I know UM loves their high GPA applicants, but... chance somebody they hate?

Colleges & Universities University of Michigan
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<p>As a parent of a high school senior who applied to the University of Michigan EA this year, I have been following many of the the threads here. I have never commented until today. I created an account after reading something on this thread: = “Because you ran your mouth about being a shoe in, then didn’t get in. Then continued to tell everyone how you are still getting in and they screwed up. And, you are applying to Kines, which we all know is where the dumb athletes go”. </p>

<p>The school of Kinesiology at the University of Michigan is excellent. There are many options within the school; including business, medical, etc… My daughter applied to the school of Kinesiology (coincidentally her name is Lindsay, too) and got deferred with a 31 ACT. She may have had a better chance by applying to LSA because it is much larger than the school of Kinesiology. However, it is her dream and number one choice to get into kinesiology at UofM.</p>

<p>Good luck to the person who started this thread and to those of you who are waiting to hear back after being deferred!</p>

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<p>Kinesiology seems pretty fascinating to me… why’s it considered an easier school to gain admission to? I haven’t really investigated individual schools’ admit rates, so forgive me if this is a basic question.</p>

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<p>Can you chance my cousin for Umich please? Basics for my cousin
~ Rising Senior, Female.
~ Resides in Castro Valley, CA- Bay Area
~ Half Filipino and Half Caucasian decent. URM?
~ Family income around $130,000</p>

<p>Academic Stuff
~ Unweighted - 3.87
~ Weighted - 4.20 (10-12 and 9-12) - Climbed Every Semester 10-12
~ SAT - 2000
~ SAT 2 - Not so good - Statistics: 670, Biology: 640
~ 4 on AP Biology, 3 on AP United States History, 3 on AP Statistics, 4 on AP Art History, 3 on AP Chemistry, 4 on AP Spanish
She took anatomy and physiology in her high school, and is currently taking microbiology at a community college right now
She plans to take pre-calculus, AP studio art, AP Enviromental science and honors american lit in her senior year. </p>

<p>EC and Awards
~ 3 Years Varsity Wrestling (Placed 10th in North Coast regionals)
~ 4 Years Catholic Church fellowship
~ Currently volunteering at a hospital. Her goal is to major in the humanities or social sciences and go to grad school in those related fields.
~ Tutoring Neighborhood Kids
~ Tutoring Club at High School - 2 Years</p>

<p>She is applying to the following schools: UCLA, UCI, UCD, Umich, University of Wisconsin-Madison, SDSU, University of San Francisco, Dominican University, Boston University, Umass, CSU east bay, University of San Diego, San Francisco State, San Jose State, Sac State </p>

<p>She plans to major in asian american studies or philosophy</p>

<p>What are going to be her safety, match, and reach schools? </p>

<p>PS -if anything is unclear, feel free to ask! Thanks again!</p>

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<p>AD/HD here as well. I was accepted to Michigan EA with 4.62 GPA and 2010 SAT</p>

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<p>Hahah, well, those grades are significantly higher than mine… makes me wonder what I could’ve done had we known earlier!</p>

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<p>Wiz, I am a bit familiar with this topic. Has your gc explained the circumstances of your trend, and have you personally discussed the difference your dx has made (in your application materials) Have you received any coaching for organizational skills/executive function? In your case your high act combined with ec activities will likely convince them you’re a good fit intellectually, but they may have a concern about your capacity to manage the workload, which can be a real issue at umich for folks with ADHD if you also have trouble staying organized in a methodical way. If you’ve addressed these issue in your application, and your high school is rigorous and well known to umich, I like your chances. Be sure to submit this kind of info if you are first deferred, and submit any continued evidence of your upward trend.</p>

<p>If you are accepted, please also contact the LD office at umich as soon as possible and schedule another neuropsych assessment for when you turn 18 – you’ll need that to receive accommodations or assistance. There is also a very good executive function coach in Ann arbor who works with umich students (fee based, but a good investment to manage the workload). Pm me if you’re accepted and I’ll send you her information.</p>

<p>Congratulations on your accomplishments and awesome trend and best wishes!</p>

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<p>Thank you so much! Coincidentally, I DID work with one during my freshman year–helped a ton, but the drive was so long that it ended up being too difficult to continue. I’ll make sure to get in contact with you if I’m accepted. If I don’t get into Vandy EDII, Michigan’s my top choice.</p>

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<p>I think you have a pretty good shot of acceptance. I also have ADHD, and I hope admissions at U-M recognize the obstacle you have overcome.

