Committing to Michigan

I envy you guys. International fees made me consider other schools. 

I kid. I kid.



Wanted to go Michigan since I was a young lad. I don't know exactly when I decided I liked Michigan, and its kinda weird since most of my family are either OSU or ND fans. I think the superior sports really drew me in when I was in my younger teens, and the superior academics won me over in my later high school years.



My general take is that Michigan is a very easy school to love when you are a kid, and equally easy to hate if you didn't go and you are older.

Both of my parents were alums, and I grew up bleeding maize and blue. Never wanted to go anywhere else. Only other school I got into and considered was Duke, but I decided to choose the better basketball school. Yup.



Jokes aside, I'm in the engineering school here and I can't imagine many better engineering schools, it's really top-notch here. Throw in my in-state tuition and a scholarship they gave me and it was a nice package.



But really what did it is the campus life here. Not only do you get a fantastic education, Ann Arbor is a wonderful city, the social scene here is awesome for every type of person, and of course, Michigan athletics!

I was in 3rd grade when Desmond won the Heisman Trophy and the Fab Five's first year. It left an impression on me. I had a Rose Jersey the next year for fourth grade, so I was kind of a bad ass. This was growing up in southern Illinois, so I was a minority. It was destiny!

I've been watching them every Saturday in the fall with my dad since I was 7. I've been committed for a while.

Rejected by Stanford, Cal, Cornell.

In hindsight, all the admissions officers did me a great favour.

One of my biggest regrets is not exploring the opportunity. I was seventeen and dumb when my brother convinced me to check out universities in AZ. I was a stupid kid that was blown away that the campus was littered with palm trees and that the weather was perfect in Tempe. Now, older and wiser I wonder what could have been. Great friends of mine attended M and I made an annual trip to AA to visit and always had a great time on Geddes but wouldn't exchange my experience in Tempe for anything. However, I will take wondering about AA to the grave. I haven't spent that much time there and it is still enough to understand it's a special place.

Being an in-state with no ties to MSU or UM, it's really a no brainer. UM was always my dream school, and I'll never forget coming home from a school retreat and checking my email at 2:00 AM to see that I had been accepted into the University of Michigan. It was surreal and I'll never forget waking my parents up to tell them. Brings back a lot of memories.

Soooo yeah

list that never opens up.  All that needs to be said.  I happened to apply in a year where UM had record applications at the time.

It ended up working out ok in the end, I attended a great school met some wonderful people and it changed me forever.

I just wish I could have said that about the University of Michigan.

I was 8 when I watched that play, and I never wanted to go anywhere else from that day forward.  I applied to one other school, Michigan Tech, and planned to transfer from there after a year if I didn't get into Michigan.  But, I did, so yeah.  Easy choice.

I'm looking to transfer over to the good guys.

Ufer

Guess I went there because I was accepted and didn't know the full extent of just how many loans I would have to take out eventually. Those 4 years went by in a haze of highs, lows, great friends, numbing loneliness, studying, much procrastination, craziness, insanity, and dead boring all rolled into one.

7 years later, when I walk pass certain streets in California, I can close my eyes and feel myself walking past the Chem building.

Coming from South America I knew nothing about Michigan except rankings computer engineering and business (the two things I studied). Decided on UM over CMU, Northwestern, Columbia, Duke and Penn. when I did so everyone started telling me "Go Blue" and I had no idea what they were talking about. I arrived in Ann Arbor in August '96... By September '96 half my wardrobe was Michigan related and my obsession was born.

Im not sure if i am writing this because im drunk, but i've never been at ann arbor and im not even american... im one of those fans that get to know and fall in love with the school, because of knowing people who went there... that plus the fact that i found the history and tradition very likable, its easy to fell in love with a school like that... i might be what some people refer to as a walmart wolverine, nevertheless one of the goals i have in life is to attend a game at michigan stadium. I have been a fan, that follows recruitment, and watches every game for at least 5 years now btw...

Fell in love the first time I saw those wings!

UM over Duke, MIT and Johns Hopkins...not sure what the final decision would have been if Dartmouth had said "yes" instead of "maybe". 

... Don't laugh, but compared to VA tech, GA Tech, etc the overall male to female ratio of 1:1 at Michigan made my decision a no-brainer as an engineer. Too bad no one told me about 9 out of 10 girls in the B1G...

offering the engineering program I was interested in (Naval Architecture).  I applied to one other school that was a very small private college on Long Island offering free tuition.  I was not accepted there, but was at Michigan.  It was a no-brainer since I was also a huge Michigan basketball and football fan in high school.  The amazing thing too was there had to be almost 40 people from my high school graduating class who also went to Michigan.  That doesn't happen today, as in those days in the 1970's they U-M was taking in a lot more in-state students and less international (for example).  

I've been deferred and have wrote essays to the admissions office and I desperately want to go to UM. Guys I know just apply because how good sports or party life is but growing up in AA for a part of my life. I've always been in love with the entire place. Wish me luck!

I only applied to 5 schools. Yale (had a letter from the then president of the school and thought what the hell), UPenn (wanted to go into business at the time, turns out they're pretty good at it), U Chicago (liked the city), Calvin (parents alma mater), and Michigan.  Got into Michigan early, honors college and sat on it.  Waitlisted at Yale, rejected at Penn, accepted at Calvin (never really an option, only did it to make my mom happy) and then was waiting on U chicago.  When they rejected me in February because my application was incomplete (letter of rec never sent, got it handed to me by my english teacher in the addressed envelope later that month, she didn't think to just send it...) I accepted my acceptance at Michigan.  At the time I knew little of the athletics and really just that it was a good school and in state tuition.  Best decision I've ever made/had made for me.

/never even considered applying to state, felt it was beneath me haha

My ENTIRE family bleeds maize and blue (except they also pseudo support State since I have a couple sisters that go to school there now), so when I got my acceptance letter, it was, without a doubt, the easiest decision of my life.