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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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. [/quote]

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[/quote]

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 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. [/quote]

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.[/quote]

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