OT: What was your second choice school?
April 11th, 2020 at 10:11 PM ^
Columbia made financial sense????
April 11th, 2020 at 10:34 PM ^
No option other than Michigan made financial sense since I am from Ann Arbor.
April 11th, 2020 at 10:11 PM ^
Eastern state university Wolf pack.
starting defensive line place at the table
April 11th, 2020 at 10:12 PM ^
I grew up in a2 and wanted out. So my parents said if I got in to Michigan I could go where I please but if not I had to go instate. I really wanted to go to Wisconsin and I got in, and I waited for Michigan acceptance to find out if I could go. Got into u of m and then went to Wisconsin which was great!!!! Even though I skipped the football games to watch Michigan games from my apartment
April 11th, 2020 at 10:15 PM ^
My second choice school was at UT Austin, it’s only an hour away from my house and I wanted to go to a school in-state that could somewhat match up to UM in prestige if I didn’t get in. Got the short end of the stick and now I’m in my second year of my fourth-choice school
April 11th, 2020 at 10:19 PM ^
Georgia. I had a thing for southern girls.
April 11th, 2020 at 10:24 PM ^
Wake Forest. Completely different school than Michigan, but I fell in love with the campus. Sometimes in the dead of winter I regretted not going there because it like never drops below 40 degrees, but besides that I 100% made the right decision
April 11th, 2020 at 11:04 PM ^
Wfu law grad here, go Deacs!
April 11th, 2020 at 10:25 PM ^
I think that I applied only to Michigan for undergrad.
April 11th, 2020 at 10:33 PM ^
We had a group of eight friends from my catholic HS. 3 went to U of M, 4 to U of Detroit, 1 went to GMI. So U of D for me if I didn’t Go Blue (it was also my dad’s school).
April 11th, 2020 at 11:06 PM ^
My parents met at U of D (before it was UDM). Despite my dad’s job taking us all over the world, he kept his UDM basketball season tickets for like 25 years. Also my mom was a freshmen there during the riots in Detroit in the 60s. She’s got some interesting stories.
April 11th, 2020 at 10:35 PM ^
I was a transfer. Got rejected twice (out of high school and after first year at local school). Finally got in on the third try for my junior year. Was desperate to prove I belonged and my first semester at UofM was the first time I ever got all A’s in my life (grade school and H.S. included).
April 11th, 2020 at 10:36 PM ^
I guess West Point. I wanted to go to USAFA but my eyesight and non-football talent got me rejected. Also got into Cornell and Purdue so maybe one of them but West Point was tempting. But chose UM which was a great option of course.
April 11th, 2020 at 10:38 PM ^
Michigan was my second choice. Ferris had a better Pharmacy school..I didn’t graduate with a Pharmacy degree, just making a valid opinion.
April 11th, 2020 at 10:40 PM ^
Wisconsin. Applied to Chapel Hill but didn’t get in. Probably would have gone to Michigan anyway.
April 11th, 2020 at 10:58 PM ^
If you’re not from North Carolina, getting into to UNC is like getting into MIT.
April 11th, 2020 at 11:08 PM ^
That's how all the good southern public schools are now. Getting into UNC and UVA is really freaking hard out of state nowadays
April 11th, 2020 at 11:20 PM ^
Yeah UGA too. I didn’t get into UNC or UGA law schools, but got into much higher ranked schools. Whatever.
Maybe things have changed since early aughts but UNC law was not that difficult and UGa Law was easy. Even for out-of-staters. UVa Law was tough.
April 11th, 2020 at 10:41 PM ^
Ironically Michigan wasn’t my first, second, or third choice. Not originally. BC was my first choice, BU was second, and Tulane was third. But of course, I didn’t get what I thought I wanted. BC was the only school out of 10-11 others that I didn’t get into. I didn’t have a great reason for wanting to go to BC, but Boston was originally where I wanted to be.
Didn't know a ton about Michigan when I applied. Honestly only applied because my parents thought I should. Before I committed to a school my parents asked me to at least go and visit Michigan, I thought okay, whatever gets me out of school and away for a three day weekend. Michigan was the only campus I visited, out of maybe 8-10 others, where I truly felt like I could call it home. Everywhere else I went, I felt like I was just going through the motions on my visit. Something really captivated me when I was there. Wasn’t Michigan Stadium or Yost. Was something bigger than that. Everyone who has been knows what I mean.
