Inside the Admissions Office: 49. What a University of Michigan Admissions Officer Really Wants from Applicants

Author: Gail Rubin Dauer

Ellen, host. “What a University of Michigan Admissions Officer Really Wants from Applicants.” *Inside the Admissions Office: Advice from Former Admissions Officers*, interview with Gail Rubin Dauer, Podbean, 14 Mar. 2022, https://insidetheadmissionsoffice.podbean.com/e/what-a-university-of-michigan-admissions-officer-really-wants-from-applicants/.

Monday Mar 14, 2022

On today’s episode, we chat with Gail Rubin Dauer, a Former Application Review Specialist, at the University of Michigan Office of Undergraduate Admissions. Gail and I discuss what type of students the University of Michigan looks for and how applicants can stand out. Gail highlights what makes UMich special and how students should approach its supplemental essays.

Check out our blog for more free resources:

How to Write the University of Michigan Supplemental Essays 2021-2022

The University of Michigan Undergraduate Programs

How to Get Into the University of Michigan

Letter of Continued Interest for Deferral and Waitlists

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Transcript

Ellen 00:14

Hello and welcome to Inside the Admissions Office, your one-stop shop for expert advice on the smart way to get in. My name is Ellen, and in each episode, I'll bring you an interview with a former admissions officer, a graduate of top college, or an admissions expert. These interviews will take you inside the admissions office, and will be full of behind-the-scenes knowledge, first hand experiences, and application tips that'll help you get into your dream school. If you'd like to chat with one of these experts, you can sign up for a free consultation at the link in the description of this episode.

Today, we'll hear from Gail Rubin Dauer, a former application review specialist at the University of Michigan Office of Undergraduate Admissions and an ingenious prep counselor about what University of Michigan admissions officers really want to see from applicants. Hi, Gail, how are you today?

Gail Rubin Dauer 01:08

Ellen, I'm very well. Thank you. How are you? Thank you for having me today. Of course.

Ellen 01:12

Well, just to start off with, could you tell me a little bit more about yourself, your educational background, how you ended up at Michigan?

Gail Rubin Dauer 01:19

Mine is in law. I attended law school at Penn and then I practiced in corporate insecurities law in New York City for about 15 years.

For undergraduate I attended Brandeis University where I majored in psychology and my favorite aspects of that experience were conducting research with a professor on creativity as well as a small discussion class as including a class where I was the only student in a history class. Fast forward where I moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan where I worked for the Michigan Office of Undergraduate Admissions for five years as a first reader and subsequently I worked for two years as the sole reader of all applications to Michigan Law School. Recently I relocated to Dallas, Texas and started working with Ingenious Prep where I absolutely love working with talented colleagues and motivated students.

Ellen 02:06

Wonderful. And do you want to get into a little bit more about what you're all rolled and tailed at Michigan?

Gail Rubin Dauer 02:11

My role was as the application review specialist, otherwise known as a first reader in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. Unlike a lot of other schools, Michigan readers don't specialize geographically, but rather we read a random cross-section of applications.

So in any cycle, I read applications from students who maybe lived on my street, and the next application could be someone halfway across the road from China, India, UK, pattern schools. I also read from most of the schools at University of Michigan. The main schools were LSA, Literature, Science, and the Arts, as well as Engineering. I also read applications for the School of Kinesiology, Nursing, and Architecture and Urban Planning. So that was deliberate by the Office to keep the readers energized and interested and not get bored with reading. Logistically, we read all the applications through an online system using dual monitors. So I'd have one monitor with all the components of each application, and then on the other monitor, I had an evaluation summary sheet where I would take notes on each application as I read it, and also I would assign a numerical rating to each application.

Ellen 03:19

It's really interesting. I actually didn't know that about Michigan not having that geographic aspect.

I know that we often talk to students about that and we tell them, you know, that your competition is people from your school and the other schools in your geography. So is there any piece of strategy or considerations that students should have when they're applying to Michigan, knowing that they're not going to be compared exactly to people in their region, but more they're going to be read next to people worldwide? I don't.

