Hi all, my son will be applying to UW as an OOS applicant in the fall for freshmen admissions. We’ve done a lot of research to narrow his list of schools to a manageable number of 5 schools that we truly believe are good fits. One of my concerns was to limit the number of admission essays that my son had to compose so that he could really put his best effort into ones he had to complete. Wisconsin’s webpage lists the essay topics below and I just wanted to confirm with anyone who knows that these essay subjects are going to the be same for next year’s class. If so, my son would likely work on the essays over the summer so that he could submit his app shortly after it goes live in September. Thanks in advance for your responses.
- Consider something in your life you think goes unnoticed and write about why it's important to you.
- Tell us why you decided to apply to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition, share with us the academic, extracurricular, or research opportunities you would take advantage of as a student. If applicable, provide details of any circumstance that could have had an impact on your academic performance and/or extracurricular involvement.
Likely no one knows if those will be the same essays, but I believe they have been in place for two cycles now.
Thanks @Madison85. UW’s website states that freshmen applicants can apply as early as September, so I guess the prudent thing then would be to wait until September 1 to make sure that those are the same questions. Only three of the schools my son is applying to require essay(s) - Wisconsin, Texas and Ohio State. The other two to three schools do not require essays. We want to get apps into the three schools above by their first notification date so if my son could work on the essays over the summer that would have been great.
The previous essay prompts were used for many years until the current admissions director was hired. The current questions are ‘her’ questions. I should have said they’ve only been used for two years now.
If my kid were applying this year, I would take a chance and definitely have her write the essays over the summer with the prompts you listed above.
I agree with your suggestion above. There’s not much downside to rolling the dice and using those essay topics this summer. Even if the essays change, their might be some overlap in the topics and/or the current topics might have some similarities to topics he will need to address from either OSU or Texas.
Thanks as always your insights on this forum are greatly appreciated.
Aside from the good advice from Madison85, I’d suggest at least brainstorming question #1 thoroughly, even in the event the upcoming cycle’s questions change. Reason being question #1 can really distinguish a candidate about their own, personal life strengths. It could also likely be partially integrated into a different question.
2's replies could come off a bit redundant to ad coms: there are lots of things to love about UW, and the committee probably gets inundated by all of them, several times over. Not so much with #1, especially if it is thoughtful and well-written. Best of luck-
Thanks @anhydrite for your comments above however I’m surprised that a Badger such as yourself is on this forum this evening. Seems like you have a lot to celebrate this evening. 
@fatherof2boys If I may ask, which other two schools which do not require essay? I have to apply for my son and rest of the 3 choices seems to be similar.
@emacs2015, its my understanding that Minnesota, Iowa and Alabama do not require essays. Of the three Alabama offers the most merit aid full tuition with ACT score of 32+ or SAT (Math+Critical Reading) 1400+ as of last year’s cutoff.