Record Applicants to UM = Frazzled Alum/Parent/MGoBlogger
As an alum (and married to an alum) parent of a current 12th grader, I've been working quite hard to manage my stress regarding the wait to hear from Michigan.
Well, the stress-control dam just broke wide open. Alumni parents of applicants for Fall 2019 just received an email from the University. The tl;dr version is that a record number of Early Action applications were received. As a result, a "decision may not reach your student until spring."
Ugh! Someone, please hold me.
December 11th, 2018 at 10:47 PM ^
admissions sent a second email explaining that the first email is no indication of whether your child will be admitted/deferred/rejected. I’m guessing they got a lot of negative feedback (which they deserve for sending that ridiculous email).
December 11th, 2018 at 11:00 PM ^
I'm a Michigan alum, along with my brother and two of his kids. I just sent my son to Denison in Ohio. He loves it. It's a great fit for him. A ways back, I dreamed of my kids going to Michigan. Not anymore. We don't live in state so maybe that's part of it (hugely expensive OOS) but also, let's be honest. You can still be a successful, happy person if you don't go to Michigan.
December 12th, 2018 at 12:24 AM ^
She can have my daughters spot. She is a junior and she never wanted to go here. She wanted to go to Duke but her mom and I sent her here. She’s spoiled, not to mention it’s a lot cheaper!
December 12th, 2018 at 1:44 AM ^
Climate change will probably cause complete social collapse within the next 25 years, so just give your kid like 100k to drugs and party before the inevitable end.
December 12th, 2018 at 2:40 AM ^
Me n Dean Wormer are homies. Feel free to drop my name.
December 12th, 2018 at 5:04 AM ^
Michigan has accepted 50% or more of its incoming freshman class from out of state for the last few years. Last year a record 65,684 applications were received with 15,468 admissions granted with 6,685 new freshman enrolled. The average unweighted GPA was similar to the last few years, 3.88 ACT test scores were mid 50th % range, 31-34 As mentioned, this year looks to be another record app year. However, because of Michigan's large freshman class and the fact many applicants apply and decide to go to other very selective academic colleges, I maintain that the acceptance rate of 24% is very high compared to other highly ranked academic universities.like the Ivys which typically accept less than 10% of applicants for their much smaller freshman classes..And the Michigan applicants by and large are very similar to the Ivy League school applicants.
December 12th, 2018 at 7:05 AM ^
We received the same idiotic email, and then the follow-up email hoping to clean up the mess. It wasn’t a good look, and my wife and I were left staring at each other, like wtf?! Who’s running that office?
No one bleeds maize and blue more than us (and our daughter). But for a brief period between the emails, we spoke with our daughter at the kitchen table and said, “Welp. If one of your other top choices admits you early action/decision and Michigan isn’t going to let us know until April? Guess you’re not going to Michigan.”
Terrible, embarrassing email. Still pretty angry about it.
December 12th, 2018 at 8:08 AM ^
So nothing changed for you? When we did our visit at M, they were very clear about the process of early admit notification by Christmas and deferrals being notified by the regular admit date. The emails did nothing to change any of that. Lesson here is sometimes there can be too much communication. Seems to me they were just trying to be open with alumni that had kids applying. I appreciated it since it didn’t really mean much or change anything. Of course I didn’t try to glean information from it that wasn’t there.
December 12th, 2018 at 9:25 AM ^
I keep going back to Communication 101 where one asks themselves -- before ever putting pen to paper (or tapping out an email) -- what is the intent of this communication? What am I trying to accomplish with it?
I've read the initial email a few times, and I still don't understand what the goal was of that communication. Was it to let us know if our daughter doesn't get in early action, there's still hope? Was it to let us know they received more applications than ever and they're bogged down by the process -- thus a revised decision date? Was it just to give warm and fuzzies to alum parents and their applicant children? It's a mystery.
