philosophy honors thesis umich

The Honors Experience

University of Michigan

Advantage: Engagement

Honors offers personal advising for all students, beginning at New Student Orientation and continuing on through graduation.

During orientation, you’ll meet one-on-one multiple times with an Honors academic advisor, exploring your academic and career interests and matching them to your fall schedule. Honors Orientation introduces first-year students to the breadth and depth of LSA and Honors course offerings. You’ll finish orientation with a complete schedule and a better understanding of U-M systems, along with a few new friends.

Our advisors continue to work individually with students over their academic journey, talking with them about their interests and goals and helping them map those onto a course schedule. Honors advisors also talk with students about their major and minor options. Additionally, the Honors Program offers some specialized advising services, focused on assisting students with pre-law and pre-med plans.

Underlying all the coursework in Honors is the firm belief that students should take learning outside the classroom and engage in an Honors Senior Thesis or an Honors in Engaged Liberal Arts (HELA) project–an independent study/ research project under the direction of a faculty member. This allows you to concentrate on an area of particular interest, to develop intellectual relationships with members of the faculty and research staff, and to make more informed decisions about your long-range goals. You are encouraged to look for a research placement when you have had adequate preparation to make your participation useful to the project and interesting for you.

All Honors students receive our weekly Honors newsletter about academic and community opportunities,  This Week in Honors . Current U-M students can make appointments online; we recommend an appointment each semester in order to track your academic success and progress toward your degree.

Our Advising Team

Mika lavaque-manty.

B.A. / Ph.D. / Thurneau Professor / Director of Philosophy, Politics & Economics and Honors

Professor LaVaque-Manty  is the Director of the Honors Program. He has taught the Honors Core Courses

Wellness The Games We Play

Lisa Broome

B.A. / M.A. / Ph.D. / Associate Director

Dr. Broome  is the Honors Program Associate Director, Senior Advisor, and the chair of the Honors Academic Board.

Gayle Green

B.A. / A.M. / A.B.D. / Assistant Director

Gayle Green  is the Honors Assistant Director, a Senior Advisor, member of the Honors Academic Board and manages the admissions process, including Campus Day visits.​

Denise Guillot

B.A. / Ph.D / Senior Pre-Law Advisor

Denise Guillot   is a Senior Advisor, member of the Honors Academic Board, and a Pre-Law Advisor working with Honors students interested in careers within the legal field.

Melissa Vert

B.A. / M.A. / Director, Office of National Scholarships & Fellowships

Melissa Vert  is the Director of the Office of National Scholarships & Fellowships (ONSF), which is housed within Honors.

B.A. / M.A. / Academic Advisor

John Cantu  is an Academic Advisor and member of the Honors Academic Board.

Over 40% of our incoming classes surveyed plan a career in the medical field. Honors advisors are experienced in preparing students for this path. Our program graduates boast an average 80% acceptance rate to medical school. You can check out some basic information  here .

Scholarships

Due to their wide-ranging academic interests and research, Honors students are well-placed for scholarships offered by our program, throughout the university, and beyond. You’ll find more information at this  link  about the support you will find here.

Follow the Program in Ancient Philosophy

Graduate students in the Program for Ancient Philosophy belong to both Philosophy and Classical Studies, pursuing a PhD in the one they were originally admitted to and an MA in the other.

Sean Costello Third year Philosophy PhD, Greek MA [email protected]

• Aristotle’s philosophy of mind, metaphysics
• Plato’s philosophy of mind
• Ancient theories of perception and memory

I hold an undergraduate degree in philosophy from the University of Notre Dame and earned a master’s degree in ancient philosophy at Hertford College, University of Oxford, where I was the recipient of the Hertford Senior Scholarship.

I am the current sitting Chair of the Graduate Student Council of the American Philosophical Association and have also served as the President of the British and Irish Postgraduate Philosophy Association. At Michigan, I organize the Annual Rackham Interdisciplinary Workshop in Ancient Philosophy as well as the bi-weekly ancient reading group.

My primary research interests lie in ancient philosophy of mind and metaphysics. My current work focuses on issues regarding perception (especially visual perception), memory, imagination (φαντασία), and consciousness in the writings of figures throughout the history of philosophy. I have particular interest in these topics within the work of Plato, Chrysippus, and especially Aristotle.

Andrew Mayo Fifth year Classical Studies PhD, Philosophy MA [email protected]

• Ancient medicine
• Hellenistic epistemology
• Ancient astronomy
• Hellenistic poetry

I am a PhD candidate in my fifth year on the Classics side of the program in ancient philosophy. I took my BA (2017) and MA (2018) in Classics at the University of Toronto.

My main research is in method and philosophy of science in ancient medicine, especially in the Hellenistic period. My dissertation focuses on the third-century physicians Herophilus of Chalcedon, Erasistratus of Ceos, and the Empiricist school of medicine. I also have research interests in Hellenistic epistemology, most of all the debates over the nature of knowledge that took place between the Stoics and Academics. I also have ongoing interests in Hellenistic poetry and ancient astronomy.

Matteo Milesi Seventh year Classical Studies PhD; Philosophy MA (awarded, 2021) [email protected]

• Ancient commentaries
• Neoplatonism
• Allegorical interpretation
• Ancient Science
• Early Christian Thought

I am a scholar of late antique intellectual history and philosophy. I am mostly interested in the hermeneutics of ‘authoritative’ texts within both Pagan and Christian circles. In my dissertation, entitled ‘Reading, Interpretation, and Authority: the case of Porphyry of Tyre’ and supervised by Francesca Schironi , I examine the commentaries written by the Neoplatonist philosopher Porphyry of Tyre (234–305 CE) in order to understand how exegetical practices play a key role in both building the identity of intellectual communities and in shaping the authority of interpreters and teachers within those communities. I have presented my work at several international conferences in a variety of fields, including Classical Studies, Philosophy, and Biblical Studies. I have also developed a strong research interest in the history of ancient science and ancient scientific thought: I wrote an article on Ptolemy, Porphyry and musical theory (forthcoming in Phronesis ), and I have worked as a research assistant for the Aratus-Project, an NSF-funded project on the ancient reception of Aratus’ Phenomena .

Sherice Ngaserin Ng Fifth year Philosophy PhD, Greek MA [email protected]

• Ancient Greek Scepticism
• Indian Buddhism
• Metaphysics & epistemology of ethics

I received my B.A. (Hons.) from Yale-NUS College, Singapore, where I majored in Philosophy and minored in Global Antiquity (specifically, in Classical Indian and Ancient Greek thought). I am interested in the implications of philosophical inquiry on the ethical life, and believe that Plato and the Indian Buddhist philosophers’ systematic approaches to philosophy are well-suited to this project. My most recent work focuses on drawing comparisons between Platonic and Indian Buddhist philosophy, including a project on the moral value of knowing in Plato’s Theaetetus and Dignāga’s Pramāṇa-samuccaya (‘Compendium on the Means of Knowing’).

Sara Panteri Fourth year Classical Studies PhD, Philosophy MA [email protected]

• Ancient science
• Plato’s philosophy of mathematics
• Hellenistic Alexandria
• Homeric poems and Archaic Greek poetry

I grew up in a small village in the north of Italy and I studied Classics at the University of Bologna. I then did research in History of Ancient Science at Humboldt University, Berlin. My interests cover two main areas of specialization. On the one hand, I am extremely fascinated by ancient Greek science and by its relationship to philosophy. In particular, I have been working on texts in the field of ancient Greek geometry, harmonic theory, and mechanics. On the other hand, I am interested in archaic Greek poetry and, more specifically, the Homeric poems. I am currently working on reasoning and understanding in the Iliad and the Odyssey .

Julian Rome Third year Philosophy PhD, Greek MA [email protected]

• Plato (incl. feminism, and methodology&form in dialogues)
• Contemporary philosophy of literature and aesthetics
• History of utopian philosophy

I received my B.A. from the University of Memphis in 2019, with majors in Philosophy, English, and French, and spent a semester at the Sorbonne in 2018 studying French language and literature. My philosophical interests center on Plato and contemporary literature, as well as feminist social/political philosophy. Currently, I am developing a dissertation project which explores utopianism in Plato’s dialogues and tracks it through contemporary speculative fiction, with a particular focus on late 20th and early 21st century feminist critical dystopias. I am interested in how Plato’s ideas are developed through myth and the dialogue form, which allows readers to explore different possible social arrangements reflecting different moral and political possibilities. These aspects of Plato’s writing, in my view, inform contemporary authors whose work not only explores Plato’s ideas, but borrows from his settings, mythologies, characters, and imagery.

I also have interests in Plato’s ideas and depictions of love and friendship, as well as his cosmology and depictions of the natural world. I am also interested in contemporary social/political philosophy, especially where social/political ideas are explored in contemporary literature, as well as social/political philosophy of language, especially where it intersects with philosophy of gender.

Adam Waggoner Fourth year Philosophy PhD, Greek MA [email protected]

• Ancient moral psychology
• Ancient ethics
• Ancient social-political philosophy

My research focuses on ancient Greek philosophy, moral psychology, and ethics. I also have research interests in social-political philosophy, philosophy of mind, and artificial intelligence. My dissertation develops an Aristotelian account of the passions, which focuses on how passions shape what is salient to us and motivate cognition and action. I show how this account helps us provide an Aristotelian model of how self-control works, understand why pleasure perfects activity, and shed insight on contemporary debates about the normative significance of emotions.

Before coming to Michigan, I received an MA in Philosophy from Western Michigan University. Before that, I received a BA in Philosophy, Theology, Theological Languages from Concordia University Wisconsin.

Glenn Zhou Fifth year Philosophy PhD; Greek MA (awarded, 2022) [email protected]

• Aristotle’s metaphysics, physics, and psychology
• Stoic moral psychology and action theory
• Ancient Chinese philosophy

I have broad interests in history of philosophy (ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, ancient Chinese philosophy, early modern philosophy, and early analytic philosophy) and contemporary philosophy (metaphysics, philosophy of mind, moral psychology, philosophy of action, and social philosophy).

I am currently writing a dissertation on Aristotle’s theory of boundaries and its application to his physics and psychology. Building on my dissertation, I am developing a neo-Aristotelian theory of telic boundaries, which covers boundaries in both natural and social realms.

