The University prides itself on having a diverse student body, featuring students from 120 different countries and all 50 states. But sitting in a lecture in Angell Hall or walking through the Diag, nearly one student out of every six is from a few select high schools.

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From 2004 to 2009, an average of about 16 percent of the University’s freshman classes came from just 20 high schools, though more than 1,000 high schools have sent students to the University each year during that time. That percentage ranged from 13 to 19 percent through these years.

• DATA: See the admissions and matriculation data for your high school.

Officials from the University’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions told The Michigan Daily in a series of interviews last year that the disproportionate representation is not intentional.

“It’s not by any design of ours that these schools are ‘the ones,’ ” said Erica Sanders, director of recruitment and operations in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. “Our goal is that we wish we have more schools where there were students that come that are having great experiences and more of their colleagues feel like ‘Gosh that will be a great place for me as well.’ ”

Sanders said one of the key reasons so many students come to the University from the same schools year after year is because students who come to the University from “feeder” high schools portray the University in a positive light in their hometowns.

“If a student enrolls in the University and has a good experience, when they go on, whether it’s home for the holidays or once they graduate, if they’re pursuing the things they enjoy and love, then it’s natural that the people in their community would then say, ‘Gosh, she went to that school and she’s successful and she was able to find a job. Look at her life; I want a similar life. I think I’ll apply to that school,’ ” she said.

According to Sanders, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions is actively working to break the pattern of disproportionate representation from select high schools. Every year, admissions officials take a look at the schools from which they don’t receive many applications and ask what can be done to attract more students the following year.

“We don’t just visit the schools where we receive a lot of applications,” Sanders said. “We also visit the schools where we don’t receive any applications to let them know about the opportunities that are available.”

These elevated enrollment patterns of students from specific high schools are also due in part to the University’s success in conveying to those schools that a student is choosing to go the University, not just settling to go there, Sanders said.

In-State vs. Out-of-State

Between 2004 and 2009, no fewer than 13 of the top 20 schools with students admitted to the University were in Michigan, and most of those were within an hour's drive of Ann Arbor.

Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor has sent the most students to the University every year from 2004 to 2009. In 2009, 154 students were accepted from the high school and 110 students matriculated, producing at 71-percent yield rate – the rate of students that enroll compared to the number accepted. While the number of students from Pioneer attending the University was in the triple digits in 2009, schools like Genesee High School in Genesee, Mich. Only had one student apply to the University in the same year.

The Office of Undergraduate Admissions visits around 500 schools in the state each year.