UMichigan Admissions Essays: How To with Sample Common App Essay and Supplements Admitted

 Sarah O’Neill, Daily Supreme Editing, Chester County

The University of Michigan (UMich) admissions process is known for being holistic, which means they consider various aspects of an applicant’s profile to assess their fit for the university. Here’s a breakdown of what UMich typically looks for in terms of the essay:

Admitted students share a drive to pursue academic excellence in a challenging and rewarding academic environment. What do you want the readers of your application to know about you apart from courses, grades, and test scores?

According to Michigan admissions (via their website):

“The essay demonstrates your ability to write clearly and concisely on a selected topic and helps you distinguish yourself in your own voice. Your essays should reveal how you have become a leader at your school and in your community. Be sure to explain to what heights you have taken your training in your extracurricular passions. How have you connected your studies and your non-academic passions? Try to reveal how the combination of coursework and related activities has inspired original thinking on your part.

We also look for students who are curious about new ideas, people, and experiences, those who push boundaries and are not content with status-quo. What do you want the readers of your application to know about you apart from courses, grades, and test scores?

In Supreme Daily Editing history, the types of students admitted consisted of applicants who assert clearly their life goals, apply relevant experience with specific details (show, don’t tell), and make a clear connection to the college/major of interest at UMichigan (since students have to dual apply to a college of choice). The applicants also suggest how they will contribute to the college community with their skills and experience. Sharing what they learned and how they grew from the relevant experience also reveals a student who will “push boundaries” and grow as a Michigan student, not accepting the status quo. Some Michigan applicants effectively use extended metaphors and strong imagery to paint their stories of learning and success.

Supplemental Essay Example:

Prompt:Choose one of the communities to which you belong, and describe that community and your place within it. (Required for all applicants; minimum 100 words/maximum 300 words)

My classmates on our robotics team speak my love language.

I discovered this in tenth grade when I was immediately drawn to their vitality. There are people who CAD all our ideas into a detailed 3D model, and there are manufacturers who CNC the designs into reality and piece them together with the fabrication team, and there’s me: programming/scouter. We’re like a huge family, supporting each other both in and outside the robotics classroom. Each of us can live-out our roles in the spirit of true teamwork in the FIRST Robotics Competition every year. There I can mingle with an even larger community I adore: the FIRST Robotics community. We laugh and cheer together: for our individual teams and for other teams. As a scouter, it’s also my job to connect us with other teams. During events, when I find a connection with someone I never knew before, I welcome it like they are our own teammates-even if we later appear on the opposite side of the field.

When participating in our outreach programs, it fulfills part of my purpose to give back. The world is losing potential engineers due to financial burdens. So, I co-founded a project called BoarBot in which we design robots that are inexpensive and easy to build. Teams under budget that are competing for the first time can learn a lot about engineering while building. The simple design is competitive, so novices can use it to compete at the same level as everyone else. When we released our first design into the community, it caught the attention of many rookie teams. One team built our model and competed with us in the same District competition. We became great friends, and that rookie team eventually won the “Rookie All-Star” award in the District competition!

SAMPLE ADMITTED PERSONAL STATEMENT

“Cendrillon…Cendrillon”

“Dearest Godmother…Could it be?”

“I come to you with hope once more…believe…in…your power!”

On the last high note, after months of grueling practice, my first opera performance went off without a hitch. The year prior, Cendrillon (French for Cinderella) was only a figment of my singing coach’s, Ms. Oscheneau’s, imagination. Having an opera at my international school was pretty niche; usually a singer’s only choice is choir.

Since I was little, I have been 1000% musical. Playing piano for ten years, singing was a natural accompaniment to the ivory keys. My parents inspired my love for music, especially Cantonese songs. According to my mother, when she was pregnant with me, she played music, and I imagined how I was there, listening to the songs with her. Then, first trying to sing “My Heart Will Go On” at age seven, I began my musical career of recomposing pop music, and as a teeanger, I am deliberate about finding places to sing, so this opera at school was a welcomed pleasure. The only issue was: I did not sing classical music…at all.

I didn’t know the techniques, so for the first few practices, I shouted through my throat. But when one of my classmates, Cherry sang, I was spellbound. I’ve never heard anything like it. Her sounds were so crystal clear and high, like a freshly melting stream after the world froze over. Unlike a simple aria I had sung that lasted three minutes, an opera could last an hour and has arias, dialogue, and performances, but focusing on so much simultaneously felt daunting.

So, for weeks, I staunchly focused on opera. In warm-ups, Mrs. O. taught me not to breathe with my throat but to use the air. However, each time I opened my mouth, my throat vibrated like I was ready to speak. My high notes squeaked, too, as my throat strained to shout a high note; my breath felt out of place. Day after day, I sang in class and warmed up for an hour and, with time, I transformed from obsessing about techniques to feeling the strong flow and rhythms.

