<p>My son will be taking politcal science and history classes, he will be required to write papers. I will tell him about the writing center (he doesn’t read this board, lucky for me). As a student I didn’t want to take writing in fact I received few B’s and I got nailed twice in writing. My two kids in College write well, there is no way that they would be required to take writing. There is also a major difference in writing a composotion for the SAT/ACT and writng a research paper for a history class. I am sure that many students at NYU would rather not take a year of writing, they can surely make the same arguments that were made on this board (it also costs a hell of a lot more per credit).</p>
<p>As a current freshman at UW your statements are quite outlandish. Wisconsin has a very good public school system in comparison to most states. Also, the grading all depends on your TA, obviously some are tougher than others…</p>
<p>I guess what I am trying to say is that most students that get into UW are among the top few in their class. In my sons class there were over 100 super very smart students. I view undergraduate college as I viewed HS 35 years ago, you need a very high GPA to get into the most competitive graduate programs (required today to get a job). In UW you are admitted to the university and then must apply to your special college (in most cases). My son is going to apply to the business school in the spring, he has all the requirements. If he were already in the school his coarse load would be completely different. My son is excellent in math and science, but there are many students in those classes that can lock him out of getting an “A” (just like HS). I recommended that he take political science and history classes because he writes at an extremely high level and he spends many hours researching facts that I feel make him more likely to get the “A” s he will need to get into the business school and then into a top graduate program (Law school). Many of these 3.8 plus students have never seen competition at the college level. Many may think that because they got straight “A” s in HS that they can do the same in UW, some will most won’t. My son already has seen MIT students in his science and Math classes, in most HS’s he would have over a 4 unweighted GPA.</p>
<p>You don’t know that much about UW or Wisconsin. Only a few programs require a separate application to the program and that is because of limited teaching facilities. The smartest/best students are not in the business school, although very smart students do choose that field. Education is another limited program school. That is because UW wants all majors to be able to get the required classes. Only some engineering fields are limited- the popularity far out strips the (expensive) facilities. Not surprising that your son, while good in math/science, isn’t near the top in those areas. Top freshmen with interest can take rigorous Honors sequences in Math, Physics and/or Chemistry and students after enough chemistry the Biocore Honors sequence. ILS (integrated liberal studies) also has honors courses. Your son likely didn’t take any of those and didn’t encounter the best students in those fields. Don’t count on your son shining in Poli Sci because you perceive it as easier - UW has a good reputation in that field and it will draw good students as well. Be sure he picks his courses for interest, not potential grades. Grad schools (not Law or Medical) only care about the grades in their field, related to it. Students will take other upper level courses and not care if they get a B, but will have been able to stretch some different mental muscles.</p>
<p>btw- it is impossible to have greater than a 4.0 (maybe a 4.3 with +/-) unweighted, I’ll never know how high son’s HS gpa could have been if he had worked up to his ability and his school had weighted grades.</p>
<p>Ideally, parents could set up their own, personal undergraduate schools for their children. That way, they could completely control the class content, grades assigned, and quality of classmates. This could then ensure the child’s acceptance into the graduate programs of the parent’s choice. Hmmm…HSU (Home school college), sounds like a plan.</p>
<p>addenda- among son’s HS friends 2 got UW business bachelors recently. One was in actuarial science and had to take some upper level math- the B school students struggled compared to the math majors. Both had higher HS grades but high although lower than son’s test scores.</p>
<p>The only program that I looked into was business. In our HS an A+ is a 4.3 and this isn’t weighted. When I say that my son isn’t near the top in Math/science I am comparing him to his HS classmates. In an AP/Physics C 90% of the students went to Ivy league schools or MIT, we have classes with Max of 20. The top students have 10-15 AP classes the time they graduate. There was one a few years ago that had 22 AP’s with all 5’s. My son isn’t in that class of student but either are many in UW.</p>