<p>As usual just full of useful info.</p>
<p>Why is there twice as many seniors as Freshman?? Why are there only 821 African Americans??? Some state schools have five times as many (UM).</p>
<p>Have you been in Wisconsin? Outside Milwaukee there are not very many black people and far fewer qualify for UW. By UW studies only 6 in 100 Black high school grads in the state qualify for UW Madison, 5 apply and 3 enroll. The rest probably go to UWM or have nice offers from highly ranked OOS schools.
They take a good number of transfers from various two year schools in the state (and others). Always have.</p>
<p>There are twice as many seniors as freshmen because fully half of UW undergrads take more than four years to graduate – a real black mark on UW – and there are so few African Americans not only because Wisconsin doesn’t have many but because there’s a correlation in this country between race and family income and UW is not good with financial aid.</p>
<p>Only in your opinion. Many students enjoy the ability to take on additional majors and do co-ops, internships and such. Many others are transfers which often need some extra time to graduate at a new school. So most UW students would not see it as an sort of black mark and 90% would choose it again.
UW has also nearly doubled the number of Internationals and Hispanics in 10 years–easily as interesting and “diverse” a student group as AAs. Total Minority and international undergrad enrollment is up 57% in 10 years to 20% of all undergrads.</p>
<p>No, taking more years to graduate is not the reason for so many more seniors than freshmen. One factor is transfer students. A major factor, however, is the number of freshmen who come in with HS AP credits. The AP credits are only given at the end of the first semester’s completion, changing the ranking of many second semester students to that of sophomore. These students then move up the class ranks to senior standing but can’t progress beyond that. Therefore students may have the rank of senior for many semesters based on credits, even if they still need four years to complete a major. Students graduate in less than as well as more than four years. Some may spend more time getting a second major, work, or find ways to not graduate and have to leave.</p>
<p>You need to look at demographics to explain racial and ethnic numbers. History lessons help as well. You need to study the history of African Americans in this country. Slavery, climate, distances, poverty. Look at the effects of World War II- jobs available in Milwaukee made it worth while for some to leave family and warm weather to make a living. The unskilled laborers were the majority of those who came. You did not see the migration of intact family groups like with the earlier European immigrants in Wisconsin- a great loss of social structure which has hurt subsequent generations. Wisconsin does not have the history to have the numbers of middle class African Americans that some states have to generate the proportions of college students. Some areas of the country had an instant population of all ability levels of African Americans with the end of slavery. There were too many predjudices and other reasons for those people to relocate to the harsh north when the waves of Europeans populated Wisconsin’s harsher climate.</p>
<p>You could complain about the lack of many ethnic groups in other areas of the country- what, no Scandinavians, Poles… Far too many of English ancestry…</p>
<p>Likewise with the Hispanics in Wisconsin. Historically only the poorest were willing to leave home for the harsh climate and lack of familiar culture. But the population of Hispanics (generally immigrants and not from other US states) has been increasing rapidly and been given the same quality of education in many cities, including intensive language lessons. I expect future generations to catch up to their local peers. Unfortunately Milwaukee has generated a separate subculture instead of the current assimulation elsewhere in the state. Many Blacks have moved northward to other Wisconsin cities and I expect those to share the overall Wisconsin attitudes towards education and college.</p>
<p>In addition, at most schools students do take more than four years to graduate. I’ve heard of grad rates being calculated by six years instead of four. There’s a huge thread on the College Life board about that and most people are saying that at their schools most students take more than four years due to requirements or study abroad or what have you. I think it’s a rather common thing.</p>
<p>RoxSox, it may be a common thing among colleges nationwide but there’s no question that at the top-tier college level UW lags behind its peers when it comes to graduation rates. Barrons and Wis75 and other UW boosters like to explain this away by talking about how Madison students take so long to graduate because Madison is so fun or because of transfers, etc., but the fact is that the UW adminsitration itself DOES think that the graduation rate is too low and DOES want to do something about it. Search on line and you’ll see.</p>
<p>It’s weird that the boosters won’t admit what their very own university is quite candid about. Same thing can be said about UW’s poor diversity; the university is candid about the issue but the boosters simply explain it away.</p>
<p>Every school wants to improve the grad rate. It’s like saying they want to improve faculty pay or parking. UW has major schools such as engineering and education where the program is built around 4.5- 5 years as that’s what THEY feel it takes to do everything they need to prepare and get practice in the field before graduating. Those are facts.
You have beaten the drum on “diversity” and in the mean time the diversity has increased exponentially so time to retire that. No school in a mostly white state with 20% non-white undergrad students is under diverse. Can they do more–of course it’s not 100%. Time to find something else to ***** about.
Do you have any identifiable connection with the UW whatsoever other than having driven by once or twice??</p>
<p>Nova-</p>
<p>If the University is candid about these items than what’s your beef? If the information is out there, then I don’t understand what the problem is. There is no smoking gun here. And yes, I realize I am simply poking the bear by responding, but your post is really ridiculous. “UW is trying to improve graduation rates and diversity but unidentified boosters and two anonymous users on this forum think everything is rosy.” Who cares? What academic institution isn’t trying to improve graduation rates and diversity?</p>