Gail Rubin Dauer 03:42

think we were really looking for different things from other schools. We were focused on identifying outstanding academic students who challenged themselves based on the resources available to them in their high school. But specific things Michigan was looking for was a student who took a pretty balanced curriculum and had multiple interests because Michigan has distribution requirements for students where they would take courses across the curriculum. So we didn't want students that were really focused just on one thing.

It's a bit different for engineering, so I can get into that later. But for LSA, basically they wanted a pretty well-rounded curriculum. A student just was curious, interested in learning new things who has a lot of involvement and leadership. And I would say it goes into depth in two to three areas, extracurricularly with their involvement and especially leadership. And Michigan also does track demonstrated interest. So Michigan did care a lot in students who expressed a detailed understanding of Michigan's resources and opportunities. Ideally, these were the days before COVID, students who visited campus and were familiar with what the school had to offer and how they could articulate how they would fit into the school.

Ellen 05:01

is a really good just bits of strategy for students to know. And what would you say makes the University of Michigan unique in comparison to other elite schools?

Obviously, it's a larger public university, but outside of that.

Gail Rubin Dauer 05:12

Well, one way that Michigan is different from other elite schools is that it's really a research powerhouse. It's rated consistently among the top universities in research spending. So research is really fundamental to the school's mission.

In STEM, but in any academic discipline, it's really, Michigan really stresses research, working with professors in whatever capacity that is. Also, one thing that I would read a lot in applications was that for students who are undecided as to their major or their interests, Michigan's a great option because Michigan's consistently rated among the top 10 programs in almost every discipline. So you can't go too wrong there. Whatever you decide to major in, it's likely that Michigan's top rated in that department. Also, Michigan, it's true as a large public institution, but it offers certain programs that make that large environment smaller, such as the honors program and the residential college, which are really fantastic opportunities to have. Like in the case of the RC, the residential college, it's almost like a liberal arts college within a large university. So you have all those fantastic resources of the overall university, but you're also, it's a living, learning community where you're living in a tight knit community and knowing the people around you, as well as being able to develop those relationships with professors.

One final thing that I think a couple of things that I also think make Michigan special are the environment, how the University of Michigan has really integrated into the city of Ann Arbor, which is the quintessential college town, having all the fun things for students to do, as well as beautiful recreational opportunities. The university is right on Lake Huron and has a beautiful arboretum there that's very used by students for hiking, kayaking. There's beautiful flower exhibits like the peonies in the spring, like everyone shows up for that. It's just really great to get out and explore around the university. And of course, as everyone knows, there's a ton of school spirit at Michigan because of the top sports programs. Living in Ann Arbor on football Saturdays, it would just be a sea of maize and blue. Students were in colors and showing up for the game, tailgating, and it just made a nice spirited atmosphere that brought people together.

Ellen 07:30

Now, is it more difficult for out-of-state students to gain admission? Is there like a certain amount of the incoming class that's reserved for in-state students since the public university?

Gail Rubin Dauer 07:39

a certain amount, I think there's a slight slightly different requirements for in state students and with respect to the Michigan being a state institution there were definitely institutional priorities for us to identify the stock top students at various high schools throughout Michigan, in particular, a smaller rural high school, we would really encourage applications from the top students at those high schools to diversify the class and let those students know that the opportunity to attend Michigan is open to them, even from remote parts of the state and less represented high schools such as like in the Upper Peninsula, or rural communities within Michigan.

Ellen 08:18

That's great to hear. And so students can decide to apply early action or they can decide to apply regular decision. What is the calculus there? Who would you recommend apply EA versus RD?

Gail Rubin Dauer 08:28

for sure if Michigan is your first choice or one of your top choices I would highly recommend applying early action. That's a non-binding program where you have your applications submitted by November 1st and when I was reading at Michigan we would deliver those decisions by Christmas time.

