Many ROHS seniors are currently in the process of applying to colleges, which can be very stressful. However, there is something that can partially take the stress off of students’ shoulders: The Michigan Assured Admission Pact (MAAP). The MAAP is an agreement between ten Michigan public universities that guarantees admission for students who meet certain criteria. A student must be a high school graduate in Michigan, and must have a GPA of at least 3.0 on a 4-point scale. Participating universities include: Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Ferris State, Lake Superior State, The University of Michigan Dearborn, The University of Michigan Flint, Northern Michigan, Oakland, Saginaw Valley State, and Wayne State. The Michigan public universities that are not participating include: Grand Valley, The University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan State, Michigan Technological University, and Western Michigan.
Though not participating in the MAAP, Western Michigan and Michigan State have their own assured admissions programs, but with more restrictions on GPA and a student’s selected program. For example, MSU only has assured admissions for its residential colleges, with an application deadline of November 1st.
“[MSU admissions] are going to send you an email and you have five days to respond to that email,” said ROHS Career and Testing Coordinator Cristina Karazewski. “You’d better respond to it; otherwise you’re getting put into the regular admittance group, which is obviously a little bit more competitive.”
Two out-of-state universities – Kansas State University and Minnesota State University, Mankato -also have assured admissions programs and are open to non-resident students. With numbers of college applicants declining since the COVID-19 pandemic, the MAAP was created in 2023 to combat these low numbers. ROHS Counselor Erin Boedeker explained that assured admissions programs may have also been created to compete with community colleges, now that the Community College Guarantee is in place.
“If students have that ability to earn two free years of college through the Community College Guarantee, I think that could kind of push people more in that direction,” she said. “It looks like universities are trying to be creative to make sure that they maintain the class sizes that they want.”
With these new guarantees in place this year, MAAP will be a helpful tool for any senior seeking higher education.