<p>My D is just wrapping up her sophomore year in HS and is VERY interested in Michigan. We plan on taking her for a visit this summer. Per her GC, her gpa is low for Michigan, as compared to other students from the HS who either were deferred, wait listed, or rejected.
BTW, she’s OOS. </p>
<p>Currently, she has a 95 average. For what it’s worth, she scored pretty high on the practice ACT. Those from her HS who didn’t make it averaged about 100 or so (don’t know if they took challenging courses or not).</p>
<p>So far, she’s taken: 3 years of language; honors earth science, honors biology, and honors chemistry; honors algebra, honors geometry, honors algebra & trig; honors english; honors history; gobal conflicts (elective); two years of design & draw (art requirement)</p>
<p>Junior years she’s taking: AP lit; honors history; honors physics; honors pre-calc BC; college level language; environmental research (elective); health</p>
<p>Senior year she’ll take: college language; college lit; honors history; honors calc BC; an upper level science class and probably some other elective(s)</p>
<p>She’s a member of the Italian club, has been playing varsity basketball since freshman year, will be running cross country and track, performs community service, and will be a published illustrator come the end of this year.</p>
<p>The only advice I can really give you (to relay to your D) is to stand out on her app. Make sure she has something passionate and real to write about in her essays (usually about community, what attracts you to your program/umich, a short blurb on an EC, and the common app essay). With applicants being so close academically, I’m sure more subjective factors are coming into play.</p>
<p>I’m assuming the 95 is weighted so try to find an unweighted gpa and, if possible, convert it to a 4.0 scale. That would give us a much better idea. 95 weighted means absolutely nothing as it has no context.</p>
<p>Michigan (and pretty much every other school) looks at unweighted grades and then just holistically evaluates strength of schedule. If you had an unweighted average it would be helpful.</p>
<p>^^actually, eziamm, as of 2010, UMich no longer unweights GPA…won’t help the OP if kids in her school with 100 averages were still deferred/waitlisted, but wanted to set the record straight…</p>
<p>^They no longer calculate the “UM GPA”, but they do look at the unweighted gpa on the transcript. If there isn’t one listed then they figure it out themselves (this isn’t just speculation, it’s all straight from an admissions guy). They put everyone on a level playing field, and then look at schedule.</p>
<p>From the Umich Admissions website:
How is a student’s curriculum evaluated?</p>
<p>How is a student’s curriculum evaluated?
A student’s curriculum plays a large role in the application process, we like to see students challenging themselves. We encourage students to take demanding courses (such as AP, IB, honors, advanced or accelerated courses, if offered) in subjects they feel they can excel.</p>
<p>We do not use a weighted GPA scale in our evaluation process. We will convert all students’ GPA to an unweighted scale and review the number of demanding courses seperately.</p>
<p>^^ so they lied? no idea; no vested interest…all I know is that when they changed how they calculated GPA (or whatever) our HS admissions to UMich changed drastically.</p>
<p>you also have to remember that admissions to Michigan are getting harder every single year. In 2 years when your daughter applies they will be at an all time high for difficulty, especially out of state. So make sure your daughter has an upward trend(Junior year and first semester senior year are the most important) and make she she really works to get above a 30 on the ACT and above a 2000 on the SAT. Also see if she has a definite interest on what she wants to study in college, pursue that in high school, and then highlight those accomplishments on the application.</p>
<p>rodney- changed drastically as in it was harder to get in or easier? Btw I would definitely trust what an admissions rep and the school’s website say over your guidance counselor.</p>
<p>just to give you some more concrete advice-</p>
<p>Encourage her to pursue more leadership. Being a member of clubs is great but its another thing to be the one leading the clubs. She still has a lot of time though but thats something big.</p>
<p>also how can she skip ap calc ab and just go right into ap calc bc… doesnt really make sense but w.e.</p>
<p>It is hard to predict what is going to happen as a result of the common application. Before joining the Common Application, the University of Chicago admitted over 40% of applicants. Today, it is admitting roughly 15%. Michigan’s acceptance rate is definitely going to drop, but nobody knows how much. It could level off at 35% or at 20%. My guess is somewhere around 25%-30%.</p>
<p>I would recommend: </p>
<ol>
<li>Maintaining a high GPA (3.8+ unweighed)</li>
<li>Taking challenging courses (AP English and AP Mathematics at the very least, plus AP History and Econ for LSA applicants and AP Physics and Chemistry for CoE applicants) </li>
<li>Excelling at one or two ECs (no university wants a jack of all trades, but they appreciate students who have a passion for one or two activities)</li>
<li>Writing good essays (personal, specific, creative and well written)</li>
<li>Doing well on standardized tests (2100+ on the SAT and 32+ on the ACT)</li>
</ol>