Hello,
I am a senior and will be applying to UW-Madison later this year.
ACT:31
GPA: 3.1-3.12 (3.9 + this semester)
AP’s: (all this year)
Calc BC
English/Composition
Psychology
My school doesn’t offer many AP courses but I have been in many “advanced” courses.
PLTW courses: (received college credit)
Principles of Engineering
Computer Science
EC’s:
Cross Country 4 years, 2 varsity
Golf 2 years, 1 varsity
Chess 3 years varsity, captain/assistant coach
Math Track 1 year varsity
-About 40 hours of volunteer service.
-In state applicant
- 2 good recommendations
- very strong essay that partially explains low GPA
- have been doing paid programming work for 4 years, self taught
-from a private high school that sends many students to Madison each year, I know some of them had around a 26 ACT and 3.5 GPA but much less involved than I am
Please let me know what you think.
Your gpa is low compared to your ACT score. However, if you turned things around last year this means something. Your senior year is very important- you need to show you have study skills regardless of where you go to college. Spending your time with EC’s instead of learning the academic material to get better grades was a poor choice in the past. Hopefully you will have learned that academics trumps activities. You need the best knowledge foundation and study skills to succeed at UW. Admissions may decide your current skills may not allow you to succeed yet. You can apply and see what happens. We do not know as much as they will (nor should we- do not add details). Good luck wherever you end up.
It’s not that I didn’t learn the material, because I did. I just didn’t apply that knowledge to the homework, which has more weight than the tests. Hopefully I can get this across to the admissions department.
If you learned the material you should have had 100% on tests and writing assignments, you also should have been turning in completed assignments. By now you have learned that when it is stated that homework will count, it does. You can’t change the past. Go forward with lessons learned.
Exactly what I am doing. And I pretty much did get a 100% on tests. Hopefully the AO can see that I have learned from the past and that I can handle the rigor of a college level course, as is evident by my APs.
btw- AP courses are not as rigorous as UW courses. Most UW students will have taken them and done well- you should be able to get A’s in them.