The University of Wisconsin - Madison

“Do well on the ACT, apply early, be involvedOct 17 2011Genetics
Do well on the ACT, apply early, be involved in high school. Above all write a good entrance essay because that can make up for everything else.
ACT: 31 Male

“A GPA above 3Jan 31 2009Math
A GPA above 3.0, a couple finished gen-ed requirements (particularly core courses like Math and English), a few extra extracurriculars listed, and a decent personal essay will get you in. I'm saying this as an out-of-state student.

However, keep in mind that they like to milk the pockets of out-of-state students by making you repeat courses (this is true for UW-Milwaukee as well, but at least it was not for core courses). For me, it involved my gen-ed English courses, which should be counted for their Com. A requirement, only being counted as “Elementary Level” even though they were advanced courses, at least by the University of California system. As was the case, I had to do some ridiculous English aptitude test which I didn't pass. From what I've seen, the English aptitude test had nothing to do with whatever their communication requirement needed. A similar situation happened to a friend of mine who transferred from Texas and he had to repeat a Calculus II course and a language course. Apparently, he was provisionally accepted and if he didn't complete the language course, they would kick him out.

Anyway, I tried to petition with one of the Communication department heads to exempt the requirement, however, the dept. head I talked to refused my English and Speech courses (from City College of San Francisco) as they were deemed not "sufficient" enough, even though they were very similar (and possibly more advanced) in books and content to what they had at UW-Madison. Let's just say that I wasn't too pleased about it. However, I've heard that it might go easier to petition with a transfer counselor instead but I wouldn't know for sure.

While I'm sure there are some lucky folks who don't need to deal with this idiocy, I had lost a semester's worth of work in this transfer. A very disappointing experience, to say the least.
Female

“As an in state student, I had a 3Dec 03 2008Genetics
As an in state student, I had a 3.98 (unweighted)GPA, and similarly high test scores. Expect to show that you are well rounded on the application (i.e. extracurriculars, volunteer work, leadership roles, etc.). Show that you are more than just a brain; that you are willing to take in more than just knowledge at the UW. If your numbers aren't so good, write a convincing essay, one that makes your values shine.
ACT: 31 SAT: 1650 Female

“Well. not muchApr 14 2005Undecided
well. not much. get high test scores and high grades. then again my junior and senior year grades sucked. i dropped from a 4.0 to a 3.4. maybe my test scores made up for it. hell, i ended up in the honors program too, so i must've done something right. just keep yer grades up (even when it seems so lovely to let them drop). dont worry too much about the SAT/ACT. most of the difference in scores on it is based on luck/preparaion for the types of questions on the tests moreso than raw intelligence. write good essays. dont write them at 4am the night b4 your college counselor wants them. thats it.
ACT: 35 SAT: 1460 Male

“I had OK HS gpa and OK ACTJan 02 2005Finance
i had OK HS gpa and OK ACT...i really don't know what else, try to write some mind-blowing app essay about some huge horrible thing in your life that u managed to overcome...UW is a sucker for stuff like that
ACT: 20 Male