<p>I'm a junior in HS in Connecticut right now and figuring out the schools I will be applying to this fall. Right now I am looking at Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Maryland, Penn State, and Michigan State. I obviously know Michigan will be more of a reach and OSU, PSU, UMD are more target schools, but where does Wisconsin fall on applications? Do they look more at grades alone or other things as well?</p>
<p>I currently have a 90 GPA (we do it out of 100) with a bunch of APs. Got a 4 on AP Chem last year which was the hardest by far for me that I will be taking. 1960 on SATs right now, taking again. My extracurriculars are strong: I founded our school's Investment Club, leader/ state finalist for Debate Team, I will be an Eagle Scout. </p>
<p>Anyway, does Wisconsin look at everything for applications? Is visiting important? I really want to get in any help would be loved, thank you!</p>
<p>Grades first–unweighted and difficulty of classes. Then class rank and tests. Essays and recs are last. ECs count but not that much. Visit does not matter.</p>
<p>My son was in your situation three years ago. He applied to fives schools University of Miami, University of Maryland, Penn st, Wisconsin, and Uconn, he was accepted to all five. We didn’t apply to Michigan because I wasn’t going to spend 50K+. Uconn was the best buy it would have been half tuition. Maryland is a good school, but we didn’t like the makeup of the campus. The biggest negative about Wisconsin is that he wasn’t a direct admit into the business school, he had to earn entry after his freshman year. If I was willing to pay the 50K my son would have attended NYU business, I believe it beats Michigan and its a better bang for the buck.</p>
<p>The academic record always comes first in our application review. Our counselors consider high school course work, written statements, standardized test scores, extracurricular activities and a letter of recommendation if one is submitted. We are also looking for consistent involvement in activities in or out of school, leadership, community involvement, or any special gifts or talents that the student would bring to our university. When reviewing each file, all of the factors mentioned above are considered.</p>
<p>Thats interesting because the kids accepted at our school were the ones with higher GPA<code>s than test scores. And it didn</code>t seem to matter at all what the EC<code>s were or essays or teacher recs. A large majority were postponed, even kids with 33 ACT</code>s, great resumes etc. So it appears at our school, it is all about the GPA.</p>
<p>If there are a lot of students from one school applying to UW its easy for admissions to compare. I advise using Naviance, if you are taking the most challenging classes that your school has to offer with a high GPA then you will probably won’t have a problem being accepted. I have two kids in College (senior and sophomore) by using Naviance I was able to determine which schools my kids would be accepted. The only one that was confusing was Michigan because the smartest students applied there as their safe school. My son took AP MICRO and MACRO Economics, almost all the students in his class were accepted to IVY league schools, getting an A in those type of classes is next to impossible.</p>