What You Need to Know if You Were Postponed by U-M
Early Decision application decisions were released this week and Early Action admission decisions will be released by the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at the University of Michigan at the end of January.
When these decisions are released, some applicants will have their final admission decision postponed to the regular decision pool for consideration — what is more commonly referred to as being “deferred.” According to OUA, postponing a decision gives them additional time to review your credentials and determine how your strengths and academic achievements would fit with the composition and quality of the first-year applicant pool.
Understandably, this may cause deferred students to be nervous about the impact of OUA’s decision on their future at U-M and Michigan Ross, but there is no need to panic. To help ease concerns, I wanted to address common questions related to being postponed and how it affects your Michigan Ross BBA application.
What happens if my app is postponed?
OUA has an excellent FAQ page on what it means to be postponed. The page addresses what you can expect if you are postponed, how to submit the Expression of Continued Interest form in Enrollment Connect (which you should do), and how to submit recent high school grade updates (also known as mid-year grade reports). The decision timeline after being postponed is also mentioned as well as the deadlines for submitting this information. Please ensure you submit by the deadline!
Once you have expressed your continued interest and submitted your mid-year grades, you must wait to hear back on your final admission decision. If you did both of the previous steps, you’ve done all that you can do to better your chances of getting in, so try not to worry! There is no additional information that will need to be submitted.
Can I be admitted to Ross after being postponed?
Yes, absolutely! We do and will admit students to the BBA Program that were initially postponed. You can be admitted under the future decision notification plans for which you are eligible. Thus, if you do not hear your decision in Early Action (by the end of January), you will hear during Regular Decision, which guarantees a decision by early April.
For Early Decision applicants, you will not receive a postponed email again if not offered admission under Early Action. And a postponed applicant will no longer have a binding commitment if admitted under any future notification plan.
What are the next steps if I’m ultimately not offered admission to Michigan?
We recognize that not all applicants who were initially postponed by OUA will get a decision of admission. Thus, keep in mind that if you’re not admitted by OUA and your dream is still to come to Ross, you can always apply as a transfer student from another institution next year.
To sum it up
Overall, the admissions process at U-M is thorough on purpose. We put a lot of thought and care into developing each class of Ross BBA students. Remember, being postponed allows the university extra time to review your credentials to determine your strengths and academic achievement in the context of the entire applicant pool.
