test scores, I cringe. There are students with subpar credentials who get into virtually every top university in the nation, and that includes Michigan. But for every one of those fortunate few, there are literally dozens, if not hundreds, that are flat out rejected.</p>