Hey all! I hate to be one of those people making a “chance me” post, but I am having a lot of anxiety about my chances at UW-Madison. I currently attend a small liberal arts/women’s college in Atlanta, Georgia, and I am originally from Texas, so I am an out of state applicant. I am currently a freshman in college looking to apply for the fall 2020 school year as a sophomore. When I leave this college, I will have completed about 36 credits.
My high school GPA isn’t great (about a 3.0-3.2), but I went to one of the most selective private high schools in my state, so I’m not sure if that will help, and my grades had a distinct upward trend during my Junior and Senior years. My grades were lower the first two years due to personal troubles which I discuss in my essay. My ACT score was a 31, and I took 3 AP tests in HS (Biolgy (3), World History (4), and English Language and Composition (5)). I am a very strong writer with good essays and a good letter of recommendation. My current college GPA is a 4.0 and will likely remain a 4.0 through this school year. I am a studio art/art history double major, so I will be applying to the UW Madison School of Education. In High school, I was a 4-year varsity athlete, president of the art club, I directed a camp to get young girls involved in STEM over the summer, and I helped to conduct research at a major hospital in my city during the summer of 2018.
Any and all input would be appreciated; I’m trying to decide how many schools to apply to still, but I know that UW-Madison is my first choice!
Thank y’all!
Your HS gpa- it doesn’t matter what you think about how highly rated your HS is. You are expected to do well in your HS. btw- Wisconsin is noted for much better public education than Texas- your highly selective private HS may not be any better than most public WI HS’s. I’m forever deflating HS rankings- you are expected to make the most of what is offered to you. Doing well in college is what likely counts the most.
Regarding your proposed majors and the School of Education. They don’t match. Your current majors are in L&S (Letters and Sciences). The education school is for teachers. Figure out what you intend to do. If you intend to be an art teacher you need to look at the UW School of Education website for the prerequisites and whether or not you could get into it after being admitted to the university as a whole.
Thank you! I only mention my HS because Wisconsin noted that they care about the rigor of your HS (my HS was not only highly ranked in my state, but is a top 15 school in the country, so I don’t think it would be far off from any Wisconsin public schools), so I figured it was important to mention! As far as my major is concerned, I had some confusion over it as well–on the application it says that the Art major is in the school of education, regardless of whether or not it was for Art Education, so that is a bit confusing.
Thank you for your response 
It turns out that the student is correct – the Department of Art is in the College of Education while Art History is in Letters and Sciences. Oddly the theater major is in the College of Education, too.
Hi - I’m applying to transfer in fall 2020 for art history too! Did you have a faculty member from your current university write your letter of rec or did you have a high school teacher write one? I’m also a freshman right now and I feel like I don’t have relationships with my professors and I go to college abroad (from Madison though) so my professors don’t really understand the concept of transferring. Also, did you write your Why UW? essay as kind of a “Why do I want to transfer?” essay? I’m worried I’m making it too much of a comparison between my current school and UW—but art history students love comparison lol