<p>S has finally made a decision and decided not to attend UW-Madison. His admissions counselor is not longer at UW, so he sent an email to the general admissions email address stating that he was declining admission. Is there anything else he should do?</p>
<p>Never mind! The UW-Admissions office got back to us right away. We have been very impressed with the whole process at the UW.</p>
<p>Where did your son decide to go if you care to share?</p>
<p>How did you get the refund for the housing deposit back? Did the email suffice or did you have to hand write a letter?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>A separate letter to housing, and it has to be postmarked by May 1.</p>
<p>S will be attending Macalester College in St Paul, but participating in ROTC at the University of Minnesota, so he’ll have a little bit of the big school experience. It took S a long time to decide between the small LAC and Madison, as both offer a great education, but a very different type of experience. He felt that he could be happy with either one.</p>
<p>In any case, it is great to know that one of the kids who were waitlisted and really want to go to Madison will get the chance to take his place in the class of 2013.</p>
<p>OperaDad - Thank you for your help.</p>
<p>I live in Wisconsin and declined admission. My father went to UW and my sister is there now.</p>
<p>where are you going instead of UW bbbgirl?</p>
<p>I am going to the University of Richmond. It came down to UW, Boston College, Emory and Richmond.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That’s not quite how it works. Waitlisted kids aren’t even usually admitted.</p>
<p>That is not true. WI offered admission to at least 375 kids off the wait list last year. You never know what will happen this year.</p>
<p>I decided not to attend WI this fall. </p>
<p>Good luck to everyone on their waitlist! :)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Hence the operative word, usually. I can give you a link to the definition if you need it.</p>
<p>It’s not common for waitlisted kids to be admitted, and one kid declining admission doesn’t mean another would be offered admission immediately. Just because some were last year doesn’t mean that’ll happen again this year, or that they won’t. It all depends.</p>
<p>All I am saying is that 500 kids were admitted off the waitlist last year, the first 300 offered to WI residents and the remaining to out of state kids. I am not saying it is a guarantee but witht the crazy economic times I would not be surprised if WI goes to the waitlist again. Although you would really have to want to go to WI because housing will be all filled up with the exception of private housing and SOAR orientation dates will be very limited.</p>
<p>S1732-Can you be a little more specific in how your S chose an LAC college over UW? I’m in the same boat and am pretty torn, and would love any kind of advice.</p>
<p>Sammuelthegreaet77 and all,</p>
<p>My daughter was in the same boat. Her list had UW and about 9 LAC’s in the upper Midwest. We visited many of the LAC’s, some were applied to from research and recommendation, etc… She ruled out some as we looked farther into the programing offered at each. She “thinks” she has some pretty specific things in mind she would like to study, and plans to go to some kind of graduate school too.</p>
<p>Her specifics for programs were Creative Writing (NOT English in general), Studio Arts, and a good Psychology program that would prepare for grad school in the counseling area more than research area.</p>
<p>A few of the LAC’s were ruled out after looking into their programs, 2 she did not get into - Carleton and Macalaster - and a few more after getting the Financial Aid Award letters. The “list” price of the LAC’s she was looking at varied from 35K to 47K and after scholarships, grants etc would range from 8K to about 28K. So at one we would have saved 10K per year over UW and at the other end would have paid 10K more… the 10K less sounded best :)</p>
<p>If you at all are thinking of a VERY small (1300 +/- students school) and have good stats - my daughter had 28 ACT and 3.9+ GPA and a great writier - and a fairly low EFC - ours was about 7-8K, they have GREAT scholarships available. Great small campus, but not much off campus. Great staff, we sat in on a class of 6 in English. For anyone looking a Writing they are almost unheard of overall, but are considered one of the best Writing programs nationally.</p>
<p>Her other top choice seemed to be St Olaf near the Twin Cities. Wonderful campus, town, and Carleton is there too,in a town of only 20,000 people. Outstanding programs. If you are looking for a world class education in a mid-sized LAC, but not cut throat competitive, this is one to look at. Slightly higher academic profile than UW, but similar. Many unique (I thought) “things” such as daily chapel service (not mandatory, but well attended), their head of theology (at a Lutheran school) is a Buddhist, an Honor system where everyone leaves there backpacks on open shelves and there is never a problem, one of the highest study abroad rate of any college in the nation, outstanding music (St Olaf choir), HUGE art department for a school their size, and extensive program similar to UW’s FIG’s, VERY accessible professors, etc… In the end, she (daughter) I think felt in was to far from home, a little to small. I wonder if part of it wasn’t that it seemed “too” perfect; everyone was beautiful, everything was perfect, food was outstanding (#3 nationally rated), etc… She likes a little more variety I think. Interestingly, they had a LOT of staff that were UW grads in the programs areas that she was looking at.</p>
<p>I think part of her decision in choosing Madison was the more we visited the smaller it felt, the less it seemed “city like” and more “park like” with the Lakes etc… helped a lot. As we looked deeper into the programs (which there are obviously more of) we realized the strength of the LAC type of subjects - Creative Writing in particular - that you don’t hear much about in general because they are overshadowed by the science’s, business, etc… She loves the vibe of a progressive city that has “variety” of people, cultures, etc… On a couple of our visits of student tour guides put her at ease somewhat about the “inaccessibility” of the professors too. </p>
<p>A few things in particular that she is going to do or thinking about doing to give it more of a LAC feel are; The Residential Learning Communities, possibly a FIG - First Year Interest Group, and participating in some particular extracurriculars that will build upon her interest to this point in her life. </p>
<p>As I told her, count yourself lucky enough that you have the choice of a world class university or world class LAC’s, not everyone has that, and I’m sure either is a great choice.</p>
<p>Sorry to be long winded, but it was a long process :0</p>
<p>DJD</p>
<p>Sammuelthegreaet77,</p>
<p>Throughout my son’s college search, he got the sense that he could be happy just about at a school of any size, as long as his classes were good and there were things to do - both on campus or off. He also knew that wanted a school in an urban setting. He wasn’t stuck on being at a school with Division 1 sports, although he is a lifelong Badger fan and both his father and grandfather are alumns. </p>
<p>S was mostly put off by the huge lecture format of many of the freshman intro classes at UW (while you can get around that in some of the honors programs), so the smaller class sizes at the LAC appealed to him. He really enjoyed the classes he participated in at the LAC when he visited. He liked the personal attention he recieved at the LAC - and while a little concerned about the social aspects of a small school - he thinks that he can make it work. </p>
<p>Finally, we are from Wisconsin and about 35 students (probably more this year) go to UW-Madison from my son’s high school each year. He sort of wanted to go somewhere different.</p>
<p>Father here of a student attending UW and a daughter who writes to this forum and declined UW. I also graduated from UW. We live in Wisconsin and we are easily in regular contact with a dozen families with students at UW.</p>
<p>UW is a big school and it acts like a big school. The quality of the classes are inconsistent and many are large even into your junior year. It is very difficult for students to get academic help and tutoring, and many courses are taught by TAs who are not easy to track down for help. Advisers are overburdened and also difficult to meet with. </p>
<p>Don’t fool yourself that the school feels small. It is not. The most common complaint we hear and the reputation of UW, that is earned, is that it is not student friendly. They may try but it does not seem to work.</p>
<p>Define many course taught by TA’s. Most that I know about were low level math, english comp, and languages classes. And those classes are kept very small. I never had trouble meeting with my adviser and most profs complain students never come by anymore–they just email which is no way to get help or build a relationship. Sometimes students are not the best sources of factual information if you know what I mean. Walking by the tutor once and seeing they are busy at that minute is not exactly making a great effort.</p>