Postponed at UWmadison with a 34?

Applying to College
1

<p>I'm freaking out. I didn't really want to go to UW Madison, but it was my fall back school in case I got rejected everywhere else. Here are my stats:</p>

<p>ACT:34
math 34, english 34, reading 34, science 35
uw GPA: 90.8%
weighted GPA: 93.27%
4 AP classes (my school only offers 10 total, only 11th & 12th graders can take them)
4 years foreign language
published poet (3 times)
100+ hrs community service
varsity cheer 2 years
newspaper editor
various awards for art and journalism
NAHS
NHS
Illinois state scholar
highly involved in the art dept.
very strong essays & teacher recs
physical education leader (teaching a class this year)
my mom is an alum
junior year grades are my best</p>

<p>-white, female, out of state
-private, catholic, college-prep high school</p>

<p>Senior classes:
precalculus
ap biology
ap literature and composition
french 4 honors
adobe photoshop (required)
global economics (required)
christian ethics and morality(required)</p>

<p>freshman year grades were my worst. I had a 89 uw average and a 92 weighted average. Regardless, I still do not think those are bad enough to be postponed.</p>

<p>I'm extremely confused and upset by this. I feel like I completely overestimated my abilities, and I am scrambling to apply to easier schools now. My top choices (before this) were USC, UCLA, and Berkeley. I also applied U Mich, Vanderbilt, UNC, IU. I received direct admit to IU business, and I was asked to apply for scholarships. I received 44k before any scholarship applications. However, I am not interested in IU and applied because my parents wanted me to. If I can't get into Madison, I feel like USC is completely out reach. It's still my top choice but I don't want to be rejected and then have no other options. I seriously am at a loss and don't know what to do. Can anyone offer any insight as to why my decision was postponed? Do you think that I should be worried about my other schools? </p>

<p>At my other schools I applied for fine arts and made it clear that I ultimately wanted to be a medical illustrator. Also, does anyone have any suggestions for schools that I should apply to? I have never felt so confused and hopeless. I have no idea what to do, and I am under so much stress since I received the email from Madison. </p>

<p>Please help</p>

2

<p>Not sure why you applied to so many OOS publics. Carolina, for example, is extremely competitive for OOS. The top UCs are OOS-friendly for the full-payors, but are more gpa-focused over test scores.</p>

<p>IMO, you have a good shot at USC (which loves high test scores), and Vandy (for the same reason). You can probably seal the deal with Vandy if your EDII.</p>

<p>But to answer your question, apply to a few safeties.</p>

3

<p>If Madison were a place that you truly were interested in attending, it would be OK to ask your guidance counselor to give them a quick phone call. However, you make it clear that you aren’t that interested. Kick Madison to the curb and move on. Not getting in at X is no indication of your chance of admission at Y, because X is not Y.</p>

<p>Your scores and GPA are good enough for many, many places. Talk with your parents about the budget limits, and then run the search engines again. You will find other possibilities.</p>

<p>IU is ready to throw a whole lit of money at you. Go visit. Do your best to keep an open mind. It may work as your safety school.</p>

4

<p>thanks to both of you! I will keep IU in mind, I have heard it is beautiful. My only concern is the number of kids from my school who attend (I want to start fresh in college and expand my interests)</p>

<p>@bluebayou - I really don’t want to stay in the midwest and I found that a lot of public oos schools had campuses I really enjoyed. I didn’t think that madison would be a problem because many kids from my school get accepted. In fact, all of the kids who were accepted this year had the roughly same GPA, but lower test scores. UNC was a far reach, I only applied because the campus was beautiful. U Mich has a medical illustration program which is hard to find, and UCLA is both a university and a good art school (which I really like). I wish I had done more research before applying, because now I am in a rough situation. I’m hoping that USC works out. I’m going to work extremely hard on my final portfolio pieces for UCLA and Berkeley and hope it puts me over the edge. I also applied to Marquette, which I forgot until now. </p>

<p>Does anyone have any ideas as to why I would not have been accepted to Madison? Someone tried to tell me that they postpone applications that are “too strong” because they know it isn’t the applicants top choice. This doesn’t make sense to me though. </p>

<p>Any suggestions on schools to apply to? I’d like to either go west or south. I’m keeping my options open and would consider midwest too at this point. I like big schools with greek life</p>

5

<p>They probably did it because they figured you would choose a more selective school over them.</p>

6

<p>I just feel like that is such an odd reason! I’m really hoping it was something like that, but I thought my essay made it sound like I was really interested. Oh well :confused: </p>