In our case, it doesn't matter. Our daughter wants to go to Michigan, so she will work with them however they deem required for her ultimate acceptance. But for us parents -- parents who have contributed time and money to the University -- it was a real headscratcher.
December 12th, 2018 at 11:01 AM ^
I was confused why they sent the 1st email at all. I was already very aware of the Early Action evaluation process and possible outcomes, and I expect nearly all other alumni parents of applicants were also aware.
In particular, the sentence "Because of the high volume of applications we receive, we want you to know a decision may not reach your student until spring" is not consistent with expectations that Early Action applicants would be informed by December 24. If anything, this sentence indicates an unofficial "Deferral" decision.
December 12th, 2018 at 11:20 AM ^
Totally agree, Pepper..
December 12th, 2018 at 8:03 AM ^
Updated email to those of us who received the first:
“You recently received an email from us about your student’s application to the University of Michigan. This email was distributed to alumni parents of our Early Action applicants in an effort to share information regarding the application process.
Some of you have expressed concerns that the email suggests an indication of an admission decision from our Early Action process. Please know that the receipt of today’s email has no correlation to, nor is an indication of, your student’s upcoming decision. We apologize for this lack of clarity.
Students who were notified that they qualified for Early Action will receive a decision by Dec. 24. At that time, these students will either be offered admission or deferred for a later decision. Deferred applicants, and those who did not qualify for Early Action, will receive a final decision by early April.
We apologize for any confusion, and thank you for your patience while we work to make our admission offers in the coming months.”
December 12th, 2018 at 10:26 AM ^
I had big plans for both of my daughters to attend. I was all set to buy a house for them to save 12 years of rent. Both got in, and neither attended. Good luck to you, though.
December 12th, 2018 at 10:28 AM ^
My take on this is that it is difficult for kids that grow up in a UM house and develop a love for all things Michigan to potentially not be accepted there. I don't get the idea that MSU is the default backup school. We have other great schools in Michigan and your kid should consider places like GVSU, Western and our very good MIAA schools. For example Hope has the best medical school acceptance rate for all Michigan colleges and you get to live on the shores of Lake Michigan.
December 12th, 2018 at 11:13 AM ^
Michigan State is a much better school than either of those.
You guys allow the sports rivalry way too much space to live in your heads. Michigan State is one of the top 100 universities on the planet according to the Times Higher Education Survey. If your kid wants to go into a hard science, they're infinitely better off at Michigan State then at a school like Hope, the Masters level and directional schools in the state are very good but MSU offers much better internships and much higher MSU offers much better internships and a much higher caliber of instruction. There is more to going to college than what football team you cheer for once you graduate, it's myopic in the extreme to foist these expectations upon your child, it's a phenomenal way for them to develop a complex.
Michigan was a decent experience for me and a great experience for my fiance... she's one of six or seven Wolverines in her family, but there was never any pressure on her to go to Michigan and she only went because she didn't get in at her first choice (Oberlin). That is exactly how I want our kids to grow up, they can wear Maize and Blue but they will have the ability to choose what colleges they apply to and their success or failure will be judged completely on their own terms. After all, in that family of 7 Michigan grads the most successful cousin is the doctor who went to Wayne State and MSU.
December 13th, 2018 at 12:09 PM ^
Maybe the culture at other schools is as bad as MSU but I don't see other schools denying and papering over a massive criminal conspiracy. I seriously doubt the worsts alternatives are anything like MSU.
Fuck MSU. Fuck their football program. Fuck their basketball program. But most of all fuck their fucking culture.
December 15th, 2018 at 2:53 PM ^
So yeah, you would base where your child goes to school entirely on athletics? That doesn't seem a little myopic?
No arguments from me that the MSU administration were/are criminally negligent in the Nassar situation. But it's absurd and reductive to act like that situation has any real bearing on the quality of education within, like, their engineering program or their honors college. We allowed a softball coach to have sex with players, we have covered up for professors accused of sexual harassment. This shit happens quite frequently.