As @Knowsstuff points out, I think the “walk and feel the vibe” thing is probably the most helpful in the end. At least at this stage. When are you going? Hopefully on a school day, or if on a weekend then when there’s a home football or other big hockey/basketball game. Regardless, take the (free) buses up to North Campus and walk around. That’s where most engineering classes are.
On central campus, walk the Diag, visit the law school quad and library (just walk in…)
From the NW corner of the Diag walk west into downtown A2. If you have a night or two planned let me know - happy to provide all manner of restaurant recs, etc. It’s a super fun place.
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It’s officially rivalry week - can (15) Michigan pull off an upset at home against (1) OSU on Saturday? I have faith in the maize and blue, LET’S GO!
Anything is possible. GO BLUE!
Well last year a Michigan JV team beat OSU. Still confused how that happened 
and OSU were like 25 point favorites. At the Shoe! Being at The Big House adds some points to us but OSU does have a very talented team this year. I will give them that.
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Just to debrief after visit, i think we were there for about 5 min when my student began swooning about the vibe.
Indeed, this is why we do visits. Time to find additional schools of similar vibe, as I promised there were more. Must be, i thought to myself… did i err lol?
My kid who fell in love with the Michigan vibe (and applied ED because of it) really liked CU Boulder for similar reasons. So maybe give that a look.
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Happy to hear it, and not surprised. A2 is a special place and UMich a special school. Maybe UW in Madison is another place to check out? Not quite as competitive to get into, but Madison is place often in the running with A2 for ‘best college town’ on those lists, which are silly, but with which I agree when they name A2 #1!
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Agreed. Michigan was my D25’s dream school. Got WL and then rejected. Ended up with a merit scholarship to UW Madison. $35k/year OOS feels like a deal to us compared to what Michigan would have been. D26 applied to Michigan as well so we will see. Kids also liked Maryland, PSU, Syracuse, Indiana.
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It depends on what you mean about “vibe “to me that is the campus, culture and student body. Wisconsin Madison fits that bill. The student population GPA wise is similar. Wisconsin has been hard to get into OOS the last 5 year’s also.
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Look at Wisconsin. Not quite as hard of an admit and has the school spirit & cute college town.
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Lol, I see everyone else said the same thing, I should have read through first.
So, the vibe in question is the combination of pretty campus and adorable small town so close and walkable that campus blends right into town. Madison might be bigger than [currently] desired, though I’m hoping it makes the list.
One little bit in the info session that some applicants might find interesting: AO clearly stated that scores should be submitted if over the average for the high school, and not submitted if not. (Sounded a little odd to me, as perhaps too one-size-fits-all.)
This is a trendy way of saying they review scores in a local context and a way to encourage kids from low-performing schools to submit scores that may be lower than the average published IMO.
I do agree “one size fits all” is never perfect advice, but I am not surprised they put it this way.
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Being above the norm for the school is a positive and something they look for. Standing out from the crowd is a good thing.
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My kids go to a large public outside of Boston and Michigan is very popular. Last year out of a class of about 400 kids, about 52 applied to Michigan. 15 got in and 13/15 had SATs over 1500 and the other two were TO. School average is a 1250. This is only one school and hardly indicates the norm. But we have the data in SCOIR and thought I’d share.
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This is a feeder type school. Scoring above the norm is great and one thing they look for. OOS is tough to get in but many do from East and West Coast schools. They do track these kid’s for performance ratios.
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My kid (class of ‘25) went to a fairly large private school, class of 450, about 50 applied to Michigan and 2 were accepted (one nursing, my kid - Ross), one more ultimately got off WL (LSA). Despite all sorts of “warnings” against it, my kid went TO. One size def does not fit all, Michigan looks all the full package.
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