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Home > Cases > Michigan Cases
What Michigan did:
the admissions policies
Undergraduate admissions policies: the grid system
Before 1998, the University of Michigan used a grid to make many admissions decisions. On the basis of instructions contained within each grid box, admissions counselors automatically accepted, rejected, or held for further review applicants based solely on grades and test scores. The grids contained separate instructions depending on the race of the applicant. In some years, there were separate grids (with separate instructions) for students of a preferred racial group. In other years, there was a single grid with separate instructions in each box. During the latter years, the instructions in some boxes, authorized admissions counselors to automatically accept minority applicants. The same boxes instructed counselors to hold non-minority applicants with exactly the same grades and test scores for further review. As a result of the different instructions, an applicant of a preferred racial group with one set of grades and SAT scores would stand almost a 100% chance of admission, while a non-racially preferred candidate with the same set of grades and SAT scores might stand a 3% chance of admission. Jennifer Gratz and Patrick Hamacher had a good but not overwhelming chance of being accepted, but would have had a nearly 100% chance of acceptance if they had been members of a preferred racial group.
Click here to examine the actual grids yourself.
Undergraduate admissions policies: the point system Beginning in 1998, UM replaced the grid system with an index point system. Significantly, the University announced that the index point system was designed to achieve the same racial outcome as the old "grid" systems. To maintain the racial mix it wanted, the index point system awarded points for various personal and academic achievements on a 150 point scale. Applicants who received 94 points or so were all but assured acceptance. Like the grid system, the index point system gave overwhelming weight to membership in a preferred racial group. For example, an applicant received twelve points for a perfect score on the SAT, 1 point for an outstanding essay, and 20 points for being a member of a preferred race.
Click here to see the point sheet Michigan used.
Law School admission policies Like the undergraduate system the University of Michigan Law School system was (and is) carefully designed to achieve a predetermined racial mix of students. Indeed, the disparities between minority and non-minority acceptance rates are even greater in the law school than in any of the undergraduate systems struck down in Gratz. Had CIR client Barbara Grutter been a member of a preferred racial group, she almost certainly would have been accepted.
Click here to examine charts made by the UM Law School showing clear racial disparities in admissions.
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 Last
revised:
23-Jul-2013
 
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