<p>Deferred</p>
<p>34 ACT, 4.0 unweighted. Do you believe it hurts that I am not an IB diploma candidate yet I take all IB courses aside from IB English HL?</p>
<p>Deferred</p>
<p>Applied to which school/college: LSA</p>
<p>Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): didn’t take
ACT: 34 (34 E 36 M 33 R 33 S)
SAT II: didn’t take
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.93
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 18/360
AP (place score in parenthesis): didn’t report-- but classes include Biology, Human Geography, Government, Calculus BC, Economics, Literature/Composition, Psychology, Statistics
IB (place score in parenthesis):
Senior Year Course Load: English 4 Honors (Humanities), Journalism 2 Honors, Ceramics Honors, Sociology Honors, AP Government, AP Psychology, AP Calculus BC, AP Statistics, Spanish 4 Honors, TA
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): N/A</p>
<p>Subjective:</p>
<p>Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Varsity Swim Team (Captain), Spanish Club (Secretary), NHS, Spanish NHS, Piano Lessons, Link Crew, Key Club, weekly columnist for local newspaper, school yearbook/magazine (Editor)
Job/Work Experience: Culver’s (local fast food restaurant) and Shopko (apparel/cashier)
Volunteer/Community service: 200+ service hours, lettered in Key Club, volunteers at Channel One, Rochester Public Library, Habitat for Humanity, church, etc.
Summer Activities: not much, volunteered at a Quarry Hill summer camp (encourages interest in science, works with kids of all ages)
Essays (rating 1-10, details): Common App - 7/10
Mich Supplement 1 - 9/10
Mich Supplement 2 - 9.5/10
Mich Supplement 3 - 7/10
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
Teacher Rec #1: Math Teacher (8/10)
Teacher Rec #2: English Teacher (10/10)
Counselor Rec: 7.5/10
Additional Rec: Swim Coach (9/10)
Interview: N/A</p>
<p>Other</p>
<p>State (if domestic applicant): MN
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: > $150K
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): none</p>
<p>Reflection</p>
<p>Strengths: ACT, extracurriculars
Weaknesses: essays, class rank
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: I’m honestly not really sure-- I’m sure there were a lot of more qualified applicants but I also thought I had a really good shot. Wondering about potential yield protection…
Where else were you accepted/deferred/rejected: UPenn (Wharton) ED – rejected
University of Minnesota (Carlson) – accepted with full tuition
University of Iowa – accepted with full tuition</p>
<p>@candyschart
I was a little insulted at first too. Then I read something online that said it could be due to not taking the ideal amount/kind of courses in high school. Like with me, I gave up my science and social studies classes this year for dual enrollment. So, it might just be something to help us go from not having those classes to taking them at the michigan standard.</p>
<p>Decision: Accepted!</p>
<p>Applied to which school/college: LSA, preferred admit to Ross (pre admit would be nice, however I plan on working my butt off freshman year anyway so I’m just happy to be admitted overall!)</p>
<p>Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): did not take
ACT: 30 (26 Math, 31 reading, 34 english, 29 science)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.82
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): idk probably somewhere around 60/500
AP (place score in parenthesis): no ap classes taken until senior year
IB (place score in parenthesis): n/a
Senior Year Course Load: AP micro economics, AP psychology, calculus, epidemiology, global education… Then marketing 2, ecology, global Ed, ap psych, and some other random classes next semester
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): nothing major like the outstanding stuff I see on here all of the time. I had nhs, honor roll, global education academic awards, and I was a state finalist for deca.</p>
<p>Subjective:</p>
<p>Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): students against destructive decisions (Vice President), class council (treasurer), deca, nhs, and I know there’s a few more but they’re so insignificant I can’t remember what they are
Job/Work Experience: I created my own online jewelry business, I sell a lot of stuff online. It’s not a “job” but I took it upon myself to create the brand. I talked about how much I enjoy it and my entrepreneurial spirit I’ve always had.
Volunteer/Community service: lots of stuff with anti drug and drinking, tutoring, library volunteer work, I think I listed maybe 100 hours
Summer Activities: nothing really except maybe selling stuff more (I design and make it myself)
Essays (rating 1-10, details): I think they were a solid 9.5.
