By Amanda Oelke

When high school senior’s open college acceptance letters, it typically signals the end of the application process. But for many of the 16 percent of students, according to the UW-Madison office of the registrar, currently in business, education, nursing and journalism majors, the application process was just beginning.

Many schools and colleges at the University of Wisconsin-Madison require students to apply a second time, after the general university application, for acceptance into the major they desire. Students have to create applications to apply and wait to see if they get accepted, ending the undergraduate application process for good.

But, the unpredictability of awaiting a college admissions decision continues past opening that acceptance letter. Rebecca Harper, a recent transfer from UW-Rock County to UW-Madison and former aspiring engineer major, says she now pursues an applied mathematics degree due to the unpredictability of applying and possibly not getting accepted into the College of Engineering.

Harper’s current path avoids the uncertainty of applying to one of the major limited enrollment programs at UW-Madison. Limited enrollment colleges and schools on campus cap the number of students that can be accepted into their program, denying acceptance to some and offering enrollment to others. Often, there are resource concerns that force these enrollment limits in place, other times programs use limited enrollment to seek out the best students.

Jeffery Hamm, the associate dean for student services in the School of Education says that resource limitations often cause programs to limit the number of students that can be in that major. Many programs on campus deal with concerns of space, budget and the amount of faculty available. An application process helps to manage the number of students to fit within those limitations.

According to Hamm, the School of Education admits the vast majority of students that apply, but they are still labeled as a limited enrollment program because of the resource limitations they deal with. These include, gathering cooperating teachers in the field for student teaching, paying teaching assistants to accompany students in the field and instructional staff and time.

“We do always have to be on the lookout for how many students we can accommodate in a class and what happens if lots and lots of students show up,” Hamm’s said, “Kinesiology looks at the literal size of their exercise physiology labs and what they know they need to do with their students to be properly prepared. They just say we can’t put more than a certain number of students in these labs and there’s just these many hours in the day.”

Colin Rohm, a UW-Madison Cross College advisor, thinks that students don’t recognize resources as a reason for limiting enrollment or their possible denial into the program.

“I had no idea it was a resource management thing. That should definitely be a wider knowledge pool that people have and people would be a lot more understanding as why and less stressed,” student Rebecca Harper said.

Rohm also adds, that although some programs face those resource limitations, the programs that don’t face them as severely admit students based on academic and application quality.

“I do think the way that they [the School of Business] tend to treat limited enrollment programs is that they are looking for things in a student and some students have it and some students don’t,” Rohm said.

The School of Business approaches admission capacities by choosing the top students out of the applicant pool. Karen Thomas, a former pre-business advisor came to understand that the School of Business’s is selecting those students who have demonstrated commitment and leadership. They limit enrollment to the students who they believe will be successful in their majors.

Deciding who these top students are, often comes down to the required application by that School or College. The business application looks into student’s GPA, resume for leadership positions and involvement and the essays for why they want to be in business, according to the Wisconsin School of Business website.

According to Rohm, using limited enrollment, like the School of Business does, by selecting the top students is how most undergraduates think of limited enrollment.

This process is thought of as a barrier to student pursuing what they have set out to achieve, according to Harper.

“First you have to get into the school and then you have to deal with getting into the specific college, that’s crazy. I think, it’s not like they would stop me [from pursing a wanted major], but they totally can,” Harper said.

Limited enrollment programs, although more accepted because of understood resource concerns, place students in competition for the future major and career path they desire.

 

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