University of Michigan — Personalized Admissions Guide

This is not a generic "how to get into college" guide. It is written against your child — their grade, their GPA band, their course load, their intended major, their activities, and where they actually stand against Michigan's published admitted-student profile.

You answer the free Lantern Check first. The guide is then built from your answers.

What is inside

• Where your child actually stands at Michigan — their numbers placed against Michigan's own published admitted-student bands, with the source cited on every figure. No anecdotes, no group-chat math.
• What 50 current Michigan students did — we interviewed them about how they got in: what their profile looked like at your child's grade, what they wrote about, what they were told to do, and what they wish they had ignored.
• Which door to apply to — Ross has its own admission path and its own timing, and preferred admission has to be planned for years ahead. Engineering, LSA and Kinesiology are separate doors too.
• Your child's specific gaps — pulled from your Lantern Check answers, each one paired with what those 50 students did about the same gap.
• The essay section — what Michigan says it weighs, in Michigan's own words, and the patterns across 50 admitted essays rather than one lucky anecdote.
• A month-by-month plan for your child's grade level, not a generic senior-year checklist.
• The race question after the 2023 Supreme Court ruling, explained plainly and without heat.

One thing most parents get wrong about Michigan

Michigan's admitted SAT band runs 1370–1530 with a median of 1470 — noticeably wider and lower than parents expect from a school of this reputation, and 55% of admitted students submitted a score. The in-state advantage here is large and real, and it is the single biggest factor most families never account for.

Source: University of Michigan Common Data Set 2025–26, sections C1 and C9. 109,112 applicants, 17,915 admitted.

What this is not

It is not an admissions consultant. Nobody here will read or write your child's essay. It cannot tell you whether your child will get in — no one can, and anyone who says otherwise is selling you something worse than this. If that is what you want, do not buy this.

$20. One school. Delivered as a PDF after you complete the free Lantern Check. Buy three guides and your fourth is free — and the free one can be a specific college inside a university, like Wharton or Stern.