I also write on the Stoics’ theory of non-rational representation, Descartes’ theory of error and his foundationalist methodology, and different approaches to sagehood in ancient Chinese philosophy (e.g. Zhuangzi’s equanimity approach, Mengzi’s cultivation approach, etc.). Lastly, I have a long-term translation project on Russell’s lectures in China.

Affiliated Students

Francisco Calderón Second year, Philosophy PhD [email protected]

• Early Greek philosophy and science
• Presocratics

I hold undergraduate degrees in both physics and philosophy from Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia.

I am mainly interested in how scientific theories are built, including the methodological and social aspects of scientific practice, throughout different historical periods. More specifically, my main line of work is on the foundations of contemporary physical theories, especially quantum field theory. I still do a little non-philosophical research in theoretical and mathematical physics.

I am also interested in early Greek philosophy and science, especially in the Presocratics and Plato. Finally, I am interested in the literature on science and values. As such, all my research interests operate within the intersection of the philosophy, history, and sociology of physics and science.

Within the field of ancient, I have—with the Greek translation group from Universidad de los Andes—published a collaborative translation of Thucydides’ “Melian Dialogue” with some essays by the group’s faculty members. We are also currently revising our translation from Aristophanes’ Clouds , and I've written an essay (in Spanish) surveying the traces of early Greek science in the comedy to go in that volume. Additionally, I am writing a solo paper on socially-informed aspects of the methodology of Presocratic astronomy and scientific realism, which I presented last year at the History of Philosophy of Science (HOPOS) biennial conference.

Valerie Trudel Second year, Philosophy PhD [email protected]

• Metaphysics and epistemology of gender
• Feminist philosophy
• Social/political philosophy

I received my B.A. (2021) in Classical Civilizations and Philosophy from UCLA, where I completed an honors thesis (in Classics) on Presocratic psychology, entitled “Rationality and Control in the Presocratic Soul.”

Now I am primarily pursuing interests in feminist philosophy and the philosophy of gender, especially in terms of how we should understand trans identities and how the nature of those identities can shed light on our understanding of gender as a whole.

I still hold strong secondary interests in the Presocratics and Plato, especially in the reception of the latter's work in contemporary political philosophy and in how the work of ancient thinkers can be incorporated into our contemporary political debates.

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• Past International Studies Honors Theses

Since 2012, the Program in International and Comparative Studies (PICS) has graduated 80 students with International Studies Honors . PICS students spend an entire year in the International Studies Honors Plan working on a Senior Honors thesis in International Studies. Students then present their work at the end of the academic year to their peers, the public, and a faulty panel during an Honors thesis defense. Writing an Honors thesis is a huge commitment, and PICS congratulates all the International Studies Honors students on this achievement.

College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA) senior theses are archived in the University of Michigan’s Deep Blue online library . Honors theses are a permanent part of the University’s intellectual legacy. Deep Blue makes these works accessible to the scholarly community for the long term, providing a single, permanent URL for reference. Please use the information below as reference to search for past International Studies Honors theses in the library database.

2022 International Studies Student Honors Theses

Paulina Buchta The Media During Lockdown: A Study of Poland and Czechia during COVID-19 and their Government Communication Strategies

Natalie Gilbert China and Taiwan: Understanding the Impact of Political Factors on LGBTQ Progressiveness

Liam Walsh Inglorious Barons: The Inherent Flaws of Nazi Political and Economic Institutions

Armando Otero Feedback Loop Cycles : Puerto Rican Independence and violence in the United State's Forgotten Colony

Kayleigh Crabb Supporting Climate Resilience in Low and Lower-Middle Income Economies Through Effective Global Health and Poverty Alleviation Programs

Noa Sreden The Third Pillar of Prosperity: Supporting Poverty Relief Through State-Sponsored Zakāt

Tara Snapper Nonprofit Microfinance Organizations’ Ability to Help Borrowers and Financially Succeed in Argentina

Brooke Weichel The Rainbow Paradox: Exploring Government's Influence on LGBTQ+ Social Climates in Poland & North Macedonia

Sam Volger Convenient Allies: Why Governments and Organized Crime Cooperate in the Western Balkans

2021 International Studies Student Honors Theses

Benjamin Bronkema-Bekker Displaced Pensioners and Peace in the Donbass Conflict

Camille Cummings Lessons in Gender Equality: The Potential Translation of the Scandinavian Policy Model in Burundi and Rwanda

Nicholas Daniel Leapfrogging Development: Analyzing the Trends of Urbanization in Sub-Saharan Africa: Westernization Versus the Informal Economy

Haley Gritz Stories of Success: Strategic Connections Between the Madres de Plaza de Mayo and the Marea Verde in Argentina

Grace Kraimer Primary Education Inequality and Policy: Sweden and China

Jalal Mawri Ansar Allah in Yemen: History and Ideology

Madeleine Mozina How Social Enterprises Coordinate Cross-Sectoral Solutions for Informal Settlements: A Case Study of Terra Nova in Brazil

Hannah Schneider Ujamaa and the Egalitarian Paradox: The Correlation between Socialism and Contemporary Public Service Disparities Among Villages in Rural Tanzania

2020 International Studies Student Honors Theses

Zoie Chang   Muslim Minorities in China: A Comparative Study on the Impact of Ethnic Minority Policy on Uyghur and Hui Identities 

Anna Beatrice Rose Chewter  Microfinance and Social Hierarchy and Implications on Rational Choice Theory in Senegal and Kenya

Erin Elizabeth Hahn    Distinctions in Diaspora: A Comparative Study of Palestinian Identity in Jordan and Saudi Arabia 

Sarah Molly Jacob Those Who Return: An Evaluation of State Facilitated Extremist Reintegration Programs in Indonesia and Malaysia 

Refael Kubersky Hezbollah’s Disinformation Campaign During the Syrian Civil War 

Brooke Elyse Lennox The Achievement of Sovereignty by a Former Soviet State: Kazakhstan’s International Policies to Diversify Its Partnerships Beyond Russia Recipient of Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and  Texas National Security Review   2020 Janne Nolan Prize for Special Recognition

Megan Li-Lian Rossiter Breaking the Silence: Exploring Variation in Acknowledgement and Redress of the Comfort Women Issue in South Korea, the Philippines, and Malaysia

Madeleine Ekeberg Schneider Wastewater and Wasted Water: A Comparison Environmental Management Institutions in Israel and the West Bank 

Josefina Maria Scriven   Cultivating the Next of Kin: The Affinities in Argentine Women’s Collective Action through the Madres de Plaza de Mayo and the Ni Una Menos Movement 

Sachika Tomishima Balancing Environmental and Economic Development of Chinese CAFOs—a recommendation to the 2016-2020 Guideline on Live Pig Production

2019 International Studies Student Honors Theses

Courtney Caulkins Framing the Newcomers: Asylum Seekers and Border Militarization in the US and Australia

Marielle Dewicki Combating Terrorism in the Digital Era: How Facebook and Twitter Can Aid American Counterterrorism Efforts

Audrey Gilmour Bonds Beyond Borders: the Basis for Black-Palestinian Solidarity from Black Power to Black Lives Matter

Skylar Gleason 'No es tan malo’: Investigating the Effects of Denial of Mass Violence on Perceptions of Justice in Contemporary Argentina

Dominika Kocz The Israeli Defense Force and Palestine: Examining the Effects of Military Socialization on Inter-group Relations

Maureen Makiko O'Bryan Dutiful Daughters: an exploration of kinship politics through Park Geun-hye of South Korea and Keiko Fujimori of Peru

Chelsea Racelis The Work of Memory: Justice for the Indonesian Genocide of 1965-1966

Neil Schwartz A Historical Institutionalist Perspective on Israel's Basic Law: Nation State of the Jewish People

Aliza Sitrin Managing Histories of Human Rights Abuses: Democratic Transitions and the Manifestation of Transitional Justice in Post-Dictatorship Spain and Chile

Cassandra Zavislak Women in Terrorism: An Analysis of the Patriarchy via Al Qaeda and Hamas

2018 International Studies Student Honors Theses

Haley  Dow Learning from the Past: An Examination of Discrimination & Progression in Italian and Syrian Immigration Narratives in the American Media 

Julia  Sofo Perpetuating Inefficacy: Comparing Counterterrorism Policies in the Bush, Obama, and Trump Administrations

Zoe  Lauricella   The Concretization of "Autonomy" and "Dignity": the Zapatista Uprising, the Nation, and Communal Organization

Cheryl  Gordon   Cubs of the Caliphate: The Indoctrination of Child Soldiers and the Perpetuation of the Islamic State Recipient of  Goldstein-Marshall Sahlins Social Science Award

Casey  Chmura The Case of Pohm Sammnang: Gastrointestinal Health in Rural Cambodia

Sarah  Fisher   America's Europe: Examining the Impact of American Involvement in European Integration

Mira  Ruder-Hook   Organizational Adoption of AI Through A Sociocultural Lens

Jacob  Bailey   Green Gold? An Analysis of Saudi Renewable Energy Policy from 1960 to 2010

Merin  McDivitt   La Tierra Más Hermosa, La Provincia Más Fiel- Land Most Lovely, Province Most Faithful: Tourism, Sustainability, and Revolution in Holguín, Cuba

2017 International Studies Student Honors Theses

Sabrina Bilimoria Lethal Patriarchy: How U.S. Intervention Institutionalized Violence Against Afghan Women

Elisabeth Brennen National Identity and Refugee Policy: The Divide Between Sweden & Denmark

Megan Cansfield Cooperation Amid Competition: The Korean Peninsula Security Crisis in US-China Relations

Brendan Failla ISIS the Governor: Strategies of Urban Control and its Sustainability

Charlotte Garrett Inspired Lone Wolves: A Threat of Their Own

Jillian Goldberg The Western Faces of Violent Extremism: Homegrown Terrorism in the United States and France

Emily Jablonski The Potential Impact of Big Data in International Development and Humanitarian Aid

Tsukumo Niwa Welcome “Home,” Students: Role of Japanese Education System in Supporting Kikoku shijo's Resettlement

Natalie Salive Lions and Kings: The Diachronic Transformation of Lions as an Index of Power in the Middle East

Shefali Sood Responsibility, Protection and Adaptation: The Climate Change Refugee Discourse in South Asia

2016 International Studies Student Honors Theses

Laurel Cerier A Look at How the Dublin III Regulation has Facilitated the Syrian Refugee Crisis in Greece

Emma Costello Justice for Whom?: The Gacaca Courts and Restorative Justice for Survivors of Sexual Violence in Rwanda Recipient of  Virginia L. Voss Memorial Award-Academic Writing

