Early Action University of Michigan - do applicants ever receive decision before January?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Last year they just deferred EA applications. So annoying to offer ea and then defer a bunch.

They had something like 55,000 EA applications. It is simply impossible to get them all processed and read in 6-8 weeks. Would you rather they just blindly rejected everyone?

Please. If you offer EA, and a student works hard to complete that application, they deserve to have it read.

If they don't read it in time, they should defer and refund the application fee.

What we accept from these schools is ridiculous.

They give a decision in waves, as soon as it is read. If you want to withdrawal the application, that is your perogative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Last year they just deferred EA applications. So annoying to offer ea and then defer a bunch.

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This idea that UM doesn’t get through the EA applications because of time constraints is simply wrong. UM uses the word “postpone” in their deferral letters, and people misinterpret it to mean that their application wasn’t looked at. I am an alumni rep, and when I first heard this a couple years ago, I had a conversation with admissions about it and they explicitly said it wasn’t true. Also, at least last year, unless you had some special circumstance perhaps, the EA decisions began at the end of Jan. A few years ago, EA meant notification started in Dec. So this year, I would once again expect end of Jan.

[Anonymous]

My DC, HS class of 2020, applied EA along with a huge number of classmates. Waves came out in December right before winter break. Again at the end of January, February, March. By February, everyone who got deferred AGAIN, were fed up with Michigan. Many of them ended up getting in, but going elsewhere. My DC was one of them - and ended up at UCLA. Michigan had been DC's first choice since 10th grade, but their system of admissions totally turned DC off.

DC wanted a large, state school and only applied to them accordingly. DC would've gone to UT Austin over Michigan if they didn't get UCLA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DC, HS class of 2020, applied EA along with a huge number of classmates. Waves came out in December right before winter break. Again at the end of January, February, March. By February, everyone who got deferred AGAIN, were fed up with Michigan. Many of them ended up getting in, but going elsewhere. My DC was one of them - and ended up at UCLA. Michigan had been DC's first choice since 10th grade, but their system of admissions totally turned DC off.

DC wanted a large, state school and only applied to them accordingly. DC would've gone to UT Austin over Michigan if they didn't get UCLA.

Yes, this is indicative of the bureaucracy at U-M. They are concerned with yield management, particularly with regard to Ivies (since some high schools limit the number of EA applications to the Ivies but not to publics, EA Michigan is popular for Ivy applicants), hence the admissions office uses waves of acceptances which inevitably pisses off most applicants, including those who get in.

This continues after enrollment too. For example, U-M, like many schools, did not have in-person orientation this year because of COVID concerns. This meant that the freshmen just showed up and didn't have the usual opportunities to meet others. There are many lonely freshmen now in Ann Arbor, and if U-M goes virtual again it will get worse.

Much of this is attributable to U-M's being a large public university. However, it can also be attributable to U-M not getting much funding from the state of Michigan and thus often operating as if it is a private university (as compared with the Cal schools, Texas or even UVA, VT and UMCP, which give more preference to in-state applicants, unlike U-M).

That said, it is still the best U.S. public university outside of the service academies (and despite the BS Forbes ranking). Putting up with the U-M bureaucracy is the price of becoming a Wolverine.

[Anonymous]

“ That said, it is still the best U.S. public university outside of the service academies (and despite the BS Forbes ranking). Putting up with the U-M bureaucracy is the price of becoming a Wolverine.”

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A portion will hear before the end of December, but the last two years, they had something like over 70,000 applications to process, so the volume is simply a matter of staff time to wade through it all.

A lot of the EAs were simply deferred and then every few weeks, there were waves of releases - either admission, defereal or rejection.

In the summer of 2020, it went into early August. It was probably about the same this past cycle.

It was that same. My DS was sure he wasn’t getting in because friends got in via early waves. But he finally did get in. It was stressful but worked out ok. He found out early June.