3.84 GPA (around a 4.5 Weighted)
31 ACT (35 E, 33 R, 27 M, 27 S)
My school doesn’t rank but I’ve been told I am in the top 10% of my class at a nationally-recognized rigorous school
3 APs, 2 IB HLs, 1 IB SL, 11 Honors (this seems low, but my school structures our courses weirdly, and since its a college prep school the honors classes are the same rigor as AP or IB’s just without the test)
5 LangComp, 4 APUSH, 4 WHAP - going to take IB SL french, AP litcomp, IB english, AP macro and IB HL business test this May
4 Year CA scholarship student
2 Year NHS member
AP Honors Student
Gold Award Recipient for over 100+ hours of community service
JV Softball “academic player of the year”
Appointed as a peer minister at my school (only for seniors)
2 Year Link crew leader at my school (only for juniors and seniors)
4 Year Student ambassador for my school
Retreat leader for my school’s campus ministry (over 100+ hours doing so)
1 Year FBLA member
Founder/President of club that promotes gender equality in the workforce
9-10- JV Softball player (second year co-captain)
11-JV and Varsity softball team manager
12- JV and Varsity hockey team manager
Outside of school I played club-level softball from 9-11
Have 200+ community service hours, President of my chapter within a community service organization
Volunteer tutor for elementary school students once a week
Have small work experience at a coffee shop
Prospective Business Major (marketing), second choice Communications in CLS
Sorry this is so long, but can anyone give me an idea of what my chances would be like, especially since I’m an OOS applying to the business school? Thank you!
I’m a current student and I know white Cali girls here with worse stats in terms of GPA and ACT. You shouldn’t have a problem getting into the University (at least as Pre-Business in the College of Letters & Sciences) unless Madison’s out of state application numbers boom again. In terms of getting in to the School of Business, it’s a toss-up. Personally as a Wisconsin resident I had the exact same ACT numbers but a lower GPA and I did not get direct admit into the business school, but if you work hard freshman year it’s possible to get in as a freshman for sophomore year and beyond. Good luck!
@noahkirch I can’t find institutional statistics showing the number of students who do an in-university transfer to the business school. Do you have a sense of how competitive it might be vs. getting in as direct entry? In addition to fulfilling pre-bus. credit requirements, what criteria is used for selection - grades or essay or something else?
Also, do you recommend coming up with a Plan B in case the transfer isn’t approved - say, have a major in mind in your current college of residence (eg economics in CLS)? Can they then apply those credit requirements from the Pre-Bus. to their new major or to their electives, or would they need to start over? How helpful is their academic advisor in effecting a smooth transition to a new major?
@JBStillFlying Bus Sch is competitive either way but know with a change in admissions and a higher acceptance rate for direct admits it stands to reason that admission at sophomore standing will be much tougher than in earlier years. There are just fewer seats.
re: criteria for admission –– 3.5 and higher IMO. The essay is a crap shoot. You have very little time for prep and it can be anything. 2 years ago theme was on diversity. Be PC or fail. If a transfer admit make sure you go to all the required pre-bus seminars. They take attendance. A resume is required and do it exactly as they want. Join some bus clubs. IBC and Cap Mgt are tough to get into but try anyway. IBC is the most important. It’s the bus students pipeline to summer internships. UW is not a targeted school so IBC absolutely essential if student wants to work NYC, Boston, Chicago.
re: plan B –– Econ, if you don’t get in is natural route for most. Of course credits from pre-bus will transfer. Advisors are helpful if you get the right one. Some will say, “look at your DARS”, so shop. I found pre-bus advisors useless.
Thanks @UW2016 - this is very helpful! Almost thinking those who apply to Bus. for direct-admit should have other direct admit programs in mind (Carlson, Kelley, etc.) just in case they aren’t admitted. Both Carlson and Kelly admit on stats - Kelley tells you up-front what qualifies for direct admit. Just a thought there. BTW, can’t speak for Kelley but I know that Carlson is very hard to get into as a transfer, for precisely the same reason - lack of available seats. Retention rate very high in the business schools!
UW-Madison is a wonderful university and surely some who can’t transfer will find the highly-ranked economics program to be a great alternative. However, those having their hearts set on business specifically might opt to choose another school if they don’t get in right away.
The WSB is taking more direct admit freshman, but they are also taking more students because they are growing. So the chances of being admitted as a pre-business student are not necessarily lower than being a direct admit. As far as the clubs mentioned in post #3, those are both clubs for finance majors, you want to join clubs that coincide with your interests. It’s also better to be really involved in one or two organizations that a member of several.