As I look back after singing opera for three years, I realize that I overcame my hardships after understanding that each of us has a unique musical approach. Some rely on natural-born musicality, others follow lyrics, and still others, like me, develop their own approach. As a STEM enthusiast, for instance, I took on an engineering perspective where I would imagine the notes to be building blocks, and as an engineer I had to assemble them. To develop my coloratura soprano voice, I practiced the scale the most. In either the ascending or descending scale, an accurate presentation requires every note to be crisp and connected, not curtly sung one by one.

In my most recent performance, all of my learnings had come to the surface when I let out the Serpina’s passionate cries, the heroine of La Serva Padrona by Pergolesi: The orchestra started the aria and, without thinking, I just belted out the notes. I truly felt like I was becoming the young maid in the 18th century: under dazzling sunlight, marble buildings with gilded ceilings, elegantly dressed people; laughter in the air. My heart leapt in splendor while I built my blocks higher and higher. Looking into the audience, I felt myself standing in front of them — passionately telling the story.

Music and singing have been the compass and bridge of my life. They offer me not just internal joy, but creativity and resilience. Moreover, me and my community are closer as I care about the stories that others have to tell and hopefully I provide them with messages that inspire them somehow. Slowly, my singing has transcended boundaries, and I carry the strength of so many, moving forward effortlessly, coming to more people “with hope once more,” and telling them: “believe…in…your power!”

Supplemental Essays Admitted 2023

1. Choose one of the communities to which you belong, and describe that community and your place within it. (300)

For Chinese families, tradition swirls through all that we do — it’s my world. One traditional mindset is that we’re most prosperous through hard work, producing the metaphor that daughters and sons are phoenixes, exploratory and mythical beings with a strong nature, so my parents taught me to focus on school first and foremost. From encyclopedias to problem-solving, no knowledge was off-limits. However, when my father was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer, I felt like I knew nothing.

This diagnosis brought our family endless fears. We actually knew a lot (about a lot), but surprisingly, we didn’t know much about cancer. That’s when I decided to join my father at doctor’s visits — another part of our Chinese way. We value and support family, and for two years, I was deliberate about learning all I could about cancer’s mechanisms, treatments, and statistics. It is off-putting how little Chinese families know about cancer which causes that initial shock and dismay.

Together with friends, we set up a cancer support organization whose aim is to share facts about cancer with other Chinese families and beyond. If anyone is ever confronted with it, I just want them to understand it. I want cancer patients and their families to feel supported — to break free of panic. From our website and WeChat, we received strings of thankful comments about how reading about cancer in short, easy-to-read articles had helped them.

Some cancer patients even said that this information relieved their own tensions and fears. I am now glad that I have emerged from my total immersion into the studying world to see the wider world outside, accumulating so much more, and helping people along the way. It all stems from Chinese traditions: to learn and to support our families, but also through my phoenix nature.

1. 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? (Required for all applicants; minimum 100 words /maximum 550 words)

I am especially attracted to the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan. As a STEM student who is passionate about math and computer science, I have always been fervent about programming or researching while in high school. The title “people-first engineering” immediately draws me in since I never associated engineering with the notion of people-first. Reading more closely about the College of Engineering, I was fascinated that I found so much resonance. I have always believed that engineering is an approach for people to shape and change the world since it has so many possibilities.

Learning computer science in high school, I immersed myself in different algorithms and combinations of codes, using these to solve many practical problems. Vigorously exploring physics, I understood many theorems through hands-on experiments. Now learning about the computer science and engineering major at the University of Michigan, I am super glad about this combination of hardware and software. While programming has been immensely interesting to me, I felt that I was lacking an actual connection between it and the real world. With hardware combined, I can not only learn about algorithms that build and maintain software systems, but also learn about specifics of the hardware of computers.

Also, I loved the research opportunities and programs offered at the University of Michigan, like UROP. I like to dive into the fundamentals of any topic, so research is always the best option for me. If able to attend, I just know I would gravitate to the multiple labs like ADA and COMPASS, and I am sure they could offer unforgettable professional research experiences.

Another aspect about the University of Michigan that I cannot shake is experiential learning. I often feel very tired after studying for a long time or engaging in extra activities, so I believe that experiential learning would be a perfect opportunity, especially when I think that learning how to be a leader and how to best use my skills in teamwork. This type of exploration will be extremely helpful to me in daily and academic life.

Therefore, I am very interested in the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan, specifically the Computer Science and Engineering major. As a forever programmer and engineering student, I believe the University of Michigan is the perfect place for me to realize my goals.

Sarah O’Neill, Daily Mail Supreme Editing, Chester County Affair