High School Student Goes Viral, Sings His Way into the University of Michigan

An area high school student got "one more chance" to jump off the University of Michigan's wait-list with a YouTube video.

His revised version of the Jackson 5 classic "I Want You Back," went viral, and Lawrence Yong's plea swept the Michigan campus.

It lifted the Granada Hills Charter High School grad off the wait-list.

“I knew that, traditionally, people would write letters to the admissions office, but I thought since I had already written an essay for the application it wasn’t enough to really show who I was, so I thought it would be better if I made a video, so the admissions office would be able to see my face and kind of see what my gifts are,” Yong told The Michigan Daily.

“I thought it was also an appropriate song,” Yong told ABC News. “Michael Jackson is asking this girl to give him one more chance and I was kind of asking the university to give me a chance as well.”

The odds for getting into the university from the waiting list are small. The school received 39,584 applications in 2010. Only 42 of the 14,600 waitlisted students were granted admission.

That's approximately 0.3 percent of students who were offered a spot on the wait-list, according to AnnArbor.com.

In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Michigan alum Craig Gruenberg, choir director at Granada Hills, said Yong was a participant in choir and the a cappella group Smooth White Chocolate.

Gruenberg, who participated in the Friars a cappella group at the university when he was a student in the 1960s, said Smooth White Chocolate was inspired by the Friars.

“The University of Michigan is a school that kids talk to me a lot about.”

With a laugh, Yong said he's excited to become a Wolverine.

"Out of all the schools that I looked at, I really liked the campus," he said, adding that he plans on joining an a cappella group.

---

The lyrics:

Well, when I was just starting out

I didn’t know where to apply

So many schools to choose from

But none of them caught my eye

Then I saw UMichigan

And after an in-depth look

No other college could compare

The Blue got me on the hook

(Let me tell you now)

Oh, Michigan give me one more chance

To show you that I love you

Won’t you please let me into your school

Oh how I dream to be a Wolverine

Michigan you’re unlike anything I’ve seen

Your academics are top notch

And your campus can’t be beat

Your student body is diverse

Boy, to go here would be so neat!

Your business program is the best

With you my future is clear

I know I don’t belong anywhere else

I promise I’m sincere

Oh, Michigan give me one more chance

To show you that I love you

Won’t you please let me into your school

Oh how I dream to be a Wolverine

Michigan you’re unlike anything I’ve seen

Follow us on Twitter | Like us on Facebook | Sign up for our daily newsletter