<p>My youngest is flying the nest this coming fall and she will be studying Industrial Engineering and following the footsteps of her successful and wonderfully bright mother, thank god for that...1. She was accepted to join her sister at UC-Boulder, offered a presidential scholarship (something like up to $10k per year!). Colorado's Engineering school is good, quality of life is great, ease of travel is good and she'd have big sis watching over her, which is good and bad...2. She was accepted to go to Montana State U and offered $30,000k over 4 years, tuition there is much less than Boulder or Madison, quality of life is seemingly great, great location for exploring her dreams, travel to and from Chicago is average at best and costly, but as an engineering school, MSU is pretty darned respected for an IE...3. She was accepted to Purdue, meh...
UW HAS DEFERRED HER, despite her 3.75 GPA and 29 ACT score, 13 legacies. Though of course she wants to go there, and we want her to go there, I am slowly changing my tune...</p>
<p>Barrons, sorry that your daughter is feeling the deferral wave that is so prevalent this year. UIUC in-state is more than UW for us IL people, so it would be that much more expensive for you. I’ve heard great things about MSU from folks we respect for their engineering/science programs.</p>
<p>At our OOS suburban Chicago HS, the trend has been 3.7 UW GPA AND 30 ACT. My son had a lower unweighted GPA, but higher ACT and was accepted to UW, but it’s been a brutal year. We know other in-state candidates who would have been accepted in years past.</p>
<p>Good luck to your daughter in her decisions.</p>
<p>Well, barrons, we seem to have much in common. My son is a sophomore at CU majoring in aerospace engineering. Congratulations on your daughter getting the Presidential scholarship. Two years ago my son had a 4.0 GPA UW, 4.22 W GPA, and a 31 ACT with Math on ACT of 35 and a SAT II Math of 800. He only received the Chancellors scholarship. But we agreed to send him there none the less since it has an incredible aerospace engineering department. He has been very happy there ever since, as I am sure your older daughter has been.</p>
<p>My younger son will be attending UW Madison this fall and will be a genetics major. He had a 32 ACT, 4.0 GPA UW and 4.22 W GPA, with 800 on SAT II Biology and 740 in Chemistry. </p>
<p>I do not understand your daughter’s deferral. It sounds like she will eventually get admitted and I hope she does for your and her sake. I have no idea if Wisconsin looks at legacies but you would know best. Do they? </p>
<p>I am surprised that a girl who wants to major in engineering was rejected.</p>
<p>Perhaps she could somehow make that clear on her application.</p>
<p>It is my understanding that engineering schools want to increase the numbers of females in their ranks.</p>
<p>Flagship universities are very tough to get into nowadays, given the poor economy, and their relatively low cost. Plus, as you must know, schools do not only go by merit. They have affirmative action goals and want to accept students from all over the state. Not just from the usual places.</p>
<p>Down here in Florida, kids post messages on CC that they got rejected from University of Florida with a 2000 SAT and good grades, while others report getting in with just a 1500 SAT, and a mediocre high school record. In many ways, it seems to be a random crapshoot. </p>
<p>I think your daughter will ultimately get into Wisconsin, however. It might be noted that a 29 ACT, while a good score, is not that amazing for someone who wants to major in engineering, which is a very difficult major.</p>
<p>“UIUC in-state is more than UW for us IL people, so it would be that much more expensive for you.”</p>
<hr>
<p>Not true, not even close. For the 2012-2013 school year, tuition & fees for UIUC in-state are $14,960 & UW-Madison OOS is $26,630, and the potential added charge at UIUC for Engineering doesn’t close the gap that much at all. Room & board might be a tad more at UIUC, but it’s comparable within a grand or so.</p>
<p>Barrons, you probably know better than we do what weight legacies carry at UW-Madison. If it’s a factor, I think your D gets admitted on the next go-round. </p>
<p>RE: UIUC, for what it’s worth both my D’s were accepted there, one with a small scholarship, and they both decided to attend elsewhere. UIUC is a great academic school in a world of financial hurt right now. I’m not thrilled with the 5%+ raise per annum in tuition costs at UW-Madison, but my feeling is that they are much more pro-active in looking forward reality-wise than UIUC.</p>
<p>We be crossing fingers for your D & thinking good thoughts! :)</p>
<p>Does UW give any weight to legacies? I know UT-Austin does not, even though every year students seem to think it does. Being such a big school, there is no way they could give preference to legacies - it would need to increase its size to 100,000 students, lol. Professors’ families don’t even get preference.</p>
<p>Three generations of my family have gone to Texas (my grandmother worked on her master’s degree in chemistry in the '20s) and my dad has been a prof there since 1965. My son attended for one year, but for now it’s looking as if there will be no fourth generation kids graduating there (out of six possible kids). Times have changed.</p>
<p>Point of clarification. This was NOT my daughter–it was a post I picked off another board. Sorry for not making it more clear. But thanks for all the kind words. I’ll pass them on to the actual OP.</p>
<p>I too would have thought female>engineering plus direct legacy would have been enough with solid other stats. I posted this for info to all the others postponed or even rejected to see as I am sure it is reliable. Getting in to UW is not easy these days.</p>
<p>ML, you always mention this, but isn’t the proportion of legacies applying (huge) versus the number of slots available (huge) the same as at any other school? I mean think about it. An LAC would have fewer alumni over time, hence fewer legacies who could potentially apply. But they also have fewer slots in their freshman classes. I’ve never really understood it when you posted this point.</p>
<p>As stated earlier. UIUC is NOT more expensive than Wisconsin for Illinois residents… Take it from a current student @ UW Madison who is a resident of Illinois. All in all, I am paying around 10k more a year to attend UW.</p>
<p>I would be very surprised to hear she was accepted into engineering at UIUC with those scores and grades. And as for her choice…Madison vs Boulder…hmmmm. Of course I am a proud CU alum. Good luck to her; she has great options.</p>