Taking harder classes within your means will never really hurt you for college prep either. My son could only take 2 AP ‘s his junior year and the norm at his school is 3-4 junior year. He was not happy but then took 6 AP’ his senior year with multivariate calculus as his 7 class and cello as his 8th. He got straight “A’s” and proved to himself and Michigan he was ready for college. 4/8 classes he has taken at Michigan are using the same books/authors as he had in high school. His weak subject is English being an engineering kid. He is finding that very easy at Michigan. Challenging yourself in high school will never go to waste.
I agree with most of the sentiments on this page. It looks like if Michigan is your only target, then it makes sense to work towards keeping your UW GPA as high as possible even if that means taking 2 or 3 high rigor classes. I also agree that taking harder classes can’t go waste as other highly competitive schools have CLEARLY demonstrated (based on CC data of course) that their process is really holistic. However, based on CC data, I haven’t seen many kids with lower than 3.8 UW GPA say that they got admitted into U Mich. There have been plenty of students with 1500+ on SAT or 34+ in ACT that are still waiting news from Michigan because their UW GPA is lower (in the 3.7 range). If it was truly a holistic process, I would think that we would’ve seen some acceptances with lower GPAs. It’s not like 3.7 is a bad GPA.
Here’s the thing about college admissions that we all need to accept: 1) they’re not entirely fair and 2) there are many aspects to the admissions process over which we have no control. We all know people who received offers from universities whose stats were lower than those who received deferrals, wait list offers, or denials to the same universities.
Regarding the AP/Honors v Regular Courses: it’s all water under the bridge at this point. But - one note for future college applicants: the head of school at my son’s intense private high school (his idea, not mine!) advised striking a balance. That is, take the AP/Honors courses that are challenging but not overwhelming. If they are too difficult or if the AP/Honors class(es) are consuming an inordinate amount of your time, causing lots of stress, sleep deprivation, and are preventing you from spending time on your Regular Courses, then you shouldn’t be enrolled in them. The head of school told us that, at the end of the day, it’s the transcript that the admissions officers look at first. Of course, it’s great to see AP and Honors courses on the transcript - but only take those classes in subjects where you think you might have a shot at an A. If your situation is one in which you think that, with a lot of hard work and struggle, you can manage a B, don’t take it.
There’s one exception for UC applicants (and perhaps this is true at other universities, I don’t know). University of California will raise a student’s grade by a full point if that class was an AP class (not Honors - can be are just as difficult as the AP). In other words, it’s most than just considering an UW and W GPA. So, if you are dead-set on going to a UC, take as many AP classes as you can. That said, in my opinion, it’s not a good strategy to limit yourself to aiming for just the UCs.
Keep in mind also that if you don’t get into your first-choice school - like UofMich! - nearly everybody on this thread still has a terrific future ahead of him or her. I know so many people who have been successful in their careers and made very good salaries who went to universities most of us have never heard of. The reason why they are successful is because they worked hard as undergrads, got good grades, and either continued to work hard after university or then went onto grad school. I know someone who went to Chico State University in CA and is now a successful entrepreneur and lives in the high income area of Piedmont, CA. I also know someone who went to St. Mary’s College in Moraga, CA and is a high-ranked VP at Bechtel. I also know someone who went to Univ of Oregon, got his MBA from Willamette and makes well over $500K a year in the finance industry.
And for those of you who have plans for graduate school, there is something to be said about going to a school where you are amongst the top admitted students (in terms of GPA/SAT-ACT) because you will be very competitive. I have a friend who went to UIUC (a very good public university, but not as highly ranked/regarded as U of Mich) who did very well there and is now at Harvard Law.
Over the next few weeks, this year’s college applicants will have all their offers in hand. Make your choice and then make the deepest commit to it. It’s the commitment to do your best and to prevail when you hit the rough spots (and you will have some personal and academic challenges during your undergrad years, it’s inevitable) that will lead you to success. And, maybe, four years from now you will realize that what you did during your undergraduate years was much more important than where they took place.
(Sorry for all the typos in my post above. Was trying to say that UC won’t “upgrade” Honors courses, even though they can be as difficult as AP and to make the deepest commitMENT to your undergrad choice. Good luck to everyone).
Very well said. My other daughter applied to her school of choice, got in and that was it. She knew well in advance what she was doing and where she was going. UMich is a whole new ball game. I know and so does my son that the AP classes will only help him in the future. I was just venting because you all have worked so hard to get in and tried to take the most rigorous class load. At this point it’s just a wait and see, hopefully we’ll get answers this week. All the best to all of you.
Hey everyone! I was deferred early action to LSA and have been reading this forum since early January (many times throughout the day), but have just now made an account.
