@msd228 the counter to the argument is to tell him that UIUC is quite possibly the best overall engineering school in the Big 10. I believe it ranks in the top 5 or 6 nationally. It ranks right up there with Michigan. I am not sure how good their Civil Engineering dept is though.
wis75, I see you posting these “50-50” odds in many threads here. Where are you getting that, how could that possibly be true?
Are you basing it on the fact that in the previous two years the acceptance rate was 47% and 51% respectively? If you are doing that, you are not making a supportable statement. For sake of example, if there are 100 applicants and 50 openings, and (again just pulling numbers out air) 40 of the openings are given and 10 held back, then the odds for the remaining students are 10 in 60, or 1 in 6, not 1 in 2 aka 50-50. I know this is simplistic, the students who are made offers but don’t accept don’t figure in, etc, but the general point holds, if those prior year acceptance rates are the basis for this then you are almost certainly exaggerating the odds for postponed students, and exaggerating them significantly.
@madmanmark , I questioned this as well. The response I received from @wis75 was along the lines that it simply means that you might get in or might not. Well, that’s not 50-50. That could be 20-80 or 30-70. When you tell some one they have a 50-50 chance, that makes them believe that their chances of being accepted are the same as their chances of getting denied. I have yet to see anyone post anything official from UW that states this, so I’m not sure where 50-50 is coming from.
It seems kind of conflicting to state “if you think these are sacred truths are posted on CC to the nth degree of accuracy get real” and then in the same breath state that postponed chances are 50-50 when you don’t have any evidence to back that up. Again, I urge CC users to read this article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-prospect/5-dos-and-donts-of-colleg_b_6051580.html
You should call admissions and ask what pecentage of postponed students were admitted in the last couple of years. They must know the answer, though they don’t publish it, at least not anywhere easy to find. If you are disarming and pleasant, perhaps someone will tell you. You have a vested interest in knowing as you try to determine your chances and consider what you may be doing next year. Spin it that way. You need to be able to plan. For instance, it’s really helpful to know, if you are one of the thousands waitlisted every year by U of Chicago, that your chances of getting called off the waitlist are not much better than winning the lottery. If you don’t get an answer the first time, call again. Maybe you’ll get to talk to someone else who is more helpful.
Anecdotally, I hear that many postponed students do get in. I hear it from the students and their parents. At soccer and basketball games, parent social and school events, neighborhood encounters while walking the dog,… Since we are in Madison everyone applies to UW who has any kind of chance. Last year my then HS senior S had many postponed friends. Almost all of them were eventually accepted. The couple who were not had unweighted GPA below 3.5. Bad ACT alone wasn’t enough for rejection if grades were decent. This may have something to do with the nature of his friends. Most of them had pretty reasonable grades. So I may not be seeing the whole picture. In years past with my other kids,we have seen similar pattern, but I don’t know about 50-50 vs 70-30 or anything.
Edited to add, not sure what happens with OOS applicants since the kids I know of are all local. If you are OOS and you call you could ask about OOS vs in-state as the numbers may be different.
Yeah, my son’s UW GPA is actually below 3.5 (don’t ask me to post specific stats, won’t do it until we get a decision). So, didn’t have high expectations from the start other than the fact that he has very good EC’s, but not sure if that really is enough to push him over the top. Since he was postponed and not denied, we are holding out hope that there must be something there that they see that they want to review further (and not just deny on the first round). Either way, he has already been accepted to Iowa State and UW-LaCrosse and feels that those are pretty solid 2nd choices.
BrewCrew2, my son was also accepted to Iowa State. How do you feel about that OOS tuition – assuming your name if nothing else indicates you are a resident 
– in relation to the value he will get from a degree there? As you can infer, I have my doubts. Unless there is a handful of specific fields you are looking for, it struck us that Minnesota is the better back-up plan.
celesteroberts, there is no doubt many of those at UW right now are students who were initially postponed. In fact I can specifically say that up to 35.4% of 2014’s in-state freshmen at UW-Madison were initially postponed, just by doing simple math on the numbers in this article:
The interesting stats here are that there were 5731 accepted for approx 3700 admitted in state, which in turn implies 2000 students said no thanks. This implies (presuming they made an offer to fill every one of their open slots in the first wave) that somewhere around half of the in sate students they made a non-postponed acceptance to, did not take the offer. This suggests that (if this was a typical year) about half of the in-state freshman class slots remain open, for the approx 60-80% of total in-state applicants that have not yet been accepted.