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details): 8. One was very thorough and wonderful, the other quite standard and cookie cutter.</p>
<p>State (if domestic applicant): I live a half hour from AA
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: large public
Ethnicity: whitest white
Gender: female
Income Bracket: 25-50k
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): first generation college</p>
<p>Reflection</p>
<p>Strengths: honestly my essays. I’m typing like I can’t form a proper sentence in this post, but in my essays I certainly don’t, lol. They were very unique and risky. When I read U of m’s website on how to make a good essay, they said take risks and make it interesting. I was initially going to write about how I didn’t get internationals at deca. Soon after, I found out how absolutely boring that is. I decided to do the prompt “when was the last time you challenged something”, and I talked about how I am a critical thinker and push boundaries of what’s expected. Think about it, u of m wants INTERESTING, smart people on their campus. All of my essays were solid but I think that one set me apart from the crowd.
Weaknesses: 30 ACT. I wish I applied myself more. I could have managed a 32 or more probably.
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: because I talked about how I absolutely have a passion for business, and how I’ve actually pursued it beyond academia, and how I have an innovative mind. I almost wasn’t sure if that’d sound pretentious or cocky, however it appears to have worked.
Where else were you accepted/deferred/rejected: wayne state honors, u of m Dearborn, madonna, all with varied scholarships. Rejected no where… Luckily not u of m! That was the only dicey one.</p>
<p>General Comments:
I honestly feel bad for some of you who’ve gotten 36s or even 34s on the act and are denied or deferred. Doesn’t seem fair. The only thing I think I have to say is that I think you have to have an essay that’s really good. And not about your little competition you didn’t win, or anything basic like that. I think it’s gotta be from the heart, and the most interesting stuff about yourself. Market yourself :’) anyway good luck to all! </p>
<p>Accepted! LSA</p>
<p>ACT: 28 (30 superscore)
GPA: 4.1
Pretty good essays and a lot of EC’s. Also my brother currently attends so that probably helped!
Congrats to everyone accepted! Good luck to those deferred</p>
<p>Got deferred</p>
<p>ACTs 32
I’m an international student with iB predicted of 40
To be honest I thought my essays were pretty good- apparently not good enough?
Have a hella load of community service hours</p>
<p>I got the ‘good’ deferral letter so hopefully I’ll get accepted in regular!</p>
<p>I really think michigan needs to do something about this situation in the future. It’s just ridiculous that so many qualified applicants are getting deferred. I’m all for EA but maybe moving into a restricted EA or single choice EA will be a better option in the future to avoid this. Then they don’t have to make any assumptions or worry about yields when top students apply early. It would help to even out the EA and RD pools, because ideally they want most applicants in RD, which is certainly not the case… Just my two cents. As a public school, ED is not an option but the way admissions have been going they should consider REA.</p>
<p>I got deferred.</p>
<p>4.8 W 3.97 UW
34 ACT
2200 SAT
750 SAT Math II
Above Average ECs, probably pretty decent recs</p>
<p>This deferral came in as a huge surprise. I’m honestly in shock. I probably won’t get into NYU either now. Never felt so rejected and discouraged…</p>
<p>@bug2996 I have the exactly same stats as you…</p>
<p>I was surprised too when I heard so many of my over-qualified friends get deferred. What I am thinking, is that Michigan wants to keep their acceptance rate low (to become more “prestigious” or whatever). And in order to do that, they probably reject or defer many over-qualified applicants because they think that they would not go if they got accepted, and why accept someone who’s not going to attended just to raise the acceptance rate.</p>
<p>Accepted.
IB Predicted: 45
SAT: 2280
Major high school academic awards
Great ECs and quite a few great leadership positions. Lots of community service.
Lots of work experience related to intended major. </p>
<p>To all those deferred, don’t give up on your dream. I got deferred from Princeton EA a few days ago and it was my top choice and my life long dream. What didn’t change with being deferred is that it is still my top choice and still my dream. </p>
<p>A deferral is hard to take and so painful but the possibility of being accepted is still very much there!!</p>
<p>To each of you I say, go get that acceptance. Send UMich extra material and reasons to accept you.</p>
<p>THE BATTLE IS NOT OVER SO DO NOT GIVE UP!</p>
<p>I wish you a lot of luck. 
