If you transfer in from a community college as a junior you will get your big time degree while saving a ton of money.
The simple fact is that with respect to college admissions, classic affirmative action didn’t work very well. Sure, you might have a more representative freshman class, but a much higher percentage of those from disadvantaged groups will dropout and a similar percentage will shift to easier majors that lead to lower paying careers. If disadvantaged groups (because of poorer pre-college preparation) are consistently the lowest performers in college classes, it continues the perception that these groups are inferior.
Community colleges are designed to facilitate the preparation of students for college who need the extra help for whatever reasons. I think Michigan should improve and better advertise that cost-effective pathway into UM. UM could certainly do more.
Both UCLA and the University of California, Berkeley are at least as respected as UM nationally and both accepted about 4X the number of community college transfers as UM. Even the University of Florida with its red state governor accepted twice as many CC transfers.
At UCLA, 92% of the approximately 6,000 transfer students are from a CA community college; 34% are from under-represented groups; and 40% are first generation college students. Transfer Profile — Fall 2023 | UCLA Undergraduate Admission