Now I believe it's the end of January but then you'll have that you'll hear back sooner and also from a reader point of view we were really focused on building a class and it was really exciting to find these fantastic candidates because the early application pool is very strong and we would really want to admit students but we were also under some pressure not to fill up too much of the class early so as this class filled up as we continued reading we would maybe be a bit more conservative in making those judgments so it is an advantage to have your application in early assuming that you can put in the time and really put your best foot forward in your application and have everything polished and ready to go by the early action deadline. The other thing I want to say about early action is that that even if if an applicant is deferred into the regular decision pool the Michigan admissions team will know throughout the cycle that the student demonstrated that strong interest in attending Michigan by applying EAA so that will still give the student an advantage even in the regular decision round.

Ellen 09:51

And what should students do if they're deferred? Should they send a letter of continued interest?

Gail Rubin Dauer 09:55

Yes, absolutely, Alan. It was really important for students to express that they continued to have that strong interest in attending Michigan.

Also, I would suggest that students keep the admissions office updated by the end of January to submit a letter of continuing interest with significant updates to their academics or extracurricular activities, any big achievements, and I would from an applicant who is deferred, they might think the student is no longer interested.

Ellen 10:30

That's a big mistake. I didn't know about that in high school. I interviewed one of our forward admissions officers from Yale and he mentioned that as well and I got deferred to my top choice school and I just didn't do anything. I thought like they don't want to hear from me and obviously that's not good so don't do that kids.

We have a template. I can link it in the bio of this episode but it's a letter of continued interest template so that'll be super helpful for students.

Gail Rubin Dauer 10:50

Absolutely, the schools do want to hear from applicants. They do want to hear from you. So definitely.

Ellen 10:56

how do you think current University of Michigan admissions officers are viewing test optional policies? Actually, I think

Gail Rubin Dauer 11:03

In some ways, it makes the reader's job easier to not have test scores as part of the admissions file because as admissions readers, we would really fall in love with certain students, we'd really get to like certain students and want to advocate for them because if they had something special to bring to campus and contribute, we wanted to see them attend campus. But sometimes if the test score wasn't competitive, we really couldn't advocate for the student because they just weren't competitive with other students who had the higher test scores that met or exceeded our medians.

So in that sense, if the reader's really like an applicant, they can go ahead and advocate for the student without really thinking about the test score being an issue. And I have to add that readers don't make any assumptions about students who don't submit test scores. Readers are trained extensively to evaluate the information that is in the application file and they don't think about information that's not there, they just evaluate what information they do have.

Ellen 12:02

your students at Ingenius, how do you help them decide whether or not to submit test scores to each of their schools? Well for

Gail Rubin Dauer 12:08

students that I advise at Ingenius, I will look at each of the schools that they're interested in and look at the school's data from the previous cycle and see what the medians are, what the 25th and 75th percentile is, and if their score is competitive for that institution, I would suggest that they do submit the score because it's just one more piece of evidence that supports the student's academic strengths and that they'd be successful at the university. But if the student's score isn't consistent with their academic performance and their classes, if they don't feel that the score accurately represents their potential, I think they'd feel more comfortable without submitting the test score and I think that's fine.

Ellen 12:49

Do you use pre COVID data? Cause it seems to me that the data from the last mission cycle, the test scores would be kind of weighted bias, kind of high because the only students submitting were the students who did really well on them.

So is that a concern or something that you think about?

Gail Rubin Dauer 13:02

Yes, definitely. I mean, I always look at the most recent cycle because that's the most recent data that we have.

But I do think because COVID did skew the standardized testing data, we do look at the pre-COVID medians as well and take that into account. That that's probably more accurately reflecting the tests or medians that will be in effect for this cycle.

Ellen 13:23

Could you walk me through a day in the life of the University of Michigan Admissions Officer in each season? We would start the season.

Gail Rubin Dauer 13:29

season and sometime in September and there are a lot of admissions readers. I think in my last cycle there were maybe 80 readers because we're all part-time. So in September we'd come into the office and we'd have a week of intensive training where we work with the supervisor of all the readers and the head of the admissions office would come talk to us and we'd also have training by a senior admissions officer who specialize in international applications. We go through case studies, we present on the board and just talk about best practices and also get up to date on any admissions developments since the last season.