Margi Goelz Human Security, United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, and Vulnerable People: Rhetoric, Solidarity, and Silences in International Human Rights Discourses on Syrian Women Refugees

Gabriella Hassan Revolutionary Effects on Identity: Iran

Sarah Khan The Racialization of Violence: A Study on Imprisonment and Torture Policies in the U.S., and the Impact on the International Discourse of Security

Nicole Kleiman-Moran Implementation of the Peace Accords in Guatemala 1990-the Present: Cooperation, Complementarity, and Competition in relation to the government and NGOs

Michelle Ng The Integration of Western Biomedicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine: A Comparative Analysis of Perceptions in Beijing and Chicago

Daniel Sack Family Planning Messaging Sources at Primary Health Centers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Miranda Veeser International Goals Made Local: A Case Study of HIV Reduction in the Dominican Republic

2015 International Studies Student Honors Theses

Monique Becker An Escape from the Perceived Rationalist-Constructivist Binary: A Look into Derogable International Human Rights Agreements

Pranavi Midathada The Politics of Blame: Indian Media Framings of Rape and Gendered Sexual Violence after the 2012 Delhi Gang Rape

Mariam Salman The 1990 Persian Gulf War, Sanctions, and the Impact of Health and Nutrition in Iraq

Minami Seki The Dissemination of Gender Ideology by the State, Changing Gender Roles, and the Gender Gap in Employment in Post-2008 Financial Crisis Japan Recipient of  Patricia Kennedy Prize

Nour Soubani Understanding the Vision of the Islamic Resistance Movement Through Its Rhetorical Strategies of Mobilization: A Historical Analysis of Hamas’s Documents and History from 1987-2006

Layne Vandenberg Police Pacification of Rio de Janeiro Favelas in the Context of the 2014 FIFA World Cup" Recipient of  Goldstein-Raoul Wallenberg Humanitarian Award

2014 International Studies Student Honors Theses

Michael Casey A New Age of Terrorism and the Emergence of a Global Intelligence

Zeinab Khalil A Tough Transition: The Post-Coup Election and Its Prospects for Democracy 

2013 International Studies Student Honors Theses

Andrea Alajbegović Comparing the Politicization of Abortion in the U.S. and Canada

Samuel Birnbaum The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt:  Reinterpreting a Mass Movement

Aaron Brewer On the Merits and Logical Validity of Foreignizing Translation

Jordan Kifer Como Ser Afro-Latino/a? -Expressing Afro- and Latino/a Identities in the United States

Brian Koziara The Eurozone: an Optimal Currency Area?

Ephraim Love The Effect of District Magnitude on Electoral Accountability and Public Goods Provision

Alyssa Maluda We Ask the Prime Minister: Where is the Justice in that?

Christina Pechette All's Fair in Drugs & War: An Analysis of the Southeast Asian Drug Trade and Its Implications

Michael Schmid Cooperative Enterprises in Kathmandu, Nepal: Addressing Market Challenges through Cooperation

2012 International Studies Student Honors Theses

Maha Al Fahim ICTs, Domocracy, Activism and Dictatorship: The Role of Modern Information Communication Technologies

Kevin Carney The New Economic Policy: Affirmative Action in Malaysia

Max Friedman Syria: A Predictable Future? Domestic Power Shifts in the Arab Spring Era

Angela Guo User Fees in Primary Healthcare in Sub-Saharan Africa

Min Joo Kim The Impact of Social Networking Sites on College Students' Social Responsibility

Nikita Mehta Women2Drive: An Examination of the Importance of the Driving Campaign in Saudi Arabia

Ryan Pavel The De-Baathification of Iraq

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ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards

The ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards recognize highly accomplished graduate students who have produced exceptional dissertations of outstanding scholarly quality in any field of study.

General Information

Guidelines for preparing nominations, distinguished dissertation award winners.

The nomination form will be live in early September.

Eligibility

Nominees must be awarded the doctoral degree during the 2024 calendar year, which includes commencements held in May, August, or December. Students who defended the dissertation in 2023 but received the degree in 2024 are eligible to be nominated.

Students who defend the dissertation in fall 2024 but do not receive the degree until May 2025 are ineligible for the current year, but may be nominated for the 2025 competition. An exception is allowed for students in the dual M.D./Ph.D. Medical Science Training Program who have completed, defended, and submitted the final copy of the dissertation in 2024 . These students are eligible to be nominated even though the awarding of the doctoral degree is deferred until completion of the M.D.

Nominations of outstanding women, minorities, and members of other groups historically underrepresented in their disciplines are encouraged.

Number of Awards

Ten awards in the amount of $1,000.

Source of Nominations

Nominations must be submitted by the chair of the student’s department or program, who may submit only one nomination per year.

Selection Process

A faculty committee reviews nominations and selects finalists which are forwarded to the Michigan Society of Fellows. Members of the Society of Fellows make the final selection, including those designated for honorable mention.

The nomination deadline is Monday, November 4, 2024 at 5:00 p.m. EST.

For more information contact:

Honors and Awards Rackham Graduate School Telephone: (734) 615-0255 Email: [email protected]

A nomination dossier must include:

• Cover sheet with contact information
• A letter of nomination
• Up to three letters of support submitted directly by the letter writers
• Dissertation abstract
• Academic transcript (unofficial copy)

Curriculum Vitae

Incomplete dossiers cannot be reviewed.

The online nomination dossier may be set up by a faculty or staff member. Others may be given login access to the site as needed. The nomination system may be accessed as often as needed in order to complete the nomination dossier. All materials must be uploaded in Adobe PDF format.

Cover Sheet

Complete the online cover sheet with all information requested for both the nominee and the nominator—not the administrator who may have initiated the dossier—and the contact information for the graduate coordinator.

Letter of Nomination

The nominating letter should include the nominee’s name, department or program, and the title of the dissertation. As committee members represent a range of disciplines and may not be familiar with the nominee’s field, describe the quality and significance of the nominee’s dissertation in a way that conveys its significance to those not acquainted with the field.

The nominating letter may be no longer than 1,350 words and should address the areas below; those that do not will disadvantage the nominee:

• A concise description of the dissertation topic
• General comments about the nominee, including overall scholarly credentials
• The degree of innovation, creativity, and insight shown by the author
• The scope and importance of the work to the department and to the field
• The effectiveness of the writing (including whether it is reasonably understandable to faculty in related disciplines)

Letters of Support

Up to three additional letters of up to 1,000 words each may be provided by faculty or others who have worked with the nominee and can comment on the merits of the dissertation. The letter writers must submit be instructed to submit letters in PDF format directly to the online nomination dossier. The link for letter writers to submit letters of support will be available when nominations open in early September.

Dissertation Abstract

Provide the nominee’s dissertation abstract.

Academic Transcript

Provide a current unofficial transcript of the nominee’s graduate work.

Provide the nominee’s current c.v., including full details of all publications and presentations.

2022 ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award Winners

• Harsh Agarwal , Chemical Engineering, “Charge Transfer of Transitional Metal Ions for Flow Battery Applications”
• Freida Blostein , Epidemiologic Science, “Salivary Omics Measurements as Biomarkers in Epidemiological Analyses”
• Tyler Gardner , Astronomy and Astrophysics, “Probing Unique Regimes of Exoplanet Science with Long Baseline Interferometry”
• Robert Graham , Biomedical Engineering, “Mechanisms of Action and Sources of Variability in Neurostimulation for Chronic Pain”
• Youngrim Kim , Communication and Media, “Pandemic Data Publics: Surveillance Culture and Civic Action in Times of Public Health Emergencies”
• Özge Korkmaz , Anthropology, “Politics, Ethics, and Complicity in Turkey’s Kurdistan: Anxieties of an Era”
• Vincent Longo , Film, Television, and Media, “A Hard Act to Follow: Live Performance in the Age of the Hollywood Studio System (1920-1950)”
• Andrew McInnerney , Linguistics, “The Argument/Adjunct Distinction and the Structure of Prepositional Phrases”
• Weijing Tang , Statistics, “Statistical Learning for Large-Scale and Complex-Structured Data”
• Weichao Zhang , Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, “Mechanisms of Lysosome Biogenesis and Regulation”

2021 ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award Winners

• Mikel Haggadone , Immunology, “Mechanistic Insights into Regulation of Vesicular SOCS3 Secretion by Alveolar Macrophages: Interplay Between Cell Stress and Metabolic Remodeling “
• Yinqiu He , Statistics, “High-Dimensional Statistical Inference: Phase Transition, Power Enhancement, and Sampling”
• Eshita Khera , Chemical Engineering, “Engineering Tumor Distribution of Antibody-Drug Conjugates”
• Cindy Lin Kaiying , Information, “Afterlives of Authority: An Ethnography of Fire Prediction, Social Order, and Technocracy in Indonesia”
• Rebecca Marks , Educations and Psychology, “From Talkers to Readers: Neural and Behavioral Foundations of Emerging Literacy”
• Michelle May-Curry , American Culture, “Scenes from the Cutting Room Floor: Black Womanhood and the Visual Politics of Mixed Race Family Albums, 1918 to 2020″
• Zhijie Qu , Astronomy, “The Warm-Hot Circumgalactic Medium and Its Co-Evolution with the Galaxy Disk”
• Akshitha Sriraman , Computer Science and Engineering, “Enabling Hyperscale Web Services”
• Mei Ling Meilina Tsui , Music Composition, “Nomadic Trails for Chamber Orchestra”
• Erica Twardzik , Movement Science, “Optimizing Post-Stroke Functioning: Using Mixed Methods to Understand the Role of Built and Social Environments for Physical Activity, Quality of Life, and Lived Experience”

2020 ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award Winners

• Devika Bagchi , Molecular and Integrative Physiology, “Investigating the Roles of Wnt Signaling in Mature Adipocyte Function”
• Molly Brookfield , History and Women’s and Gender Studies, “Watching the Girls Go By: Sexual Harassment in the American Street, 1850-1980”
• Lu Chen , Physics, “Study of Thermal and Magnetic Properties in Strongly Correlated Materials”
• Adrian Deoancă , Anthropology, “End of the Line: State Infrastructure, Material Ruin, and Precarious Labor Along Romanian Railroads”
• Adi Foord , Astronomy and Astrophysics, “Discovering the Missing Population of AGN Pairs with Chandra”
• Kathryn Holihan , Germanic Languages and Literatures, “Staging the Hygienic Subject: Anatomy, Bodies, and the Public Health Exhibition in Germany, 1911-1931”
• Dominic Liao-McPherson , Aerospace Engineering and Scientific Computing, “Variational and Time-Distributed Methods for Real-time Model Predictive Control”
• Christina May , Neuroscience, “How Sweet It Is: The Role of Taste Perception in Diet-Induced Obesity”
• Anne Menefee , Environmental Engineering, “Carbon Mineralization in Fractured Basalt”
• Vivian Truong , American Culture, “‘Whose City? Our City!’: Asian American and Multiracial Movements Against Police Violence in New York”

