<p>My son is also an RD applicant and we have also hit the same confusion you describe re RD notifications. It is possible they haven’t decided themselves when they will notify. It is not one of my son’s top choices but for mom’s mental health I was hoping this was one school that would let us know early!</p>
<p>^ My personal belief is that they will still do rolling, but are told to inform everyone they won’t hear until April to cover their butts. I am sure they have received many more apps than they are used to with the common app and may be worried about how to proceed. </p>
<p>I used to feel very confident that my D would get in, she has a 30 on her ACT, a 4.5 GPA weighted, 3 AP classes and several honors classes, (has always had a good tough schedule), 3 sport athlete, traveled to Europe as an ambassador for People to People, and went to Girls State. Her boyfriend got accepted with very similar credentials. But have you seen some of the amazing kids who got deferred in EA? Kids with better looking apps than either my D or her BF! I am not feeling like there is any rhyme or reason to who gets accepted. </p>
<p>I am so anxious! Please keep me informed on anything you learn, and I will do the same! Good luck to all you RD kids and all those amazing students who got deferred in EA!</p>
<p>^I do not know of anyone else except for myself who applied RD at my school, but I know a handful who were deferred and many who were accepted. I know absolutely no one who was outright rejected. I will call again sometime in the next two or three weeks to see if I can get a solid answer.</p>
<p>^ are the kids you know who got answers already RD or EA?</p>
<p>Just spoke with admissions. “Vast majority” of applicants will hear in mid-April. My interpretation is that this makes them technically still rolling, to accomodate stellar applicants along the way.</p>
<p>Does anyone think meeting with admissions to go over your applications would be of any benefit, or do you have any suggestions on anything that might increase your chances? I asked about retaking the ACT in February, but they said that would probably be too late, despite also saying they would not release decisions till April.</p>
<p>^I don’t think you’d find admissions personnel readily accessible for meetings right now. That said, if you’re on good terms with the HS guidance counselor, you could ask THEM to put in an extra pretty-please with their rep on your behalf (this is unofficially possible, btw). You can also (without stalking them) send in an update re: an accomplishment, one additional letter of recommendation, a re-statement of intent, upward trend in grades, noteworthy awards or distinctions, etc. My advice would be to do this all in the same correspondence packet; to keep it light, tight and a quick read; to send it by courier to show intent and track-ability, and to do so after the Feb. 1 RD deadline.</p>
<p>Eg. Michigan remains my first choice/among my first choices…I continue to thrive in the (honors) program as evidenced by my midterm grades…I was honored to receive the xxxxx award/etc…attached please find a further recommendation from x, who I helped xxx…Thanks for your careful consideration…can’t wait to make a contribution to the Michigan community through (my unique asset that sets me apart from the other 19,000 EAs 
Go Blue! – You get the idea.</p>
<p>If they begin to release decisions for a few, it will be after the close of RD, I suspect. Hope that helps. Best wishes.</p>
<p>^ awesome advice thanks! I think we will do just that! Good luck to you as well.</p>
<p>I wonder if there may actually be a method to U of M’s madness regarding their admissions decisions so far this year. Since they had more acceptances last year than they wanted, they knew they’d have to reduce the size of this year’s freshman class. I think it’s possible that they intentionally issued EA admissions offers to a wide variety of applicants (statistically speaking) to get a better sense of the potential yield from the overall Common App pool. If all they admitted from EA were “sure thing” admits anyway (many of whom probably get admitted and possibly will accept at other top-notch universities) they might actually get a skewed perception of what their yield rate for this year might be. I hope they don’t make all the RD applicants wait until April for a decision, but I could see them holding a large portion of the decisions until then to give the majority of EA admissions a chance to make their decisions. No one knows for sure, but it could be one possible answer to why things have played out the way they have so far this year.</p>
<p>^ Here’s the really crazy thing though. My D’s boyfriend, who applied RD, got accepted through EA. And not to belittle his accomplishments in any way, he is not a top notch candidate. More middle of the road. I definately saw kids with more impressive credentials get deferred in EA, and he hadn’t even applied EA.</p>
