Tag: university

University of Michigan Admissions

In 2003, three years after I had been admitted to the University of Michigan, the constitutionality of the points based admissions process was challenged. The case, Gratz v. Bollinger, reached the Supreme Court. The admissions process was held to be unconstitutional because it was not narrowly tailored enough to not violate the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment of the United State Constitution.

You need 100 points to be admitted.

Academic factors (100 points):

  • 80 – High school GPA
  • 12 – ACT or SAT score
  • 10 – Quality of high school
  • 8 – Strength of high school curriculum

Non-academic factors (40 points):

  • 10 – In-state resident
  • 4 – Alumni relationships
  • 1 – Outstanding essay
  • 5 – Personal achievement
  • 20 – Other, including
    • Socioeconomic disadvantage
    • Underrepresented minority
    • Athletic recruitment
    • Provost’s discretion

Looking back, I spent way too much time on my essay.

Virginia Tech Shooting

The deadliest college campus shooting in history took place this morning at the Virginia Tech University. Over the course of three hours, a single gunman killed at least 32 students before taking his own life. (NYT Link)

This is a horror that chills my soul on an already cold and stormy day. It’s rare that a headline makes my eyes tear up, but there is little else to do when reading something like this. I want to say this places the fragility of life in perspective, but that doesn’t seem just – not at the expense of 32 innocent students.

What else is there to say?

Update on the Harmonica Player

I wrote an open letter about the harmonica player that sat on the cement wall outside of the UGLi throughout my four years at the University of Michigan. A recent facebook group brought to my attention that he is actually a professor at the U of M, and is not, as I had assumed, homeless. His name is Tom Goss and he’s been playing for nearly 20 years. Chances are that if you took a stroll through the Diag in Ann Arbor you would hear him today. Here’s a Michigan Daily article on him.