By Glyn Caddell, BSME · Author of Digital SAT Math Secrets · Tutoring since 2008 — Updated October 17, 2026
Twenty-five Wisconsin colleges with pre-med programs, what they cost, and the ACT scores of the students they admit.
Wisconsin gives every eleventh grader the ACT and then almost nothing in the state uses the result, because ten of the thirteen public universities now admit students with no application at all and no state scholarship asks for a test score.
The ACT appears as a composite because that is how these colleges report it, and the SAT appears by section for the five that report it, because a student at 650 Reading & Writing and 540 Math is in a different position from a student at 540 and 650.
Two abbreviations matter later on this page. MD is the degree awarded by most medical schools in the United States. DO is the degree awarded by colleges of osteopathic medicine, and DO holders are licensed physicians with the same practice rights. Wisconsin has two MD schools and no college of osteopathic medicine.
Table of Contents
- Wisconsin Pre-Med Colleges by ACT Score
- Why Do Wisconsin Colleges Report the ACT Instead of the SAT?
- How Do You Get Into a University of Wisconsin Without an Application?
- Does Any Wisconsin Scholarship Require a Test Score?
- What Medical Schools Are in Wisconsin?
- Where Wisconsin Breaks the Pattern in This Series
- What If Your Scores Are Below the Range You Want?
Wisconsin Pre-Med Colleges by ACT Score
The table below covers four-year public and non-profit institutions in Wisconsin awarding bachelor’s degrees or higher, with at least 1,000 undergraduates, that report an admit rate or admitted test scores. Twenty-five institutions meet that description.
This is the one page in the series that leads with the ACT, because that is what Wisconsin’s colleges publish. Twenty of these institutions report an ACT composite and five report SAT sections, and fifteen report the ACT with no SAT at all. Not one reports the SAT without also reporting the ACT. Twelve of the thirteen University of Wisconsin campuses publish an ACT range and no SAT range, and Madison is the only one that publishes both.
Colleges are sorted by the midpoint of the ACT composite range, with ties broken on the ACT 75th percentile and then on size. Four pairs of institutions report identical ranges, so the tiebreak does real work here. The five institutions reporting no scores of any kind go last, ordered by size.
| College | ACT composite | Reading & Writing | Math | Cost of attendance | Undergraduates | Admit rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Wisconsin-Madison | 29 to 33 | 670 to 740 | 710 to 780 | $28,679 | 36,902 | 45% |
| Marquette University | 26 to 31 | 610 to 680 | 590 to 680 | $66,768 | 7,660 | 81% |
| Lawrence University | 24 to 31 | 610 to 710 | 590 to 710 | $69,849 | 1,396 | 64% |
| Concordia University-Wisconsin | 22 to 28 | Not reported | Not reported | $53,315 | 2,197 | 78% |
| University of Wisconsin-Platteville | 21 to 28 | Not reported | Not reported | $21,266 | 5,837 | 89% |
| Saint Norbert College | 21 to 28 | 525 to 680 | 508 to 610 | $59,422 | 1,662 | 86% |
| University of Wisconsin-La Crosse | 22 to 27 | Not reported | Not reported | $19,593 | 9,277 | 76% |
| University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire | 22 to 27 | Not reported | Not reported | $21,705 | 8,895 | 82% |
| Carroll University | 21 to 27 | 510 to 640 | 530 to 630 | $52,639 | 2,523 | 67% |
| Viterbo University | 22 to 26 | Not reported | Not reported | $45,558 | 1,249 | 72% |
| University of Wisconsin-Stout | 20 to 27 | Not reported | Not reported | $22,797 | 5,842 | 88% |
| University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point | 20 to 26 | Not reported | Not reported | $20,079 | 7,306 | 92% |
| University of Wisconsin-River Falls | 19 to 26 | Not reported | Not reported | $19,781 | 4,205 | 82% |
| Carthage College | 20 to 25 | Not reported | Not reported | $50,822 | 2,660 | 87% |
| University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee | 18 to 25 | Not reported | Not reported | $22,756 | 16,758 | 91% |
| University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh | 18 to 25 | Not reported | Not reported | $19,652 | 6,877 | 87% |
| University of Wisconsin-Parkside | 17 to 25 | Not reported | Not reported | $18,199 | 2,844 | 75% |
| University of Wisconsin-Green Bay | 18 to 24 | Not reported | Not reported | $19,366 | 6,341 | 89% |
| University of Wisconsin-Superior | 18 to 24 | Not reported | Not reported | $19,860 | 1,807 | 93% |
| University of Wisconsin-Whitewater | 17 to 24 | Not reported | Not reported | $18,719 | 9,405 | 86% |
| Milwaukee School of Engineering | Not reported | Not reported | Not reported | $62,648 | 2,654 | 59% |
| Herzing University-Madison | Not reported | Not reported | Not reported | $27,939 | 2,494 | 94% |
| Lakeland University | Not reported | Not reported | Not reported | $48,840 | 1,212 | 86% |
| Edgewood University | Not reported | Not reported | Not reported | $50,903 | 1,107 | 76% |
| Marian University | Not reported | Not reported | Not reported | $44,450 | 1,010 | 75% |
Each range covers the middle 50% of admitted students who submitted that score. A quarter scored below the lower number, and the top quarter scored at or above the upper one. Being under the lower number does not rule a student out, and being just above it is not as safe as it looks. For the five colleges reporting no score of any kind, there is no published figure to compare against.