<p>^That’s exactly what I was thinking though. By admitting some “middle of the road” candidates through EA (even though your D’s bf didn’t apply EA…no idea on that one) U of M might be trying to get a more realistic sample of how the overall Common App pool will respond to admissions offers. I don’t think many (if any) “low end” applicants were accepted during EA because I’m sure most of them would accept immediately. If only “high end” applicants were accepted, many of them probably applied ED to other top-notch universities and a good number of them might decline admission to U of M to go to those other schools, and give a falsely low impression of a potential yield rate. By offering admission to some “middle of the road” applicants they might get a better picture of an overall yield rate from the entire pool, which from what I’ve read on other threads is where the missed the mark last year. Their yield rate was higher than anticipated last year, so they’re probably looking for some way to better guesstimate/control the yield rate by manipulating the admissions offers. It’s just my guess…trying to make sense of what we’ve seen so far.</p>
<p>^ Oh, gotcha! That could make some sense. Would you think that my D, who is also pretty middle of the road will stand a pretty good chance in RD then as well, or will they more likely go for the kids with the 34’s and 35’s figuring that if they were going to higher universities they would have already done so? I can’t tell you how much I am hoping she will get accepted! Northwestern was a heartbreaker, don’t want to go through that again!</p>
<p>^I think it may depend heavily on how many acceptances they get from the EA pool. If many of those students accept, that might limit the number of deferred students that get offered admission…at least in a timely fashion. It might turn out to be a waiting game unfortunately, and in many cases that equates to money versus lost opportunities for students. They may have to pay other universities’ acceptance fees and be willing to sacrifice that money (in many cases it’s non-refundable) should U of M come through with a late offer of admission. If they wait on U of M and hope for an offer that doesn’t come, they might miss out on a spot at another university they’ve been accepted to. I agree completely that it stinks, but I know for future reference (we have twins who will be doing college searches in 4 years) we’re going to save up some money to cover these eventualities. We were lucky in that our D1 has strong stats and got accepted in the EA round. Hopefully for those deferred and waiting, accepted students have the opportunity (and the common decency) to make their decisions known to U of M as early as possible to help out everyone else still waiting to hear (deferrals, RD’s, etc.).</p>
<p>I know this is really late, but since I am bored I thought I would do this. </p>
<p>LSA
Secondary English Education/African American Studies
3.3 GPA
22 ACT
HUGE UPWARD TREND…from getting a 2.67 freshman year to 4.23 first trimester, senior year.</p>
<p>Deferred, which I feel is worst than being denied. Nevertheless, I am going to a state school (Grand Valley State University) and I got into the honors college…so I feel that is best for me anyway.</p>
<p>^ Welcome, and never too late to post! I went to GVSU back in the day myself. Best of luck to you!</p>
<p>I’m still debating whether to apply to Michigan…</p>
<p>Their deadline is Feb 1st but obviously rolling admissions makes it so that it’s harder to get in the later you apply right?</p>
<p>Go for it! But do it soon…otherwise spaces will fill up</p>
<p>Decision: Accepted!</p>
<p>College and Program: LSA - planning on Neuroscience and Spanish with a minor in music.
Stats:[ul]
[<em>] SAT I (by section): N/A
[</em>] SAT IIs: N/A
[<em>] ACT: 30
[</em>] APs: U.S. History, Gov, Econ, Bio, Calc AB, Spanish, English Lit
[<em>] IBs: N/A
[</em>] GPA (UW, W): 3.987
[<em>] Rank: 23/324
[</em>] Other stats: Top 10%
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[<em>] ECs listed on app: Marching band (section leader), symphonic band (first chair), pit orchestra, Tri-M music honor society (junior year - treasurer, senior year - president), NHS, Spanish NHS, Science NHS, SADD, Volunteering in the medical library at a hospital.
[</em>] Job/Work Experience: Didn’t put that on my app. I probably should have, but it doesn’t matter now.
[<em>] Essays (subject and responses): My trip to Europe with a music group, and how it allowed me to step outside of my comfort zone and grow as a person.
[</em>] Teacher Recs: good?
[<em>] Counselor Rec: good?
[</em>] Applied on (EA?): Early Action. Pretty close to the dedline too. Not a good idea.
[<em>] Hook (if any): UM accepts about 80% of applicants from my school.
[/ul][ b]Location/Person:[ /b][ list]
[</em>] State or Country: MI
[<em>] School Type: public
[</em>] Ethnicity: Caucasian
[li] Gender: Female[/li][/list][ b]General Comments/Congratulations/Venting/Commiserations,etc:</p>
<p>^Did you apply EA?</p>
<p>Decision: Accepted</p>
<p>In state student
4.2W/3.8UW
30ACT
2010 combined SAT
5 on AP Euro and AP Comp
4 AP’s senior year
Strong extracurriculars
So-so essays (Common App one was REALLY good, 2 for UMich not so strong)
Above average recommendations</p>