By the way the numbers in this article cast further doubts on the 50-50 claim. Per this article in-state students are much more likely to be accepted than out of state overall, so the odds are going to be very different depending on that status, just like they are with non-postponed admission. Offering an estimate of chances without even knowing or asking if OP is OOS is a red flag that the estimate is not meaningful to the OP’s circumstances.
@madmanmark with the merit scholarship they give to just about everyone (my son qualified for $6000 a year) it’s not too bad. Comparable to in state tuition for WI and cheaper than many other OOS schools (other than Minnesota with reciprocity). We visited it and my son liked the campus. Likes that it’s a bigger school (Division 1 sports, etc). Also toured the Business school and thought it was nice. Not that any rankings are perfect, but ranked 108 overall and 80 for business on US News…good reviews and rankings on Niche as well. Also, really liked the app process, found out in 48 hours after submitting app (even though it was easy to calculate ahead of time that he would be accepted). Minnesota is another back up plan for my son, but he is still waiting on a decision there (applied in August).
Madmanmark, that is a very interesting article. Thanks for the link. But I am feeling rather dim today. Can you tell me where you get the 35.4%? Seems like it could be 0% or 100% since postponed is not mentioned anywhere.
Here’s another link. It may soon be a bit easier for OOS to get admitted:
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/education/university/regents-give-uw-madison-ok-to-enroll-more-out-of/article_c9fb0e04-c8ec-5660-9b50-cf850c252010.html
Good luck BrewCrew. I didn’t mean the 3.5 to be something definitive, just some number I threw out that fit. Maybe they were well below 3.5. Don’t give up hope. Get more letters of recommendation to send from coaches or boy scout leaders, employers. The kids at La Crosse and ISU all love their college, so he’ll be fine wherever he lands. There was a dad on ‘class of’ parents thread, 2013 I think, who sent his son to ISU and posted a lot about it, even long after, was very pleased with level of education. We lived in Ames years ago when my H was a prof there. It’s a really neat town and nice university. They are always improving things. The city was building a beautiful skateboard park not far from our home when we left. The U always had a lot of events planned to keep the students engaged and happy. The campus is beautiful. Go see when the redbuds bloom in the spring, takes your breath away. There is a serene small lake on campus complete with swans named Lancelot and Elaine.
Thanks @celesteroberts . No worries, I know what you meant by the 3.5 and it’s not untrue at all that if you GPA is below 3.5 you face an uphill climb towards being admitted at UW and better have a lot of other things going for you. Hopefully they think my son does!
I don’t know how much of an effect spring break has on the admissions office and timing of march decisions, but it appears that spring break is from 3/19 - 3/27 this year. So, I’m wondering if that means that postponed students will begin getting decisions around the weekend of 3/18 (similar to last year).
Could say 100%- either in or not. People- what difference does it make if the odds are a bit different??? Just have patience, another choice and wait until March.
Spring break is for students, not staff. Admissions has nothing to do with current students so I suspect decision timing is independent of that.
@BrewCrew82 My son is a junior, also looking at UW, U of MN, ISU and UW Lacrosse. You mentioned your son is interested in business? My son is as well.
This is my big concern…say they get into UW, but are at the lower end of the admission stats. What are the chances they will get into the School of Business? I think that’s what makes ISU and UW LaC (as well as other UW branches) a more secure choice, even if it isn’t first choice.
What are your thoughts on this? Thank you!
If he wants to go into business he can take all of the pre requisites needed and then apply at the end of his freshman year. So instead of looking at his high school GPA they will be looking at his college grades and how well he did in his pre requisites. I think that’s how it works at UW Madison, so he could still have a chance of being accepted into the business school if he works hard his freshman year.
@wis2020 Yes, he could try at the end of freshman year and then again at the end of sophomore year. About 60% of the applicants are admitted to the school of business. That means 40% have to choose a different major or transfer schools, right?
Most likely yes
https://bus.wisc.edu/bba/admissions/quick-facts
Almost 74% of applicants were admitted to the School of Business in the most recent cycle, not “about 60%”.
Thank you @Madison85 that is more promising. I had found the 60% number in the FAQ section
https://bus.wisc.edu/bba/admissions/faqs I do see the quick facts link you found.
So is that something you wouldn’t have worried about? Just wondering, because I tend to be an over-worrier…
I am an over worrier, too. The 74% is much better than it used to be before Dean Francois Ortalo-Magne expanded the number of admits due to demand from employers who recruit at the business school.
can u tell me some tips @maureeng
nvm