Originally Posted by
Bham1982
I was accepted into Michigan with lower standards than you state around 15 years ago, and I'm not a "special case" [[not affirmative action or athlete or legacy). My sister was accepted just 5 years ago on the lower end of your ACT range and below your GPA range. We both went to public MI high schools.
Michigan accepts around 50% of in-state applicants. In contrast, Ivy League schools tend to accept 5%-10% of applicants [[and I would bet their applicant pool is more elite).
To me, there is a gigantic difference between 5% acceptance rate at Harvard or Columbia and 50% acceptance rate at Michigan.
So to say that Wayne State "sucks" and Michigan is "elite", is a bit of a stretch. There's a huge gap between Wayne State and Michigan, but yet another huge gap between Michigan and the really top universities.
In my world, WSU is a respectable regional university, Michigan is a well regarded global university, and places like the Ivy League/Stanford/MIT are the truly elite. The three types of universities have different roles and don't really directly compete with one another.