Three liberal arts colleges sit just below the 1,000-undergraduate cut and one of them is worth naming. Beloit College enrolls 926 undergraduates, admits 63%, and reports an ACT of 24 to 30 with SAT sections of 590 to 720 and 610 to 710, which on scores would place it second in the state behind Madison. Wisconsin Lutheran College at 943 undergraduates and Ripon College at 688 also fall outside the table.
Five things in the table are worth saying before the entries.
University of Wisconsin-Madison’s ACT 25th percentile of 29 is higher than every other Wisconsin public university’s 75th percentile, the highest of which is 28 at UW-Platteville.
In-article image 1 Shows: the ACT ranges of all thirteen University of Wisconsin campuses on one axis, with Madison separated from the twelve others Alt text: University of Wisconsin campuses by admitted ACT range with Madison shown separately File name: uw-system-act-ranges-madison-apart Size: 2760×1440
Set out as a single axis, the bottom of Madison’s range sits above the top quarter everywhere else in the system.
Madison admits 45% of applicants and the next most selective public university, UW-Parkside, admits 75%. The next most selective institution of any kind is Milwaukee School of Engineering at 59%.
Madison charges non-residents $30,500 more than residents. The other twelve University of Wisconsin campuses charge between $7,914 and $12,000 more. That is a two-tier structure inside one system, and it runs opposite to Washington, where all three University of Washington campuses charged exactly the same non-resident premium.
Four pairs of institutions report identical ACT ranges. UW-Eau Claire and UW-La Crosse both report 22 to 27, Saint Norbert and UW-Platteville both report 21 to 28, UW-Green Bay and UW-Superior both report 18 to 24, and UW-Oshkosh and UW-Milwaukee both report 18 to 25. One of those pairs crosses the public and private line.
The five institutions reporting no scores at all are all private, and one of them is the second most selective institution in the state.
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University of Wisconsin-Madison
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is the state’s flagship public research university, with 36,902 undergraduates, approximately 30% of all the public undergraduates in this table. It is the only University of Wisconsin campus that reports both an ACT and an SAT range, and the only one that is genuinely selective.
Admitted students scored 29 to 33 on the ACT composite, with SAT sections of 670 to 740 in Reading & Writing and 710 to 780 in Math. The top quarter sat at or above 33, 740 and 780. Madison admits 45% of applicants. Cost of attendance is $28,679, with in-state tuition and fees of $11,603 against $42,103 for non-residents.
Madison is also the one campus that does not take part in Direct Admit Wisconsin, and it applies a stricter class rank threshold than the rest of the system. Both points are covered below.
Marquette University
Marquette University is a Jesuit university in downtown Milwaukee with 7,660 undergraduates, and it is the largest private institution in the state. It admits 81% of applicants.
Admitted students scored 26 to 31 on the ACT, with SAT sections of 610 to 680 and 590 to 680. Cost of attendance is $66,768, the second highest here, with tuition and fees of $51,170.
Marquette reports the second-highest ACT range in Wisconsin while admitting more than four applicants in five, which normally points to a self-selecting applicant pool rather than a hard cutoff.
Lawrence University
Lawrence University is a private liberal arts college and conservatory in Appleton with 1,396 undergraduates. Its cost of attendance of $69,849 is the highest in the state, with tuition and fees of $56,982, and it admits 64% of applicants.
