Hi, I’m a high school senior and am going to be applying to UW Madison.
International student
Major - Chemistry
SAT - 2140
SAT(superscored) - 2230
SAT II Chemistry - 740/800
SAT II Math - 720/800
GPA(unweighted) - 3.5/4
Pursuing an IB diploma
Have done 4 internships in hospitals, pharmaceutical companies etc. with recommendation letters from all of them.
Have done over 100 hours of volunteering as well.
National level spell bee as well.
Can you please chance me for UW-Madison?
Your gpa is rather low. It helps if it has been better each year- showing improvement. If you do get in consider the Honors Chemistry sequence- great in a top notch department.
Anyone else? I would really appreciate it cause I really am set on UW-Madion.
What’s your class rank?
My school doesn’t rank.
btw- UW does not superscore.
@Cavk is the SAT score of 2140 your best overall score? What are the crit. reading and math subscores?
The 2140 converts to around a 31 ACT which is solid. Wisconsin residents submit an average ACT of around 28 so you’d want to be higher than that as non-residents (both domestic and international) face a more selective process. For international students the admission rate has been right under 25% (see the link below) so the stronger the stats, rec. letter and essays, the better.
https://apir.wisc.edu/admissions/New_Freshmen_Applicants.pdf
Good luck to you!
Do you have any extracurricular activities?
Plenty. National level spell bee, 5 online courses from coursera and edX, over 140 hours of volunteering, internships in hospitals, pharma companies etc. and research assistant to a PhD student
I believe UW Madison to be a match for you. Though the unweighted GPA may be considered low, it is looked at in context and if you were doing IB that will certainly help.
Looking at the grades in context- students are expected to pursue the most rigorous curriculum they can (including are available to them) and do well. This means that taking honors/AP/IB classes still means getting high grades. Cutting slack for those classes is akin to grade weighting.
Does “pursue the most rigorous curriculum they can” mean according to your abilities or according to what your school offers? I thought you were supposed to shoot for the latter. If you are capable of honors/AP it’s pretty easy to opt for the non-honors track just to make sure you keep your GPA high. Some class ranks do weight for the harder courses but others don’t so it’s hard to gauge whether that applicant has really challenged himself/herself.
If someone consistently takes honors/AP/IB and gets a few B’s I’m not sure the colleges hold that against the student. Sometimes stretching yourself means you are out of your depth in a subject area.
Having said that, a 3.5 would suggest more than just a few B’s.
Well, I am pursuing an IB diploma program. Although my GPA might be low, its because i do terrible in foreign language and math, which are both at Standard Level.
To compensate for math a bit, I did the Math I subject sat(720).
Besides, i have heard from my counselor that coming from an IB program,universities pay more attention to the Higher level subjects where my GPA is a solid 3.7.
Rigor is determined by what your HS offers. This does not mean you need to take 100% of the most rigorous offerings but you are expected to take advantage of them and do well in them. Your HS will submit information about this- your guidance counselor will check off boxes and write information. UW would want to know why a student took few AP courses when many are offered. The student whose school only offers a few will not be penalized for not being able to take many.
If your abilities dictate avoiding the rigorous courses your HS offers you likely are not UW material. Likewise if your abilities do not yield mostly A’s, including in the AP/IB classes, you are likely not UW material. Part of the admissions process is competitive with other applicants but part is also admitting students a school feels will be successful. High ability students who do not get good grades may not succeed if they lack the necessary study skills. There are reasons both grades and test scores are submitted.
btw- having tons of extracurriculars, no matter how noble (such as volunteering), is no substitute for academic achievement. You should have been learning more and getting better grades.
The IB to GPA conversion is hell. A 4 in IB translates to 2.7 while 6 translates to 3.75. Which is why my GPA went down.
I have Bs in only 2 subjects - the other 4 Higher Level subjects are As.
BTW - I don’t mean to argue for my case - just wanted to gain some confidence as I send out my application and evaluate my application list from a different perspective.
Thanks for all the help!
@Cavk what is the breakdown of your SAT?
According to the current Common Data Set (C11-12) your GPA is at the bottom 6% of admitted students. However, your SAT might make up for that. Here is the breakdown of the mid-50% range:
Crit Read 560 - 660
Math 630 - 760
Writing 600 - 690
Whoa- translating IB scoring to the common one is simple. You get the top score in IB it translates to the top score in a 4.0 system. You report lesser scores. I’m sure there are students who do get top scores out there. If this is rare UW will be able to handle it- some Wisconsin schools offer IB programs. Presumably your HS offers the instruction needed to perform well in IB- you’re supposed to take advantage of the education offered to you. You may have done no better with AP or regular courses…