sayock05 (2022-2023)

-Strong personal statements and recommendations, as well as an addendum for grades (unique circumstances)

**UIUC full tuition scholarship
**UVA partial scholarship
**Michigan small scholarship
**Withdrawn: Northwestern, Cornell, GW, USC, Duke, GULC, UIUC
**Only ranked schools still in consideration

***********04/20/05
In other news, I will probably send in my seat deposit to Michigan by the end of next week, but I am still waiting and see what happens.

I've noticed, and spoken with, a lot of people trying to choose between Michigan/Penn or Michigan/UVA, etc. I am pretty certain nothing I have to say will help anyone, but this is what I went through:

Michigan/Penn: This was a difficult decision, although I was leaning towards Michigan (for reasons further described below) until Michigan offered me a scholarship and Penn offered me absolutely nothing...not even in the form of need-based grants.

Michigan/UVA: I was never that interested in UVA, due to their location. The only thing was they initially offered me way more money than Michigan did, which Michigan upped what they offered me in response.

For me, Michigan is just more well-rounded. I felt I fit in more with their current students and prospective students upon visiting. They are balanced, as am I, in the sense that they are not too serious (Chicago, Columbia), too laidback (UVA) or too regional in their student body (UVA, Penn). They have diversity in every sense of the word, while I believed that I might feel more alienated at Penn or UVA.

Michigan also pursued me more than any other school, while UVA barely did and Penn did only a bit more than UVA. I've visited several message boards and have witnessed some members complaining about Michigan's mailings. I find that ridiculous, especially since Michigan's mailings have been a big part of what has made me feel truly wanted there and very informed about the strengths of their school. No school has been more helpful than Michigan, from the students and faculty to the admissions office.

That said, my observation has been that questioning people about what has made the difference for them or where they think you should go, in this kind of situation, is generally useless. Nothing I've said has made an impression on anyone to whom I've explained my thought processes. Ultimately, visiting is what made the difference for them, because we have different personalities, interests and qualities we're looking for in a school.

Thus, I suggest you visit, if you can, or make a list of what you like about each school, make a list about what you're looking for in a school...tally up which school has the most items or which schools seem to hit on more of the issues that are the most important to you. People will tell you that you can't go wrong, wherever you choose, but I really disagree. I really don't think I'd be happy at UVA, and I don't think I'd be AS happy at Penn as at Michigan. Think about a little more than job opportunities and rankings, because those will roughly be equivalent. Consider your personality, your happiness.

-Received date=date LSDAS report requested
-Hold-up on completion at schools that require more than one rec due to rec letters being sent out at different times; 2nd rec sent out 12/07
-Decision date=date on typewritten letter/e-mail
-Yale lost my LSDAS report and never let me know they "didn't receive it;" Finally got them to request another one

*GULC acceptance in off-White thin envelope with a handwritten note from Andy Cornblatt at the bottom
*Michigan acceptance in a big White envelope with a handwritten note from Sarah Zearfoss at the bottom
*GW acceptance via e-mail
*Penn acceptance via e-mail
*UVA acceptance in off-White thin envelope...no phone call
*UIUC acceptance and scholarship via phone call