The 
college 
experience 

widely varies, especially amid a 
pandemic that makes having a 
large social circle and in-person 
classes dangerous. But according 
to data obtained by The Michigan 
Daily, 1 in 10 members of the 
University of Michigan Fall 2019 
freshman class came from just 
10 high schools, meaning it’s very 
likely some students in every class 
come into college with already-
established friend groups. 

Though students from over 

2,000 
different 
high 
schools 

enrolled at the University, our 
data shows that nearly half of 
the 2019 incoming class came 

from just 15% of these schools. 
The term “feeder school” is often 
used to refer to schools with 
high volumes of applications to a 
certain university. 

The 
Daily 
spoke 
with 

students from feeder and non-
feeder schools to the University 
around the country to learn how 
their high school experiences 
influenced 
their 
social 
and 

academic transition to college. 
Students 
from 
feeder 
high 

schools in general expressed 
greater 
social 
and 
academic 

comfort, while students from 
high schools where very few 
students attend the University 
said they experienced culture 
shock 
and 
sometimes 
felt 

academically underprepared. 

As one of the most prestigious 

public universities in the United 
States, the University of Michigan 
attracts 
high-achieving 
high 

school students. This includes 
students who took Advanced 
Placement 
or 
International 

Baccalaureate classes — walking 
around campus, it can be hard to 
find a U-M student who didn’t 
take at least one college-level 
course in high school. 

The 
Advanced 
Placement 

Program was founded in 1952 and 
is the most popular way students 
receive college credit for high 
school courses. The AP Program, 
run by the nonprofit organization 
The College Board, offers 38 
courses and exams to more than 
one million students each year. 

The International Baccalaureate 

programs 
were 
founded 
in 

1975, only recently growing in 
gaining popularity in the U.S. 
However, schools that offer IB 
were overrepresented in the 301 
schools with the greatest number 
of applications to the University 
in 2019. 41 of those 301 schools 
offered IB (13.6%), a rate 11% 
higher than the national average.

Admissions 
The Daily’s data shows that 

schools that offer IB made up 
20.8% of acceptances to the 
University from The Daily’s list 
of 301 schools, despite students 
from schools with IB composing 
only 15.3% of all applications. 
The yield rate of students from 
IB schools — the percentage of 
admitted students who attend 
the University — was 62.0%, 
compared to 46.8% for non-IB 
students. 

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wednesday, March 3, 2021

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We looked at the 301 high schools with the most 
applicants to the University. Here’s what we found

This article is a part of a data-

driven series in which The Michigan 
Daily obtained records on the top 301 
schools by number of applications to 
the University of Michigan for the Fall 
2019 freshman class through a public 
records request. These data are not 
representative of the entire freshman 
class, nor are the data about the schools 
a perfect aggregate representation of 
all students who attend the University.

The college admissions process 

is a mystery to many — and the 
University 
of 
Michigan 
is 
no 

exception.

At the University, the trend is 

clear: Just under 65,000 high school 
seniors applied for the Fall 2019 
entering class — more than two times 
larger than the 24,000 applicants 
who applied for the entering class 
two decades earlier. The University 
has grown its class size by nearly one-
third, but the growth cannot keep 
up with the increasing application 
volume. The acceptance rate has sat 
around 25% for the last several years, 
less than half of the 55% acceptance 
rate in 2000-2001, according to the 
University’s common data set from 
that year. 

The Michigan Daily obtained 

records on the top 301 U.S. high 
schools by number of applications 
to the University for the Fall 2019 
freshman class through a public 
records request. The data shows 
that 48% of the freshman class 
matriculated from one of these 301 
schools, though the schools represent 
only 15% of the total number of high 
schools with students applying to the 
University.

So what does it take to get into 

an increasingly selective school like 
the University of Michigan? That’s 
the question on tens of thousands of 
minds each year when applications 
for the next freshman class open in 
August. 

For the Fall 2020 entering class, 

75% of entering freshmen received a 
32 or above on the ACT, placing them 
in the 97th percentile of test takers. 
The average freshman’s high school 
GPA was a 3.9.

Admissions officers at schools 

across the nation — including at the 
University, which calls its admissions 
process “holistic” — are quick to 
note that universities are looking 
not only at the complete picture of 
a student, but also how they place 
within the context of their schools 
and communities. 