As for the essay, it’s not a crap shoot. If you are a good writer and actually answer the prompt, you can score high on the essay.
There are also many parallel plans, not just econ. A student interested in marketing could look at the Retailing and Consumer Behavior major in SoHE, or psychology, or communications arts. The only major in the WSB that really has no parallel plan is accounting.
Parallel tracks in additional schools and colleges (not just CLS) are a great option if truly available ie you wouldn’t be closed out of the major by arriving in sophomore year rather than freshman. How easy would it be to enter pre-bus. and transfer to something like the school of human ecology? Where do they go for internship or career placement?
Growth sounds great but Direct Entry is a huge selling point (which is exactly why UW-Madison opted for it). Seems likely that a good amount of growth will come from that method. Still, more potential seats means, given a set retention rate, more actual openings for transfers.
In regards to post #3, UW has become a target school. Many employers are impressed with the career preparedness. Also, a high percentage of students are starting summer internships by the end of Sophomore year and the outreach from alumni has been amazing ( to say the least).
I have done a lot of research, and to be totally honest in regards to Madison, I don’t think there is a way for random people to acccurately chance you. My daughter has been admitted to Carlson and Kelley already, and based on her high school’s stats for how many they send to Madison yearly and what their stats were, we are terribly scared. I would probably tell anyone from our school that a 31/3.9UW has less than a 50% chance. Others from WI would tell a different story. I am a Native WI resident, I know the HUGE difference in admits from connections and research. There are three distinct admit situations, OOS, MN, and WI. I haven’t looked into international, East Coast, etc. I just know the picture is entirely different for all three of these. I also know the picture is different for our high school than other ones in our state.
I’m a couple years out so some of my knowledge is from recent grads and current students in the business school and from those majoring in finance. I wasn’t thinking globally and I may have made a false presumption that @JBSStillFlying was an intended finance major. Yes, if a marketing, real estate, or actuarial science major he would join a related business club. To clarify, if a desired finance major and not admitted to the B Sch Econ is the parallel major. re: essay – crap shoot was poor choice. What I was trying to say was the essay is a random topic often unrelated to business. 2 years ago the topic asked you to write a several page essay on campus diversity and race relations. And a well thought out and well written essay is critical, just as important as that high GPA, perfect resume, club memberships.
Didn’t know they were admitting more B students, both direct and soph. Got the numbers for that? UI Kelly and UM Carlson are automatic entry if you’re above their ACT/SAT and GPA benchmark. Not so slam dunk at UW B.
re: target school – UW B School is not a target school for bulge bracket banks for finance majors wanting to enter the investment banking field. Maybe for other majors but not for IB. The Investment Banking Club is the best and probably only conduit for IB internships.
Actually @UW2016, my D from two years ago was the potential business major (she ended up at another school and in another major). My son, if accepted, would do Poly. Sci. at CLS. So my questions have nothing to do with having a relevant interest, other than keeping tabs on what’s happening at WSB (which is a lot). My daughter’s application cycle was when they opened the door to direct entry - she had just been admitted EA to pre-bus. when they made the announcement and sent out application info. They were required to do an essay (that might not be true anymore for direct entry) and while I don’t recall the topic exactly, it sounded “business’y” and pretty uncontroversial. If you search through the CC posts from a couple years ago (early 2017) you can probably find the topic and some discussion on numbers. Starting last year’s app. cycle (ie this fall’s entering class), I believe they were planning to fill the first year class primarily with Direct Entry. That would mean any transfers can only enter to the extent that someone drops between year’s one and two. But could be remembering incorrectly.
It’s true that they are going to expand WSB - it’s a huge boon for the university. They were also thinking of dropping the full-time MBA program and just offering specialized masters but ended up dropping that idea due to a backlash among alums and other groups. The problem is that full-time MBA programs at anything but the tippy top are seeing declining enrollment because so many kids are getting the education at the undergraduate level now. It makes sense to grow the undergrad program and perhaps the part-time program, but not the full-time.
@CAmom01 - the international admission rate for UW-Madison is about 40% currently. I think it makes sense to consider MN as a separate pool from the others and possibly one with higher stats required to be admitted. The numbers have gone up and down over the past 10 years but still currently hovers around what it did 10 years ago. The number of WI enrollees is also hovering around the same number as 10 years ago due to demographic factors. The growth is going to be OOS and international, just due to the tuition potential. They have to prioritize In-State so will give them a stats break. They want more OOS so might give them a stats break as well. International and MN might have the highest burden stats-wise, and you see that in the admit rates (MN being a few points lower, int’l several points lower still, from the OOS rate).
