The University of Michigan is known as a “New Ivy,” and is one of the best research universities in the world. They receive over 100,000 first-year applications annually. The overall acceptance rate for first-year applicants to The University of Michigan is about 18%, but that number is misleading because it includes both out-of-state applicants and in-state applicants, who receive preference in the admissions process. About half of the students in any new first-year class are residents of Michigan.
Michigan keeps a very long waitlist by design. They like to have lots of students to pick from when filling up their first-year class, which has led to a strategy where they offer about a third of all applicants a waitlist spot. For full-time first-year students enrolling for the fall of 2023, nearly 27,000 students received waitlist offers and 68% accepted that offer. The number accepted off of the waitlist, when seen in isolation, sounds impressive — 955. In actuality that is only 5% of the waitlist. One year before, over 20,000 students received waitlist offers, and 15,076 accepted that offer. That year, only 77 were eventually admitted.
Most recently, for the fall of 2025, there were 18,435 students on the waitlist and 1,663 applicants, or 9%, were admitted. For the past three admissions cycles, the Michigan waitlist has had over 18,000 students and the average acceptance rate over the past 24 years has been 3.78%. Michigan is kind enough to provide the twenty-thousand (just about) students on the waitlist with real concrete guidance on what to do next. In this post, we share what Michigan wants from you and instruct you on how to execute your strongest response. If you’re reading this and you were waitlisted, you should know there is hope.
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If you received a waitlist offer from Michigan and are wondering what to do next, we’ve got you. There are four steps you absolutely must follow if you want to remain in strong consideration for a spot in the next first-year class.
Step One: Join the Michigan Waitlist
The first thing that Michigan requires is that you actually join the waitlist. Being offered a wait list spot and being on the waitlist are not the same thing. Doing this is quite simple: it’s a quick form that was linked to in your admissions result notification. Do not freak out if it takes you a couple of days to decide if you even want to be on the waitlist. The Michigan waitlist is not ranked, instead operating as a pool for the university to pick from as they seek to complete a well-balanced class.
Step Two: Commit to a College
Next, you need to commit to a college that is not Michigan. That may feel extremely disappointing, but hopefully you have a strong back-up choice that you would be satisfied to attend — and remember, transfer is always an option.
If you don’t have a back-up option that you are excited about, we still insist that you commit to a college that you were accepted by. Again, transfer is an option, and it is much easier to transfer than it is to reapply again as a first year in the next admissions cycle.
If you do get into Michigan, you will be able to pull out of the school you committed to should you want to accept the Michigan offer. You will, however, most likely lose whatever deposit you paid as they are generally nonrefundable. That’s the price of paying the waitlist game, and for most students it feels totally worth it.
Step Three: Update Michigan?
Should you send an update? Good question. For most schools, we say absolutely. Michigan isn’t most school, though. They specifically state that “we will not accept any additional documents from you unless specifically requested, as they will not impact your final decision.”
This can be frustrating. How can they possibly know that whatever you would have submitted wouldn’t have swayed them? An impressive award or recognition would undoubtedly turn the tables, no? The problem with breaking this directive from Michigan, though, is that part of what they are looking for from students is the ability to respect boundaries and play by the rules. When they tell you not to do something, ignoring that instruction is like shooting yourself in the foot.
We encourage students to get around this without actually going around it by asking your school college counselor to make a call to admissions on your behalf. This is called an “Advocacy Call,” and your school counselor is not required to do it. Some counselors have a policy of never making Advocacy Calls, while others jump at the opportunity. If your counselor is open to the idea, provide them with a “top hits” list of 1-3 update to your application that they could highlight when speaking with Michigan admissions.
If you have previously communicated with a regional representative or other admissions rep at Michigan, you should also send them an email thanking them for supporting your application and reaffirming that Michigan remains your first choice. This email should be an absolute max of 200 words.
If you haven’t previously communicated with an admissions counselor at Michigan, you can find your regional rep and their email. You can write them a similarly short email reinforcing your interest. However, we don’t necessarily recommend this unless you have a truly outstanding update to share that is relevant to your prospective area of study. Getting an A on a group project, for reference, does not qualify as an outstanding update.
Step Four: Wait it out.
Finally, you need to be patient. This can be hard, but calling, emailing, or showing up at admissions demanding an explanation is a form of self-sabotage that we cannot condone nor encourage. We want to see you end up at Michigan, not as an example of who they don’t accept.
Get your mind off Michigan by focusing on keeping your grades up, as they may ask for updates grades before making a final decision. Have fun with friends, excel in your extracurriculars, and enjoy your senior spring.
Applicants on the waitlist are typically notified of a final decision by the end of June.
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