Hello All,
My D is planning on applying to Madison for Fall of 2017. Her current GPA is a 3.5, she just ended her sophomore year. We are going on a visit tomorrow to check out the campus. However I am worried because her freshman year gap was a 2.6. Now I am not one to make excuses but she did have a lot of health issues freshman year, she had a cancer scare that turned out to be Krohn’s disease and got better the summer before her sophomore year. Then we moved so she is a at a different high school now than she was freshman year and is doing much much better.I am worried because this is where she wants to go and of course there’s nothing we can do about her freshman grades now but does Madison really look at freshman grades? She is on a upward trend and taking two AP classes next year and is studying for the ACT. I just don’t want her to fall in love with the school just to find out that there’s no point because of her freshman year grades is used to calculate her cumulative GPA. Any guidance is much appreciated. Thanks!
Application review is holistic. There is a place to give more detail on anything she believes needs explaining. ACT is very important. A low GPA with 26 or lower ACT may be hard to overcome.
Is she a WI resident?
No we are in IL close to the WI border. We are also looking at Urbana but Madison is closer to home so that would be our second choice.
Right now we are shooting for at least a 28 on the ACT.
What courses caused the 2.6 in freshman year? If it was electives, don’t worry too much; however, If they are core curriculum (math, science, English, etc.), has she raised those grades consistently in each subsequent quarter/semester? In other words, I think an upward trend is going to be critical (it was for my son) overall, and consistently more challenging courses with higher grades will help her in. The ACT 28 has to be the bare minimum you shoot for, I think, speaking as an OOSer. It also helps to have some back-up like maybe SAT Subject Tests in the 700 range (it’s not that hard to do).
She’s raised the grades and in her core classes her sophomore year she got As in math (after a D in math fresh year-ouch) and science she raised to a B as well as English she raised to a B. I know the D hurt her and had she gotten a higher grade the GPA wouldn’t have been as low.
Do not worry. UW looks at grade trends- they will see an overall gpa but also see the huge improvement from one year to the next. Some students have no medical or other issues except lack of maturity and improving grades makes a difference. The improved grades info comes from a years ago talk from a UW rep in our town.
Students need to keep up the grades as a falling gpa is also noted. Junior year is particularly important as that is the last year seen by admissions when they are evaluating applications.