UMich Recs Email

go to the umich med admissions website - it says they send invitations for secondaries to all applicants, but only ask for letters of rec immediately from about 25% of applicants. others get asked for letters of rec after they submit their secondaries. so umich screens pre-secondary (to decide whether to ask for a LOR immediately) and post-secondary (to decide to ask for a LOR and an interview then). moreover, if you are a 'qualified' in-state applicant (or a 'qualified' applicant from CA, from where they receive TONS of apps) they'll also invite you for an interview even before you send in your secondary and LOR. i'm a michigan resident, so this happened to me. hope this helps.

 

I just got an interview invite from UofM and I haven't even sent in my secondary, any letters of rec, or anything. And I don't have supurb stats.... random... so i guess UofM uses the primary quite a bit.

 

same happened to me - they say they're unbiased in regards to instate/out of state, but really they're gung-ho for qualified instate applicants. if you're in michigan and stats are reasonable and your primary was good, then they'll offer you an interview in their first round.

my best friend's husband interviewed there last year in their first round of interviews, and it was all people in the same boat: qualified michigan residents and qualified california applicants (b/c they get a ton of them).

congrats on being offered an interview - i picked the sept 6th date, how bout u?

 

Me too (I got the interview offer before I even sent them any money!) I'm one of those "qualified CA" folks I guess. I haven't picked a date yet, it's kind of a trek to get out there and I'm bummed because I'm going to be in Michigan for the next week (before interviews start!) I guess this is when the frequent flier miles start racking up (and the credit card bill)...

 

A word to the wise on this U Mich phenomena....sending you in interview invite before you do the secondary is a good sign, but it doesn't automatically mean that they want you. Still prepare well for the interview, still write good stuff on your secondary. I was in this situation last year, got the interview invite a couple weeks after I submittes AMCAS and was all thinking "I'm in!" I was crushed when I got waitlisted. Just a little reminder to never assume anything in this process.

That said...great job getting an interview! Congrats and good luck!

 

For those of you who already got interviews, do you mind telling me your stats? I'm curious what Michigan is looking for. thank you much.

 

How long after you were verified and/or got the online secondary email were you guys given the interview invite. I'm an instater too and they are by far my top choice, I hope they aren't shunning me this early in the game.

 

I think they screen based on your preliminary AMCAS info.... if they are asking you for more info without any effort on your part (besides the AMCAS primary) they are definitely interested. Like 916 - last year I was invited to interview w/o filling out the secondary. Congrats! And don't dispair if you have not heard from them yet... I submitted my AMCAS in Sept of last year and was offered the invite in Dec. Good luck!

 

Hey, what schools in michigan do you all go to? Curious because i've heard they're pretty hard on applicants from some of the state schools in michigan (grand valley specifically). I'm in-state and have a 3.58, 32P and i'm wondering if i'll be considered "qualified"

Thanks.

Joe

 

Joe-
This is an interesting phenomena that I think is pretty unique to Michigan. Every Michigan undergrad school, including U of M, has this rumor flying around campus - that Michigan is biased against students from that school. I think it comes from the fact that we in Michigan are pretty unique to have a state school in the top ten med schools...most of them are private and give little or no preference to in staters. U of M is required by law to accept at least 50% in state, but they want to accept ONLY 50% in-state so that they stay nationally competative.

So - as a pre-med student in Michigan, you'd be out of your noggin to NOT apply to U of M...it's a fantastic deal to go to a top ten school for such a cheap price. So basically every in-stater who applies will apply to Michigan, so all 4,000 (that's a made up number, I have no idea how many Michiganders apply to med school) Michigan pre-meds are competing for half of the spots (about 80 I think?) in the class. The competition is fierce. So everyone thinks that they are biased against In-staters, when in reality, they are not, they're just trying to keep their numbers exactly where they want them.

Talk to anyone from Wayne, Michigan, Michigan State, Oakland, K-Zoo, whatever, and they'll say the same thing...UM is tough on applicants from my school.

Your numbers look fine, but they look beyond numbers. Are you a good applicant all around? If so, then you have a shot at an interview and an acceptance. Good Luck!

 

i'm an in-stater who graduated from um undergrad, am a wee bit non-trad (24y/o). stats: gpa ~3.8, mcat 10p, 11v, 12b, S; lots o' ecs/vol work. i got a secondary invite about 1wk after verification, and an interview invite 2 days later.

 

Does anyone know how hard it is to get into UofM from out of state? Would the average GPA on US News (the premed Bible) also be accurate of out of staters? I think its around 3.65...not sure.
Thanks

 

whats up weezer fan
i'm sure that the out of state ave is higher, but i'm not sure exactly what it is - my guess would be 3.7 or so. its an awesome place, and ann arbor is a cool college town (or from what i remember when i was small). their website doesn't break it down either - i'm not sure if one would be able to get a solid number on that -- anyone?

 

weezer is rad. though... that fetish rivers has for teen asian girls can be somewhat scary. nonetheless- one of the best bands ever...
p

 

also, do you think it would help to apply early decision as an out of stater to UofM?
I havent heard much about people applying ED to med schools, any opinions? (or maybe I should just search the forum a bit)
thanks again

 

Mich doesn't have Early Decision

 

I guess they only give the automatic interviews/LOR requests to in-staters and californians. All I received was their secondary email.

Do you think it would help to send the LOR's in now, even if they haven't requested them? After all, they say that they will file them if they receive them.