2019 ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award Winners

• Yassel Acosta Matutes , Applied Physics, Spatially-Resolved Fluorescence-Detected Two-Dimensional Electronic Spectroscopy to Probe Excitonic Structure in Purple Photosynthetic Bacteria
• Juliette Becker , Astronomy, Emergent Properties in Exoplanetary Systems
• Kaitlin Cassady , Psychology, Age-Related Neural De-Differentiation in the Sensorimotor System
• Christina Cross , Public Policy and Sociology, The Color, Class, and Context of Family Structure and Its Association with Children’s Educational Performance
• Joseph Gamble , English and Women’s Studies, Sex Before Sex Ed: Sexual Practice, Pedagogy, and Affect in Early Modern England
• Ximena Gomez , History of Art, Nuestra Señora:Confraternal Art and Identity in Early Colonial Lima
• Crystal Green , Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, Automated Deformable Mapping Methods to Relate Corresponding Lesions in 3D X-ray and 3D Ultrasound Breast Images
• Nicole Michmerhuizen , Pharmacology, Examining Mechanisms of Sensitivity and Resistance to Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase Inhibitors in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma
• Olivia Palmer , Biomedical Engineering, Non-Invasive Venous Thrombus Composition and Therapeutic Response by Multiparametric MRI
• Andrew Schwartz , Molecular and Integrative Physiology, Hepcidin/ferroportin/HIF-2α regulation of iron metabolism at the systems and cellular level

ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards of 2018

• Charlotte Chan , Mathematics, Period Identities of CM Forms on Quaternion Algebras
• Qi Chen , Computer Science, Proactive Vulnerability Discovery and Assessment in Smart, Connected Systems Through Systematic Problem Analysis
• Traci Johnson , Astronomy, Focusing Cosmic Telescopes: Quantifying the Systematics of Strong Lensing Mass Models in the Era of Precision Lensing
• Jessica Moorman , Communication Studies, Being Single Is…: A Study of Black Love Media and Single Black Women’s Sexual Socialization
• David Morphew , Classical Studies, Passionate Platonism: Plutarch on the Positive Role of Non-Rational Affects in the Good Life /li>
• Cyrus O’Brien , Anthropology and History, Redeeming Imprisonment: Religion and the Development of Mass Incarceration in Florida
• Meredith Skiba , Biological Chemistry, Structural and Biochemical Investigation of Methylation and Elucidation of t-Butyl Formation in Polyketide Biosynthesis
• William Stroebel , Mechanical Engineering, Comparative Literature, Fluid Books, Fluid Borders Modern Greek and Turkish Book Networks in a Shifting Sea
• Dakotah Thompson , Exploration of Radiative Thermal Transport at the Nanoscale Using High-Resolution Calorimetry
• Michael Won , Chemical Biology, Structure, Function, and Inhibition of Protein Depalmitoylases

ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards of 2017

• Kevin Golovin , Materials Science and Engineering, Design and Application of Surfaces with Tunable Adhesion of Liquids and Solids
• Kyle Grady , English Language and Literature, Moors, Mulattos, and Post-Racial Problems: Rethinking Racialization in Early Modern England
• Wendy Gu , Environmental Engineering, Metals and Methanotrophs: 1. Genetic and Biochemical Characterization of the Uptake and Synthesis of Methanobactin; 2. Bioinformatic Analyses of the Effect of Rare Earth Elements on Gene Expression
• Jordan Harrison , Nursing, Functional Status, Quality of Life, and Long-term Survival in a Cohort of Women with Breast Cancer and Heart Failure: Results of the Medicare Health Outcomes Survey
• Jeremy Hoskins , Applied Mathematics, Diffuse Scattering and Diffuse Optical Tomography on Graphs
• Jenny Kreiger , Classical Art and Archaeology, The Business of Commemoration: A Comparative Study of Italian Catacombs
• Oana Mateescu , Anthropology and History, Serial Anachronism: Re-assembling Romanian Forest Commons
• Sara Meerow , Natural Resources and Environment, The Contested Nature of Urban Resilience: Meaning and Models for Green Infrastructure and Climate Change Adaptation Planning
• Steven Roberts , Psychology, So It Is, So It Shall Be: Group Regularities and Prescriptive Judgments
• Yue Shao , Mechanical Engineering, Bioengineered in vitro Model for Peri-implantation Human Embryogenesis

ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards of 2016

• Azadeh Ansari , Electrical Engineering, GaN Integrated Microsystems for RF Applications
• Nielson T. Baxter , Microbiology and Immunology, Microbiota-based Models Enhance Detection of Colorectal Cancer
• Yoonseob Kim , Chemical Engineering, Stretchable Electronic and Photonic Materials from Self-Organized Nanoparticles
• Emily Maclary , Human Genetics, Evaluating the Role of Long Non-coding RNAs in X-chromosome Inactivation
• Elizabeth Mann , Political Science, Presidential Policymaking at the State Level: Revision through Waivers
• Austin McCoy , History, No Radical Hangover: Black Power, New Left, and Progressive Politics in the Midwest, 1967-1989
• Cassie Miura , Comparative Literature, Humor of Skepticism: Therapeutic Laughter in Early Modern Literature
• Naveen Narisetty , Statistics, Statistical Analysis of Complex Data: Bayesian Model Selection and Functional Data Depth
• Sara Rimer , Environmental Engineering, Controlling Hazardous Releases While Protecting Passengers in Civil Infrastructure Systems
• Emily Waples , English Language and Literature, Self-Health: The Politics of Care in American Literature, 1793-1873

ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards of 2015

• Lauren Cleeves , Astronomy, Molecular Signposts of the Physics and Chemistry of Star Formation
• Lauren Cline , Natural Resources and Environment, The Ecological Factors that Structure the Composition and Function of Saprotrophic Fungi: Observational and Experimental Approaches
• Alix Gould-Werth , Social Work and Sociology, Public Benefits and Private Safety Nets: Demographic Disparities in Resources Following Job Loss
• Konstantina Karageorgos , English Language and Literature, Beyond the Blueprint: Black Literary Radicalism and the Making of a Cold War Avant-Garde
• Brian Metzger , Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Disentangling the Effects of Mutation and Selection on the Evolution of Gene Expression
• Davide Orsini , Anthropology and History, Life in the Nuclear Archipelago: Cold War Technopolitics and the U.S. Nuclear Submarines in Italy
• Maxwell Radin , Physics, First-principles and Continuum Modeling of Charge Transport in Li-O 2 Batteries
• Charles Sebens , Philosophy, Locating Oneself in a Quantum World
• Brandon Seward , Mathematics, Krieger’s Finite Generator Theorem for Ergodic Actions of Countable Groups
• Bai Song , Mechanical Engineering,, Probing Radiative Thermal Transport at the Nanoscale

ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards of 2014

• Xiao Che , Astronomy and Astrophysics, Near Infrared View of Stellar Surfaces and Circumstellar Disks with an Upgraded Optical Interferometer
• Weiqiang Chen , Mechanical Engineering, Microengineered Biomaterials and Biosystems for Systems Immunology, Cancer Biology, and Stem Cell-based Regenerative Medicine
• Henry Colburn , Classical Art and Architecture, The Archaeology of Achaemenid Rule in Egypt
• June Huh , Mathematics, Rota’s Conjecture and Positivity of Algebraic Cycles in Permutohedral Varieties
• David Lai , Biomedical Engineering, Microfluidic Reduction of Osmotic Stress in Oocyte and Zygote Vitrification
• Kai Mao , Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Molecular Mechanisms of Autophagy Induction and Mitochondrial Degradation in the Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae
• Michael Pifer , Comparative Literature, The Stranger’s Voice: Integrated Literary Cultures in Anatolia and the Premodern World
• Atef Said , Sociology, The Tahrir Effect: History, Space, and Protest in the Egyptian Revolution of 2011
• Ronit Stahl , History, God, War, and Politics: The American Military Chaplaincy and the Making of a Multireligious Nation
• Yi-Chin Wu , Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Verification and Enforcement of Opacity Security Properties in Discrete Event Systems

ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards of 2013

• Michael Anderson , Astronomy and Astrophysics, Hot Gaseous Halos Around Galaxies
• Kerry Ard , Natural Resources and Environment, Changes in Exposure to Industrial Air Pollution Across the United States from 1995 to 2004: The Role of Race, Income, and Segregation
• Aaron Armbruster , Physics, Discovery of a Higgs Boson with the ATLAS Detector
• Matthew Cohn , Classical Studies, The Admonishing Muse: Ancient Interpretations of Personal Abuse in Old Comedy
• Brian DeVree , Chemical Biology, Activation of G Protein-Coupled Receptors and Heterotrimeric G Proteins
• Federico Helfgott , Anthropology and History, Transformations in Labor, Land and Community: Mining and Society in Pasco, Peru, 20th Century to the Present
• Sara Jackson , Germanic Languages and Literatures, Staging the Deadlier Sex: Dangerous Women in German Text and Performance at the Fin de Siècle
• Jongho Kim , Civil and Environmental Engineering, A Holistic Approach to Multi-Scale, Coupled Modeling of Hydrologic Processes, Flow Dynamics, Erosion, and Sediment Transport
• Dongyoon Lee , Computer Science and Engineering, Holistic System Design for Deterministic Replay
• Yan Long , Women’s Studies and Sociology, Constructing Political Actorhood: The Emergence and Transformation of AIDS Advocacy in China, 1989-2012

ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards of 2012

• Ellen Block , Social Work and Anthropology, Infected Kin: AIDS, Orphan Care, and the Family in Lesotho
• Joseph Braymer , Chemistry, Understanding the Roles of Metal Ions in the Fate of Reactive Oxygen Species and in Alzheimer’s Disease
• Dae-Hyun Kim , Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, Design Loads Generator: Estimation of Extreme Environmental Loadings for Ship and Offshore Applications
• Alwyn Lim , Sociology, The Global Expansion of Corporate Social Responsibility: Emergence, Diffusion, and Reception of Global Corporate Governance Frameworks
• Jinjin Ma , Mechanical Engineering, Experimental and Computational Characterizations of Native Ligaments, Tendons, and Engineered 3-D Bone-Ligament-Bone Constructs in the Knee
• Sven Nyholm , Philosophy, On the Universal Law and Humanity Formulas
• John Prensner , Molecular and Cellular Pathology, Discovery and Characterization of Long Noncoding RNAs in Prostate Cancer
• Rebecca Sears , Classical Studies, The Practical Muse: Reconstructing the Contexts of a Greek Musical Papyrus
• Laura Sherman , Earth and Environmental Sciences, Understanding Sources and Cycling of Mercury Using Mercury Stable Isotopes
• Yizao Wang , Statistics, Topics on Max-Stable Processes and the Central Limit Theorem

ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards of 2011

• Remy Brim , Pharmacology, Investigations Into the Therapeutic Potential of a Bacterial Cocaine Esterase for the Treatment of Cocaine Toxicity and Cocaine Abuse
• Ksenya Gurshtein , History of Art, TransStates: Conceptual Art in Eastern Europe and the Limits of Utopia
• Daniel E. Horton , Earth and Environmental Sciences, Climate Dynamics of the Late Paleozoic Ice Age
• Kathryn Howell , Psychology, Assessing Resilience in Preschool Children Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence: Utilizing Multiple Informants and Evaluating the Impact of the Preschool Kids’ Club Intervention
• Bin Hu , Operations, Technology, and Innovation Management, Essays on Procurement with Information Asymmetry
• Nathaniel Mills , English Language and Literature, Ragged Figures: The Lumpenproletariat in Nelson Algren and Ralph Ellison
• Christopher T. Nelson , Materials Science and Engineering, The Nanoscale Structure and Dynamic Properties of Ferroelectric Films
• Yi Xiang , Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology, Analysis of the Molecular Mechanism and Physiological Role of Golgi Stack Formation and Golgi Biogenesis

ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards of 2010

• Alyson Jones , Musicology, Playing Out: Women Instrumentalists and Women’s Ensembles in Contemporary Tunisia
• Casie LeGette , English Language & Literature, The Past Jumps Up: British Radicals and the Remaking of Literary History 1790-1870
• Jamaal Matthews , Education and Psychology, Toward a Holistic Understanding of Academic Identification in Ethnic Minority Boys at Risk for Academic Failure
• Bobak Mosadegh , Biomedical Engineering, Design and Fabrication of Integrated Microfluidic Circuits Using Normally-Closed Elastomeric Valves
• Gustavo Patino , Neuroscience, Who moved my protein? Mechanisms of Epileptogenesis due to Mutations of Voltage-Gated Sodium Channel SCN1B
• Christopher Roberts , Public Policy and Sociology, Exploring the Fractures within Human Rights: An Empirical Study of Resistance
• Kevin Tucker , Mathematics, Jumping Numbers and Multiplier Ideals on Algebraic Surfaces
• Feng Wang , Biological Chemistry, Structural Analyses of Telomere Associated Proteins

ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards of 2009

• Eric W. Groenendyk , Political Science, The Motivated Partisan: A Dual Motivations Theory of Partisan Change and Stability
• Blair Allen Johnston , Music Theory, Harmony and Climax in the Late Works of Sergei Rachmaninoff
• Jasper F. Kok , Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Science, Understanding Wind-Blown Sand and the Electrification of Granular Systems
• Eranda Nikolla , Chemical Engineering, Combined Experimental/Theoretical Approach Toward the Development of Carbon Tolerant Electrocatalysts for Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Anodes
• Howard L. M. Nye , Philosophy, Ethics, Fitting Attitudes, and Practical Reason: A Theory of Normative Facts
• Robert Grant Rowe , Cellular and Molecular Biology, Differential Regulation of Two- and Three-Dimensional Cell Function
• Nathalie E. Williams , Sociology, Living With Conflict: The Effect of Community Organizations, Economic Assets, and Mass Media Consumption on Migration During Armed Conflict
• Ruth E. Zielinski , Nursing, Private Places – Private Shame: Women’s Genital Body Image and Sexual Health

ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards of 2008

• Elizabeth Ben-Ishai , Political Science, The Autonomy-Fostering State: Citizenship and Social Service Delivery
• Todd Bryan , Natural Resources and Environment, Aligning Identity: Social Identity and Changing Context in Community-Based Environmental Conflict
• Kimberly Clum , Social Work and Anthropology, The Shadows of Immobility: Low-Wage Work, Single Mothers’ Lives, and Workplace Culture
• Lori Khatchadourian , Classical Art and Archaeology, Social Logics Under Empire: The Armenian ‘Highland Satrapy’ and Achaemenid Rule, CA. 600-300 BC
• Mark Kiel , Cell & Developmental Biology, Identification, Localization and Characterization of Hematopoietic Stem Cells and Their Niche
• Michelle Miller , Romance Languages and Literatures, Material Friendship: Service and Amity in Early Modern French Literature
• Matthew Schulmerich , Chemistry, Subsurface and Transcutaneous Raman Spectroscopy, Imaging, and Tomography
• Susan Sierra , Mathematics, The Geometry of Birationally Commutative Graded Domains

Distinguished Dissertation Awards of 2007

• Xiaoyun Chen , Chemistry, Investigating Biointerfaces Using Sum Frequency Generation Vibrational Spectroscopy
• Francis Cody , Anthropology, Literacy as Enlightenment: Written Language, Activist Mediation, and the State in Rural Tomilnadu, India
• Catherine Rose Fortin , Linguistics, Indonesian Sluicing and Verb Phrase Ellipsis: Description and Explanation in a Minimalist Framework
• Emily Greenman , Public Policy, Intersecting Inequalities: Four Essays on Race, Immigration and Gender in the Contemporary United States
• Rebecca A. Haeusler , Biological Chemistry, tRNA Genes as Organizers of Genetic Information
• Hoyt J. Long , Asian Languages and Cultures: Japanese, On Uneven Ground: Provincializing Cultural Production in Interwar Japan
• David Lynn Moehring , Physics, Remote Entanglement of Trapped Atomic Ions
• Scott A. Tomlins , Pathology, Discovery and Characterization of Recurrent Gene Fusions in Prostate Cancer

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Undergraduate Research

BSPS students interested in research are encouraged to explore  faculty research profiles  and watch out for open research positions posted in the BSPS Canvas site. Students should reach out to faculty members or PhD students directly to apply to serve as a research assistant around registration or before the add/drop deadline. Research projects vary by department and area, e.g, laboratory/benchtop based research vs. clinical research suitable for publication. 

Students participating in COP research are required to enroll in at least two research credits in consecutive Fall and Winter terms (MedChem 470, Pharmacy 470, or PharmSci 470). The faculty member must give permission for an override by emailing [email protected] or completing an Independent Study Request Form. Students are responsible for making sure they are officially enrolled in 470 before the semester add/drop deadline. 2 credits equates to 6 hours of research per week in a full term. Students receive a letter grade for 470. 

Honors Thesis

The Honors Research Thesis is an opportunity for students to identify a COP faculty mentor and work on independent research. Honors is usually completed in senior year and may serve as excellent graduate school preparation. Undergraduate research with a COP faculty member may evolve to an Honors research project but the student must investigate a new topic or expand upon an ongoing project. Students who successfully complete the Honors thesis will graduate from the BSPS program “with Honors” and this designation will be noted on their transcript & diploma.

Honors Research Thesis criteria:

• Cumulative GPA of at least 3.5 through graduation  
• Submit a research proposal with the faculty mentor copied to Student Services and COP Registrar in the summer leading up to senior year by July 1  
• Register for BSPS research for academic credit via override (MedChem 470, Pharmacy 470, or PharmSci 470; graded on an A-E scale by the faculty mentor); enroll in a minimum of 2 credits per term for at least two terms (minimum of 4 total credits)  
• Present a poster at the College of Pharmacy's annual Research Forum  
• Complete a 15-20 page thesis paper in a style appropriate for submission to a scientific journal by April 1 of your graduation term (submit a preliminary thesis draft to your faculty advisor for feedback in March)

Past Honors Research Project Examples

• Characterization of the biofilm-forming ability of Mycobacterium abscessus isolates in synthetic cystic fibrosis sputum medium (SCFM)
• The Transcription Factors FOXK1 and NFIC Regulate the Cellular Response to Bisphosphonates, Commonly Prescribed Osteoporosis Drugs
• Comparing Carboxylesterase 1 Protein Levels Between the Human Liver and HepG2 Cells Using a Data-Dependent Acquisition Proteomics Assay
• High-Throughput Screening to Identify Dengue Virus Replication Compartment Inhibitors
• Discovery of Biocatalytic Reactions through High-throughput Activity Profiling
• Physicochemical Characterization and Functionality Comparison of Humira ®  (adalimumab), Remicade ®  (infliximab) and Simponi Aria ®  (golimumab)
• Cholesterol-mimicking compound Binding to Steroidogenic and drug-metabolizing cytochrome P450 enzymes
• Temporal Changes in R-loop Levels in Human B Lymphocytes Under Pharmaceutically Induced Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress

Other Research Opportunities

• UROP Changing Gears – designed for community college students and students transferring from 4-year institutions
• Department-specific research opportunities; they usually have course section affiliated with the managing faculty member
• COP may co-sponsor research in another department if you wish to earn credit for the work through 470

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7 Magnificent University of Michigan Essay Examples

What’s covered:, essay example #1 – community in coaching, essay example #2 – community in drawing, essay example #3 – community in books.

• Essay Example #4 – Why This Major, Political Science and Environment

Essay Example #5 – Why This Major, Psychology and Spanish

Essay example #6 (ross school of business) – solving issues with business, essay example #7 (ross school of business) – document/artifact, where to get your university of michigan essays edited.

The University of Michigan is an outstanding research institution, known for its school spirit and large alumni base. Based in the picturesque city of Ann Arbor, students at UMich are surrounded by city culture, urban nature trails, as well as outstanding students and professors. UMich is a “most selective” school, so you’ll need strong essays to help your application stand out from the tens of thousands of others. 

