<p>My very good friend is currently at the University of Illinois. She WILL be a second semester soph. and has a 3.5 GPA, majoring in history and english. She feels UI is too big and had some other personal problems on campus. In HS, she went to one of those large Chicago public schools, was top 20%, 27 ACT, but I don’t think this matters as much because she is applying for junior/senior year.</p>
<p>She already applied to UW-Madison and Michigan (I expect her to get into both although I don’t she she would want to attend) </p>
<p>Can she look at any top 30 schools or is a 3.5 from a top 40 university too low?</p>
<p>ummm, michigan is well within this “top 30” range you speak of. Most unbiased people would probably say it’s top 20. Madison is top 40. She’ll probably get into Madison, but her chances with Michigan are iffy - i’d say 50/50. I think any schools ranked higher than michigan would be a real big reach. Keep in mind it’s a big mistake to choose a school based on its ranking.</p>
<p>I appreciate the reply.</p>
<p>Personally, I think there’s little difference between Madison and Michigan on transfer admissions and have similiar student bodies based on undergrad admissions. The OOS populations are generally cross admits. This isn’t MSU vs Michigan. Apparently she spoke to admission counselors at both schools and they said a 3.5 from a peer school should be good enough. Illinois is not shabby.</p>
<p>Also, The US News ranks Michigan anywhere from 22-25 in the past years, Wisconsin at 32-34. It’s hard to define one as a “top __” school because so many rankings have varying qualitative factors. Research? Selectivity? Peer assessment? The list is endless. So besides that, I personally don’t see the difference between Madison and Michigan as one being half a list ahead of the other when it’s often within 10 spots, not a 20 + spot difference. I think what you’ve described is the difference (based on US News ranking) between Michigan and Illinois.</p>
<p>Anyway, I agree that picking schools on ranking is silly but I only ask so I can narrow down what “range” of schools would be appropriate.</p>