Regarding Campus Days, am I doing my kid a disservice if we wait until April? I have been advised to make sure we go soon so my DC can get a taste of Ann Arbor in winter. However, the April date works much better for us and we won’t be seeing two colleges in one weekend (with very different weather).
You can call admissions and ask.
April is so much nicer in Ann Arbor. Check out the Arb…
Winter is cold sometimes with or without snow. Lots of West Coast students at Michigan. Doesn’t seem to be an issue.
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Not necessarily. Visualize a sum of a long string of variables with different coefficients. Your demonstrated interest variable may be 0, but your other stats may have overcome that. Also, some schools include website visits and email clicks in demonstrated interest (don’t know about UM).
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Campus Days are really more personal preference. If you are OOS and not familiar with a Michigan winter, it might be a good idea to come earlier. If you’d rather explore all A2 has to offer when it is nicer, April is better (although still unpredictable!). Registration is a whole different ballgame though. For that, honestly, the earlier the better even if AP/IB scores are still unknown.
Way upstream I posted something about this. Many students get in with none and lots of students get in with some.
Amen sister (or brother)!
Should the student or a school counselor make a call?
Replied to wrong post. Deleted.
I tend to agree. Every school where my D25 got accepted and offered good merit, she didn’t show any explicit DI or visited, except may be asking a few genuine questions over emails, and writing stellar “why us” essays (subjective self judgement).
In fact the only school where she visited and did a summer program, she got deferred.
In the most recent CDS it’s “Considered” which is the 3rd of 4 levels: Very Important, Important, Considered, and Not Considered. So you’re correct in that it’s not a big factor.
Depends on your perceived tolerance for cold and how much that may matter (and how much you want your kids to go!)
We went mid-March last year and it was fortunately glorious that weekend. We all loved it and our twins are there now living their best lives (despite the recent cold). Hard to say what the experience would’ve been had we done our re-visit in the colder/darker earlier timeframe thought 
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You can talk to your counselor but you can just call general admissions or email or your AO since it’s a very specific question as it relates to you. They are all nice and helpful.
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Keep in mind that every year schools “build” their class. Each year their requirements/goals are different. Maybe they need more “X” then “Y” this go around. We will never know.
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Are you talking about class registration?
Yep. They’ll have dates to choose from for that starting in May. For that, I would not delay. But for Campus Day, it’s a totally separate thing and it doesn’t matter when you go. It’s really just personal preference.
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I think they largely measure demonstrated interest based on a student’s Why UMich essay (but I’m mostly guessing here)
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S25 got deferred in both Purdue and UMich. He is US citizen but in IB highschool in Finland and taking High level physics, maths and english. In Finland, there is no guidance counsellor help with preparing (from 10th grade), no clubs in school to participate, no help with even explaining about essays and very rarely have to write recommendation letters so we have no idea what was given in Recs. Really hard to get top grades in his school and 38/45 predicted grade in IB in this school is at the top. But kid has been in science since he is 6yrs old, promoted hands-on science since 8yrs old (with youtube channel, science festivals and competitions, LEGO robotic competitions, LEGO conventions etc) while we were in Cali, continued here in Finland last 7 years, won National science competition 3 out of last 5 years, first 15yr old to secure a research summer internship in the university 3 consecutive years, have been to ISEF once, EUCYS this year and published his first peer-reviewed academic paper in a good Machine learning conference. His grades are good and 1530 SAT. We can’t figure out if not knowing what’s expected in the application is hurting him or just back luck. His essays seemed excellent (of course subjective judgement). We told him and telling ourselves that this happens and just have to be patient but also worried not knowing what’s hurting his application. It sucks but that shouldn’t stop us from congratulating the kids who got in. I admire those kids and can feel for the kids who didn’t get accepted despite all the hard work. And I definitely don’t envy the admission officers who has to go through thousands of applications every year. Lets hope we hear better news in RD and if not, may the kids find the ‘right’ school.
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We evaluated a few private admission counselors, including some highly popular ones on Instagram, when my D25 was a rising senior. But we were very disappointed at the fear mongering, and upselling of add-on services. I was in particular angered when I got to know that they’re providing essay editing services—like literally taking your draft and writing the essays for you. Besides being unethical, I wonder what sort of values the parents who sign up for such services are imparting to their kids, and for how much longer are they planning to spoon-feed their kids to get an ego boost.
We only needed process guidance, and help shortlisting the right targets and reach schools for my D25, but figured it’s not for us.
I’m sure kids who sign up for such services may get some benefit, but have a strong feeling that AOs can tell when they read perfect cookie-cutter applications.
Don’t be deterred by a couple deferrals for your kid. If you believe you’ve followed the application instructions to your best, be assured your kid will get to a place they are meant to be. My best wishes.
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Again, I believe it is often impossible to understand what works for some and what doesn’t, why some kids get admitted and others don’t. After being deferred, my daughter wrote her LOCI and included updates from her first semester that UMich did not know about (awards, recognitions, grades) and re-expressed specifically why she wanted UMich. Find something truly unique and/or express it in a unique way. In addition, her college counselor reached out to the regional rep and expressed the same. Again, hard to say what helped and what didn’t but put it all out there and have some faith and patience. The waiting game is brutal. Good luck!
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This actually makes sense i think my why us essay was very strong despite the fact that i showed no other form of demonstrated interest