According to Whitney Bruce, a 

private college admissions counselor 
who specializes in working with 
applicants from Ann Arbor, decisions 
can also be impacted by institutional 
goals. These goals, often unknown 
to applicants, could in turn give 
students who help meet these goals a 
leg up in the admissions process.

Institutional goals can play a larger 

role at selective institutions like the 
University where the freshman class 
could typically be filled two or three 
times over without decreasing the 
average standardized test scores or 
GPA, Bruce said. 

“Creating 
a 
class 
from 
an 

enrollment management perspective 
is more art than science,” Bruce said.

Despite 
hurdles 
caused 
by 

Proposal 2, which in 2006 barred 
the University from considering 
race, gender, ethnicity or nationality 
in admissions, the University has 
still attempted to attain diversity 
within its incoming classes with 
varying degrees of success. Though 
still often criticized as a rich, elite 
university, more than 22% of new 
in-state undergraduates in 2019 came 
from families with incomes under 
$65,000. 

The 
percentage 
of 

underrepresented 
minorities, 

which are students who identify as 
Black, Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 
Hispanic/Latino, Native American 
or 
Native 
Alaskan, 
make 
up 

approximately 15.3% of the 2019 class 
— below the state average of 21%. 

Additionally, 
the 
University 

Record published that more than 15% 
of new students in the 2019 class were 

the first in their families to attend 
college. Erica Sanders confirmed this 
in an email to The Daily.

 “The University of Michigan 

is 
a 
firm 
proponent 
of 
the 

educational value provided by a 
diverse, multicultural and inclusive 
campus 
community,” 
Sander 

wrote. “The mission of the Office of 
Undergraduate Admissions speaks 
to the importance of identifying, 
admitting and enrolling a diverse 
group of students and our holistic 
review process.”

The Daily analyzed the data 

obtained through a public records 
request to shed light on who applies 
to, is accepted by and ends up 
attending the University from the 
60,000-person sea of applicants each 
year. Across the board, we found 
that schools with high numbers of 

applications and admittees each year 
are whiter and richer than national 
and state averages.

One out of every 10 students 

in the class comes from one of 10 

high schools

Despite making up less than 3% 

of schools on The Daily’s list, more 
than 11% of the 2019 freshman class 
came from one of 10 high schools. 
Almost all of these schools — the 
International Academy, Northville 
High School, Novi High School, Troy 
High School, Pioneer High School, 
Huron High School, Rochester 
Adams High School, Bloomfield Hills 
High School and Detroit Country 
Day — are metro Detroit area schools. 

Eight out of nine of these in-state 

schools are public schools, with the 
exception of private school Detroit 
Country Day. The International 

Academy, though public, is also a 
magnet school, meaning students 
must take a test and enter a lottery 
for admission. Pioneer and Huron 
are both part of the Ann Arbor Public 
School System. All nine are highly 
ranked within the state. 

The Bronx High School of Science 

in The Bronx, N.Y., is the only out-
of-state high school in the group of 
10. New York’s public school system 
requires students interested in Bronx 
Science and other “specialized” high 
schools take a test to get in. Of the 
30,000 New York City eighth graders 
who take the specialized high school 
entrance exam, less than 3% of 
test takers made the cut-off to earn 
admission to the high school. 

Michigan outperforms 

other states in applications, 

matriculation

Not only is Michigan the state 

with the most applicants to the 
University, data shows students 
who live in the state are more likely 
to both earn admission and to 
matriculate than students coming 
from out-of-state. 

Ninety-four of the 301 top schools 

were within Michigan, meaning 
most, if not all, of those students 
pay in-state tuition. Despite being 
only one-third of schools on The 
Daily’s list of 301 schools, these 94 
schools contain more than 57% of the 
admitted students and about 68% of 
the enrolled students.

But even within Michigan, there 

are disparities between feeder vs. 
non-feeder schools: Of the total 
enrolled in-state students in the Fall 
2019 freshman class, 63% come from 
one of these 94 schools — despite 
these 94 schools making up only 5% 
of the 1,870 high schools in Michigan.

On The Daily’s list, California 

followed Michigan as the second-
most state with 54 schools, or 18%, 
on the total list. Illinois followed 
with 43, or 14%. New York and New 
Jersey each had around 9% — 27 and 
26 schools, respectively — of the 301 
schools. 

