<p>If I were evaluating applications I would compare students in the same HS. As an example my son took honors geometry and received a “B”, another student took regular and received an “A+”. A couple of years later they both took Calculus and my son received an “A” the other student “B”. The other student had a 3.8 and my son 3.6 with similar SAT’s. Use this example across all subjects and it would be possible to reject a 3.8 and accept the 3.6.</p>
<p>Finally got the email- at 8:20 on a Saturday night! Accepted! Good luck Hannah and Erica and all others!</p>
<p>Metzmom–congrats! Mind sharing stats?</p>
<p>Sure- NY, ACT 32, GPA 3.92 UW, 4.03 W, 2 letters of rec, Class President. My S spent a lot of time on his essays and since we visited Madison, he made them quite detailed. First choice is still U Michigan but he is very happy about Wisco. Good luck to everybody!</p>
<p>Super happy for you, and best of luck with Michigan too!</p>
<p>Based on what we see here in North Jersey, I think your applicant gets into Michigan as well. But I would be very careful about the whole “number one choice” thing. It really depends on what the major is. I know I chose not pay a premium of nearly $60K over four years to send my kid into a life sciences program that is good at Michigan, but has not been quite as strong as Wisconsin’s. I’d run the same comparison for junior’s major as well, unless you consider $60,000 to be a rounding error.</p>
<p>Yes, based on the same consideration, we did not even apply to U of Michigan. It is a great school for Business and such, but in Biosciences UW Madison is far better. Got to think of ROI. The criteria for everyone is different. For us, UW Madison is a better deal.</p>
<p>I agree that Michigan is not worth the cost for someone in the northeast (connecticut). My son is going to major in business so if we were going to pay over 50K then he would have gone to NYU Tisch which is the second best business school in the NE. Michigan is very popular in our HS, about 50 students were accepted and 15 enrolled. My son didn’t apply, but I thought he had an 80% chance. Good luck Metzmom hope your son is accepted to UM.</p>
<p>You all are getting me worried. I go to a pretty selective and rigorous prep school, and i am easily top 15%, but we are known for grade deflation. We don’t even really do GPA, but i would guess my UW is hovering at or just below a 3.8. 2270 SAT scores, year abroad during highschool, lots of political clubs, etc, have been to nationals for my sport(but its only considered club at most universities). Chances??? Im getting so apprehensive</p>
<p>midwesthopeful you should be accepted.</p>
<p>Thanks for all your kind words on my son not being accepted. To answer some questions his 3.8 is weighted and he has been receiving A and B’s in his AP classes. Over the past few days I have been receiving emails and calls from parents who themselves and their children are upset and bewildered why my son didn’t get into “our” school, we are WI residents. So much so that a few students want to get a petition going and have the community sign it and tell UW how outragged they are. There is one student from our hs who received a 26 act and didn’t have much other experience and was accepted…</p>
<p>What I have not posted and was NOT “sold” in his application is that my son wants to persue oncology because he himself is a cancer survivor. He is a low key kid, and doesn’t go out to sell this or himself but it know in our community as a stellar person. He actually should not be around right now given his life threatening illness, but he is.</p>
<p>I am torn right now whether to let his happen or again if the school doesn’t want him why should we really want the school? He was accepted within a weeks at 5 other state schools as well as being notified of scholarships he is being recommended for.</p>
<p>Madison in my “bias” opinion will be loosing out on someone who during this freshman year and for that matter the rest of his life will truely make a difference in the world.</p>
<p>Hi, I’m a new member, but have been following the threads while waiting to hear about a decision for my D. Congratulations on your admission. We are in Westchester as well. The notification changed this morning to “Admission Decision Letter” but there was nothing to “view” and we haven’t received an email yet. Has anyone else seen this? So anxious…</p>
<p>farcast: In reading your post, I understand your son did not want to be the poster boy for cancer survivors, but in his case, he has a very unusual situation that really does set him apart from other applicants. If he did not really “sell” this part of himself in his essays to UW, then it really is I think important for him to talk to Admissions about this and perhaps appeal and resubmit another essay in which he explains all of this. Admissions uses the essays to discover what the applicant is really like, and I have a feeling if they knew more about him, he would have been accepted, especially if another person with lesser ACT scores was accepted. They do evaluate a person holistically I believe so the essays are important. And yes, if the UW GPA is lower than 3.8, that might have been a factor as to why he was denied, but the extenuating circumstances about his cancer certainly would have mitigated that fact…</p>
<p>I live in California and every year kids with 4.0 GPA get rejected from our top universities, like Berkeley and UCLA. We just do not have space for all of them, so I understand your anger at being a Wisconsin resident and not getting into your top state university. </p>
<pre><code>But if your son really lists UW Madison as his first choice, then maybe it is worth an appeal or at least looking into it. It should be up to him though…it may not be worth it to you, but maybe it is worth it to him? Only he can answer that question.
