Michigan Early Decision - Any Early Anecdotes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s basically a guarantee that the true top kids shooting for HYPSM will continue to apply EA, not ED. But in the current environment, where so many kids want a big school experience, it’s plausible to me that Michigan will steal ED market share from schools like Penn, Cornell, Northwestern, and Duke. To parents prepared to pay those private-school prices, Michigan would look like a bargain. And those kids often come from private schools or affluent neighborhoods where they are under pretty intense pressure to “play their ED card” somewhere. Now they can apply ED to Michigan.

Make sure you talk to current students. I know a lot of unhappy, freshman (academically) with very large classes with lack of access to their advisors. Everyone says it gets better by junior and senior year but that’s a long time away. And socially, much more competitive than people expected

I went to a competitive large state school. Many fresh/soph year classes don’t need to be intimate. It teaches students how to seek access to TA’s and others if needed. Students are still being taught by top profs - there is just less hand-holding. It’s not for everyone but I think great lessons are learned that prepare students for the real world

I went through this at a UC, and yes, it is true. But my DS decided that a more personalized education at a private was better, and he will still have to learn how to do these things.

[Anonymous]

I 100% believe the Yorktown poster of 70 + kids. It’s about that at our W school. And I also agree with the poster about parents unaware of the lack of financial/merit packages. Most people I know are just going along as it’s what their kid wants and they don’t want to disappoint them, and the social pressure to go to a “hot” school. Even people I know who are not working due to the shutdown are willing to put themselves on the hook for almost 400k.
I also know from kids who are there that it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Rejection from clubs, large classes, tough to get to know professors, hard social scene.
My DC isn’t applying there for these reasons, and they have the stats to be competitive for admission.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I 100% believe the Yorktown poster of 70 + kids. It’s about that at our W school. And I also agree with the poster about parents unaware of the lack of financial/merit packages. Most people I know are just going along as it’s what their kid wants and they don’t want to disappoint them, and the social pressure to go to a “hot” school. Even people I know who are not working due to the shutdown are willing to put themselves on the hook for almost 400k.
I also know from kids who are there that it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Rejection from clubs, large classes, tough to get to know professors, hard social scene.
My DC isn’t applying there for these reasons, and they have the stats to be competitive for admission.

Same here.

[Anonymous]

The social scene can be very hard. My DC knows a number of very lonely girls. It's just very large and hard to meet kids at more than a superficial level but you're expected to be having the time of your life which makes it more painful when quietly you're not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I 100% believe the Yorktown poster of 70 + kids. It’s about that at our W school. And I also agree with the poster about parents unaware of the lack of financial/merit packages. Most people I know are just going along as it’s what their kid wants and they don’t want to disappoint them, and the social pressure to go to a “hot” school. Even people I know who are not working due to the shutdown are willing to put themselves on the hook for almost 400k.
I also know from kids who are there that it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Rejection from clubs, large classes, tough to get to know professors, hard social scene.
My DC isn’t applying there for these reasons, and they have the stats to be competitive for admission.

About 70+ EDs from your W school? That’s crazy. If this is true, ED is just going to be a ton of deferral with only very high stats legacy kids getting in OOS. Michigan loves the legacies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just curious: what schools did your kids apply to in EA or ED? Assuming the Ross applicants are not read against the Kinesiology applicant, right?

Also, isn’t Michigan very high stats from OOS? Someone mentioned a 3.6 GPA and 1400 as a cut off? Didn’t think that was even close to realistic unless you are in state?

TIA.

Michigan explained this at an info session we attended. The regional rep reads all apps from the region by high school, regardless of the school you applied to within Michigan. A second reader also reads the same apps. Engineering, kinesiology, Ross, etc. have their own admissions team that does a separate review on their criteria, and makes the final admissions decision also considering the central admission office’s academic review. They want to use the regional rep’s knowledge of the schools in their region to assess rigor at the high school, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just curious: what schools did your kids apply to in EA or ED? Assuming the Ross applicants are not read against the Kinesiology applicant, right?

Also, isn’t Michigan very high stats from OOS? Someone mentioned a 3.6 GPA and 1400 as a cut off? Didn’t think that was even close to realistic unless you are in state?

TIA.