Reported ranges are 24 to 31 on the ACT and 610 to 710 and 590 to 710 on the SAT sections. Lawrence has the widest ACT range of any institution reporting both tests, at seven points.
Its two score sets line up more exactly than anywhere else on this page, and the section on the concordance pattern explains why that is unusual.
Concordia University-Wisconsin
Concordia University-Wisconsin is a private Lutheran university in Mequon, north of Milwaukee, with 2,197 undergraduates. It admits 78% of applicants and reports an ACT range of 22 to 28 with no SAT range.
Cost of attendance is $53,315, with tuition and fees of $35,470. Concordia reports the highest ACT range of any institution that publishes no SAT figures.
University of Wisconsin-Platteville
The University of Wisconsin-Platteville is a public university in Platteville, in the southwest corner of the state, with 5,837 undergraduates. It takes part in Direct Admit Wisconsin and admits 89% of applicants.
Admitted students scored 21 to 28 on the ACT, and its 75th percentile of 28 is the highest of any Wisconsin public university other than Madison. Cost of attendance is $21,266, with in-state tuition and fees of $8,644 against $17,603 for non-residents.
Platteville shares its exact ACT range with Saint Norbert College, a private college charging $59,422 against Platteville’s $21,266.
Saint Norbert College
Saint Norbert College is a private Catholic liberal arts college in De Pere, next to Green Bay, with 1,662 undergraduates. It admits 86% of applicants.
Reported ranges are 21 to 28 on the ACT and 525 to 680 and 508 to 610 on the SAT sections. Cost of attendance is $59,422 with tuition and fees of $45,580.
Saint Norbert is one of only five Wisconsin institutions reporting both tests, and its two sets disagree by enough to appear in the concordance section below.
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse is a public university in La Crosse, on the Mississippi River, with 9,277 undergraduates. It admits 76% of applicants, which makes it the second most selective public university in the state.
Admitted students scored 22 to 27 on the ACT. Cost of attendance is $19,593, among the lowest here, with in-state tuition and fees of $10,070 against $19,517 for non-residents.
La Crosse is one of the three University of Wisconsin campuses that does not take part in Direct Admit Wisconsin. The city also hosts one of the three regional sites for the UW medical school’s rural training track.
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire is a public university in Eau Claire with 8,895 undergraduates, and it admits 82% of applicants. It reports an ACT range of 22 to 27, identical to La Crosse’s.
Cost of attendance is $21,705, with in-state tuition and fees of $9,642 against $19,228 for non-residents. Eau Claire is the third University of Wisconsin campus outside Direct Admit Wisconsin, alongside Madison and La Crosse.
Carroll University
Carroll University is a private university in Waukesha, west of Milwaukee, with 2,523 undergraduates. It admits 67% of applicants, the second-lowest rate among the private institutions reporting scores.
Reported ranges are 21 to 27 on the ACT and 510 to 640 and 530 to 630 on the SAT sections. Cost of attendance is $52,639, with tuition and fees of $38,890. Carroll is one of two institutions on this page where the Math section sits above Reading & Writing at the 25th percentile.
Viterbo University
Viterbo University is a private Franciscan university in La Crosse with 1,249 undergraduates. It admits 72% of applicants and reports an ACT range of 22 to 26 with no SAT range.
Cost of attendance is $45,558, the lowest of any private institution reporting scores, with tuition and fees of $34,250. Viterbo and UW-La Crosse sit in the same city at costs of $45,558 and $19,593.
University of Wisconsin-Stout
The University of Wisconsin-Stout is a public polytechnic university in Menomonie with 5,842 undergraduates, and it takes part in Direct Admit Wisconsin. It admits 88% of applicants and reports an ACT range of 20 to 27.
Cost of attendance is $22,797. Its in-state tuition and fees of $10,701 are the second highest of any Wisconsin public university after Madison, while its non-resident premium of $8,564 is among the smallest.
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point is a public university in Stevens Point with 7,306 undergraduates. It admits 92% of applicants, takes part in Direct Admit Wisconsin, and reports an ACT range of 20 to 26.
Cost of attendance is $20,079, with in-state tuition and fees of $9,488 against $18,508 for non-residents.
University of Wisconsin-River Falls
The University of Wisconsin-River Falls is a public university in River Falls, close to the Minnesota border, with 4,205 undergraduates. It admits 82% of applicants, takes part in Direct Admit Wisconsin, and reports an ACT range of 19 to 26.
