Thanks Kayla. Do you have a sense of when they might publish the recent numbers and waitlist total?
They usually donât publish until after classes start in the fall unfortunately! And waitlist data in the CDS usually lags by a year though sometimes those numbers will pop up in an article or someone online earlier.
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Some potentially useful info for those waitlisted:
My OOS engineering son was waitlisted in March last year. We paid deposit to another school by May 1, signed a housing contract, and were all set and excited for him to attend. We gradually stopped thinking about UWâMadison. Then, on the afternoon of Friday May 19, he received a text message saying he had been admitted off the waitlist and had one week to decide.
Looking back at the dates of posts on CC and reddit, we suspect he was among the third batch off the waitlist (May 19 was the third Friday of the month). IIRC, there were a few more weekly batches after that, going into June. This is not to say it will be the same this year, as the school was being conservative in handing out admissions which posters have noted above. We suspect geographical diversity may have helped him, as we were from one of the flyover states with less than 100 students currently attending the school.
My son took the offer and we had to scramble to apply for housing and register for SOAR. We were told on-campus housing was guaranteed for freshmen but specific dorms and room types were not guaranteed, although we were allowed to specify our top eight (IIRC) choices. He ended up getting a dorm and room type that was outside of those choices, but grew to like it. At the time, quite a few SOAR sessions were still available, and we attended one in early August. Everything worked out at the end, although it was maybe a bit more chaotic than we would like.
As for changing majors, my son switched from engineering to physics after his first semester. He told me it was easy â he just emailed his advisor saying he wanted to switch, although his 4.0 first semester GPA may have helped. Switching into engineering/business might be totally different though, which we donât know. He is so far having a great time there â beautiful city (lots of walking), challenging classes (had to work very hard to not fall behind), talented and motivated peers, and the cold wasnât bad.
Almost a year in, we still feel fortunate that he got off the waitlist and feel that he made the right decision to go to UWâMadison.
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I just received a call-back from Wisconsin admissions! This was the third person Iâve spoken to in their admissions office and they have all been lovely. Very nice and knowledgeable. To my surprise, they confirmed the gist of the waitlist spreadsheet that I posted earlier in the thread (without confirming any numbers).
They said that the 0.3% waitlist admit rates were largely due to COVID (Fall 2021) and more students accepting their offers than expected (Fall 2022).
For Fall 2023 they adjusted their algorithm to admit fewer students during EA and RD. As a result they had to go deep into their waitlist. They believe much of this is due to students applying to so many colleges these days.
For Fall 2024 they adjusted their algorithm again to admit a few more students EA and RD, but they expect that they will again need to rely on their waitlist. They doubted it would be as extreme as last year, but they did not expect a return to the 0.3% rates of Fall 2021 and Fall 2022.
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That is great info @pilate thank you for sharing. Impressive they made a call back to share that! On Wisconsin!
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So somewhere between .3% and 79%.
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lol. Yep, that pretty much sums it up.
Based on the conversation, Iâm guessing it will be closer to between 29% and 79%
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Did anyone receive the waitlist email yet, with further instructions?
I sincerely apologize if it came out that way. I intended to communicate my son clearly wasnât admitted on his stats (lowish GPA and test optional) so it must have been the other 2 things that got him accepted. Also I canât find where I âcommendedâ Wisconsin on looking beyond stats. I merely stated my speculation.
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You have nothing to apologize for, your comments were appropriate and accurate. Mr. Crunchy went a little overboard.
Edit : And congrats to your son, he earned it. Iâm sending my third to UW in the fall and we cannot recommend the experience enough.
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OK, on a lighter note. Anyone else an alum and got this delightful email today?
"Whether itâs outstanding academics, the lifelong friendships, the roar of the crowd at Camp Randall on gameday, or the inviting, friendly city that brought you to UWâMadison, thereâs something about UW thatâs for life.
Itâs a feeling that keeps us connected and loyal to the school and community we call home.
When you love something as much as our Badger family loves the UW, itâs natural to want to protect it. One way to do this is through your estate plan. Your plan allows you to safeguard your loved ones â and itâs a space where you can perpetuate your values for generations to come."
Meanwhile, my 4th generation, highly qualified, highly interested OOS D24 was waitlisted 3 days ago for business after her EA deferral. UmmmâŠPerhaps they should rethink their pitch? Hilarious.
You really have to have a sense of humor at this point.
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Agreed. Best of luck to your daughter!
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And to be clear, itâs the same school I attended in the 1980âs (and my parents in the 1950âs and grandparents in the 1920âs)⊠just lots more applicants thanks to the common app and easily accessible online rankings. Plenty of great schools out there! Deep breath everyone. Our kids will be OK!
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You didnât say or do anything wrong and have a right to celebrate your sonâs acceptance as well as your thoughts surrounding his admission. The nature of this forum is that there will be both happy and sad messages but we should be able to express our feelings either way. A huge congratulations to your son. Iâm sure he worked very hard and deserves this accomplishment!
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That was meant for gt4889
Good lock to everyone! Will be watching for some favorable outcomes from the waitlist!
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Sorry to hear about your sonâs disappointment with being waitlisted and deep respect for your measured reply, and for waiting a few days to process the comment. I am not an admissions officer but what I have recently learned is nearly every competitive big public school follows some version of a similar process, albeit with different measurement thresholds based on what is important to them and based on available spots vs # of applications.
The criteria include test scores, gender, geography, recalculated GPA (example, UGA formula is core classes only, 4 for A, 3 for B, etc and +1 for AP and then divided by # of classes), and a very important component is HS and how previously admitted students from that HS have performed.
My understanding is essays and extracurriculars really only factor in when deciding between a smaller set of applicants being considered for merit scholarships and possibly deciding how to stack rank the waitlist candidates.
I happen to have boy, girl twins going thru the process now and my daughter was recently rejected from UGA with a 33 ACT, and a recalculated GPA based on formula above of 4.11. However, she attends a HS where the middle 50% ACT is 33-35, and bc UGA distributes admission across all HS schools in Georgia, it is accepting kids at neighboring high schools with significantly lower stats. In our case, frustrating bc in-state tuition is free (funded by the state lottery) if you attend an in-state school, so sheâs now headed to Clemson Honors or University of Florida where 4-year tuition will be $120K to $160K more depending upon where she ends up.
My overall point being nothing more than, there are so many variables that go into each schoolâs acceptance that I hope your child or anyone elseâs child doesnât take it personally because it is an unfair process for many and outside of most applicants control. That is not to take away at all from every kid that is accepted but rather to say even very qualified kids get rejected from schools where they could and probably would thrive.
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Things I wish I would have known: how much youâre compared to other kids in your HS. A 33 is an amazing score. But I guess if youâre surrounded by 33s, it just doesnât âpop.â
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My son checked his portal last night and saw under the âAdmissionsâ app that the âMid-year Gradesâ option is back. When he selected it, he saw that it was already pre-populated with the mid-year grades and 3,000 words that he submitted after being deferred. He wasnât able to modify the form.
It looks like if a student already submitted that form, thereâs nothing more to do. Someone on the Waitlist thread said they received an email telling them to submit mid-year grades. I donât know if my son received that email or not.
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I just remembered one other thing from my conversation with the Wisconsin admissions office. I asked how they make decisions to accept students off the waitlist if they donât rank applicants. He said they conduct a brand new review (like for EA or RD) of all the applicants by college.
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I assume thereâs a bunch of factors: geography, major; sex, etc.
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