</code></pre>
<p>Good luck with all of his other choices and please let us know what he and you decide.</p>
<p>I’ve been reading that there are lots of students who are being postponed/denied with a gpas and act scores that they thought would normally be accepted. While I agree that this is important factor, you must realize that it is not the only factor. Admissions do not want to see more than just good numbers. It is also important to be well-rounded, extra curriculars, leadership, jobs, uniqueness, excellent essays and recommendations. So many people underestimate the significance of the essay, it is really really important!! Even if you had really good test scores, if you are a boring person in terms of everything else, you could just be tossed aside.</p>
<p>Furthermore, yes, the university does admit students that do not have great numbers. One factor that may explain this is what I have stated before: essays, extra curriculars, etc. Another thing is to increase diversity. If that one student has a unique skill or something. It may even be with majors. If a student indicates a major that is not very commonly pursued, the university may be more likely to accept them in order to have students in a particular major program. Furthermore, if the majority of students are 3.7 gpa, 29 act, pursuing engineering and pre-med majors, there wouldn’t be much diversity. Also keep in mind that some of the major programs are selective, so it is not possible to admit too many of one intended major.
Because of different high schools and their grading, a 3.8 at one school may mean a 3.6 in another, it is hard to compare between high schools or even in high schools in that way.
Finally, the numbers are not viewed as very rigid. The difference between an ACT score of 26 and 28 may seem very big, but it may not be in the eyes of an admission counselor. There are studies that have shown students with different gpas/act scores are on the same level in terms of success in college and post-college (jobs, grad school, etc) because they receive the same college education. And a 4.0 in high school won’t necessarily guarantee success in college. </p>
<p>Every year it gets more competitive. In summary, work hard on your application. If you are postponed, then work harder, join clubs, get involved, find a way to STAND OUT! If it doesn’t work out this year, you could always transfer or who knows? You might find another school that you love more! Good luck!</p>
<p>I doubt the proposed major counts or students would be declaring majors they thought would get them in. Most students enter college undeclared or change the major they start with. There are far too many students who could do well and benefit from a UW-Madison education than UW has room for. There is more room in the upper levels so students can transfer in to do their major and benefit from the UW education in their chosen field. The unweighted gpa matters. The essays matter.</p>
<p>There are over 28K applications. Is there enough time in the day to distinguish between 10 candidates?? Does it go to committee before they offer an acceptance? How many admissions people are there?? I think that its a major disadvantage for UW not to use ED. I believe its all a numbers game with multiple bins.</p>
<p>Well it may not be specifically majors, but some students may talk about their intended major in their essay. For example a secondary education major may talk about their unique experience and passion for their path, thus scoring them points to possibly make up for a lower gpa/act. (Yet another example of how essays are big on the application)</p>
<p>just got postponed today. the wait continues…</p>
<p>Hey, I have a bit of a problem. I accepted my admittance, but it took me a long time to find my credit card and then the server timed out, so now it says that I’m technically accepted but the deposit isn’t paid, and I can’t go back to the credit card info screen to actually pay it.</p>
<p>Is this a major concern? Who do I contact about it?</p>
<p>First, just be glad you’ve been admitted.
Second, you have until May 1st to pay the deposit, so no worries.
Third, call in the next 2 days to the Bursar’s Office and see if your payment went thru.</p>
<p>Don’t worry…be happy!</p>