<p>It's a long article, but I was surprised to note that the average scores/GPA and class rank of OOS students are actually lower than those of the in-state students. Granted, they are slightly lower -- it's not like UW is admitting poor students, but it's a change from five years ago when S1 graduated, and UW specifically said that OOS standards were higher than in-state standards. According to the article, UW's OOS enrollment goal is now 25%, largely due to tuition income considerations (roughly $19K for OOS, $5K instate). </p>
<p>I have known that UW has a higher number of OOS students than most of the other Big 10 schools. Naively, I thought that was because we were pulling in better students from around the country to improve the caliber of our flagship school.</p>
<p>I'll be curious to see the local reaction to the article because UW admission is a real sore point for many students, who feel they were unfairly rejected.</p>
<p>CC'ers, what's your experience? Is this a typical admission policy for a state school?</p>
<p>I think the author failed to consider a couple of factors: The OOS high schools that send kids to UW tend to be higher quality and more competitive than the avg WI high school. A 3.5 from New Trier is tougher to get than a 3.8 at Monroe HS. Also the average test scores are similar (she skipped that as it did not fit her slant IMHO).
That said, UW has to offer more aid to OOS students to compete better for the best ones.</p>
<p>I encouraged my D to apply to the schools she wanted to attend, but not to get her hopes up as an OOS at one of those top state schools. Her 1450 SAT (old) and 3.9 GPA at a competitive private HS was good enough for Waitlist but not Admit. Now if she'd been a recruited athlete ....</p>
<p>Wisconsin is still about $10k less all-in than U of Michigan. We have ties to both schools and considered having my S apply, but both are farther away than he wants to be.</p>
<p>Reading the below from the article, I'm surprised that UW accepts such a high percentage of in-state students. What a big difference there is between the 1 in 10 odds at HPY and the acceptance odds of other excellent colleges. Makes me wonder why so many people are panicknig about admissions.</p>
<p>"Now students are discouraged from applying without a grade-point average from 3.5 to 3.9, an ACT score of at least 26 and a class rank in the 85th to 96th percentiles. The acceptance rate for Wisconsin residents is 65%. No student is guaranteed a spot in the freshman class, no matter how good his or her grades are.</p>
<p>"I had a student who was denied admission last year with a 3.7 GPA, six Advanced Placement courses and a 27 on the ACT," said Curt Cattanach, college adviser at Whitefish Bay High School. "We're frank with our students: UW-Madison has become very selective."</p>
<p>Just so you know, the office of admissions is pretty clear in stating that it does not admit students from OOS easier than in state. This article actually only further shows that. A slightly lower class rank/GPA only attributes to the quality of student from such DIFFICULT high schools who end up enrolling at Madison. Every major prep school, every major public school outside the Chicago/Minneapolis, and a large percentage of top schools around the county (like Newton South in Boston) are represented at UW-Madison. It's not so much that they are "worse" students, but that they have different academic environments in HS.</p>
<p>Furthermore, Wisconsin has a rather self selecting admissions pool. It is pretty standard in Wisconsin that a 23 ACT, 3.3 GPA, top 40% will not be applying to Madison, while the majority of top 10%'s will be. There is quite a panic for those who do not have HYP numbers, Northstarmom.</p>
<p>As for Wisconsin being 10K less than Michigan, throw in a small scholarship and it is 15K less a year for me. Great deal.</p>