Things I learned at my UW meeting

<p>Nothing yet but I sent it on just yesterday. I agree rising costs have forced more focus on rapid graduation. The meeting I was just at included mostly grads from the 70’s and virtually all had floated through several majors and saw no problem in taking 5 years to graduate–actually they considered it a big plus in their overall experience. (this topic was a big part of the meeting) But tuition than was very low–even out of state. Every current student who spoke to the group (about 6 I think) was on track to graduate in 4 years, usually with two majors. But they entered with severakl APs etc.</p>

<p>barrons - I don’t want UW to be “parental” - telling their new students what they “have” to do, but a little direction would be very helpful. Providing one or two sample schedules showing that it is possible to graduate in 4 years (if that’s desired) would be a good starting point. UW can still encourage exploration with electives and all of the choices in required areas. Obviously they can include statements about things that should be considered and explored even if they could get in the way of graduating in 4 years - double-majors or study abroad, etc. Hope to hear more in future posts. Thanks.</p>

<p>I can only state for my son, coming into UW with no AP credits, he found it more difficult to get classes because others who had AP credits received much earlier enrollment times. In the end though it has not hampered him. Really it taught him to be a little more creative in how to get into the classes he really wanted and he also ended up taking classes which totally fulfilled requirements that he needed that he didn’t expect to like and did. College is a major learning process for all. Sometimes I think parents letting go a bit and letting their kids find their own way is the lesson we get as parents.</p>

<p>That FSU site was really good. As a prospective student, I can say that I really like it when schools make that kind of roadmap available.</p>

<p>It’s good to see that Wisconsin is taking these issues seriously. I’ll just highlight #2, because while Wisconsin is a great school I don’t really see paying the rack rate to go there.</p>