@Student25050: A couple of observations and thoughts:
(1) Will you be an in-state or OOS applicant? That will likely be important.
(2) “I constantly hear classmates talking and bragging about their chances of getting into some of the world’s most prestigious universities.” Stop listening to these people. Whether a university is prestigious or not has NO bearing whatsoever on whether it is a good place for you; don’t fall into the trap of tying your concept of self-worth with where you ultimately get accepted to college or university.
(3) Don’t obsess about U of M, and don’t develop tunnel vision about where you plan to attend a college or university. The guidance counselors at our school like to say, “Don’t fall in love with a school; fall in love with several schools.” If you focus on only one place, and you are denied what happens then? You should look at the CC forums for other “prestigious” universities, and see how many students with exceptional test scores, GPAs, and EC are getting rejected from the “school of their dreams.”
(4) Read this article: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/15/opinion/sunday/frank-bruni-how-to-survive-the-college-admissions-madness.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Ffrank-bruni&_r=0 . This is an excerpt from Frank Bruni’s book titled “Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be”; which is worth the read, in my opinion.
(5) Enjoy high school, and have some fun along the way.
Best of luck to you.