So during the early action period for about three weeks that was the busiest time for readers in the admissions office. We'd have double application volume to review during that time so that would be about 120 applications a week would be responsible for reviewing. We would receive new applications in our queue on Monday morning and we'd need to be finished reading and evaluating and assigning ratings to those applications by that Sunday night. So Thanksgiving we would eat turkey and then we'd go back to our desk and keep reading applications. So the busiest time of year definitely was early action and that followed by February was another busy surge in applications for regular decision. So like I said earlier the readers would use a dual monitor system. Everything was read electronically and then as I read each application I would enter detailed comments and sort of make a roadmap for future admissions officers to review the applications and finalize the ratings. So our busy season wrapped up about March and then the summer was time to onboard and recruit new readers and then we'd onboard again in the summer and resume the training again the following September.

Ellen 15:21

So with your reading, I think you said 125 applications in a week. How much time is that per application? Are you spending five minutes, 20 minutes?

Gail Rubin Dauer 15:29

The goal was to spend about 15 minutes per application, but it really, the time that we spent on each application would vary a lot because for certain high schools, they were what we called feeder schools to Michigan, where it'd be really familiar with the school with curricular offerings and just the curriculum that was offered at that school and what the typical admissible candidate from the school looked like. Or on the other hand, we could get applications from another country where we weren't as familiar with their educational system like the UK system school that would take longer, but I would say 15 to 20 minutes was average time that we would spend reading and evaluating the entire admissions file.

So it was pretty, we had to keep things moving pretty quickly.

Ellen 16:15

You've mentioned the rating system and the dual monitor that you use. Can we go in a little bit more specifically about the admissions process from your point of view, like say that I hand you my application.

What is your process of reading it?

Gail Rubin Dauer 16:27

For me, I would start by reviewing, first of all, the information that I had on the high school and we had an extensive database where we could look up information for each school in the United States. We had more information on schools that were feeders who sent a lot of applications to Michigan and we accepted students in the past. I would want to get familiar with each school's environment and offerings.

The next thing I would do is review the student's transcript and I would actually go through and I would count the number of academic courses that they had. And within that, I would count the number of honors and AP or IB classes to understand the course rigor that the student had in relation to what was offered to them. And I'd want to look for increasing rigor over the course of high school and for competitive applicants that they took a good chunk of those competitive courses that were available to them. Then I would look at the common application itself to understand the student's biographical demographic information about their family background and neighborhood and community where they live. Then I would read their essays, their common app, personal essay, as well as the supplemental essays that Michigan required, which were three at that time. Of course, I would also review their letter of recommendation, typically two and then maybe an outside. Occasionally students have a third one from someone like a coach or someone who knew them from outside the classroom. And then for each of those application components, I would make notes on the summary sheet and then I would arrive at a final rating where I put all those pieces of the puzzle together and then I would submit all that information electronically through our system.

Ellen 18:05

And then who makes the final decision about which of these students are getting in well after.

Gail Rubin Dauer 18:09

my read was completed, the application would go for an independent second read by another reader in our office where they wouldn't see my rating of the student or my comments. And then typically, depending on how close the two evaluations were, that could be the end of the process.

But if there was a large variance in between the two ratings, then the applicant and their file would go to an evaluator who would try to reconcile the two ratings. For certain students, though, if the student had something really special to offer, if they made a compelling case for admission, but there were reasons to have a reservation about their admissibility, that's a student that would go to committee, where we would advocate for the student through our ratings and our rationale for them. And then the committee would make the ultimate determination. We also had an enrollment committee where they would have the responsibility of deciding how many students in each rating category would be admitted. So they had the ultimate authority to admit a student or not.

Ellen 19:10

This might be kind of difficult to answer, but can you think of any instances of where that happened, where there was like a polarized rating of maybe you gave the student a five and I don't know if that's the rating Celia used. I'm assuming it isn't, but you gave them a five and someone gave them a two.