By the time we went to the airport on Sunday morning, I knew what I wanted. Told my folks that night that I wants to go to Michigan, and my parents were as happy as they could’ve been. BU and Tulane are great schools, but going there, for me, would’ve been a mistake.
April 11th, 2020 at 11:19 PM ^
Honestly I had a very similar experience in regards to picking Michigan. I had mostly been looking at private schools like Wake Forest, Vanderbilt, Emory, Richmond, Wash U, William & Mary then some others like UVA and Indiana-Kelley. However, on the way to visit my grandparents in the midwest, my parents asked if I wanted to visit any schools along the way. Knew of Michigan, but didn't really know just how good of a school it was. So we decided to make a stop in Ann Arbor along the way just to do my due diligence. Michigan was the only place where I felt in awe. Just the campus and the environment made me feel like I could be a part of something bigger than myself. Went back for campus day and had a similar feeling. My other final school was Wake Forest and I went to their campus day too. On my flight home from there I really did some thinking. Wake Forest had my brain, but Michigan had my heart. I knew on that flight home that if I didn't choose Michigan there was gonna be a large chance I'd regret it for the rest of my life. And besides the Ann Arbor winters, I definitely made the correct choice
Hope my brother doesn’t read this post. He went to BC undergraduate.
April 11th, 2020 at 10:46 PM ^
West Point
April 11th, 2020 at 10:49 PM ^
Northwestern. I went into Marketing and Kellogg is fantastic. Ross was my first choice, but I didn't get into Kellogg anyway.
April 11th, 2020 at 11:00 PM ^
Welp. It was a fraction of the cost to stay in state. So 2 degrees from tOSU. But while there I high fived the Illinois offensive line after their 5th straight win over OSU in 1992. Watched Chris Webber do a 360 dunk in St John Arena. Saw Louis Bullock pull out a 5 point deficit with 25 seconds left, Tai Streets etc. Yeah... deals with the devil are a bitch.
April 11th, 2020 at 11:54 PM ^
The Illini was on 5 straight versus OSU?? That’s hard to even imagine.
Did you wear your Michigan fandom openly? Kind of sounds like you must have
April 11th, 2020 at 11:00 PM ^
Michigan was my second choice. First choice was following my boyfriend to Boston University. That didn't end well, so I transferred to Michigan my sophomore year. Thank god for break ups.
April 11th, 2020 at 11:01 PM ^
Didn't attend U of M, although I was accepted and offered a pretty decent financial aid package. I went to Albion, and my second choice (because it was further from home) was Carleton. I knew that I wanted to attend a smaller school, but almost transferred to Michigan after my 1st year, due to a particular major I was interested in. Decided to wait until grad school to pursue that field, but then changed my major several other times and ended up at EMU for grad school in education. So I made it to the Ann Arbor area eventually. Still don't know what I want to be if I grow up. Maybe I'll figure it out when I retire from teaching in a couple years.
April 11th, 2020 at 11:13 PM ^
Carleton has cool school colors.
Isnt that the kid from Fresh Prince
April 12th, 2020 at 10:08 AM ^
I guess he was named for a school in Northfield, Minnesota.
My daughter broke my heart when she chose Carleton over Michigan. (Well, I say that jokingly; Carleton is a great school, and she wanted something smaller.) And, yes, it has cool school colors, but nobody goes to their football games.
April 11th, 2020 at 11:03 PM ^
Was into the US Naval Academy until I flunked the vision test - red/green color blind.
April 11th, 2020 at 11:17 PM ^
Michigan. I ended up going to Northwestern because I was under the mistaken impression a good journalism school would be a helpful thing to attend.
April 11th, 2020 at 11:17 PM ^
Disclaimer: I have 2 degrees from Michigan which I got at different times so I went to Michigan “twice”
Both times Michigan was my second choice. For my undergrad degree, I got into my first choice, Northwestern, with a little scholarship (like $5k). But my parents invested into the MET when I was super young and living in Michigan, so I got tuition paid for at U of M, so I went. Great decision all around.