In this post we will share seven essays real students submitted to the University of Michigan. We will also walk through what each essay did well and where they could be improved to give you inspiration for your essays.

Please note: Looking at examples of real essays students have submitted to colleges can be very beneficial to get inspiration for your essays. You should never copy or plagiarize from these examples when writing your own essays. Colleges can tell when an essay isn’t genuine and will not view students favorably if they plagiarized. 

Read our University of Michigan essay breakdown to get a comprehensive overview of this year’s supplemental prompts. 

Prompt:   Everyone belongs to many different communities and/or groups defined by (among other things) shared geography, religion, ethnicity, income, cuisine, interest, race, ideology, or intellectual heritage. Choose one of the communities to which you belong, and describe that community and your place within it. (300 words)

This summer I coached my first junior basketball team in two years, the Thunderdragons. From the beginning, this team of “misfits” was different from any I’d coached before. We were the only rookie team in the league and most of our players had no sports experience, while our opponents had spent years building chemistry together. 

The beginning of the season was a disaster. At practice, whenever I demanded attention and tried to demonstrate drills, the kids were unfocused and didn’t show interest in the sport. Unsurprisingly, our games went much like practices, with opponents often defeating us by over 20 points. This pattern continued for weeks. I felt I wasn’t doing my job correctly, and began to lose confidence in my own coaching abilities. 

Out of desperation, I finally voiced my frustrations to the team. Heart-to-heart, I asked them why they weren’t respecting me as a coach, and more importantly, never putting in 100% effort. Fortunately, they empathized with my reasoning and from then on, effort and attentiveness were never a problem. Our season culminated in a playoff game, playing a team featuring older, experienced players. We fought hard, bringing the game down to the wire, making me the proudest coach even in the face of defeat. 

Though our season ended that day, I experienced one of the most gratifying feelings I’d had in high school. Not only could I visibly see the growth in all my kids’ basketball talent, ability, and maturity, but every single parent personally thanked me for coaching their kids and more importantly, instilling a love for the game and team sports in general. I’d formed a community myself, one that consisted of my new little brothers who viewed me as a role model, and one I hope to lead to the championship next season.

What the Essay Did Well

This essay has a very solid story that is a great response to the prompt. The reader can very clearly see the community this student was a part of (junior basketball) and the role they played within it (coach). Not only that, we get a sense of the type of leader this student was and their passion for teaching and the sport. 

There is a very simple, yet effective structure to this essay that makes it extremely easy to follow—albeit a bit predictable. The student gives us an overview of the team in the beginning, explains the challenge they experienced, how they overcame the obstacle, and then they end with a reflection. While this isn’t necessarily a creative or exciting structure, it allows the student to share their story in a clear fashion.

Another positive aspect of this essay is the community this student chose: coaching a basketball team. Many students feel trapped when they encounter a community prompt if they don’t have a unique cultural background, but this essay is a perfect example of how you can write about anything! As long as you explain the essence of your community and its meaning to you, admissions officers will be happy to hear about any group you are part of. 

What Could Be Improved

This essay is a good foundation, but it could be strengthened with a more sophisticated structure and by showing, not telling. In terms of the structure, rather than following a traditional story arc, this student could have started the essay with the playoff game at the end of the season and then once they hooked the reader, they could have gone back and explained how far the team had come. Or they could have used a vignette structure to show the growth from practice to practice, game to game.

As for showing and not telling, there are many sentences in this essay that could be far more engaging and descriptive.

For example, “ At practice, whenever I demanded attention and tried to demonstrate drills, the kids were unfocused and didn’t show interest in the sport,”  could be “ ‘Circle up!’ Impatiently dribbling the ball waiting to demonstrate a three-pointer, I watched as 15 boys casually sauntered over, too engrained in an Iron Man vs Hulk debate.”

Another example would be switching “ We fought hard, bringing the game down to the wire, making me the proudest coach even in the face of defeat,”  to something like, “ 36 to 33! I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my face as we took the lead in the final minutes. The squeaking of the court as they pivoted to throw the ball to each other was music to my ears.”

Prompt: Everyone belongs to many different communities and/or groups defined by (among other things) shared geography, religion, ethnicity, income, cuisine, interest, race, ideology, or intellectual heritage. Choose one of the communities to which you belong, and describe that community and your place within it. (300 words)

Every morning, I stare into the deep-set eyes of Timothée Chalamet. He springs to life from a sheet of 9×11 paper, his face chiseled by a graphite pencil. Timothée is my latest artistic pursuit. For the past four years, I have been captivated by artistry through my school’s drawing classes. 

When language fails me, art is my interpreter of thoughts, a magnifying glass to the world. But beyond beauty, drawing sparked conversation and collaboration: “Isn’t Timothée so dreamy?” one girl swoons; “Yeah, but his eyes should be darker!” another chimes in. I continue to connect with this community for its balance between appreciating art and embracing growth. 

While I may not be the most creative artist, I provide perspective. In fact, I often move around the classroom, finding the best lighting to view friends’ drawings. I’ll hold them upside-down, tape them on walls, and sit back to analyze minute details: art demands precision. Standing on a stool, I point out enlarged nostrils and disproportionate eyebrows. In turn, when I slam my pencil down in annoyance, these multi-talented individuals rescue me, highlighting the misplaced shadows of Timothée’s curls.

While chaos permeates this environment, so does genuine concern and humanity. Together, we transcend the medium, from graphite to chalk pastel. Our faces smudged with charcoal, we bond over a shared frustration with integrals and a love for Modern Family . My drawing teacher pioneered “Tell It Tuesday” questions to stir conversation and encourage community, and I’ve sought to continue this. My role is not one of excellence; rather, I am a support mechanism. From encouraging a classmate to approach a girl he likes to pacifying another’s frustration with her tiger drawing, I promote dialogue between my peers. 

Art breeds vulnerability, and vulnerability breeds connection—I will champion this at the University of Michigan. 

What The Essay Did Well

This essay starts off particularly strong, with a lighthearted, unusual hook that is sure to grab anyone’s attention. Rather than starting off by merely talking about art class, the author gets our attention first, then provides some of the details we need to understand their unique story.

After situating us within the art class, this essay continues with vivid, powerful language that gives us a visceral sense of what being in the class is like. Without even knowing the layout of the room, we are brought into the collaborative space of the classroom, and can feel the supportive, creative energy that the author describes–we can practically see peers’ drawings, the stool the author stands on, and their pencil being slammed down in frustration.

Establishing this supportive, empowering mood is particularly important because this essay is an example of a diversity prompt , which asks students to write about an aspect of their identity that would enhance a college community. This essay’s specific, grounding details shows us exactly what this student’s artistic collaboration looks like. Picturing the author holding classmates’ drawings up to the light, tipping them this way and that to get a better angle, helps us picture them doing the same in other contexts on Michigan’s campus. 

Beyond the enthralling hook and evocative language, this author also uses their essay to reveal unexpected aspects of their personality.  In an essay about a drawing class, one might expect to hear about the author’s creativity, talent, or keen appreciation for beauty. 

These qualities are definitely present, but the author focuses much more on their connections with classmates and how the whole class benefits from a collaborative environment. The author chooses to frame themselves as a support system and a helper, rather than focusing on their artistic talents, which tells us a lot about who they are as a person and how they function in a larger group. 

By effectively communicating that they view art as a tool for supporting others, rather than an individual endeavor, the author ensures their essay will be unique, even amongst the tens of thousands of others Michigan’s admissions officers will be reading.

This is a very well-written and successful essay, but even the best essays can be improved. One thing that we would’ve loved to see from this essay is an anecdote to anchor one of the more important points. There are a lot of examples that anchor this essay–like the analysis of how the Chalamet drawing could be improved, or advising a peer on how to ask out the girl he likes–but staying with a story a little longer can add depth. Talking about the specific advice they give, for example, or telling us the outcome of his peer’s attempt, would even more concretely demonstrate the aid that the author provides to their community.

At 300 words, this essay is right at the limit, but including an anecdote might be worth sacrificing some of the earlier details. As is, this essay touches broadly on a lot of the most meaningful aspects of art class, but doesn’t dive too deeply into any one aspect of the community. The best essays have both breadth and depth. 

One other area for improvement is the conclusion. The takeaway about vulnerability is a very compelling statement, but it doesn’t summarize all of the ground covered by this essay. We would’ve loved to see this essay wrap up with a conclusion that also touches on the collaboration and support that is so central earlier in the piece. 

Let’s compare this essay to another one, answering the same prompt.

I’ve played with magic, lived in dystopian societies, and traveled the world, all through a flip of a page. Ever since my dad bought me a set of Disney books when I was 3, I sparked an insatiable hunger for reading. However, I got much more out of reading than just better fluency.

I found empathy for different backgrounds and an understanding of diverse identities and cultures. I explored cultural, societal, and gender expectations through Jane Eyre , and played a game of quidditch with Harry Potter. Reading about Aly Raisman’s life and experiences through her autobiography, I began to appreciate the vulnerability of public figures. When reading a series called Flawed , I saw a girl turn her grassroots efforts into a revolutionary movement against her dystopian government. 

One day, when I was at my cousin’s house, I saw a small, strange-looking bus drive through the neighborhood. I was confused, asking my cousins what that was. “It’s our library,” they told me. Curious, I stepped on the bus to see what books they had. 

Looking through their selection, I saw a meager stack of about ten children’s books for a whole town. Only ten kids had a library book at once, and many had probably read all the books in the stack. 

The thought of childhood without books was unfathomable to me, so I started a campaign to combat the childhood literacy gap. I turned to social media to spread awareness of the importance of kids having access to books and created a network of volunteers to expand the campaign to individual communities and run workshops to read to kids. 

As an activist, campaigner, and avid reader, I helped people realize that the stories I explored through books are an invaluable experience for everyone, kids and adults alike.

The greatest strength of this essay lies in how the author describes their place in this reading community. First, they talk about the ways in which they explore new worlds, and are exposed to new ideas through their reading. These details demonstrate positive qualities such as creativity and critical thinking, which are both good ones to show off in your college essays.

Then, in a somewhat similar vein as the previous essay, the author shows that reading is not a solitary pursuit for them, but a door to a world that they want to share with others. Even better, they then describe how, upon realizing that not everyone has equal access to this world, they took concrete action to help fix this problem. This detail demonstrates that they’re aware of issues wider than themselves, and that they’re committed to making a difference. These are yet more qualities that colleges love to see in applicants, so this anecdote as a whole is particularly well-chosen.