You know, like what are the criteria that would cause the two different independent admissions officers to react so differently to the application? Well, I think sometimes what.

Gail Rubin Dauer 19:31

happened was, we would have a different point of view, perhaps about the student's extracurricular involvement, where Michigan for a student to be competitive, to be highly rated in the top categories, we would want to see state or national leadership, honors and awards. But often, it was determined that a student had a commitment to their activities where they were deeply involved and genuinely cared about their extracurricular.

So even if they didn't, even if the student wasn't competitive nationally or regionally in their activity, that the commitment was enough to have strong involvement and that the student could be rated in a top category. But there's, that's something that's pretty subjective. And that would cause some discrepancy in the ratings.

Ellen 20:16

Are there any misconceptions that you encounter about University of Michigan in general or more specifically about applying to the University of Michigan?

Gail Rubin Dauer 20:24

When I was reading, I would hear a lot of people say the Michigan's a large state institution. And so that Michigan really only took into account numerical information like a student's GPA and test scores. But in reality, I mean, Michigan uses holistic admissions like any other highly selective institution like I've been describing, understanding the student very specifically and individually within their context and putting together all the pieces of their application file.

Also, people think that Michigan has a really large impersonal environment academically. And it's true that certain introductory classes will be large lecture classes, especially in something like STEM. But Michigan does offer first year seminars that are small discussion classes. And Michigan also has the Honors College and the Residential College, which offer that chance for a close knit environment while having the resources of a large institution. And there are a lot of opportunities at Michigan to be known and to know faculty, interact with faculty, do research with faculty. It could be that the student needs to be a little more assertive and approaching faculty and expressing their interest in working with them. But the faculty loves working with students at Michigan. And like I was saying before, there are extensive opportunities to get involved in research regardless of your field. So it's really up to the student to take advantage of those opportunities, but they're definitely there.

Ellen 21:50

I'd like to transition to the application itself, specifically now. What major mistakes did you often see applicants making in their applications?

Gail Rubin Dauer 21:57

Well, one thing that was very common were to have an application that seemed very rushed where the students wouldn't take the time to really think through their responses on certain supplemental essays, for example. And the Y Michigan essay really requires the student to do a lot of research. A lot of times a student would cut and paste information from the website. And the admissions officers are very aware of what information is out there on our website, but we really look for the quality of thought and for self-reflection for students.

So it's really important for them to take the time to think through what Michigan specifically has to offer them. That's a good fit and how they will fit into Michigan and take advantage of the resources and opportunities offered to them. So I would say, take your time, don't rush, and go beyond the website. I mean, Michigan cares a lot about demonstrated interest. So in the days that I was reading, we wanted students to actually come to campus, go to formal admissions events, meet students, and really show you understand what the university is about and how you would fit in. And also some students talked a lot about Michigan in a very general way, which isn't really that helpful in showing that specific interest in Michigan.

Ellen 23:12

So when students apply, they can apply to one or maybe two, if I want to do a dual major of the eight specific schools. Is there a strategy that students, you know, should use or that they shouldn't use for choosing a major or do they just choose what they're most interested in?

Do you find students try to like gain the system by choosing a less popular major? Is it difficult to transfer between these schools? You know, how does that all work?

Gail Rubin Dauer 23:33

Michigan does not accept students or evaluate students by major. But as you were saying, Michigan does evaluate students within a particular school and students need to choose the school that they're applying to and that is the best fit for their interest and their goals. But admissions readers are experienced in spotting an LSA student versus an engineering student, for example, because the academic preparation and interest and activities are very different for those two profiles. And so it's really, I don't think it's as much a matter of strategy as being genuine and applying to the school that really offers those classes and opportunities that you want that will allow you to explore your interest.

I would say though, if for a student interested in Ross, the Michigan School of Business, it's important to focus your essays on business and your interest within that area, focus of what on your experiences and achievements in business.

Ellen 24:30

So they have two required supplemental essays. I'm going to go ahead and read them both, and then I just love to hear how you think students can best approach these prompts.