Out-of state students from these 

207 schools make up 32% of the 
enrolled students in 2019, but 69% of 

the total number of applicants. 

You’re most likely to be 

accepted if you go to a magnet 

school

Magnet schools had the highest 

acceptance rates on average — 
more than one-third of applicants 
from these schools were accepted, 
noticeably 
outperforming 
the 

overall 22.9% acceptance rate for 
the class. Despite the fact that public 
magnet school students made up 
only 8.2% of applications from these 
301 schools, applicants from public 
magnet schools made up 10% of total 
acceptances.

Bruce said this statistic would 

make sense given the fact that 
students typically must test-in to 
magnet schools, meaning they 
already 
show 
high 
academic 

performance. 
Michigan’s 

International Academies, schools 
which 
offer 
an 
International 

Baccalaureate 
program 
that 

students must test into, are one 
example of this. If students can earn 
entrance into one, she said, they are 
likely to be competitive candidates 
to the University.

“It’s not that attending IA gives 

you a straighter path to Michigan, it 
gives you a really strong education,” 
Bruce said. “You’ve pre-selected for 
kids who are already going to test 
into a band where their SAT scores 
are competitive with Michigan’s.”

The University does not separate 

magnet schools from public schools 
when 
reviewing 
applications, 

Sanders confirmed to The Daily.

The 301 schools on this list had 

higher acceptance rates on average 
compared to that sub-23% figure 
for the overall Fall 2019 class. Every 
type of school — public magnet 
(32.4%), private secular (30.1%), 
public 
charter 
(29.3%), 
private 

religious (26.1%), public (25.4%) 
and private boarding (25.2%) — 
was above a 25% acceptance rate. 
This means the majority of schools 
outside of The Daily’s list likely had 
an acceptance rate lower than the 
class acceptance rate of 22.9%.

ALEX HARRING & 

THE DAILY’S DATA TEAM
Daily Staff Reporter & Web Team

See APPLICANTS, Page 4

Students discuss impacts 
of AP/IB experience and 
preparation for U-M

Larger & wealthier districts offer more college 

prep courses, leads to academic disparities

PAIGE HODDER
Daily Staff Reporter

See AP/IB, Page 4

From around the country 
or across the state, 
undergraduates come to ‘U’ 
with varying experiences
10% of the University’s 2019 freshman 
class came from just 10 high schools

See FEEDER SCHOOL, Page 2

JULIA RUBIN & 
LILY GOODING
Daily Staff Reporters

Along with the Wolverine, the 

colors maize and blue and the 
renowned block ‘M,’ the hallmark 
exclamations “Go Blue!” and “Hail!” 
are an integral part of community 
identity 
at 
the 
University 
of 

Michigan. However, several low-
income students who are financing 
their education with the help of 
the Go Blue Guarantee or the High 
Achieving Involved Leader (HAIL) 
scholarship say that for them, 
these phrases carry a much deeper 
meaning.

The total campus disbursement of 

aid for the 2020 fiscal year was over 
$1 billion, which includes federal, 
state and institutional grants as well 
as scholarships, loans and Work-
Study payments. Seventy percent 
of in-state undergraduates receive 

some kind of financial aid and 
one in four pay no tuition at all. In 
particular, this last group includes 
students from lower socioeconomic 
statuses who are either selected for 
the HAIL scholarship or qualify 
for the Go Blue Guarantee, both of 
which fully cover a student’s tuition 
for up to four years. 

Data obtained by The Daily 

regarding the Fall 2019 freshman 
class affirms that among the list 
of the top 301 schools by number 
of applications to the University, 
in schools where more than 17.5% 
of students qualified for free 
lunch, the average matriculation 
rate for admitted students was 
52%. Comparatively, only 40% of 
admitted students from high schools 
where less than 17.5% of students 
qualified for free lunch chose to 
enroll at the University.

‘HAIL,’ ‘Go Blue’ financial 
aid programs offer low-
income in-state individuals 
education opportunities

Scholarships help to open up options for 
underrepresented, low-income applicants

RONI KANE

Daily Staff Reporter

See SCHOLARSHIPS, Page 4

Design by Aya Salim

Design by Aya Salim
Design by Aya Salim

Design by Aya Salim

