Last night I found out that I was deferred from UW-Madison. I don’t exactly understand why, as I have a 3.65 in exclusively AP/advanced classes weighted at about a 3.85, a 33 ACT, and am a nationally recognized varsity athlete. I’m also involved in a number of extra curricular clubs and the school marching band, so I certainly wasn’t slacking off. Despite all of this, I was deferred while classmates of mine with 26 ACTs and 3.5 GPAs were admitted no questions asked. Not only that, but I’m the only person that I know of who hasn’t heard back from UM-Twin Cities after applying early. What happened? What do I do?
Get a quick outside confirmation that there’s no red flag on your app before you submit it to other colleges.
Find someone who hasn’t seen your app but who will be honest with you, even with uncomfortable subjects. GC? Family friend who has recent college app experience? Teacher? Have that person go through your app to see if there is anything that would give a college pause. Could be something innocent that is simply phrased awkwardly, could be an essay topic that isn’t working, could be nothing at all.
If that first person finds nothing, see if you can get another person to double check. Do this now before all the other apps are due.
Listen carefully and pay attention to the subtle cues the reviewers give you. Even honest people will generally be polite in their response, so listen as much to what they don’t say as to what they do say. If the reviewers ask questions, understand that whatever they’re asking about is something you need to strongly consider modifying on your app because an AO might have the same question and you won’t be around to address it.
After that, you’ve done all you can to put a good foot forward. Be kind to yourself and understand that every admissions cycle there are great kids who are denied due to factors beyond their control (college all ready has too many ____ majors, college has too many students from ____ and needs to diversify with students from other areas, three times as many men applied as women, etc.)
Hi Mike - are you in state or OOS for Madison? My son was accepted (last year) OOS to the Engineering school with stats that are similar to yours (3.7uw/34ACT). I am surprised at your deferral. Start by double-checking your UW portal and your Common APP to make sure everything is getting reported correctly. Speak to your counselor and see what they reported re: your course rigor, etc. Did you have a lot of absences? Or anything that needs to be explained better? Talk to folks that wrote your LORs, maybe something that they wrote didn’t line up with what you said in your essays (goals, work ethic, personality, etc). And definitely have someone read your essays with a critical eye. Did you visit Madison? My son was accepted last year while 2 classmates with slightly higher GPAs were not, I think it was his Madison-specific essay that gave him an advantage. He LOVES Madison and really felt like he would thrive there and be able to contribute a lot to the school/community - those things really came through in his essay. Good luck to you!
I am in-state and have had three older brothers who have attended the school. I have a very clean disciplinary record and don’t believe that I have anything particularly concerning on my application, but I will have others check again. Thanks for the help and congratulations to your son!
I’ll have a number of people look over it. In the meantime, what can I do to make my application better?
Get good first semester grades. Also- it may matter if your grades are improving, declining or remain the same over the last three years. You do not know all of the particulars about others either. That lower ACT plus that gpa may show willingness to put in the work to succeed and good study habits.
You have not been rejected. You are merely postponed into the March decision pool. btw- ALL AP/Honors classes in every class every year???
Madison has very different acceptance rates based on the program to which you were applying. If you mentioned your major of choice, I didn’t see it, but Enginnering and Business are much harder to get into than the College of Letters and Science.
Everyone gets admitted to the university as a whole- your major does not matter for that. There is flexibility in changing majors- but some will not have room (because of limits to ensure those in the major can get their classes).
Currently engineering and business, which used to be colleges/schools that required a UW record are now doing some (increasing to mostly?) direct admits. This may make it harder to transfer into these as so many places already taken based on the HS record. Each year’s stats for admission depends on those of the current crop of applicants. Changes in when/how admissions are done seems to reflect what other schools are doing.
Guessing the deferral at UW-Madison, as well as the delay at UMN, would be caused by the lower uw GPA compared to what else they have seen for the early round. If OP’s mid-year grades are strong, that will help a lot. Other things such as direction or variability of grades matter; while a 3.9 doesn’t have much wiggle room for low grades, a 3.65 might.
A deferral isn’t bad news per se if OP has reason to believe he/she is still being considered for first choice major. IS applicants have a significantly better chance of being admitted than either OOS or Int’l.