So number one, everyone belongs to many different communities and or groups defined by, among other things, shared geography, religion, ethnicity, income, cuisine, interest, race, ideology, or intellectual heritage. Choose one of the communities to which you belong and describe that community and your place within it. And then the second one, describe the unique qualities that attract you to the specific undergraduate college or school, including preferred admission and dual degree programs to which you are applying at the University of Michigan. How would that curriculum support your interests?

Gail Rubin Dauer 25:06

Well, in terms of the community's essay, which is what we called it, we were looking for students to really do some self-reflection and show understanding of themselves and how they fit into their current community because Michigan readers wanted to understand how the student would fit into communities on campus. So we wanted to know whether they consider a community and what was their role in the community. And there we were looking for the student to talk about other people, to not be like inside themselves, but to talk about how they interact with others, learn from others, how they're open-minded to other people's perspectives, and perhaps maybe how they changed their mind from interacting with others.

And in terms of the essay, the Why Michigan essay, we were looking for students who really understood specifically what opportunities at Michigan and they were a good fit for their individual interests and goals. So there I would say I always push students to be as specific as possible. Ideally, a student would understand if they do have an intended major, they would understand the professors within the department they're interested in, the professor's research and scholarship and how they would want to be involved in that. Also, they would look at student clubs and express a lot of enthusiasm about the clubs that they could see themselves participating in that may be reflected what they were doing in high school and things they wanted to continue. But don't be general, be super specific about Michigan. Try to picture yourself on campus, what you'd be doing academically, extracurricularly, and allow the admissions reader to see that too, to see how you would fit into campus. You want to paint a very clear picture for that.

Ellen 26:55

And are there any mistakes that you often see in the supplemental essays as you were reading them?

Gail Rubin Dauer 27:00

Certainly, I mean, a lot of students, like I was saying, would put together sort of a rushed application and would cut and paste from the website. And even if the reader didn't read the website, the fact that multiple students did that made us aware that students were just cutting and pasting, that they didn't go beyond the website to investigate, to look deeper into the faculty, the resources, special programs that they would take advantage of. And so that, to me, indicated that they weren't really genuinely interested in Michigan or they would have dug deeper.

Also, before COVID, I really wanted students to come to campus to participate in admissions and recruiting events. And if they couldn't come to campus, reach out to current students, reach out to alumni. Michigan has a huge alumni base who love the school. There's a lot of school spirit and they're happy. There are a lot of Michigan alumni who are happy to talk to you. Just reach a little deeper and you really need to demonstrate your interest by getting out there and interacting with admissions staff, coming to campus, talking to people, reaching out to heads of student leaders of clubs, and be as specific as possible.

Ellen 28:13

Obviously, the common app goes to all the school so the student is going to be isn't going to be tailoring their common app for the University of Michigan, but are there any mistakes that you'd often see in the personal statement or other aspects of the common app.

Gail Rubin Dauer 28:23

In the personal statement, there were several things that would make the student less compelling for University of Michigan. One thing is we wanted students who were self-aware, mature, and who understood themselves, who they are, where they are now, where they want to go. So a student who really dwelled on their childhood in the personal statement would seem less mature. They would really focus like, the personal statement isn't very long. It's like a limited and very valuable real estate. So for a student who spent a lot of that valuable space talking about their childhood would just be less interesting to us.

We wanted to hear about a student being aware of how they've grown and how they've learned and what their strengths and weaknesses are. Because that student would more be ready. We would look for a student who is ready to tackle the challenges academically and socially on a college campus. So as someone who had a lot of grit and resilience, who was ready to come to campus, and especially for students from out of state, we look for students who expressed and showed those personal skills and abilities so they would be ready to make a smooth transition to college.

Some students commonly would talk about their interest in Michigan, but they would substitute another college name, which I know students are cutting and pasting the essays, but to me it showed that they lacked attention to detail, which was a really important thing to be successful on campus and academically. And they would be really general.

