<p>Like so many of my soon to be senior peers, I am starting to put together my list of schools to apply to. Reaches, matches and safeties. I have a pretty good idea of what I want to major in depending on what the particular school offers, and a pretty good idea of what I want my undergraduate experience to include. I want to ultimately work in historic preservation in some capacity, possibly through the architectural route or urban planning. I will most likely major in history, geography, or urban planning or go the arch route (but the arch program would need to have that historical emphasis for me to consider it).</p>
<p>I am a strong student in the classroom, 4.5 GPA, 6th/344, 7 APs upon graduation, numerous ECs and leadership stuff. Unfortunately........my SAT's are low. 1170 first time in May, took again June 2 ( scores come out this Thursday- fingers and toes crossed! :))and will take in Oct. I guess I would be considered a unique applicant in that I am hearing impaired and wear a cochlear implant. I am looking at some OOS schools to consider, especially ones with strong academic reputations like Wisconsin, but I will need to be competitive for merit money that would essentially bring the cost down to 23K or so. I live in Virginia. </p>
<p>Here are my questions to all of you:</p>
<p>What have your experiences been like for students like me being awarded scholarships with stats like mine? Is this school an option for me?</p>
<p>What are the history and geography (esp cultural geography) programs like there?</p>
<p>Thank you so much for your help. I have also been looking at Michigan, but I know their OOS money is very tight. I was just wondering if Wisconsin's was any better. Have a nice day and Happy Father's Day to all of you dads! :)</p>
<p>I hope the best for you. I will probably get crap from other posters for being direct.</p>
<p>I don’t believe you will get any merit $ from Wiscosin. I assume you truly mean merit and not financial aid. There are some small merit based awards available, but nearly all go to Wisconsin residents.</p>
<p>You can still apply and see what happens, but based on my OOS experience, and many friends with extremely high test scores, and great GPA’s, EC’s, leadership, etc getting absolutely nothing, and the budget constraints at the University…I would recommend you lower your expectations.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply and please don’t worry about being direct. That is why I posted this. I did a little searching and should have done it before I wrote everything really and what you describe is exactly what I read from other students questioning the same thing. They were a few years ago, but I am sure it is the same. Several mentioned the fact that most money goes to Wisc. in staters and also the fact that you might get more after your first year or two. That wouldn’t help me even if I were lucky enough to get in. Oh well, I am going to mark this school off the possible “reach” list and keep on keeping on! Thanks again for taking time to be honest and reply.</p>
<p>I think the knowledgeable posters in this forum will agree that UW does not give abundant merit aid and this is particularly true for OOS students. On the other hand UW has less costly OOS rates than most peer schools. My advice as you continue your search is to keep an eye on the net cost rather than just potential aid when evaluating schools.</p>
<p>I would also recommend you keep your grades up. Just getting in is harder than it has been in the past.</p>
<p>We are IS and our HS is one of the top in the state. In the past, the top 20% of the class got in almost automatically, the next 10-15% were scrutinized more, everyone else had to sink or swim with the pool of IS and OOS candidates. This year, only the top 10% were admitted right away. The next 25% were postponed - and these are kids with great grades, AP’s, etc. They had to prove themselves with excellent grades 1st semester, and many still did not get in. </p>
<p>OOS would have an equally hard time as the number of OOS applications has gone up exponentially.</p>
<p>I agree with what everyone else has said. I’m attending UW-Madison next fall and I’m an OOS student ( from VA also) and I can tell you from experience that you’re unlikely to get any merit based aid. </p>
<p>I graduated with a 4.6 GPA, 5 APs, SAT scores in the top 1% of the country, lots of other academic and artistic awards, etc. and I didn’t get any scholarships from UW. Word of mouth says money is definitely tight and most scholarships are awarded to in-state students. I’ve heard that financial aid is easier to acquire after a few years when you’ve declared a major, etc, etc. </p>
<p>Anyway, it’s a fantastic school and I would keep it on your list as a possibility. It’s tuition is significantly lower than some other similarly prestigious schools like Michigan. </p>
<p>btw- only your unweighted gpa is used, the rigor of your coursework compared to that available at your HS is also considered. If A+'s are given you could at most have a 4.3 unweighted gpa on the 4.0 scale.</p>
<p>Do not count on any merit awards from UW as a freshman, instate or OOS. Most departments with scholarship money will give it to their majors, some for the best in intro math/?physics- but 100’s of students take those. Need based aid only is the norm, even for top UW freshmen.</p>
<p>Let me suggest that you rearrange your search criteria for universities and start making some hard-nosed decisions. First cut is to eliminate all state universities costing over $40,000 for tuition/room-and-board for out-of-state students. While your grades are good, your standardized scores are a not an asset when it comes to earning merit aid. You may want to look more seriously into a school that does not require standardized scores. One of the top geography programs is at Clark University in Massachusetts, which no longer requires standardized scores, and which is quite generous with merit aid despite the overall cost of tuition/room-and-board. Based on your description, I believe you would be an interesting candidate for Clark and you should consider looking into their geography program for which they are well known. And to be honest, you may want to look into the urban, private universities and colleges that offer strong geography programs, or one of the other disciplines you are interested in pursuing - you may well find a better financial fit there. On the public side consider SUNY Binghamton as well, which is very competitive from an entrance standpoint, is the top SUNY campus, falls much closer to your cost range and does award out-of-state merit aid to strong candidates - I think they might find your application intriguing. Good luck.</p>
<p>btw- UWM is the UW system school in Milwaukee when people hear/see the 3 letters, just UW is commonly used for the Madison, flagship U. We don’t worry about the other UW (U-dub) in the Pacific Northwest, nor do they get confused by our UW- too geographically far fom each other.</p>
That is why I posted this. I did a little searching and should have done it before I wrote everything really and what you describe is exactly what I read from other students questioning the same thing. They were a few years ago, but I am sure it is the same. Several mentioned the fact that most money goes to Wisc. in staters and also the fact that you might get more after your first year or two. That wouldn’t help me even if I were lucky enough to get in. Oh well, I am going to mark this school off the possible “reach” list and keep on keeping on! Thanks again for taking time to be honest and reply.</p>