<p>Would love more opinions as well</p>

7

<p>UW-Madison states on their common app that level of interest is considered. Since you’re not instate, they probably assumed (correctly) that you were using them as a safety school and thus rejected you. It’s called Tufts Syndrome. You were too highly qualified and didn’t demonstrate the appropriate level of interest for the school.</p>

<p>If you’re at all curious to see which of the top 50 national universities and liberal arts colleges, as ranked by the USNWR, consider level of interest check out this thread (and my shameless self promotion of my post): <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1363751-does-tufts-syndrome-still-exist-anywhere.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1363751-does-tufts-syndrome-still-exist-anywhere.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

8

<p>Nowhere is it written that you must start college next fall. A gap year to work on your portfolio, and further investigate option that would help you achieve your career goals is perfectly fine. Take a look through the Art Majors subforum, and see if there are any discussions going about Medical Illustration. </p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

9

<p>A 34 is too high for a state school like Wisconsin or Illinois anyway.</p>

<p>“I’d like to either go west or south. I’m keeping my options open and would consider midwest too at this point. I like big schools with greek life”</p>

<p>I’d don’t think much in the West fits the bill. Have you considered the notion that you not the person for what you describe?</p>

<p>You should really consider private universities. For the South, try Emory or an LAC like URichmond and skip “big schools with greek” constraint.</p>

<p>“I’m extremely confused and upset by this. I feel like I completely overestimated my abilities, and I am scrambling to apply to easier schools now.”</p>

<p>Actually, you completely underestimated your abilities. Northwestern is even possible, but your grades may be low unless you have a solid class rank. A 34 with your grades would get you into Oberlin and possibly Carleton.</p>

10

<p>Thanks everyone!</p>

<p>My school does not rank. So unfortunately I can’t use that.</p>

<p>For UCLA and UCB the admissions office told me ACT only was okay. Do you think I should take SAT just to be safe?</p>

<p>I have suggested not attending college next year and waiting, but my parents said absolutely not. I don’t understand why. I even suggested commuting to SAIC and they said “no, you’re not staying home your first year.”</p>

<p>It helps my nerves a bit to hear of the qualification issues. I guess it makes sense that a school wouldn’t take me seriously, however it still confuses me as to why they wouldn’t accept a strong applicant. As long as it isn’t an indication that I applied to schools out of my reach, I am not upset. I’m going to stay positive and work my butt off for the remainder of the year. </p>

<p>I’ll try Northwestern. It is about 25 minutes from my house, but if I like the campus and get in, that distance might not bother me. I know college isn’t supposed to be about location, but I feel very out of place where I am from. College is my time to learn and grow intellectually and personally. I just want to figure out a place I will be happy and feel free to pursue what I would like. Thanks to all of your for your help. My nerves are calmed a bit and I’m feeling a lot better. I’ll be applying to a few more schools this week and hopefully I’ll end up where I belong!</p>

11

<p>I got into UW Madison, out of state, with a 2120 SAT and a 3.8 UW GPA. Several AP Classes too. Yeah that seems strange that you didn’t get accepted.</p>

12

<p>No, you don’t need to take the SAT</p>

13

<p>How do you translate 90.8 into a 4 point scale? Is it a 4.0, or something less? If it’s a 4.0, it’s unbelievable that you weren’t accepted. In 2011 the enrolled freshman were 54% >3.75, 82%>3.5, 93%>3.25 (from 2011 CDS) so if you know how to convert your GPA, you can see where you stand.</p>

14

<p>There is no harm in having your guidance counselor give them a call to reinforce your interest. Perhaps in the process she will learn more about your deferral (you did get deferred not rejected?).
RIT has a medical illustration major at both BFA and MFA levels, you would definitely get in and probably get merit scholarships as well…
[Medical</a> Illustration - Art - RIT: College of Imaging Arts & Sciences](<a href=“http://cias.rit.edu/schools/art/undergraduate-medical-illustration]Medical”>http://cias.rit.edu/schools/art/undergraduate-medical-illustration)</p>

15

<p>Uh oh that’s really scary for me because my stats are worse, I’ve just got instate going for me. I think you should definitly get in on the second round though. Maybe they’re just mainly focusing on instate students now to make sure they get enough? Because according to their average stats and your stats I would think Madison would be a safety for you too!</p>

16

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<p>Schools are ranked in part by yield rate (attend/admitted), so they’re sensitive to the genuine interest of students with stats significantly above their averages.</p>

<p>Have you considered Emory?</p>

17

<p>i hadn’t considered Emory but I have been looking at it today and I am considering applying</p>