Ellen 30:04

Do you have any specific advice or insight for transfer applicants?

Gail Rubin Dauer 30:07

Michigan had specialized readers for transfer applications, so I really wasn't involved in that process. But my understanding and what I conveyed in my current transfer students is that it's critical for students to understand the programs and resources that Michigan offers and how they would take advantage of those resources because Michigan cares a lot about identifying the fit of the students for our campus, for faculty, specific research that the student wants to get involved in.

Other programs that Michigan offers, like community service, or we wanna see students evidence their understanding of the resources that Michigan, and ideally a student who's visited campus or at least has researched faculty, what the faculty is working on in their research and scholarship and knows how they'll fit in to Michigan. And particularly a student has already in college. Michigan looks for more advanced understanding of Michigan's programs and how the student would fit in to those programs and opportunities.

Ellen 31:14

And similarly, do you have any advice for international applicants?

Gail Rubin Dauer 31:18

For international applications, she often know that the Michigan readers are extensively trained in reading international applications from really all the countries out there. One thing though is that Michigan academics are challenging.

And so the readers and in general would be focused on a student's English language ability that we would want to make sure our student could successfully handle the academics at Michigan, which is challenging to begin with, but with English not being some applicant's first language, we would want evidence that the student could successfully participate in the classroom at a high level. And it just, it's, you know, Michigan's a state institution, prioritizing students from within Michigan. And so it was very challenging for international applicants.

Ellen 32:08

that makes sense. And for students who are younger, you know, maybe they're in freshman or software year of high school, maybe they're even in middle school right now, but they they really want to go to the University of Michigan.

What can they do right now to build their profile?

Gail Rubin Dauer 32:21

Well, for sure, Michigan really cares a lot about a student being a leader in his or her community. So that's one thing to think about is how can you get involved in your school community and your local community in terms of leadership of existing clubs, but especially Michigan loves to see students who start a club or other organization because that creates opportunities for other students. And so that's ideal if there is a chance to form your own club or organization. That's a fantastic way to demonstrate leadership.

It's also really important to cultivate your writing skills because Michigan's looking for exceptional writing style as well as that individual creative voice in the essays. And one thing that's the most important is to make sure you challenge yourself based on the courses that your school offers because Michigan in the end wants to make sure you have a curriculum that's competitive for your high school. And then Michigan readers are going to compare your curriculum to that of the other students that were accepted from your same high school in the previous year. So that's, you want to make sure just to challenge yourself in any courses where you enjoy the material and you feel that you could be successful. And I would say for students interested in engineering, there are required classes in curriculum for that school. You want to be taking calculus if your school offers it and because Michigan engineering cares a lot about strength in math and high level math classes and you want to be taking AP or equivalent physics and chemistry that just go on the website because Michigan is pretty transparent in talking about the academic preparations that they want to see for each school.

Ellen 34:07

Do you have any additional words of wisdom to share for applicants about Michigan or just applying in general?

Gail Rubin Dauer 34:12

Yes, I do. I would say just start as early as you can in researching schools and use those school breaks to walk around campuses and feel the vibe and just think about how you'd fit into that community.

Take challenging classes whenever you can in each area that you enjoy, and you want to just be involved in your community, starting with your high school. In addition, you want ideally to make an impact on people around you and your school and your local community. And in terms of all of your applications itself, I would say just want to be genuine about your interests and goals. Use your own words and just know that admissions officers are looking to build a class and they really want to get to know applicants and they want to get to know you as a person. So let your own personality and your genuine self shine.

Ellen 35:10

Thank you so much for joining us today, Gail. I'm sure our listeners appreciate your insight into admissions at the University of Michigan.

For more information, check out our blog linked in the episode description. Also, make some helpful blogs specifically about the University of Michigan. If you have any questions or would like to request a topic for a future episode, go ahead and give us a follow and send us a message on social media with the hashtag InsideAdmissions. That's all for now. Thank you for listening, and I hope you'll join me next time as we continue our journey inside the admissions office.

DMU Timestamp: May 18, 2025 19:27