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MICHIGAN OVERVIEW
ESSAY LENS · MICHIGAN

What Demo's essay should highlight at Michigan.

Reads each school's CDS factor weights, mission and program signals against the student's hooks, activities and intended major to surface the angle the essay should orbit — not generic advice.

Profile: demoClassification: ReachLens confidence: high
Run lens against

Profiles come from the intake wizard and the My Students drawer. Changes there appear here on reload.

Institutional signals · CDS-weighted

What this school is reading the essay for.

Essay = Important

Essays are Important here — strong enough to swing a marginal file, not strong enough to rescue weak academics.

Institutional voice

Echo (do not parrot) the school's voice — themes like "Purpose-Driven Education and Student Experience", "Community Health Support, Prevention, and Performance", "Faculty and Staff Engagement and Experience" should appear as orientation, not vocabulary.

Mission themes to echo (do not parrot)
Purpose-Driven Education and Student ExperienceCommunity Health Support, Prevention, and PerformanceFaculty and Staff Engagement and ExperienceResearch, Scholarship, Discovery, and Artificial IntelligenceArts & Creative ExpressionInnovation, Partnerships, and Economic Development
Recommended essay angles · ranked

Three theses Demo could open with — best to weakest.

01

How Robotics team (FRC 4-year) rebuilt how the student thinks about computer science.

Why hereEven though Michigan doesn't over-index ECs, this is the strongest evidence the student has of sustained intellectual ownership — and that's what the essay has to prove.

  • Captain, 3-yr Robotics team (FRC 4-year) — Led team to state finals; grew membership 40%
  • Concrete impact line: "Led team to state finals; grew membership 40%"
  • Lead with a scene from inside Robotics team (FRC 4-year) that only this student could have written.
02

What it actually meant to show up to computer science as the first in their family to apply.

Why hereIdentity essays only land here if they earn the reader something concrete — make sure the student names what they did differently because of it, not just what was different about them.

  • Personal hooks on file: first-gen college and bilingual (Spanish).
  • Second-strongest activity to anchor scenes in: Founder/Director, 2-yr Founded tutoring nonprofit — 500+ tutoring hours delivered to Title I students.
  • Land the close on a future move at Michigan — a course, a lab, a community — not a generic gratitude statement.
03

The question inside Computer Science the student can't put down — and where it came from.

Why hereEven at fit-blind schools, an intellectual essay only works if the obsession is traceable to a concrete artifact (a project, a paper, a person).

  • Use Founded tutoring nonprofit or a class moment as the spark — show the reader the exact instant the question landed.
  • Avoid resume-language ("I have always been passionate about..."). Open in scene.
  • Pull one named program from Michigan's catalog (e.g. Business or Engineering) into the closing paragraph — not as a wish list, as a logical next move.
From the student's profile

Hooks the coach should pull forward in draft one.

  1. 01Lead with: first-gen college / bilingual (Spanish) / runs a tutoring nonprofit.
  2. 02Intended major (Computer Science) maps to a named Michigan program — say so explicitly in the closing paragraph.
  3. 03Use Robotics team (FRC 4-year) as the scene-setter, not the punchline — open inside it, don't end on it.
Supplemental prompt library · 2024-25

Every Michigan supplement — with a recommended angle for this student.

Filter
Community · 100-300w

“Everyone belongs to many different communities and/or groups defined by (among other things) shared geography, religion, ethnicity, income, cuisine, interest, race, ideology, or intellectual heritage. Choose one of the communities to which you belong, and describe that community and your place within it.”

Anchor in
  • Lead with: first-gen college / bilingual (Spanish). Show, don't list.
  • Define the community concretely (not "my school" or "my family") — a single room, a weekly event, a specific shared language.
Why this matters here

Treated as part of the holistic read at Michigan.

Draft move

Spend 60% on a single concrete scene, 40% on what changed. Don't try to do two stories.

Avoid

Don't write a generic "I learned to value other perspectives" arc. Don't use the prompt as cover to pivot back to achievements.

Why Major · 100-550w

“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?”

Anchor in
  • Name Business and one specific course/lab inside it.
  • Name one place on or off campus the student would actually go (residential college, lab, club, neighborhood spot in Ann Arbor).
  • Open with the moment Computer Science stopped being abstract — use Robotics team (FRC 4-year) as the trigger scene.
Why this matters here

Interest isn't tracked heavily here, but a Why-Us read as if it could have been written for any school still flags the student as low-effort. Specificity costs nothing.

Draft move

Outline the arc on paper before drafting. 550w is enough rope to hang a draft — use a single thesis, two supports, one close.

Avoid

Don't list "prestige, weather, dining hall." Don't quote Michigan's mission statement. Don't recycle this paragraph for two schools.

Source: https://admissions.umich.edu/apply Cycle 2024-25 · authored
Working drafts · copy & hand to the student

Prompts the coach can paste into a doc today.

Common App personal statement — primary draft

Draft a 650-word Common App essay built around: "How Robotics team (FRC 4-year) rebuilt how the student thinks about computer science." Open in a single scene from Robotics team (FRC 4-year). End on the next move — what changed about how you'll show up next.

Michigan supplement — direct fit

Draft a 250-word "Why Michigan" supplement. Open with the question you couldn't put down (from the personal essay). Land on one specific Michigan program (start from: Business or Engineering) and one specific community or place on campus you'd join.

Backup angle — only if lead draft stalls

Backup draft: "What it actually meant to show up to computer science as the first in their family to apply." Use this if the lead draft doesn't earn its 650 words after round 2 of edits.

Supplements

Other essays in the Michigan application to plan around.

Why Michigan

Either not tracked or only Considered. Still write it as if it counts — at minimum, prove the student has read past the homepage.

Program-specific essay (if offered)

If the student is applying to Business or Engineering, the supplement should sound like it was written *to* that program — not the university. Different essays per school of admission.

Anti-patterns

What to keep out of a Michigan draft.

  • At Michigan (Reach), the essay is the most controllable lever the student has. Treat it as a 4-draft minimum.
  • Don't reuse the Common App essay verbatim as the supplement — at minimum, swap the closing paragraph to name something concrete at Michigan.
  • Don't open with a quote from the school's mission statement. Admissions reads its own copy back to itself in 30%+ of essays each cycle.
  • Don't waste the personal essay on "Why Michigan" — interest isn't tracked here. Save fit-language for a supplement.
  • Avoid: A generic application that doesn't show a genuine interest in the University of Michigan

Lens generated from Michigan's 2024-2025 CDS factor weights, published mission, and the on-file student profile. Re-run the lens after the next session to capture new activities or hooks.

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Est. 2021 · A living brain for college coaches
Data sourced from each school's published Common Data Set + official financial-aid and AP credit policies.