Latest Michigan Acceptance Rate

blue85
Mon, 28 Apr 2014 19:24:08 +0000

Ignoring for a moment acceptance and yield and number of applications, I think the trend is toward a stronger entering cohort: 2 years ago 58% had an Ivy-league level ACT; 1 year ago 63% had an Ivy-League level ACT; this year is projected to be even stronger. The median GPA was around 3.8, then 3.85, and should be a shade higher in the most recent cycle.

As I’ve posted elsewhere on this board, the Ivy-League inter-quartile range on the ACT is 30-34, Michigan’s interquartile is now 29-33…given the trend over the last 5 years, we will soon match up on the span of those Ivy figures. Given the size of Michigan’s undergraduate class, there are more Ivy-League ACT scores on the Ann Arbor campus than Harvard, Yale and Princeton combined.

So, while a lot of people look at applications (we will never receive as many as the schools in the Cal system which draws from a base of 36million (at a minimum)) and at yield (limited for the same reason), to my mind the strength of the cohorts coming in is what counts and Michigan is doing well in that regard.

The retention rate is around 97% for first year students, financial aid is growing (which improves graduation rates) and the class statistics and application count are both growing. In a time when costs are rocketing upward, Michigan has bumped into the top 10 on Kiplinger’s affordability/quality ranking and ahead of the Cal schools.

In general, it seems that Michigan is a “brand” which is actually getting stronger under both national and state-wide funding stress and is separating from the rest of the pack alongside of the more traditional brands.