Cost of attendance is $19,781, with in-state tuition and fees of $9,008 against $17,470 for non-residents. Its non-resident premium of $8,462 is the second smallest in the system.
Carthage College
Carthage College is a private Lutheran college in Kenosha, on Lake Michigan between Milwaukee and Chicago, with 2,660 undergraduates. It admits 87% of applicants and reports an ACT range of 20 to 25 with no SAT range.
Cost of attendance is $50,822, with tuition and fees of $38,750.
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is a public research university with 16,758 undergraduates, making it the second-largest institution in the state. It admits 91% of applicants, takes part in Direct Admit Wisconsin, and reports an ACT range of 18 to 25 with no SAT range.
Cost of attendance is $22,756. In-state tuition and fees are $10,398 against $22,398 for non-residents, and that $12,000 premium is the largest in the system after Madison’s.
Milwaukee is the only Wisconsin public university other than Madison classified as a research university, and it sits in the same city as the state’s private medical school.
University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh
The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh is a public university in Oshkosh with 6,877 undergraduates. It admits 87% of applicants, takes part in Direct Admit Wisconsin, and reports an ACT range of 18 to 25, identical to Milwaukee’s.
Cost of attendance is $19,652, with in-state tuition and fees of $8,532 against $16,446 for non-residents. Oshkosh and UW-Superior share the smallest non-resident premium in the system at exactly $7,914 each.
University of Wisconsin-Parkside
The University of Wisconsin-Parkside is a public university in Kenosha with 2,844 undergraduates. Its cost of attendance of $18,199 is the lowest on this page and its in-state tuition and fees of $8,270 are the lowest as well, against $17,429 for non-residents.
Parkside admits 75% of applicants, the lowest rate of any Wisconsin public university other than Madison, and it reports an ACT range of 17 to 25. It takes part in Direct Admit Wisconsin.
Parkside and Carthage College sit in the same city at costs of $18,199 and $50,822, a difference of approximately 2.8 to one.
University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay is a public university in Green Bay with 6,341 undergraduates. It admits 89% of applicants, takes part in Direct Admit Wisconsin, and reports an ACT range of 18 to 24.
Cost of attendance is $19,366, with in-state tuition and fees of $8,700 against $17,288 for non-residents. Green Bay is also the one city in Wisconsin where both medical schools train students, through the private school’s regional campus and the public school’s rural track.
University of Wisconsin-Superior
The University of Wisconsin-Superior is a public university in Superior, at the far northwest corner of the state next to Duluth, with 1,807 undergraduates. It is the smallest University of Wisconsin campus in this table and admits 93% of applicants.
Cost of attendance is $19,860, with in-state tuition and fees of $8,812 against $16,726 for non-residents. It reports an ACT range of 18 to 24 and takes part in Direct Admit Wisconsin.
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater is a public university in Whitewater with 9,405 undergraduates, the third-largest in the system. It admits 86% of applicants, takes part in Direct Admit Wisconsin, and reports an ACT range of 17 to 24, the lowest in the table.
Cost of attendance is $18,719, the second lowest here, with in-state tuition and fees of $8,616 against $18,716 for non-residents.
Milwaukee School of Engineering
Milwaukee School of Engineering is a private university in downtown Milwaukee with 2,654 undergraduates, focused on engineering, computing, nursing and the applied sciences. It admits 59% of applicants, which makes it the second most selective institution in the state, and it publishes no admitted score ranges of any kind.
Cost of attendance is $62,648, the third highest on this page, with tuition and fees of $50,480.
A student has nothing to compare a score against at the second most selective institution in Wisconsin. That is the awkward case on this page, the way Bethany was on the West Virginia page.
Herzing University-Madison
Herzing University-Madison is a private non-profit university with 2,494 undergraduates, offering career-focused programs concentrated in nursing, healthcare and technology. It admits 94% of applicants, the highest rate on this page, and publishes no admitted score ranges.
Cost of attendance is $27,939 and tuition and fees are $13,450, far below every other private institution here and below six of the thirteen public universities. Herzing meets this table’s stated rule and is included on that basis, and a student comparing it with Lawrence or Marquette is comparing different kinds of institution.
Lakeland University
Lakeland University is a private university in Plymouth, in eastern Wisconsin, with 1,212 undergraduates. It admits 86% of applicants and publishes no admitted score ranges.
Cost of attendance is $48,840, with tuition and fees of $33,396.
