Is it possible for me OOS?

Colleges & Universities University of Michigan
1

Right now, the only hook I see going for me is that I’m from one of those states where less than 30 of their undergrad population is from according to the map. My SAT is what’s killing me. Right now, I’m at 1910 combined (550 math, 710 writing, 650 reading); however, I intend to major in something english/humanities related. My gpa is 4.6 weighted (I’m unsure about unweighted because my gc left it up to individual colleges to determine that–its not on my transcript, but I’d guess around 3.7).

Other details:

White
Income: Around 100k, family of 7, sibling in college
Course Load: school doesn’t allow AP/dual enrollment before junior year

  • junior year: APUSH, DE english I, DE chemistry, AP world
    -senior year: AP bio, AP econ, AP govt, DE Calc I, DE english I
    The rest of my schedule is pretty much the basic honors student course-load each year. I have taken some advanced creative writing classes and five years of Chinese though.

EC’s:
-Co-founded and serve as VP of a farm bureau/4-h club
-competed and won various showmanship competitions within 4-h
-Class VP
-retreat facilitator at school
-direct music for school and church events (I go to an evangelical Christian school if that clarifies any of this)
-guitar, piano, and vocal music with various small distinctions and leadership positions relating to these
-captain of bowling team at school and bowl in leagues outside of school
-published some articles in a local magazine and won a few poetry contests (nothing extremely acclaimed, state/local)
-serve as a leader at my church youth group
-bible study leader at school
-exhibited artwork locally
-art club, key club, book club, youth in government
-math and english tutor at school

  • won about 5 or 6 school/state awards for academic achievements (college fellows, character awards, etc)
    -about 100 volunteer hours doing various things generally relating to these activities (I have to keep track for school)

Summer Activities:
-attended a Christian leadership camp w/ church
-40 hours per year volunteering w/ animal shelters
-30 hours tutoring children at a low-income elementary school

Michigan is my only real “reach” school, everywhere else I’m applying is in my range or test optional.

2

Oh, and I forgot to mention that my essays are good. They were proofread by a few teachers. I focused a lot on writing in my apps, and my common app essay is about my love of irish literature.

3

Not terrible. At this point it is too late to retake the SAT or try the ACT. The unweighted GPA matters more because that is less likely to differ by school. My year, you would have wanted to have at least a 3.8 GPA and 28 ACT or 2000 SAT. I’m not sure how much this has changed these past four years.

4

@umcoe16 It did change upward significantly in the last few years. ACT 28 or SAT 2000 are both below the 25th percentile for admission. In addition, the OOS admission rate has dropped to 20% last year.

For OP. There is always a myth about benefit to the student from low attendance states. However, think about why there are low attendance states like Montana. Even if UMich wants to have a complete coverage of 50 states, it only has a few students from each of the low attendance states for all undergraduate years combined. If you are not the top few students applying, it may not be helpful in any case.

5

It is definitely worth applying. See what happens. OOS with your stats ARE admitted. They look for diversity (widely interpreted).