For graduate school many years later, I got waitlisted at my top choice, Stanford and Chicago, but couldn’t wait for them, so devices to just go back to Michigan. Great decision as well.
April 11th, 2020 at 11:19 PM ^
Florida. Had a national merit scholarship so could've gone for free. I did visit and liked it a lot. Always dreamed of going to Michigan, though.
Edit: I would've been at Florida when they won 2 national titles in football and 2 more in basketball. Instead I got Michigan losing to OSU 4 years in a row and never making an NCAA tournament in basketball. Going to Michigan was an easy call, though. No regrets at all.
April 11th, 2020 at 11:46 PM ^
Welding school at Schoolcraft
April 11th, 2020 at 11:47 PM ^
EMU because they gave me a full-ride
April 11th, 2020 at 11:51 PM ^
The only other school I applied to was Central. Started an MSU application but it didn’t feel worth the effort
April 12th, 2020 at 12:09 AM ^
1st Michigan; not accepted.
2nd WMU; accepted.
Kicked ass for 3 semesters at WMU.
2nd application to Michigan; accepted.
Michigan degree; BA Economics 1988.
Not the path most take, but end result is was the same.
M Go Blue!
April 12th, 2020 at 12:10 AM ^
Michigan was pretty much my one and only choice. Was fortunate enough to be accepted in early October, which made me pretty useless for the rest of my senior year in HS. Only other school I applied to was Stanford, where I was wait-listed.
April 12th, 2020 at 12:36 AM ^
All right I’m just gonna say it since no one else has. Michigan State. I grew up in Michigan and while my parents were able to help me out with tuition, we didn’t have out of state/private school money, and while my grades were pretty good, they weren’t good enough for anything better than Michigan, and even if I somehow got in, they certainly weren’t good enough for scholarships.
I'm proud of my Michigan degree, but looking back, and it's even something I realized while I was still in college, MSU probably would have been a better fit for me. I had major academic struggles at Michigan. And for the career I ended up in, my Michigan degree means nothing.
Yeah same situation for me. If I went out of state, it was 100% coming out of my own pocket and I knew that was going to be money poorly spent since there are so many solid engineering schools in Michigan. I wanted to do engineering so my 2nd choice was either MSU which I really didn't want to do or Michigan Tech and I really didn't want to go to the UP. Fortunately I got in to Michigan. Don't really feel like I should've because I waited so long to apply but dumb 17 year old me lucked out
For undergrad, my folks had the MET program from the mid-80s for when I started in the late 90s. (For which I am eternally grateful!) I only applied to UM and MSU. I was competitive for anything short of Harvard/Yale but if your choice is a free degree from UM or six-figure student loans from Cornell or Duke, it's an easy choice.
For grad, UM was my second choice to Wisconsin. While I was somewhat disappointed at the time, it was a similar choice - either a free PhD from Madison or six-figure student loans from UM. Not a difficult decision.
April 12th, 2020 at 12:37 AM ^
Illinois as they also had a top civil engineering program. MSU was probably a more realistic second option due to in state tuition and proximity to my hometown. Thankfully that scenario never played out.
All I knew was that I wanted to get out of Florida, so I applied to 18 undergrads (only got rejected from MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Yale). Coming from Florida didn’t realize the prestigiousness of M, so it was actually a last second application only because so much of th app overlapped with what I had already filled out. My final group that I chose from was Carnegie Mellon, Wash U, Duke, Colombia, Penn. and M. Very happy I ended up choosing M.
Applied to three schools, only seriously considered two. Case Western Reserve was my 2nd choice if I wanted to continue my football career. Realized that Michigan just made more sense and couldn't justify CWRU just to play D3 football so hung up my cleats.
Sent in my acceptance to Columbia but switched to UM at last minute.
Indiana was the only other school to which I applied. IU was the only D-IA school that recruited (but no scholarship offer) me (for track). I was flattered, so I shot off an application. I never gave it much serious consideration & to this day, I’ve never been to Bloomington.