Another thing this essay does well is demonstrate the author’s writing ability. Their varied sentence structure and sophisticated construction are just as effective as their broad vocabulary. The natural, easy flow of their writing takes us from a general overview to a specific anecdote, before a culminating declaration of what this story reflects about the author: that they are an activist, a campaigner, and above all, a reader. 

While we have a great sense of who this student is when it comes to reading, we don’t know anything about their broader reading community. In fact, the idea of a community is, for the most part, missing from this response. The author describes their engagement with reading, and then what they do individually to help other children access books, but at no point do we see them directly interacting with others, nor get a sense of which attributes would “describe [the] community,” in addition to their “place within it.”

While most college essay prompts are intentionally open-ended, you do want to make sure you ultimately answer all parts of the question. After all, admissions officers are asking for a reason, as they have some particular piece of information they’re seeking–in this case, an understanding of how you fit into a larger community, so that they can imagine how you’d fit into their own campus community.

The author doesn’t need to do anything drastic to fix this problem. Talking about who the author reads or discusses books with would work just fine–perhaps they’re part of a book club, post in online discussion forums, or just enjoy talking about their favorite characters at lunch with their friends. Whatever the case, helping the reader understand the community they’re talking about is a crucial part of this prompt. 

The other issue with this essay is the lack of a sense of time. The author describes books that they have read and enjoyed, all of which seem to be middle grade or adult novels, but they don’t say when they read these books. Then, they talk about the experience of seeing a book bus with their cousin, and realizing not all children had access to books, which feels like a discovery that would happen at a relatively young age. 

Given this lack of a clear timeline, the reader has some questions about when everything took place. Anchoring these stories in time, to clearly show when things happened and if/how development occurred over time, would help the reader better understand the story, and potentially make it more compelling as well. After all, admissions committees want to know what you’re up to and what you’re like now, not what you might have been like four or five years ago. 

Even if your points are good, if your reader doesn’t understand how they’re supposed to fit together, your ideas won’t have as much impact as they should. So, while incorporating creative vocabulary and demonstrating positive personality traits are certainly important aspects of the college essay, don’t forget about the “nuts and bolts” of your essay, like chronology. 

Essay Example #4  – Why This Major, Political Science and Environment

Prompt: Describe the unique qualities that attract you to the specific undergraduate College or School (including preferred admission and dual degree programs) to which you are applying at the University of Michigan. How would that curriculum support your interests? (550 words)

“Raising livestock for human consumption generates 15% of total global greenhouse gas emissions, greater than all transportation emissions combined,” I project my voice into the chamber. “I implore this Senate to pass this bill to protect the environment for our future children.”

For a week in June of 2022, I served on a local committee focused on agriculture, conservation, and energy, where I was captivated by environmental policy that bolstered sustainability. Specifically, I proposed legislation that subsidized the cultivation of alternative protein-rich crops and disincentivized animal farming. Becoming well-versed in environmental issues from soil acidification to fertilizer runoff, I grew eager to study the intersection of environmental studies and political science to address these global problems. 

Unwilling to compromise on these varied academic interests, I am attracted to the College of Literature, Science and the Arts for its dedication to interdisciplinary education.

An aspiring double major in Political Science and Environment with a specialization in Environmental Philosophy, I will investigate the role of governing institutions in implementing ethical environmental policy. At the University of Michigan, I am eager to engage in rich, multidisciplinary dialogue with the dynamic living-learning community of the Residential College program. Through courses like IDIV 390 “Environmental Activism: Citizenship in a Republic” and “Contemporary Social and Cultural Theory,” I can not only deepen my interdisciplinary passion for sustainable environmental policy, but also receive intimate seminar-style instruction from my professors and my peers. The RC approaches communal learning through a global lens, which heightens my unrelenting desire to understand the world around me.

In addition, I am attracted to the LSA Honors Program for its emphasis on experiential and immersive learning. Through first-year seminars like “Psychological Perspectives of Politics,” I can expand my understanding of human political involvement and apply those concepts to drive social change. Furthermore, as an aspiring constitutional and environmental lawyer, the “Lunch with Honors” series allows me to interact with pioneers in these fields. This includes Professor Mark Rotenburg of Georgetown University, with whom I can explore the limitations of free speech and other constitutional protections in the social media age.

Divided between the unique opportunities for experiential learning through the LSA Honors Program and the intimate instruction of the RC, I am grateful that at U-M, I can participate in both.

But at U-M, learning isn’t confined to academia. LSA provides me with the flexibility to explore my vast array of interests. Through the Politics, Environment, and Science Lab, for example, I seek to continue my interdisciplinary inquiry into environmental policy. Working under Professor Ariel Hasell, I will explore social media’s influence on public perception of expertise during public health and environmental crises. The Michigan in Washington program also provides a unique opportunity for experiential learning; as an Intern in the White House, I will gain firsthand experience observing the churning gears of political institutions. On the Ann Arbor campus, Michigan Parliamentary Debate would sustain my global curiosity through my passion for debate, allowing me to engage in rich discussion with the diverse-minded intellectuals that call U-M home. I will also lend my Desi American voice to the Student Advisory Board to further encourage cultural appreciation. In essence, as a Wolverine, I will employ my interdisciplinary perspective and inclusive nature to lead, on campus and beyond.

This essay is an extremely detailed, well-researched response to this “Why This Major” prompt . The depth and specificity shows that the applicant spent considerable time researching not just Michigan in general, but particular aspects of the school that align well with their own interests. 

As a result, we can not only see their commitment to and knowledge of Michigan, but also envision how their own unique qualities, strengths, and interests would enrich the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. From naming the exact classes that interest them, to discussing certain professors and the work that they do, this student situates their own passions within the places on Michigan’s campus where those passions will truly shine. 

For example, they discuss Michigan’s Residential College program, the Honors program, the Politics, Environment, and Science Lab, Michigan Parliamentary Debate, and the Student Advisory program. Just as importantly, the applicant explains what they find compelling about each resource and how they imagine themselves taking advantage of it. 

One of the biggest risks with this kind of essay is it turning into a bullet point list–this applicant avoids that risk deftly, and instead builds a concrete bridge between themselves and their potential future at Michigan.

Another strength of the essay is its unique structure. Imagine if the essay had begun with the line, “I am attracted to the College of Literature, Science and the Arts for its dedication to interdisciplinary education.” While informative, this line completely loses the excitement and personal quality of the current opening, which demonstrates the student’s passion for the environment and their history of civic engagement. These details perfectly set up their later statements about how they’ll engage with their chosen programs at University of Michigan. 

There is honestly very little to improve in this essay. It is specific and grounded in detailed research, and communicates valuable information about the author’s values, interests, and abilities. 

One of the only things that can be picked at is the last paragraph: not because of content, but because of structure. In your college essays, you generally want to avoid long paragraphs like this one, as they make your points more difficult to digest. Admissions officers are reading essays all day long, so they want information to be presented simply, one point at a time. Throwing so much at them at once without any breaks means they don’t have a chance to reflect on anything you’re saying, which means your ideas won’t be as impactful as they could be.

Additionally, it is worth noting that the author left 50 words on the table. While you don’t necessarily have to hit the word count on the dot, as the exact number of words you use depends on your particular phrasings and grammatical choices more than content, you ideally want to get within 10-15 words. Even for this relatively long supplement, 50 words is almost 10% of the count. College applications are already incredibly restrictive in the amount of information they allow you to share about yourself–don’t voluntarily limit yourself even further!

Obviously, though, you don’t want to just add fluff to fill the space. So, what could this student add to make their essay stronger?

The link between the opening anecdote and the rest of the essay could be strengthened, or the opening anecdote could be referenced throughout the rest of the essay to strengthen the image of the author as a civic-minded environmentalist. For example, when they mention the Michigan in Washington program, they could talk about their desire to build on the skills they learned from serving on their local committee.

Alternatively, this student could talk about the future they envision beyond their time in Ann Arbor. At the very end of the essay, the student mentions leading “on campus and beyond.” What does this tantalizing ‘‘beyond” look like, and how will University of Michigan help them get there? 

Or, after breaking up the last paragraph into two or three smaller bites, they could use their extra words to add transitions, to ensure the flow of their writing is still smooth.

Remember, this is still a superior essay. If anything, the disappointment of 50 words being left unused stems primarily from the fact that the page is already full of excellent writing, dedicated research, and demonstrations of the student’s character, so there’s no doubt that those extra words would also be used to add something of value.

An aspiring trilingual clinical psychologist, I am drawn to the University of Michigan’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts because it’s loaded with opportunities to build me into a scholar with a heart for service.

As a Psychology major and Spanish minor, I will satisfy my pursuit of academic excellence with LSA’s inexhaustible course offerings. Curious how songwriting helps me remember difficult words, I’ll find the answer from Psych 211-002: Mind, Music, and Community. As I learn what music does to the human mind through this exciting experiential course, I hope simultaneously to brighten the day of local seniors and children by playing the flute for them. While I will continue to explore indigenous cultures through the mythology my Latinx friends tell me outside of class, I look forward to examining these communities from an academic standpoint through Spanish 472 – Indigenous Societies. The combination of oral traditions and classical texts will deepen my knowledge of, and appreciation for, Latin American countries’ indigenous roots. Because of the variety of offerings LSA provides, I’ll get to zoom in on my specific topics of interest in psychology and Hispanic cultures. 

An advocate for pursuing academic excellence, not perfectionism, I hope to join the Chang Lab to investigate how race and culture give rise to perfectionism, applying my knowledge in Psychology to advance the science of well-being. With our common ethnic background, I’m especially intrigued by Dr. Chang’s studies regarding the Asian community. After gaining more research experience, I will write an honors thesis with Professor Nestor Lopez-Duran to research mental illness treatment. I want to develop a new form of psychotherapy combining ASMR and talk therapy, and I hope that our research contributes to this cause. 

Joining the Residential College will be the cherry atop my LSA sundae. Beyond the courses, alumni network, and research opportunities, I’ll get to share my opinions and consider others’ in small classrooms. I can’t wait to take the residential college writing seminar Psychology of Creativity and join the language lunch table to practice speaking Spanish outside the classroom. As someone who sought out native speakers to talk incessantly in Spanish about mythology, I hope to find other Spanish lovers at RC with whom I can practice my language skills. I will also participate in the Multicultural Psychology in Argentina program, traveling to Buenos Aires to learn the Argentine perspective on mental health. This cross-cultural exchange is crucial in helping me build an empathetic mindset as a clinical psychologist, arming me with tools to help people of different cultural backgrounds.