  • Great ACT and Extracurriculars. GPA is low, but if you stress your problem and the fact that your grades have increased greatly since diagnosis, you should be O.K.</p>
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<p>I’ll be honest. I don’t think you have too great a chance. While its obvious that you are very intelligent, and that you did not choose to have ADHD, the 3 point GPA will be very hard for an admissions officer to ignore. They have to chose the candidates who are most likely to succeed in an extremely rigorous environment and your GPA is barely above the first percentile for incoming freshman. I wish you the best of luck, but you may want to have a backup just in case.</p>

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<p>Wow you will get in for sureee</p>

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<p>Well, you have a great ACT score, amazing E.C.s from what I could gather in your original post, and you’re a URM; however, we do have to take things at face value at times. Just because you had//have ADHD won’t be a viable excuse for your poor performance early on in high school. The fact that you have a huge upward trend may be helpful because they do like to see improvement, but let’s be realistic. A 3.0 isn’t just unimpressive. Relative to other Michigan hopefuls’, a 3.0 is pathetically easy to attain. While ADHD may be affecting you, it is very unlikely that it was the sole reason for such an astronomic disparity between your potential and your achievement. Ultimately, I can not say whether you will be accepted since I’m still a senior too, but I would encourage you to remain hopeful since you do have some redeeming qualities.</p>

<p>I was accepted to Michigan’s LSA program via EA and offered an invitation to the honors program, a small merit scholarship, and another scholarship for certain personal achievements. I’ll share some of my stats with you, since I believe I can empathize with your anxiety. (I’m dying for some accepted applicants to share some of their info with me for my reach schools)</p>

<p>3.96/4.0 GPA (first 6 semesters submitted)
High school is top 5 in Michigan and top 250 in the US. Very competitive class
35 ACT like yourself
7 Honors classes. AP Classes: Calc, World, Psych, Macro, Micro, Environs, Spanish, Lit, Lang
Good recommendations from teachers who recognized that I really worked hard
Other than that, I have the standard cookie cutter E.C.:
Volunteer work, NHS, varsity sports, clubs (as well as President of a club), etc</p>

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<p>OP sent me this message after my post.</p>

<p>"I saw another one of your posts in a chance thread for UM, and it occurred to me that you have some kind of problem with ADHD/LD students.</p>

<p>Let me explain my situation, so that my “pathetically easy” GPA might make some more sense to you: yes, I have ADHD. I wasn’t diagnosed with it–nor my dysgraphia, my EFD, or my GAD–until the second semester of my junior year. But, I suppose, the fact that I couldn’t pay attention whatsoever in class, take legible notes that I could later study off of, or finish homework on time isn’t a viable excuse. Now that I’ve began treatment, I have a 3.8 unweighted GPA this semester with 5 AP’s… I’d say that’s an impressive improvement.</p>

<p>I really need to ask, though–did some kid with ADHD shank your puppy or something?"</p>

<p>A true testament to his claim that he is one of the constantly nicest people he knows.</p>

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<p>There’s a reason they’re called private messages, but I guess that confidentiality doesn’t mean much to you. </p>

<p>What in there was uncivil or mean? I merely asked you a follow-up question, and finished that somewhat lightheartedly. My apologies if you lack a sense of humor, which you seem to.</p>

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<p>Yes, shanking puppies is humorous. I found it distasteful merely because I lack a sense of humor. Because shanking puppies is utterly hilarious.</p>

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<p>I’d know. I do it on the reg.</p>

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<p>Wow @Dan that was completely uncalled for. Your first post was okay, albeit condescending and boastful. But to try to humiliate someone by posting their PM in their chance thread is just rude and dumb. Why do you even bother posting if all you want to do is put people down? You sound like a snob.</p>

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<p>“I merely asked you a follow-up question, and finished that somewhat lightheartedly”
Where was the follow-up question? It sounded more like he didn’t like my input and decided to challenge my post by saying, “No, you’re wrong. my GPA is fine.” </p>

<p>And I posted my stats because for my reach schools, I’ve wanted profiles of people who were accepted to compare myself. I was trying to be helpful; also there is the added fact that OP seems to discredit anyone’s opinion if they weren’t accepted to Umich. Furthermore, the other post I made to a thread about an ADHD applicant was concerning a question that someone else made in that thread about why ADHD applicants may be given preferential treatment. If you read the actual thread, you would see I wasn’t being disrespectful at all.</p>

<p>And ADHD honestly isn’t a huge compensating factor when 13.2% of all males are diagnosed with it. I was being realistic. I believe a 3.0 is below the 1 percentile for Umich applicants. There are probably 40,000 applicants- many, many others will have struggled with a LD. And as for his last comment, if you found it humorous too, then maybe I do lack a sense of humor. Gee, sorry I don’t find animal abuse funny.</p>

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<p>I have ADHD/LD too-- they’ll take that into account but I don’t think it will get you in, it doesn’t help THAT much. It’s not just that they want to know how smart you are, as your test scores and EC participation demonstrates, they want to know that your ADHD doesn’t mean you don’t have the academic skills to succeed at a school as rigorous as Michigan-- and the poli sci program is tough. I had to prove myself at community college before I got accepted. Your profile says to me that you’re very smart and very motivated but lacking academic skills-- Michigan won’t admit you unless they believe you can be successful there.</p>

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<p>I realize that they want to see a demonstration of my academic skills, and that’s what I think my 4.71 after beginning treatment will be.</p>

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<p>^Write an essay pointing that out, make sure they make that connection. That’s the angle that I took in my applications, showing that once I received my diagnosis my grades went up to within their range-- I submitted that for the “anything else we should know” bit of the application. I still suspect they’d be more receptive to you as a transfer applicant, competition is just too steep for incoming freshmen, but that’s your best shot.</p>

<p>Be sure that you CAN be successful there before you go, if you do get admitted-- don’t just take their word for it. I managed to do well enough at Michigan but in hindsight I had to fight so hard for it that I’m not sure if it was the right place for me after all.</p>