Being Accepted to the University of Michigan

Over the years, I have been shocked when friends would say to me that my family must have been loaded. Why do they jump to this conclusion? I attended and graduated from the University of Michigan. “You went to Michigan. You must come from money!” That Michigan moniker on my resume opened a lot of elite doors over the years! However, I am quick to explain to them that not only were we not loaded, it was because we were dirt poor that I was able to go to such a prestigious university. My parents were divorced. My mother worked two jobs; waiting tables at night and driving school bus in the early morning and late afternoon hours.

It will be hard for kids today to believe, but I never toured a college campus before applying to schools. People didn’t have the money to waste on such frivolities. I had friends and an older sister at MSU, so I had been there for a night or two, but I really never saw the school or the campus. We just drank and hung out in the dorms. I was pretty sure I’d end up in E. Lansing too. The tuition was reasonable, and since my sister had been able to afford to go to school there, I assumed I would be able to too. However, on a lark, I decided to apply to UM. I knew I couldn’t afford to go to school there, but I wanted that acceptance, that confirmation that I was an elite student. I had always been an exceptional student in high school, but we were only a class of 135 kids. Was I capable of competing in a bigger pond, on a bigger stage? I was also a hard worker, and I wanted to see if I would be accepted just for the comfort of knowing that my hard work and dedication had paid off.

In the early 1980’s, college applications were written by hand, and I had to pay for each one myself, so I was very judicious about where I applied. I never told another soul I was spending my babysitting money on a $35 application fee applying to a school I would never be able to attend. Folly, insanity! Why would I waste the money? By late April, I had heard nothing from Ann Arbor and had matriculated to MSU. My friends had bought me green and white Spartan regalia, sure I would be joining them in the fall in E. Lansing. This had been a foregone conclusion. Of course, I could get in to MSU. I was satisfied but not delighted.

Then one day I came home early from school. I had the afternoon off my work study job as a veterinary technician, and I was writing graduation speeches both for myself and for the president of our class who had come and begged me for help. I stopped at the mailbox and grabbed the mail, dumped my backpack on the kitchen table, and noticed an envelope addressed to me from The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. I opened it with terrific trepidation. After all, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be accepted, and I knew that even if they said yes, I couldn’t go. Still, it would be nice to think you were wanted, right?

I opened the letter. I still have it in my scrapbook after all these years. That letter changed my life. The first line had me in tears, “Dear Kristine, Congratulations…” There were other documents in the envelope. Pell Grant, Financial Aid, acceptance instructions. I was incredibly confused and decided to run back to the high school a block away to ask our guidance counselor to explain the documents.

I walked into the high school office like I was walking on air. I explained to our dear office secretary that I had just been accepted to the University of Michigan, and I had some questions. Was Mr. Krause available? The principal and vice principal both came out of their offices to shake my hand and share their sincere congratulations. I felt like a celebrity! “Well, I probably can’t go,” I stammered, “But I need to ask Mr. Krause what all this means.” I held up the envelope.

The secretary jumped up and hugged me and led me back to see our school counselor. I had always liked Mr. Krause. I was about to like him a lot more. He reviewed the documents while I waited patiently for his assessment. He finished and looked up at me with a huge smile. “You have been awarded a full ride to the University of Michigan.”

I was stunned. This couldn’t be. “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely! Part of it is work study, so you’ll have to get a job once you get to campus, but they’ll help with that.”

“I don’t mind that. I’ve always worked.”

“Congratulations! Looks like you’re going to be a Wolverine!”

The first time I ever saw Ann Arbor was when I drove there for Freshman Orientation in July 1982. I was 17. I got my work study job, and I was sure that since it was part of my financial aid package that I had to give every dollar I earned back to the university. Every two weeks for the first month or so I went to the registrar’s office after cashing my check to make a payment on my tuition. Finally one day, the same girl who helped me every week explained that the money I earned from work study was for living expenses, buying books, eating out, going to events with friends. I was shocked. I couldn’t imagine needing anything else. The university had given me room and board, and I had saved all my money from a summer job to pay for books. I was studying with some of the greatest minds in western education at the finest public university in the country, and I also got to have spending money! Things kept getting better!

I know the university does a far better job these days of educating their financial aid recipients on how the money can be used, and it’s unlikely that anyone else ever had the misunderstanding about work study that I had, but you need to understand that I never expected to be able to afford to go to school at UM. I have never taken that education or that financial aid for granted, and I paid back my student loans as quickly as humanly possible – far ahead of schedule. I still strive to do my part to support the university when I can, mostly yelling at the sports teams on television, but hey, we all do our part.  Go Blue!