ESL required for all international students???

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Wisconsin
1

I just heard from one of the admissions officers that every international students are required to take an English proficiency test.
I was told that I will likely to be placed in English as Foreign Language courses (a.k.a ESL courses) after taking the test.
I felt strange about it since I scored higher than 110 in Toefl and 2000 in SAT and none of other colleges accpeted me required me to take such courses.
So it seems like UWM’s policy puts most of the international students in ESL courses.

Honestly, we, international students, have a really negative view against the ESL system.
It costs of $1000+ and makes us get behind of others by taking overly easy courses.

I want to know whether I am actually likely to be placed in ESL and whether there is a way to get out of it.

Thank you

2

You know…
I was able to get out of ESL (and I believe I was the only one for my year through endless phone calls -not passing exams-)

The exam as I know is has a 99.99% non-pass rate which vastly differs from the regular English test which has almost 55% pass rate.
It is made to (no offense) reap as much money from Internationals as possible. From seeing my friends, the ESL classes give tons of pointless homework…

That being said, 2000 on SAT shouldn’t be a reason that you don’t take the ESL.
I had a 36 on my English (translated to 800 Critical Reading and 800 Writing) and I was technically forced to take the ESL classes. I know right? Isn’t this stupidly funny? (Not that I really care now that I got accepted to top 5-15 schools for transfer)

And as of getting out…
If you want to stay sly as me, on the day of examinations, take the REGULAR english test first and THEN the eslat. Yes, this might sound awkward but if you do extremely well on the regular english test, you could technically make a convincing argument not to take the ESL class. That being said, getting out? Your’e on your own boy. It’s pretty much impossible. I had to phone 32 times and meet physically 3 times (and I had a few calls in which the admissions officer said “1 more and you will be rescinded from the university” <= not that I care cause I could always re-apply the following year)

I believe there are a few documents out there about ESL @ UW-Madison. If you did your research, you should be able to come up with a very convincing argument to get out of ESL. (Oh ya, make sure when you phone that your phone does NOT go to the ESL department. Those people there want as much people in their department as possible to earn money)

https://apir.wisc.edu/generaleducation/ESL_Analysis.pdf
“Exceptions are rarely made. An example of an exception would be if a student’s entire secondary
school curriculum was in English.”
Good luck getting out bro. It’s quite impossible and I think I was the only ever exception in UW-Madison campus without passing the ESL test. hahaha

P.S. The ESL classes (118) is not “easy” by any means. You write 11-13 page essays.
I personally think ESL 118 shouldn’t even exist but then… …
and as of the “internationals thought about esl” part. Yap, I think pretty much every internationals think like that. Many of the internationals I saw write better english than the instates. Yet, the instates by default are not enrolled in ESL. ESL is a waste of time, space, etc. for those who truly believe they should not be there.
And it doesn’t help that the pass rate for ESLAT is practically 0. Ironic that I had a friend who also took the normal english test. On the normal one, he scored some of the highest in all incoming freshman. On the ESLAT, he couldn’t even pass it (rofl)

P.P.S. Oh ya, I heard the ESL system changed a bit this year. Once you arrive to campus, talk to the freshman counselor representative, I’m sure you can reason it out with him.
It seems it’s only the admissions office and the esl department that forces even the most ‘capable’ students to take esl.