My daughter has an unweighted 3.85 (weighted 4.25) GPA and 29 ACT (30 superscored). She is DECA (a marketing organization) president, state champion and international competitor. She plays sports, is a student ambassador for a non-profit, refs soccer, and is an overnight summer camp counselor. She is from out of state from a nationally recognized competitive county. Chances?
She also has around 8 APs and several honors classes.
In recent years on the “decisions” threads for UW, there haven’t been many OOS kids with below a 30 reporting they were admitted I don’t think UW superscores, but someone else could correct me. If a student applied EA with that profile, they would probably get deferred until regular round. I didn’t follow last year’s admissions closely enough to recall if if mid-range stat kids were being outright rejected, so I don’t know if that is a risk. Any chance that more prep could nudge that score into the low 30s?
Same as above. Looked at scattergrams for our OOS high school and there were litterally none below an ACT 31 and 3.9 unweighted.
UW doesn’t superscore.
@Gradmom1 what is your daughter’s major of interest? Business, Eng, Nursing are going to be more competitive than A&L, for instance.
The overall average ACT of enrolled students last fall was about 29. Wisconsin students - a little over 50% of the pool - tend to come in at about a 28 (based on historical data) and OOS a tad more (probably around 30). These are AVERAGES of ENROLLED students w/o regard to college of entry. Now that Bus. and Eng. are direct admit, it’s going to be tougher to get into those programs than into Arts and Letters. As UW puts a significant emphasis on academics (grades, test scores, course load), an OOS applicant is probably safe above a 30 ACT but not necessarily below that.
You should review the decision threads from last year because those will tell you what sorts of stats were accepted EA, or deferred then accepted RD.
Good luck!
@JBStillFlying My S is planning to apply OOS into bioengg program… Good ECs, harder curriculum, ACT 35 and GPA tad under 4.0 weighted… What do you think are his chances? What is direct admit mean… Directly into the bioengg dept? Thanks.
Direct admit means you are directly in the program. If you go to the website it appears that there are progression requirements and bioeng along with chemical engineering have the highest GPA requirements out of the engineering groups. You and your son should review this requirements. My son applied and got in here for engineering, but chose to go to UMichigan. My daughter is a freshman business major here. The progression requirements at UMich are not as strict as they are here.
@angeltalk Does your son have many AP’s in the sciences?
@angeltalk - UW-Madison will look at unweighted GPA. Do you know that that is for your son?
@JBStillFlying UW is probably around 3.6.
@wheatonmom He has AP in Bio, physics, CS, AB and BC
@angeltalk according to the current CDS (Fall 2017 entering class), the average GPA is just below a 3.85 and nearly 3/4 of entrants have a GPA of at least 3.75 (see link below, sections C.10-12). Not sure how his 3.6 is going to play against the 35 ACT and his AP course load. The latter two will obviously help his case and hopefully will result in an admission decision.
https://uwmadison.app.box.com/s/twlkdyows3m6gsphga32mb2h3nt1kb7x
I’d check out last year’s decision thread to see how the OOS engineering applicants fared.
@JBStillFlying Thanks for the info.
The UW admissions page has now updated "what we typically see in our students. and the mid point moved up after the class of 2018. If you take the midpoints it is now ACT 30 and 3.9 unweighted for all students. Out of state students generally have to have higher scores since there is a commitment to the number of Wi. high school students admitted.
^ Ouch. This explains why my son’s older friends last year in MN were deferred and/or waitlisted last time, despite having decent stats.
Here are the exact words from the Admissions website:
“We consider both GPA and rank in the context of your school. We typically see unweighted, academic GPAs between a 3.8 and a 4.0, and a class rank in the 85-97 percentile.”
And,
“Admitted students will typically score between 28-32 on the ACT and 1330-1460 on the SAT, although there is no minimum required score.”
@rogerm, do you recall what the old ranges used to be, before class of 2018?
I could share that we are at a large MN high school and the stats are that the admits started to be noticeable at an ACT of 32 and 3.8UW. Madison is my daughter’s first choice and she sits at a 31 ACT and 3.88. Most below her stats were deferred and denied and most above were admitted. She has strong ECs rigourous courses/AP, sport, philanthropy, etc. So it will come down to essays more than likely.
I know the act midpoint was 29 in 2017 vs 30 for 2018 and I think but am not sure the gpa midpoint was 3.85 vs 3.9 for 2018. It did go up for sure. It will be interesting to see if there is another big jump in applications.
Out of state I suspect 32 and great grades have a good shot. But no way guaranteed if you look at the 2018 decision board. If another 20 percent increase in apps i suspect that breaks down and that bets are offf for oss.
@rogerm I totally agree with you! It was shocking to view the scattergrams. That 32 was the starting point to see any green (accepted)
Thanks @rogerm and @CAmom01. Part of me wonders if the jump in stats is due to more high-stats OOS kids applying to Business and Engineering now that it’s commonly known that both programs are very clearly Direct Admit. My son is on the good side of those stats and is avoiding Eng. and Bus. Hopefully he has a fighting chance.
What’s interesting is that the MN application #'s jumped nearly as high as overall - something like 17%. But their admit rate didn’t change. MN will behave differently than other OOS due to the Reciprocity Compact; for now it looks like the UW and UMN systems are playing nice with one another - praying it stays that way for at least another year. [-O<
Also with you on those prayers…it is going to sting come December for one kiddo…so hoping a few things push her over the hump. There are some particular things that she has in common with other admits from her high school, so hoping those are still key factors this year.