U-M's Admissions Policy
Race counts more than SAT, service, essay combined

By Benjamin Rousch

Every year the Office of Undergraduate Admissions (OUA) receives about 19,000 applications from students hoping to attend the University of Michigan, and only admits about 5,000 of those students. The lawsuit filed by the Center for Individual Rights (CIR) on behalf of Patrick Hammacher and Jennifer Gratz questions the methods that U­M used in 1995 and 1997 to choose which students were admitted. Last year, U­M abolished the old "grid system," instituting a new "point system" that makes admissions decisions easier to understand, but for the most part uses the same admissions criteria as the old system.

A quick look at the policy (see table) reveals that it is split into two sections: "Academic Achievement" and "Other Factors." In the academic portion, points are given to a student based on his GPA in certain high school courses, the quality of the school attended, the strength of his high school curriculum, and his ACT or SAT scores. In the other part of the policy, points are given for a student's geographic location, alumni affiliation, one­page essay, personal achievement, leadership and service, and "miscellaneous." The number of points an applicant scores determines if he is admitted. The maximum number of points one can receive is 150, but applicants need only 100 to guarantee an acceptance letter. A score between 90 and 99 will allow applicants a place on the infamous waitlist, and a total of less than 90 points most likely gets applicants a rejection letter.

The category with the most potential for acquiring points is GPA. With a 4.0 GPA, an applicant gets a full 80 points, practically guaranteeing the applicant a spot. Even a modest 3.0 GPA earns an applicant 60 points, more than half of what's necessary for admission. An applicant can also get a few points by attending a tough school, but only two Michigan schools will earn you eight points here; most aspiring Wolverines will get between two and six points. And applicants may think that suffering through a rigorous curriculum filled with nightmarish honors and AP courses will net them a bunch of points, but the most points an applicant can get from his curriculum is eight, with the average U-M applicant getting between two to six. You can even get negative points if you didn't take any honors courses.

"But wait!" some students may be thinking. "What about the ACT and SAT? Surely we got tons of points for those stressful standardized tests." Well, a perfect ACT or SAT score will get you 12 points, but most people will get about 10 or 11. Ten points isn't a whole lot, but it can go a good way toward achieving 100.

On to "Other Factors." Most people have heard that it is easier for a student who lives in Michigan to be admitted than one who lives out of state. In fact, that's true: an applicant gets 10 points just for living in Michigan, and an additional 6 points if he lives in an "Underrepresented Michigan County." Living in Michigan counts about as much as an applicant's ACT or SAT scores, and more so if an applicant comes from an Underrepresented Michigan County. If an applicant lives in an "Underrepresented State" he gets two points; not much compensation for being one of the few Alaskans or Hawaiians on campus.

The controversial Alumni category is not nearly as significant as Geography. If one of the applicant's parents went to U-M, he gets four points, or if one of his other relatives was a Wolverine, he gets one point.

Remember that essay you slaved over, making sure all the phrases were perfect, not a spelling mistake in sight? "Surely that secured me dozens of points!" you may be thinking. Well, your essay diminished in value from previous years. If the admissions counselor thought it was outstanding, you got one point; otherwise you received none.

Additionally, an applicant can get points for "Personal Achievement" at the state (1), regional (3), or national (5) levels for his performance in academic competitions, art, athletics, music, professional theater, or science. An identical ranking system exists for "Leadership and Service."

Now we'll examine the "Miscellaneous" category. Applicants can get points for only one of the following situations:

1. Males going into Nursing get five points

2. Scholarship athletes get 20 points - one-fifth of the total needed for admission.

3. The provost can bestow 20 points at her discretion, but this happens only in exceptional circumstances - such as someone who "runs (his/her) own business, (has) written and published a book, has a patented invention, etc."

4. You get 20 points for being socioeconomically disadvantaged.

5. Underrepresented minorities get 20 points.

Minorities living with socioeconomic hardships do not get 40 points; only 20. Therefore, the minorities who really get these 20 points are the privileged minorities, and they get a significant fraction of the 100 points solely because of their skin color. Having a different skin color is considered by the University as being on par with a scholarship athlete - who at least has to work for his points; or a high school student who designs the next Intel chip!

A white or Asian (a non-underrepresented minority) and a minority student who attend the same privileged Michigan high school, have taken the same courses, and are essentially exactly the same student, except for the color of their skin, will hence be scored differently using the point system (see table, bottom right). The non-minority student is outright rejected because he did not get good enough grades or test scores to get into the University. The minority student who had exactly the same credentials - save the color of his skin - gets outright acceptance to the University.

Why should minorities get bonus points? The common answer is, "to make up for past wrongs, and to combat discrimination rampant in modern society." However, most of the minorities who receive these bonus points have not had to endure hardships as a result of "past wrongdoings." The minorities who receive the 20 points do not live in slums, nor do they attend inner-city schools; if they did, they would get the socioeconomic hardship bonus points. They live in the privileged suburbs and do not feel the plight of the truly "repressed minority."

If the lawsuits against the U-M are won by the plaintiffs, the University will be forced to remove race from the admissions process. Although OUA says it would find some other way to ensure diversity, it will be forced to be less obviously race-based than the current admissions policy. Whether they will need to do that remains to be seen, but the University is certainly not backing down from its use of race in admissions just yet. MR

This article was published in the New Student Issue of The Michigan Review (Volume 18, Number 1).
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