By Michael Penn

No one can get into UW-Madison these days ...

Admissions counselors live to crush dreams ...

A good word from a Hollywood film star is all it takes to get in ...

That essay you’re asked to submit with your application — nobody will read it.

If you’ve heard such claims and believed them, it’s time for a reality check.

This story was originally published in the Fall 2007 issue of On Wisconsin, the alumni magazine for the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Download the story in PDF format. (4.6 MB)

On the topic of college admissions, the last thing people need is more advice. For that, they can turn most anywhere — to bookstores, where yards upon yards of glossy volumes promise to reveal the secrets of university admissions offices; to universities themselves, with their countless brochures promising the idyllic college experience; to pricey private coaches, who charge thousands of dollars to usher students through the process; or even to well-meaning friends, who swear they know somebody who knows somebody who can help.

Particularly in fall, as high school seniors begin to prepare applications to college — and national magazine editors correspondingly roll out their annual getting-into-college issues — there seems no shortage of public opinion on university admissions.

But a glut of advice does not necessarily mean a wealth of it. Like water, a little of it can sustain you; a lot can drown you.

When On Wisconsin determined to take a closer look at UW-Madison’s admissions practices, this reality weighed on our minds. The university often gets knocked for admissions decisions that seem mysterious and arbitrary, yet when we started asking around, we were struck by how much people thought they already knew about how those decisions are made. People swore knowledge of secret formulas and hushed policies that govern the process. The urban legend on this subject is, to say the least, rich — and, in many cases, dead wrong.

At UW-Madison, the competition for admission is keener and the expectations higher than ever before. For most applicants, there is precious little room for missteps, especially ones that could be avoided with a better understanding of the process. And so, we offer advice: not about how to get into UW-Madison, but about how much attention students and parents should pay to all those pieces of advice they’re likely to receive and all those myths they are likely to hear. Which ones are helpful? Which ones are misguided? In our opinion, the real key to UW-Madison’s admissions policy is in knowing the difference.

• Myth: It’s a secretive process.
• Myth: A formula determines whether students are admitted or denied.
• Myth: UW-Madison has raised its admissions criteria in recent years.
• Myth: The UW turns away students with perfect GPAs.
• Myth: Some students get special treatment in the admissions process.
• Myth: It’s impossible for regular students to get in anymore.
• Myth: No one reads personal statements.
• Myth: It pays to apply early.
• Myth: Minority students get in with lower grades than some white students who are rejected.
• Myth: UW-Madison caps the number of students who can be admitted from one high school.
• Myth: Back in the day, UW-Madison let everybody in.
• Myth: Applicants from outside Wisconsin are taking up spots that could go to state residents.
• Myth: Connections with important people can get you in.
• Myth: Alumni can get their kids in if they pull the right strings.
• Myth: Being postponed is the same as being on a wait list.
• Myth: An A is always better than a B.
• Myth: One grumpy admissions counselor can doom an application.
• Myth: Admissions counselors like rejecting people.
• Myth: My son or daughter isn’t emotionally ready to be turned down by the university.
• Myth: It’s a perfect system.