UW-Madison partners with UW Colleges

The university is working to strengthen its longstanding partnership with a natural source of transfer students — the UW Colleges, the 13 freshman/sophomore campuses of the UW System.

To better meet the needs of students wanting to attend or transfer to the state’s flagship university, the UW–Madison Office of Undergraduate Admissions is hosting a UW Colleges Advisers Meeting Friday, Oct. 6.

Student service personnel, transfer coordinators and academic advisors from the freshman and sophomore campuses will spend the day getting to know UW–Madison’s schools and colleges. UW–Madison staff will also learn more about the transfer students from the UW Colleges.

“This meeting is a bridging of programs and staff, and it is very important to help strengthen the partnership between UW–Madison and UW Colleges,” says Rob Seltzer, UW–Madison director of admissions.

Representatives will attend from the UW–Madison schools of Business, Education, Human Ecology, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Medicine, along with the colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Engineering, and Letters and Science. They will present overviews of their academic programs and answer questions.

The UW Colleges are located in Baraboo, Barron County, Fond du Lac, Fox Valley, Manitowoc, Marathon County, Marinette, Marshfield, Richland, Rock County, Sheboygan, Washington County and Waukesha. Each campus is overseen by a dean. They report to UW Colleges Chancellor William F. Messner, who is based in Madison.

“UW Colleges students transfer with an excellent academic foundation that our campuses provide through our small classes taught by experienced professors,” says Messner. “And our Guaranteed Transfer Program ensures that students go on to experience all the benefits that UW–Madison can offer in the junior and senior years with students receiving their bachelor’s degree from UW–Madison.”

Students can begin their postsecondary education as freshmen at any of the UW Colleges and be guaranteed transfer with junior status to any of the 13 UW System four-year campuses.

To be guaranteed transfer, UW College students must meet certain course and grade point requirements and indicate which campus they intend to transfer to prior to the beginning of their sophomore year. Students must maintain a minimum 2.6 grade point average on a 4.0 scale for transfer to UW–Madison and a 2.0 GPA for transfer to the other four-year UW System campuses.

“For any student, but especially those who know they want to go on to graduate, medical or law school where they will be paying tuition a long time, the UW Colleges with its lowest tuition in the UW System and its Guaranteed Transfer can be the best start,” says Messner.

Seltzer says Friday’s meeting is the first of many planned events to strengthen the pipeline between UW–Madison and the UW Colleges.

“We want to continue to work together in ways that benefit the young people who attend our institutions,” Seltzer says.

More than 1,100 UW College students have participated in the guaranteed transfer program since it started in 1998.