This student has clearly done their research on UMich for this response to the classic “Why Major?” prompt! They come across as focused, dedicated, and passionate because of the details they include across multiple disciplines and opportunities. However, despite including many UMich resources, it doesn’t come across as name-dropping because the student elaborated on each point.

Telling the reader things like, “ The combination of oral traditions and classical texts will deepen my knowledge of, and appreciation for, Latin American countries’ indigenous roots,”  and “ I want to develop a new form of psychotherapy combining ASMR and talk therapy, and I hope that our research contributes to this cause, ” helps us appreciate what this student values and hopes to accomplish with a UMich education.

Ultimately, this essay gives a very strong impression of the reader. Right from the first sentence, they refer to themselves as “ An aspiring trilingual clinical psychologist,” and every subsequent idea builds on that. Whether they are discussing psychology, Spanish, or their Asian heritage, we walk away from the essay knowing that all three of these are important to this student’s identity, making them much more memorable.

While this essay shows a high level of research and interest in the school, it would benefit from more of a focus on the student—after all the point of your essay is to convince UMich to admit you . In the ideal essay, descriptions of UMich programs and self-descriptions should weave together to form a seamless trajectory. If this student were to rework their essay, they could organize their paragraphs according to their values or interests, rather than organizing them by the type of UMich program that they are discussing (i.e. coursework, research, extracurriculars). 

• Paragraph 1: What the student values about Psychology and how UMich courses and the honors thesis program can support those values
• Paragraph 2: Why the student believes Psychology must be supplemented by studies of race, ethnicity, and culture and how UMich’s Spanish programs and Chang lab would advance that belief
• Paragraph 3: How the student thinks it is important to simultaneously use the academic setting and social/residential setting to advance their interests and goals (still regarding the interactions between psychology and culture!) and how a Residential College would accomplish this

These paragraphs would help the UMich facts to make more sense and feel less random (because readers would know why they matter to the writer), while also giving the essay, and, in turn, the writer themself, more depth.

Prompt: Choose a current event or issue in your community and discuss the business implications. Propose a solution that incorporates business principles or practices. The review panel will look for creativity, drawing connections, and originality.

Eating a slice of pizza, the only thing running through my mind was the amount of fat and grease I consumed, guilty that I exceeded my self-imposed calorie limit. 

Struggling with an eating disorder was one of the most mentally deteriorating and isolating experiences I had ever had. I had no one to cry to when guilty about eating my last meal or celebrate with when eating a “fear food.” 

I realized that people with an eating disorder need an instant connection with others who understand their situation, so I decided to develop an app to help people struggling with an eating disorder find emotional support and validation. 

I conducted market research to identify a unique selling proposition for an app that would be scalable and sufficiently address a deficit in eating disorder support. Noticing that the eating disorder support apps on the app store lacked chatting features to connect users, I started developing an app design with a vision for a peer support platform. 

In my app design, I created an instant chat feature where users could request a friend to talk to with a click of a button. To foster a stronger sense of unity and camaraderie, I incorporated resource and blog pages, a support forum, and a daily positive notification so people can start their day on the right note. To cater to a larger market, I incorporated high feature diversification in my plan.

Due to my limited coding background, I found volunteer developers who are working to bring my vision to life. However, as they developed the app, I curated a business plan and led a team of 20 to help me execute it. 

First, I identified the critical success factors of the app. I conducted a SWOT analysis to pinpoint the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the business model. I noticed that competing apps lacked a strong brand and other resources beyond their software, so I evaluated our strengths to be our diverse offerings and cohesive values. In our market, I identified opportunities in forging relationships with professionals and social media influencers.

From there, I created a strategic plan, identifying my brand and mission values to spread hope and community to uplift people struggling with an eating disorder. I worked to build our brand through Instagram and TikTok, posting positive eating disorder affirmations and posts about facing fear foods and body positivity. Through a stories project, where we collected stories from our followers, we created inspiring short videos and graphics to remind people that they aren’t alone. I hosted a few lighthearted social virtual game nights to distract people from their struggles and connect with others in a similar position.

I prioritized brand relationships to work with influencers and professionals who generally had an extensive network and following base. I started an events series with speakers to provide people with live professional advice. We developed relationships with our speakers so they could promote our app and use their networks with other professionals to spread our word. In collaboration with social media influencers, we partnered on content like blog articles, short videos, or even Instagram takeovers to expand our social media presence.

Though my app still hasn’t been published, I will continue to utilize my platform to empower eating disorder warriors. My journey through bringing people a safe place to find consolation and inspiration has only just begun. 

The first striking thing about this essay is that the author chooses to introduce this essay with a story of personal struggle, which clearly shows their reason for choosing to develop this app, their dedication to the project, and their personal investment in the community being helped. Their vulnerability and honesty make a deep impression and establish an immediate understanding of who they are as a person. The prompt only asks that applicants propose a business venture for their community, so this applicant is going above and beyond by choosing such a personal topic. 

The strength of this response also comes from the fact that the author isn’t talking about a hypothetical–they’re describing work that they have actually done. As a result, they can provide a comprehensive breakdown of what they did, from developing the app, to generating social media buzz, engaging with influencers, and leading a team. The work that this student describes demonstrates myriad talents, from self-awareness, to dedication, to big picture thinking, which all speak to their potential as a Michigan student.

However, you don’t need to share your most personal stories, or have already created your own app, to write a powerful response to this prompt. Rather, the bigger picture takeaways should be:

• Think about how you can demonstrate vulnerability in your own story, in a way that you’re comfortable with.
• Don’t be afraid to think creatively and expansively about a prompt.

If you follow these tips, you’ll be able to write a compelling essay about any topic.

This is an extremely strong and impressive essay, and there are very few things that can be improved. If we’re going to split hairs, the structure is somewhat repetitive, and overly direct. While you might think business school admissions officers in particular will appreciate you getting right to the point, generally speaking you want the structure of your essay to be a bit more varied, as if readers feel like they don’t know what’s coming, linguistically as well as narratively, they’re likely to stay more engaged.

The essay could also benefit from the incorporation of more vivid details. The beginning is very vivid, with the description of eating a slice of pizza, but after that, the essay is pretty straightforward. Diving more deeply into another anecdote, or using descriptive language to help the admissions committee better visualize the story’s events, are always strong choices. 

For example, this applicant could tell us about one of the stories they collected from their “stories project,” or about a particular piece of advice one of their speakers gave during the events series. The content of this essay is already extremely strong, but polishing up the writing itself could bring out the applicant’s positive qualities even more emphatically.

Prompt: Upload a document or artifact that represents something significant about your life to show your learning in action. Describe how your artifact demonstrates your learning in action.

The “Evolution of Disney Princesses” was the first article I had ever written for my school newspaper. Though the experience was initially daunting, this article drew me into the world of journalism through my fascination with perspectives. As a kid, I looked up to Disney princesses, but as a freshman in high school, I realized that their primary roles were to reinstate the patriarchy. Snow White’s whole worth as a character was her strong housework skills and her dreams for a man she had only met once. Aurora was asleep almost the entire movie, which instead highlighted her male counterpart’s bravery and courage. I realized that Disney was reinstating societal expectations through these early movies and training young girls to grow up with the same aspirations.

This was my first article, so it was expectedly rough around the edges. However, even with the rough start, I was able to project my voice and show that Disney Princesses have gradually become independent, empowered, and an inspiration to young girls. I shared my perspective by discussing the portrayal of women and our progress as a society, projecting social progress and feminism in a different light. I celebrated our progress through something as seemingly trivial yet influential as Disney princesses, the idol of many young girls. Using creativity to voice my opinions, I sparked an interest in writing and continued to work with the newspaper, using my unique lenses to tell my own story.

This essay does a great job of showing off the author’s ability to think and write critically. We also see that they don’t have just a journalist’s inquisitive mind, but also a passion for feminism and deep social awareness. And, like the previous writer, this applicant isn’t afraid to be vulnerable: they talk openly about a time when they doubted their writing ability, chose to write for the school newspaper anyway, and nurtured their interest in writing, activism, and feminism. 

Admitting self-doubt in college essays can feel uncomfortable, since you’re obviously trying to put your best foot forward. However, resilience is a quality admissions officers value highly, as college is going to throw curveballs at everyone, no matter how talented they are, and the only way to demonstrate resilience is by telling a story about a time when you had to persevere.

Reading this article from the applicant’s freshman year will also allow admissions officers to see the growth in their writing ability over time, which makes the document especially well-chosen: it isn’t just a jumping off point for the response, but actually complements the essay. While showing this kind of growth over time can be tricky, since not all documents/artifacts lend themselves to direct comparison, the broader message is to choose something that won’t stand alone, but will ideally enhance some other element(s) of your application.

In a very brief essay, this author manages to pack in a ton of information about the kind of person they are, the positive qualities they have, and the challenges they overcame to become that person. As a result, their response to this prompt is not only effective, but packs a real emotional punch.

Though this is a very strong essay, it could benefit from a bit more specificity. Quotes like “projecting social progress and feminism in a different light” are powerful, but vague–what is the different light? 

Now, this question might be answered by the article “The Evolution of Disney Princesses,” which this student did not provide to CollegeVine, but being precise in the moment is always a good idea. Admissions officers have tens of thousands of applications to read, so if you can save them even a few seconds by not making them look back over your document to see what you’re talking about, they will appreciate it!

Similarly, the essay later mentions the author’s “unique lenses,” but doesn’t explain what these unique lenses are. This would be a great opportunity for the author to include a bit more personal information, such as what Disney princesses, or traditional femininity, mean to them, which would in turn give admissions officers a clearer sense of what this student would contribute to a Michigan classroom.

Overall, as strong as this essay is, and as many good qualities as it demonstrates, it doesn’t tell us a lot about the author’s personality, or their personal connection to this theme. The best essays don’t just tell admissions teams what you care about, they tell readers why you care, and also don’t just state which strengths you have, but also explain how they come together to create a complete person. Telling your story as comprehensively as possible will ensure admissions officers are as invested in you personally as they are in the topic/cause you’re talking about.

Do you want feedback on your University of Michigan essays? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays. 

If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools. Find the right advisor for you to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!

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