UMN says it’s holistic admission, but the primary factors are GPA, course rigor, class rank and test score. Also, they don’t require a rec. letter and the essays are completely optional. So stats are key. Carlson isn’t auto-admit, athough they do admit primarily on stats. You don’t need business experience to get into Carlson but you do need sufficiently high stats.
DA to the business school is all done through the office of admissions now, there is no second application for freshman. Only students applying through the pre-business process or direct transfer from another UW system school use the WSB application. The past admission cycle over 600 students were admitted through the DA process, more than 750 through the pre-bus/direct transfer process.
If a student is not a DA to the WSB they have to decide what’s most important, a business degree or a degree from UW. If it’s a business degree and they have been directly admitted to Carlson or Kelley, then they should go there. If its a degree from UW, then they can work hard their first year and apply to the WSB, but they have to go in knowing that admission is not guaranteed so they need to have a parallel plan from day one.
@JBStillFlying what do you think those stats are for (nearly) auto-direct admit for Carlson for OOS? Do you think 3.66UW/4.41W 33 ACT would cut it? 7 AP’s and otherwise all honors when possible. Ergo the discrepancy between UW and W. Solid extracurriculars and even somewhat related to Business Marketing.
Anyone able to guess on threshold for admittance to WSB? Our couselor said last year everyone from our school with 32+ ACT and solid GPA was admitted to Madison in general. Only one 31 was admitted and everyone else rejected. But… no idea what school within UW-Madison they were applying to.
Does anyone think females have an advantage since they seem to have more males applying? Being from IL trying to find any advantage possible since so many fleeing IL for WI and MN!
Also, for all of these schools if you don’t get direct admit into business school will they consider admitting you into L&S or CLA?
@doglover2001 - Carlson has about a 28% - 29% admit rate every year and I don’t believe they differentiate between in-state and OOS anywhere close to what UW-Madison does. According to the CDS, residency is not considered, though I’m a bit skeptical. However, maybe the large tuition difference has now changed things. Your ACT at the very least is fine for either Carlson or WSB.
I think for WSB the Plan B would automatically be L&S. For Carlson, they would consider your 2nd choice if you make a strong case for it; CLA is certainly a reasonable back-up plan.
Now that Eng. and Bus. are direct admit for the majority if not all entrants, that threshold ACT number isn’t as relevant in predicting admission since you don’t know what schools or colleges at UW are in the “green” at that number. Wouldn’t surprise me if it takes a 32 from most to be admitted to L&S from OOS, and then higher for WSB and Eng, but others don’t agree. It should be noted that UW-Madison weighs GPA, course load and class rank (if available) as higher than the test score, and ranks letters and essay on par. So test score isn’t viewed in a vacuum.
@JBStillFlying thanks, your input is very appreciated since you definitely seem well researched. Not happy with the message but won’t kill the messenger. We thought Of MN as a safety but now the safety seems to be Kelley which isn’t so bad we will know soon enough and will keep fingers crossed!
@doglover2001 Kelly is a fantastic “backup”! And the odds are probably very good that you get into at least two of your choices, given your stats, and pretty decent that you get into all three. It’s super-hard to know anything this year; my son is a 1530 SAT (790v/740m) and 3.94 uw gpa with the hardest courseload that his school offers, and he’s still waiting on honors college from CLA. Others with great but still weaker stats have already been invited. So who knows what’s going on.
@JBStillFlying it is hard to know, right! But your sons stats are impeccable so that seems like a no brainer. Where else has he applied (if you are sharing)? I thought he was business but you said CLA. Probably getting mixed up with others.
@doglover2001 He’s applying to several selective schools in addition to UW-Madison and what he assumed would be his safety: CLA Honors at UMN. He’s definitely not Business but his older sister was considering business or economics a couple years ago. S19 is looking to something like poly sci and history which are renowned programs at UW-Madison. And he loved the campus when he visited so would be pretty bummed if he doesn’t get accepted. But it is, after all, not his state institution so he knows it can still be tough even for the high stats kids, especially the ones from MN. He knows of at least one at his school last year who was a surprise waitlist.
we will know soon enough and will keep fingers crossed!