Michigan explained this at an info session we attended. The regional rep reads all apps from the region by high school, regardless of the school you applied to within Michigan. A second reader also reads the same apps. Engineering, kinesiology, Ross, etc. have their own admissions team that does a separate review on their criteria, and makes the final admissions decision also considering the central admission office’s academic review. They want to use the regional rep’s knowledge of the schools in their region to assess rigor at the high school, etc.

Actually, I don’t know if they said kinesiology. But they definitely said Ross!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I 100% believe the Yorktown poster of 70 + kids. It’s about that at our W school. And I also agree with the poster about parents unaware of the lack of financial/merit packages. Most people I know are just going along as it’s what their kid wants and they don’t want to disappoint them, and the social pressure to go to a “hot” school. Even people I know who are not working due to the shutdown are willing to put themselves on the hook for almost 400k.
I also know from kids who are there that it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Rejection from clubs, large classes, tough to get to know professors, hard social scene.
My DC isn’t applying there for these reasons, and they have the stats to be competitive for admission.

Same here.[

It’s not for everyone. No one ever said it was.

[Anonymous]

Can anyone answer a quick question about info sessions? We signed up for a tour this month that starts at 11 am. The confirmation email says something about also being a confirmation for an info session if checked off in the tour registration request. But, the tour calendar registration questions don't say anything about an info session.

Is Michigan currently offering info sessions an hour before the tour? Or only the virtual one?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The social scene can be very hard. My DC knows a number of very lonely girls. It's just very large and hard to meet kids at more than a superficial level but you're expected to be having the time of your life which makes it more painful when quietly you're not.

The school has a 96% freshman retention rate. It can’t be that bad. You make it sound like everyone you know who attends is miserable. Kids can be lonely anywhere they attend, especially 18 year olds who have moved away from home for the first time. It has only been a bit more than 8 weeks since they matriculated on campus. Give it some time.

[Anonymous]

There are many more W school students who apply and attend Michigan than APS students. It’s the MD vs VA split. Numerically there is just no way 70 kids applied ED from YHS. My kid got into Michigan from YHS last year (c/o 2025). They are attending another T20.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I 100% believe the Yorktown poster of 70 + kids. It’s about that at our W school. And I also agree with the poster about parents unaware of the lack of financial/merit packages. Most people I know are just going along as it’s what their kid wants and they don’t want to disappoint them, and the social pressure to go to a “hot” school. Even people I know who are not working due to the shutdown are willing to put themselves on the hook for almost 400k.
I also know from kids who are there that it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Rejection from clubs, large classes, tough to get to know professors, hard social scene.
My DC isn’t applying there for these reasons, and they have the stats to be competitive for admission.

I have no doubt that 70+ kids from one FCPS HS are applying to Michigan, but there's no way that 70+ kids from one FCPS HS are applying ED. The PP who shared this didn't claim to know for sure - I'll bet it's a combination of ED, EA, and RD applications. By way of comparison, Michigan got anywhere from 85 to 139 applications last year from most of the various MCPS schools in/around Bethesda (according to Bethesda magazine) - 766 total, with 95 accepted and 43 attending. I imagine the stats were similar in FCPS. Stats are here: https://bethesdamagazine.com/2025/09/10/mcps-students-college/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s basically a guarantee that the true top kids shooting for HYPSM will continue to apply EA, not ED. But in the current environment, where so many kids want a big school experience, it’s plausible to me that Michigan will steal ED market share from schools like Penn, Cornell, Northwestern, and Duke. To parents prepared to pay those private-school prices, Michigan would look like a bargain. And those kids often come from private schools or affluent neighborhoods where they are under pretty intense pressure to “play their ED card” somewhere. Now they can apply ED to Michigan.

Make sure you talk to current students. I know a lot of unhappy, freshman (academically) with very large classes with lack of access to their advisors. Everyone says it gets better by junior and senior year but that’s a long time away. And socially, much more competitive than people expected

I went to a competitive large state school. Many fresh/soph year classes don’t need to be intimate. It teaches students how to seek access to TA’s and others if needed. Students are still being taught by top profs - there is just less hand-holding. It’s not for everyone but I think great lessons are learned that prepare students for the real world

There’s just no attempt to try and get your kid into classes that are relevant for their interests or their major.