</p>
<p>To preface, I’m a junior at U of M, and I went to a small private HS in Los Angeles very close to Harvard Westlake (as a previous poster alluded to HW is a huge feeder school to Michigan and one of the most elite high schools in the country) and know a lot of kids who go there. My younger brother (who goes to my school) was accepted, and I would classify him right on the border of overqualification (~2200 SAT, just under 4 GPA, lots of APs, relatively strong ECs). As of now I know of only one data point from Harvard Westlake, one of my brother’s best friends who is a stellar applicant (clearly overqualified) but was also accepted, which provides some evidence against the yield protection thing since his application I’m sure looked like a classic “Michigan backup to Ivies” app, but overall the evidence here is compelling that they are pulling a pretty shameful EA yield protection stunt.</p>
<p>The legacy thing is big here too in support of this theory - you see the accepted legacies that have posted in this thread with less-than-stellar stats, and in my brother’s case Michigan could look at the fact that his older brother is a current student and conclude that he has a better chance of enrolling if accepted. Also to take it one step further (and not to toot my own horn here), I’m a very involved student at Michigan, high GPA in Ross, and major leadership positions in two significant student organizations. Given that the admission reps can surely look that all up, there’s a good chance they think accepting my brother could pay off down the road (even though we’re completely different people, and FWIW I doubt my brother ends up at Michigan). I should also note that, interestingly imo, the younger siblings of two other very involved current students at Michigan were also accepted (both very high up in a major student organization on campus). This may sound like I give admission reps too much credit in looking at sibling status, but if they’re as serious about curbing overenrollment as they say they are this type of detailed research would not come as a surprise to me.</p>
<p>TL;DR It’s not definitive but yield protection may very well be what’s going on here, and I suspect there’s a lot more to the legacy thing as it relates to yield protection than we may suspect.</p>
<p>@ThePeanutMaster What school? I’m from LA too, and I applied to U-M for EA this year. Too bad I got deferred. I was hoping to get in, as it was my first choice, and I happened to be the only applicant from my school (also private) to apply this year.</p>
<p>@tripleu Would prefer not to post exact school (can PM you it if interested), but the school I went to has about half the class (out of ~150) apply, and sends on average 6-8 kids which is a pretty ridiculously large number for a small school in California. In the last few years Michigan has become a really popular college for my HS both to apply to and attend if accepted, there is a kind of indescribable allure that is attached to the name. FWIW besides my brother I don’t know anyone else from my school who got in, although it’s possible I haven’t heard yet. Basically don’t lose hope, there’s a lot of overreaction here from people who seem to be equating deferred with denial, when in fact a significant portion will ultimately be accepted. Not that we need anecdotes since that should be an obvious fact, but my cousin who is a senior at U of M was deferred and didn’t hear back until the very end of the RD process.</p>
<p>I do think based on all the evidence there is a very strong likelihood of some yield protection in these deferrals, which is sad to see from Michigan on the one hand but also indicative of a much larger institutional problem colleges have with how they are being portrayed/judged by media and students.</p>
<p>ACCEPTED LSA - email arrived this morning
GPA: 3.7 (unweighted)
3 APs (5,5,5)
SAT: 1950 (M580, CR650, Writing 720)
School: highly competitive international school
OOS
International student (but US citizen)
Fluent in three languages
Several national/international awards
Did internships though the EU in Cuba and Zimbabwe</p>
<p>I think what did it for me was having lived in Russia, UK and Africa and linking those experiences to my academic interests and desire to attend UM. My references were outstanding and my school counselor said she thought my essays were terrific.</p>
<p>I think the essays and personal statements are major factors, as is anything ‘unusual’ or ‘unique’ in your background. I had any Ivy Group admissions officer tell me that you absolutely had to have a ‘hook’ or something unusual in your application that made you stand out, as brilliant stats were simply not sufficient. She told one student that a perfect GPA and high SATs were “as much use as a wooden leg in a forest fire” without something else to complement them!</p>
<p>The mass deferrals and “acceptances all over the place” are a factor of holistic admissions. At my school it has been the same with Columbia, Penn, the Claremont colleges etc. It seems that stats really ARE just part of the picture.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt? It has zero reputation internationally. Amazing how Americans have a totally different perception of their universities than do people overseas. </p>
<p>Sorry. ossopusser, but why should a university bombard you with things? Stickers, flags? Does that impress or sway Americans. If a British university did that, people would laugh. Sad that American universities are so into PR. Indeed, i got over 30 emails from University of Chicago, and their regional admissions counsellors called many of us. It turned most of us off.</p>
<p>I don’t mean to sound crass, but it is astonishing how many people state they are from among the “best” schools in the country. In whose opinion? When I visited colleges, I bumped into applicants from the the Bronx School of the Sciences, Interlochen, Exeter, Andover, Groton etc. Some of them were taking second and thing- year college courses. The reality is that university can chose from students from some incredible schools. </p>
<p>@excanuck99 haha when I said one of the best schools, it was actually one you mentioned…</p>