<p>I know that UW does it some what differently. If one wants to get the best students then the most important element is the grades. When I went to the orientation at NYU they told us that if you didn't take AP's and honor classes don't bother to apply. NYU takes the unweight GPA and reweights them(make them all equal). The school makes a big difference, if your went to an honor's high school i.e. Bronx science or stuyvesant high school and have a 3.5 average then you are probably smarter then someone who graduated a regular average school with a 3.5 average. Remember this is a college your GPA in high school must have some correlation to your grades in College. If you go to a bad high school you can tend to slack which will hurt you at a school such as UW. The SAT/ACT is looked at but not required. UW has too many applications the tests mean more to them then many highly private competitive ranked schools. I wonder if UW hires students go through the applications, if they had 100 students organizing it would make the process easier and faster.</p>
<p>No, the most important element is NOT just grades. For example, a gifted student who is bored with school may not have the highest gpa, although they need a good one to prove they will do the work. Student who gets B’s in an AP class when they count homework- 100% on tests/quizzes and 0% on homework in AP statistics (real case). But this student has all sorts of other credentials not reflected in the HS gpa that show their ability. Test scores do matter to UW. Some students work hard to get better grades with lower test scores- they show they are willing to do the work to succeed. UW looks at both test scores and grades- a red flag if low gpa and high test scores- will the student do the work to succeed, will the necessary study skills be present? A lower gpa may reflect a lousy freshman year with improving grades to an excellent junior year.</p>
<p>Wisconsin does not have the same high school options as NYC and so can’t presume students had a chance to go to the best high school close to home. It is not fair to give an advantage to students with access to a HS others don’t have the option of attending. There have been complaints from suburban Milwaukee parents about some of their kids not getting into UW while others with seemingly lesser credentials do get in. This is because UW looks at what is available to the student at their HS- students are not penalized because their local district does not offer as many AP courses, for example.</p>
<p>Different states run education diferently- we could spend a lot of time comparing apples to oranges here. OOS people have to realize that our state U’s base admissions on what works for the way our school districts are managed and what is available instate. I’m sure UW admissions will look at the caliber of HS for OOS students. Test scores can show something about the HS. For example, a student with all A’s but lesser test scores may come from a school with grade inflation or not teaching well.</p>
<p>I need to finish this post and do things. Yes, grades do count, but so do test scores. It can be just as hard to get A’s in a “lesser” HS. The admonition to take the most rigorous curriculum available applys here as well. NY schools face a much larger potential applicant pool, making the competiton stiffer. Advantages to living here.</p>