I compare that to a private T10 that my kid chose over Michigan where the advisor checks in individually with my kid every few weeks. By email. Also sends new program ideas their way along with interesting new opportunities to access professors (whether through official programming, small group dinners or otherwise). It is night and day difference.

This is 100% untrue. Either we have a sockpuppet here, a person with a bone to pick or sometime hoping to scare people away for their own benefit.

No, that was me. I don't have a bone to pick. Simmer down.

Ask people in your circle who are freshmen. Ask about their classes and the waitlists, and what classes they ended up in. I'd expect it in-state at my flagship for a fraction of the cost, but if you are paying full freight OOS I'd think they'd make a better attempt to get you into your first three choices.

There are a lot of reasons to choose Michigan - but go in with eyes wide open on the class selection.

I have a freshman at Michigan. I can speak to the experience of my kid and theuir friends. They didn't have issues with housing, access to professors, social life, class schedule or anything like that. The only complaints we hear are about the food and that package distribution can be slow. They've been spoiled by Prime same-day delivery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s basically a guarantee that the true top kids shooting for HYPSM will continue to apply EA, not ED. But in the current environment, where so many kids want a big school experience, it’s plausible to me that Michigan will steal ED market share from schools like Penn, Cornell, Northwestern, and Duke. To parents prepared to pay those private-school prices, Michigan would look like a bargain. And those kids often come from private schools or affluent neighborhoods where they are under pretty intense pressure to “play their ED card” somewhere. Now they can apply ED to Michigan.

Make sure you talk to current students. I know a lot of unhappy, freshman (academically) with very large classes with lack of access to their advisors. Everyone says it gets better by junior and senior year but that’s a long time away. And socially, much more competitive than people expected

Yes, I could have written this. My child's friends at Michigan are in massive classes (300-500+) and could not get any class remotely of their choosing for the fall. And the social scene is rough--lots of money and snobbery from NJ in and NY and hard to find your people if you don't luck out by who is on your dorm hall. My daughter's friends who are struggling the most socially of any college are both at Michigan. You can't tell from their Instagrams (they all depict them in super happy friend groups at football games) but both are really lonely.

Tell them to make friends with in-state kids and stop bragging about their SAT scores. This is a half-serious suggestion. Michigan is a bit behind on the SAT stress/prep grind. I never hear people talking about superscoring, etc. It's pretty rare even for kids to take a high quality prep class. Kicking it 1980s style where you do the official sample test and that's it. That probably seems unbelievable to you, but that's my experience as an in-state parent in a district that's probably equivalent to a mid-tier MCPS high school. Next door to the equivalent of "W schools".

You have to be early to register and work the waitlists and have the perspective that across four semesters you will get all the classes you are supposed to get in those four semesters. My kid has gotten off every waitlist he was on. Therefore, I can say that in 3rd semester, he's gotten every class he wanted to take within those semesters. He also had at least 3 tiny intro/freshman targeted classes in freshman year. And what was the point of taking all those APs, if you're not moving on to next-level electives and special topics?

To me as a flagship grad, there's no difference in auditorium classes once they get beyond the size where the professor calls directly upon you by name. Maybe 75 or so? My experience in big classes was always pretty good. If I wanted to know/be known by the professor, I just sat up front and said hi and went to office hours. That works. Professors are usually open to getting to know students. But they won't chase you down. You have to show the interest.

I'm going to be even more daring and suggest they ask people to get coffee or study together. I think kids are still a bit stunted socially by Covid, etc. They don't seem to do spontaneous invites with semi-strangers like I remember from my day.

There are a ton of ECs, and I would suggest looking into them. One that I think looks really neat is a pop music orchestra ensemble. The a capella groups also have a lot of family feel. Before choosing a school, have a plan for what groups might work best so you can quickly activate it. I met my spouse in a flagship EC.

^This is full of insight. Well done. I’ve lived in the Midwest & Massachusetts, & you’re right about the people in Michigan simply not playing the admissions game as frantically as they do on the coasts, & the in-state kids not reacting favorably to their coastal classmates or bragging about SAT scores (or summer homes etc).

[Anonymous]

why is there so much defensive posturing here on Michigan's behalf? Who cares that much?

When someone (rightly) criticizes something about any other T25 school (other than Emory), no one EVER jumps right in to defend it. No one cares that much.

Come on, Michigan boosters. You don't want to be Emory mom.