I received that as well a while back but I highly doubt it reflects anything to do with your admissions decision. Pretty sure it was just your typical mass-send out from colleges trying to attract people to apply.
@hjc789 I agree with the above comment. I’m sure it was an advertisement to attract new applicants.
Does anyone know how uw calculated gpa when they evaluate your app? I know they unweight it but do they take out elective classes? I know Michigan has a system just wondering if they did too
To be honest… I think Madison is ridiculous making the kids wait this long for a decision. Most every other college has contacted their applicants already. Does Madison think they’re up there with Stanford, Harvard or Penn, to name a few? There acceptance rates are between 5-10%. Really Madison? You’re at 47%… not that impressive. Get the acceptance letters out, like the rest of the schools of your caliber, so the kids can start planning there college future! Sheesh!!
It’s hard to be patient, and yes, it can be frustrating. However, the decision deadline is pretty clearly stated when submitting the app. I know my son would really like to have a decision by now, but he also knows that he many not get one until January 31st (or later if he’s postponed). My son is also waiting for a reply from Minnesota (where he applied in August) and they have a decision deadline of Feb 28th. So, not completely unusual to still be waiting for a reply.
My son has applied to 8 schools and he has only heard from two. One acceptance and one deferral to regular decision. I think most schools of Wisconsin’s caliber haven’t replied to candidates. Heck, Illinois, which I think is probably an analog to UW Madison, won’t respond until 2/5. In fact, I think the schools that respond almost instantaneously (I’m looking at you Iowa), undermine their brand a bit. Quality is worth waiting for, IMO.
I think it all depends on the nature of a school’s admission process. A school like Iowa does not conduct a holistic review of applicants, there’s simply a formula that tells you whether you are going to be accepted or not, and admission decisions are made on a rolling basis which was why my son identified Iowa as one of his safeties.
On the other hand, my son has been accepted to Minnesota and Ohio State which both do conduct holistic review of applicants. However, unlike UW a school like Minnesota practices rolling admissions and does not require essays. OSU requires essays; however, OSU has an early action deadline of November 1 to complete your application whereas the material receipt deadline for UW’s first notification period over three week later - November 23.
I certainly do understand how this can all be frustrating. Moreover, in the case of Wisconsin I think that the frustration is that there was so much anticipation that admission decisions would be released the last couple of Fridays and they were not. My son has other schools on his list who are not Ivy League institutions; however, they are selective private schools who will not release their decisions until next spring. Because we know that’s the case there hasn’t been the sort of disappointment like here when decisions are anticipated but they are not released. Of course, UW never promised to release the decisions any earlier than the end of January so there’s no real basis for directing our frustrations at Wisconsin.
And UW Admissions restated that in response to someone’s tweet this afternoon asking if notifications would go out tomorrow.
Actually, Madison’s decisions come out pretty early. Most schools that you mentioned (Stanford, Harvard, etc) don’t release regular decision decisions until late March, with the exception of early action, but usually early action for those schools are single choice.
I saw that too @luvsgelato . There were actually two twitter responses from UW Admissions yesterday that referenced the end of January. This is interesting, because last week they posted a twitter reply to someone that said something along the lines of be patient, just a liiiiittle longer. Someone in the admissions office possibly realized that could be misleading and that while some applicants may very well get responses within the next week or two, there are others that will have to wait until close to the deadline.
I’m still hoping it starts today!
Certainly UW has usually released some decisions before Christmas so I anticipate that they will continue to do so. This being the last Friday before Christmas makes today a likely day. Michigan is also releasing their EA decisions today. Lots of Big Ten excitement!
michigan started releasing…
While its certainly possible that UW may release some decisions starting today, if you look at their twitter account and scroll back in history, the last two years it appears that the Monday or Tuesday prior to Christmas were big decision days.
@BrewCrew82- Our boys seem to be waiting on the same 2, UW & UM, with similar apply dates and stats. I enjoy reading your posts-their very helpful for this first (and only) time mom. Good Luck to your son as the opportunities come in he makes his decision.
Good luck to your sons as well @kellygirl! We just have one son, so this is our first (and last!) time going through this as well.
Michigan release news on the UoM thread was bogus. No news from them yet. Earliest expected from UoM is 3pm EST. Any idea if we’ll be hearing from Wisconsin today?
@condole UW does not make exact timing of decision releases public, but if you just browse the last 10-15 posts in this thread, you will get a sense of what other users are thinking 
@BrewCrew82, @kelleygirl. Waiting for UW and UMich here too. : ). Good luck to all!!!
Good lock to all anxiously awaiting release of decisions from UW and UM. I have a child who has applied to both. If in, would be an addition to our families BigTen Club. Both my wife and I are from MSU.