<p>Essay will primarily be about how I only started trying 2nd half of junior year.</p>
<p>GPA: 3.2 W, 3.25 UW.</p>
<p>Obviously.
BUT! My school doesn't rank. Thank jebus.</p>
<p>ACT: 33
SAT: 2190
EC's: A lot (read: lot) of music; performances, orchestras, quintets, honor bands, etc. I've been relatively dedicated to swimming, doing so year-round (except during Water Polo season.) I can chalk up a lot of my various performances to community service, considering they were at various memorials and senior citizen homes and such. I worked as a lifeguard this past summer.</p>
<p>Rec's should be fine, I think I have who I need lined up.</p>
<p>I'm a white male, so no help there.</p>
<p>Any takers?</p>
<p>u'll get in pretty easy. But why is your UW higher than ur W?</p>
<p>Same question as Silverzc413.</p>
<p>According to their chart. <a href="http://www.admissions.wisc.edu/images/UW_FreshmanExpectations.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.admissions.wisc.edu/images/UW_FreshmanExpectations.pdf</a></p>
<p>You have a 50% shot of getting in.
You'll probably need to up that GPA to around a 3.4 for about a 70% shot of getting in.</p>
<p>I think it's for my non-academics, but if I miscalculated (or misread) just consider them both equal (even though I've taken honors courses every year. . .) I do have a slight upward trend, if that helps.</p>
<p>Forgot to mention, I'm OOS, from Illinois. Does anyone know how much "weight," generally speaking, UWisconsin puts on test scores as opposed to, say, weighted GPA?</p>
<p>I hate chance threads, but I really feel like I need to ask this.</p>
<p>Is it just me, or does that essay idea seem pretty... bad? I mean, unless you have some legitimate reason as to why you didn't care until recently, or that you suddenly had an epiphany or some nonsense like that, I don't see it going over too well.</p>
<p>It could work. Maybe. But personally, hearing "I only really started trying about eight months ago" (assuming that's when your second semester junior years was) is very off putting, especially considering the proximity it has to these admissions, as you can't very well prove that you will continue this upward trend because of it's newness. That's really just my opinion, though; I have no idea how an adcom will take it. =P From my experience, I feel that a great essay will definitely get you bonus points, so it's important to write as decent one as possible. I don't know the whole of the essay, so I could be unfairly judging it. I don't mean to sound rude, because you do have some really impressive credentials, it's just your essay seems kinda funky to me.</p>
<p>As for weight, I've seen people rejected with 34s, but I'm certain that's the exception, not the rule. The chart seems to imply that GPA carries more weight, consider a person with a 4.0–3.8 GPA but with less than a 24 ACT has a 70% chance of admission, whereas a person in your case (33 ACT 3.3–3.1 GPA) has only a 50% chance of admissions. I don't know how seriously I'd take that chart though, as it's just a general guideline.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Thanks for the informative reply. I will be trying to go for the "epiphany" route, at least in another app. It would seem that an essay just stating that I didn't care would sound rather trite. The reason I was considering going this route is because I've heard that Wisonsin looks at 7th semester transcripts, thus giving me an opportunity to back up my words, so to speak.</p>
<p>UW uses UNweighted grades, they don't care what gpa your school comes up with by weighting clases. Always emphasize the postive in your essays- find ways to avoid the negatives- UW does look for improving grades, better to get that 4.0 junior year than freshman year for a not so hot gpa.</p>
<p>It's almost surely true that UW does not look at weighted GPA, but just to clarify, they sure do look at how demanding your courses are.</p>
<p>I'm taking 3 APs this year, and I've taken 2 honors classes every year.</p>
<p>The main essay for UW - Madison is how you are going to enrich the community. The is a shorter question (I think it's supposed to be less than 125 words) where you can provide any additional information that will help explain more about you (only started trying Junior year...)</p>