I agree with @Santander there are definitely many aspects to the admissions process. I do think it is a good idea to take AP courses because Umich does want to see rigor. Especially if there are a lot of AP courses offered at your high school. I have talked to regional counselors in the past who have strongly advised taking AP classes especially towards your junior and senior year. They also want to see improvement, or progression throughout your high school years. So, if you start off taking honors classes and getting A’s, then you may want to consider taking AP courses, but not overloading your curriculum because you still want to maintain your GPA.
@bratinahat and @jj1999 I have also heard of admitted students with high GPA’s who have not taken many AP classes, but we also have to consider other aspects such as their extracurriculars, diversity, relation to alumni, and personal circumstances. I know at my school particularly, a big majority of the kids in student council get in every year. Not sure if its related to the commitment and leadership that student council holds, or a letter of recommendation they recieve. When it comes to Umich there is no particular formula that will ensure admission.
From the books that I read about college admission process a few years ago, one of the most common questions to college counselors is whether maintaining a high GPA or taking high rigor courses are more important for admission at competitive colleges. The answers are often that both are as important. One have to strike a balance between high GPA and high course rigor. The adcom surely want students that have the ability to take high rigor courses as this would indicate their potentially success in college. At the same time, they cannot allow a lower GPA as that may hurt their admission stat. So they also need to maintain a balance. In 2017, 80% of enrolled freshmen this year has HS GPA 3.8 or above and 25% have HS GPA 4.0 (in UMich’s calculation) according to the Almanac. Although there are still 20% freshmen with HS GPA 3.7 or lower, most of them would be from highly competitive HS (with tough grades), apply to schools with lower academic requirement, or are recruited athletes. On the other hand, I also know an in-state student from one of the top feeder school with 3.8+ GPA and ACT 33 got rejected partly due to a moderately weak course rigor.
Does anyone know how many kids get waitlisted to UM?
Are there any wild guesses as to what the overall acceptance rate will be for fall 2018?..Also, oos vs in-state acceptance rates?
@hockeymom2000 Over 10,000 got invited and thousands accepted to be on the waitlist each year. I think it was ~15,000 invited and ~5,000 accepted to be on the waitlist a couple years ago. Not many admitted at the end and the number varies a lot from year to year.
@KES2022 With ~38,000 EA applicants, it is expected to have over 70,000 total applications. For ~15,000 admissions, the overall admission rate would be near 20%. Assume the in-state applications to be around 10,000 which has been quite consistent in the past, and also assume the in-state/OOS student ratio will not change too much next year. There are over 60,000 OOS applicants competing for ~10,000 OOS admission spots. So the OOS admission rate would be in the mid-teens. The in-state admission rate should still be slightly over 40%.
does anyone know of anyone who has applied and been accepted for the Summer 2018 term?
I don’t think scores and GPA are the deciding factors at least in state. My son has been watching kids around him get in with lower scores and lower grades as he still waits. I’m kind of discouraged now because we were so sure he would get in and the school even seemed like they thought he would get in with the letters they sent inviting him to admissions events. He went to every event they notified him about. There seemed to be some issues ongoing. He lost his High School admissions counselor his high school had for many years. The normal Admissions officer for the area in Michigan was switched then the switched Admissions officer left between EA and RD. May have nothing to do with things but it has been discouraging.
@johnrh What area of study/interest was presented in your son’s application? A popular or general area of study vs a a more defined academia may be the juncture in a holistic approach to help or hinder - Sometimes, they just have too many blue sky or green grass pieces to fit into a single puzzle so it takes longer to decide.
@098123Student He applied to COE and was interested in going on into an MS in Mechatronics through SUGS.
@098123Student, does it mean that someone with undecided major has less chance than someone specifying the field of study given everything else is same.
@johnrh what regional counselor are you talking about? This happened to my area as well.
@johnrh CoE is tougher to get in than LSA. I know someone got rejected a few years ago with 3.8+/33 from a feeder HS. GPA is important and then test score but they are not the factors alone for consideration. CoE would have a much closer look at the Math section score. Also, showing the interest of the school in the essay. Obviously, they have way more high stat students than they can admit and they are not only interested in high stat students.
@EthanAz1 It was for Southwest MI. Can’t say that it was an issue but loosing a connection does tend to unnerve in situations like this.
@johnrh How awesome!!! Hope you get the decision you want 
@billcsho Yes, but as I said he watched multiple students in his school and several schools around us get in with lower scores and stats and he showed great interest in his essays and his attendance of admissions events (many admissions events) His GPA was very good (3.92 UW and 4.20 Weighted) with honors and AP. I realize that the school uses holistic admissions but we had thought he was getting in, but he was not foolish enough to not apply to other schools.