Not trying to be cynical but sharing my honest opinion. Michigan's 'transparency' works for those invited for interview/accepted but against all the rest. Judging from my interview day there and impression of the admissions staff, Michigan seems like that insecure person we all know who is always one-upping others and looking for an edge to seem better than those around them. School pride is great, but why on interview day do they have to refer to Harvard as the 'Michigan of the East?' Seems to me like it's a Napoleon complex, or because they are recruiting ivy-leaguers who aren't accepted to Harvard/Penn/Stanford/Hopkins Med? Compared to other schools who use Twitter and Facebook to post helpful information - Johns Hopkins MD Admissions Facebook page is a great example - Michigan's use of Twitter is less than helpful; personal musings from the admissions director (do we really need to know about his bus commute home and weekend golf sessions?) peppered with a mix of attention grabbing admissions posts. Perhaps if they spent more time on negative admissions decisions and less on improving their brand, they might actually have closed hundreds or thousands of files at this point like other non-rolling schools - again Hopkins is a better example in this regard as well; is it ethical to string hundreds or thousands of people along for several months? Not if it can be avoided, yet Michigan is the only non-rolling top 10 school that does it and the only top 10 school that gave me a bad impression (other interviewees felt similarly). Michigan seems to be building a class primarily around stats/pedigree, with one of their top goals being to move up in the US News rankings. I'm thankful to have had the opportunity to interview here so that I could see that UMICH is not for me. To those of you who have been hopeful and under review for several months - please don't question/blame yourselves, your abilities, self-worth, etc. - there are many other schools out there that are the actual leaders and best, and that would be happy to have you. Please like this comment if you agree.
I agree with this. UMich comes across has having some sort of inferiority complex. Someway or another, they are always seeking attention and want recognition. If you look at USNWR top 10, UMich is the only school that seems out of place.