The University of Michigan is one of the top three public universities in the United States, and many rank it at the top of the pile. They are iconic for students pursuing tech, engineering, computer science, and the hard sciences, and have an athletic and entrepreneurial culture that is beloved. The college is wildly popular, and the number of applications has over the past five years from 65,000 first-year applicants to just under 100,000. The overall acceptance rate is 15.6% — remember, though, that this includes both in-state and out-of-state students.
As a public university, Mich prioritizes in-state applicants. This means that the overall acceptance rate is an average of the in-state and out-of-state acceptance rates, with the in-state being significantly higher than the out-of-state rate of acceptance. When applying from outside of Michigan, the odds of getting into the university are comparable to an Ivy.
The University of Michigan admissions office has changes for the 2025-2026 application cycle. Most notably, to us, is that they are both an Early Action and a binding Early Decision application options in addition to regular decision. This is a huge deal, and we’ll definitely be talking to our Mich-minded students about how using the Early Decision option is the best way into a highly-selective school.
And, unlike many schools that defer ED applicants to the regular decision pool, Mich says that they will be offering three possible decisions: admit, deny, or deferral to Early Action. The decision date for ED will be the end of January and the decision date for EA will be early April, ahead of RD but giving enough time for deferred ED candidates to be reconsidered. Both applications are due Nov 1.
As you prepare your application, don’t forget to take advantage of your final windows of opportunity to improve your scores on the SAT or ACT. Yes, the University of Michigan is for the 2025-2026 application cycle, but that doesn’t mean scores don’t matter. Strong applicants submit strong scores, and of accepted applicants submit scores. And if you choose to omit scores, you cannot change your choice if deferred from Early Decision to Early Action. When considering whether to submit scores, remember that Mich does superscore. A ACT is 34+ and a strong SAT is 1500+.
The grades and scores you submit are the quantifiable pieces of your application. They can be charted on a graph, and considered head-to-head against other students. Once you have the quantitative measures handled, the real difference-makers are the things that can’t be counted: who you are. Below, we break down each of the Michigan supplements so you can write your best work for admissions officers to review, introducing them to how awesome you are and leading to an enthusiastic yes.
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The Michigan supplement isn’t anything crazy. There aren’t a billion questions, and they don’t ask you to write endless pages. These questions matter, though. Not being flashy doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be taken extremely seriously. Do not try to simply copy and paste something from some other application. Instead, tell a story.
The Mich supplement has that allow for responses 100-300 words in length. So, before we get into the details of each question, let’s make something clear. While they allow you to respond in as few as 100 words. That does not mean that you can write only 100 words and get into Mich. Writing 100 words will not benefit your application. Instead, plan to use between 250 and 300 words to develop a strong story that can create a positive impact on your chances of acceptance.
At the University of Michigan, we are focused on developing leaders and citizens who will challenge the present and enrich the future. In your essay, share with us how you are prepared to contribute to these goals. This could include the people, places, experiences, or aspirations that have shaped your journey and future plans (100-300 words).
There are a few things in this prompt that we find particularly interesting. First, they are inviting students to write about challenging the way things work — in their community, or more broadly — in the name of improving the world. Next, they invite you to share your journey and future plans, yet only give you 300 words. That really isn’t very much to work with. So, how do you make it work for you?
We coach our students to make a big impact with their writing by focusing in with a narrow lens. For most students, this will mean writing about something that took place, or that is taking place, in your home community but that speaks to broader issues.
For example, if you are heavily engaged in combating hunger in your community, you may write a response that starts with you in a kitchen cooking, that zooms out to what you do to get healthier food into the hands of those in your area, and then makes a broader statement about this as a regional or national issue. End by going back to your hands kneading dough or tossing a salad and reflecting on what may be possible in the future.
Describe the unique qualities that attract you to the specific undergraduate college or school (including preferred admission and dual degree programs) to which you are applying at the University of Michigan. How would that curriculum support your interests? (100-300 words)
This is a classic “why us” supplement prompt, and is also why you don’t need to mention the specific program you will be pursuing in the first prompt. Instead, all of that will go here. To make sure you know what to hit on, though, this is the research you have to do:
Prospective major
2 courses you’d like to take
A professor you’d like to study under
An academic program you’d like to take part in (like study abroad, research assisting, or summer opportunities)
An academic extracurricular or club that is related to the major
Once you have all of that info in hand, it’s time to focus on the story part of things. Ideally, you want to find a connection between what you love about your prospective area of study and how the Mich program works. This could be team-based learning, research opportunities, immersive classrooms, or anything that strikes a spark for you. Whatever it is, write a story that highlights that thing in your life now, then map it onto what you’d be doing at Mich. Follow that up with the major, program, and professors before speaking directly to the curricular opportunities that match most closely to your passion. End by placing yourself at Mich, in your dream environment, learning from your dream professor — or something like that.
As you look further into Mich and start your application, note that there are first-year students can apply to. One, an Integrated Business and Engineering at Michigan dual degree, is through the Ross School of Business and the College of Engineering. The other is an Educator Preparation Program (EPP) in the Marsal Family School of Education. These are very exciting, and speak to Mich’s continued focus on innovation and growth as an institution.
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