Any alternatives to the University of Michigan?

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Hi.

I filled the application form to the University of Michigan (my dream college) a short while ago, but when I filled the form, I cried. I have neither the extracurriculars nor the higher-level courses (for academic rigor) needed to complete the form. I just feel unhappy because as an international student from a public school, there are only limited opportunities for me to go to my dream college. I think even with high SATs/ACTs (entrance exams to my dream college) I have a very low chance to be admitted into UM. And on top of all these, I am a HFA and I wonder how can this affect my admission process there.

It's not that I had never tried extracurricular activities. It's more of me not finding the area of interest I love in school that I can excel in. I have never taken leadership positions as I was unable to develop the social skills needed to interact in schools. As a result, I feel discouraged in school. In the past few years, I found the lessons kind of boring as I was able to understand and apply the concepts taught competently. Sometimes I even felt that the concepts were 'too easy for me'. However, as I had slacked in high school, I admitted not only I did not do my best in school, I even skipped higher-level classes needed to demonstrate 'academic rigor'. As a result, I have neither extracurriculars nor grades to be even considered for high school. And in view of all these above, I wasn't able to get good recommendations from teachers and counselors.

I feel unhappy, because the only realistic way to study at UM seemed to be transfers via community colleges in the US or other universities with good extracurriculars (which I may not do well in based on 'past experience') or to apply to their graduate schools. I don't like this, as I believe I will have more social responsibilities and less time to interact with the high-caliber faculty there. In addition, I'd love to watch Wolverines football games in the weekends...

Sob. Sigh. I think i will have to give my hopes... When I see my fellow classmates happily attending classes to prepare for a great career in law or dentistry or medicine (albeit at my local college), I wonder where else (other than the friendly private colleges in Singapore) can I go?

Last edited by ruennsheng on 07 Dec 2009, 10:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Well, remember that most universities have diversity policies, and if you are an HFA, then you may be able to put forward a case for consideration of your academic results and testing scores, with a waiver of extra curricular requirements.

It's probably worth a letter/call to an admissions advisor to talk about it.

If you don't make it into university, there's always college. I personally think that college is more suitable for people on the spectrum in that it's more practical than theoretical. But if you have stereotypical Asian parents, getting into college might be a challenge.

There is the Singapore Armed Forces to go through. Once you come out with the Cert. of Service, you can BS about leadership and whatever for all you want.

Unfortunately, I am exempted from NS by SAF. That means I could go to college/university straight away after JC/high school. The question is, which college/university? I will not be able to BS about leadership whenever I can. Oh well...

George Mason or Illinois State. Both are good size and great higher education institution.

Is there a reason why you wouldn't consider studying in Australia?

Well great! Mason would be a good school, how I wished I had known this wonderful institution earlier. Thank you!



Australia is also cool, but I love to watch NCAA Sports. Though I see that Australia has long sandy beaches to surf, swim and enjoy...

Sorry about that. I hope you do get into Michigan, because it is a great school, but if you don't, it's not the end of the world. After all, you can still cheer for them, right?

You're right, as long as I don't get to meet those guys in Columbus, Ohio (Ohio State Buckeyes):) Thanks. I can cheer for them.

You can try anyway. My current university has pretty high standards, but I managed to transfer in with a mediocre GPA (3.12) and almost no extracirriculars to speak of. I think my ACT score was the reason for it.

I can infer that you're now studying in the University of Minnesota. Pretty good college. I am currently waiting for my final examination results. With all results in, I will then decide whether or not to do ACTs/SATs, and then after that, I will try to apply to Michigan, possibly with 3 other colleges (perhaps Mason, Minnesota and a college not yet named).

The schools in the University of California system (e.g. UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC San Diego) are also generally very good. However, UC Berkeley and UCLA are massive, and freshman admission is quite competitive. I don't remember how big U of M is.

I've heard the University of Michigan is also very expensive, even for residents. I find that very weird, given Michigan's economic situation.

Which U of M are you talking about? Minnesota or Michigan? Well... I know Minnesota has about 50K students...

UT Austin has about that many. A&M has about 45,000 students.