Edgewood University
Edgewood University is a private Dominican university in Madison with 1,107 undergraduates, sitting between Lake Wingra and the UW-Madison campus. It admits 76% of applicants and publishes no admitted score ranges.
Cost of attendance is $50,903, with tuition and fees of $35,860.
Marian University
Marian University is a private university in Fond du Lac with 1,010 undergraduates, the smallest institution in this table. It admits 75% of applicants and publishes no admitted score ranges.
Cost of attendance is $44,450, with tuition and fees of $35,178.
Why Do Wisconsin Colleges Report the ACT Instead of the SAT?
Wisconsin colleges report the ACT because the state gives every eleventh grader the ACT. The Department of Public Instruction administers the ACT with writing to grade 11 students as a state assessment, and its own guidance notes that state and federal law require districts and schools to test all students.
A parent or guardian can request an excusal, and the Department says such a request must be honored in grades 9 through 11, after which the student is recorded as not tested under a parent opt-out code. Both halves are worth knowing. The default is that a student sits the test, and a family that would rather he did not has a documented route out of it.
Two things the Department’s pages do not address are worth asking a district about rather than assuming. They do not say whether the test is free to students, and they do not say who pays.
The effect shows up directly in the table. Twenty institutions report an ACT composite, fifteen report nothing else, and not one reports the SAT without also reporting the ACT. A Wisconsin student has an ACT score by default and would have to arrange an SAT himself.
West Virginia, covered immediately before this page in the series, runs the same arrangement on the other test. It uses the SAT as its state assessment for every junior, and its colleges report the SAT the way Wisconsin’s report the ACT.
In-article image 3 Shows: Wisconsin beside West Virginia on the state assessment, the count of institutions reporting each test, and whether any state aid program requires a score Alt text: Wisconsin and West Virginia compared by state assessment, college score reporting and scholarship requirements File name: wisconsin-west-virginia-opposite-tests Size: 2760×1440
What makes the pair worth setting side by side is that the two states test every junior on opposite tests and reach opposite conclusions about the score. West Virginia’s merit scholarship is a test score, and at a threshold above the bottom quarter of every admitted class in that state. Wisconsin’s asks for no score at all.
How Do You Get Into a University of Wisconsin Without an Application?
Direct Admit Wisconsin lets participating high schools share student data with the Universities of Wisconsin, which then offer admission without a traditional application. Offers normally go out between late July and early October of senior year, and a student can receive one without having filled anything in.
Ten of the thirteen universities take part. Those are Green Bay, Milwaukee, Oshkosh, Parkside, Platteville, River Falls, Stevens Point, Stout, Superior and Whitewater.
Three do not, and they are UW-Madison, UW-Eau Claire and UW-La Crosse. Those three are also the first, second and third most selective public universities in the state, so the campuses Direct Admit does not reach are exactly the ones where admission is least certain.
The mechanics are straightforward. A student’s district must take part and the student must opt in, and he must be on track to graduate with four English credits, three in mathematics, three in social science, three in natural science and four electives. His unweighted cumulative grade point average at the end of junior year then determines which universities offer him admission. No test score enters the decision.
The system does not publish the grade point thresholds, so this page does not state them. A student who wants to know where his average would land him should ask his school counselor, who will also know whether his district takes part. The published participation deadlines are 1 May 2025 for the class of 2026 and 1 May 2026 for the class of 2027.
The Wisconsin Guarantee and the One Place a Score Still Decides
The Wisconsin Guarantee admits a student who ranks in the top 10% of his class at the end of eleventh grade to a University of Wisconsin, and at UW-Madison the threshold is the top 5%.
Madison publishes the fullest terms. The class must have more than 15 students and the ranking must be official from the high school. Applications are due 1 November with all required materials, including official class rank, received by 9 November. An eligible applicant still receives a holistic review, and that review is also what decides direct entry to Business, Engineering, Dance and Music, and what decides scholarships. Spring applicants and transfer students are not eligible.
One condition deserves a sentence of its own, because it is easy to miss and entirely checkable. If a student’s high school does not rank its students, he is not eligible for the guarantee. New legislation requires school boards to rank by eleventh-grade grade point average where a class has at least 15 students, and a student at a school that does not rank falls back to holistic review. Any Wisconsin student counting on the guarantee should ask his school whether it ranks and whether his rank is official.
One common misreading is worth correcting. National Merit Finalists who are Wisconsin residents are not guaranteed admission to Madison at decision time. They apply by the 1 November Early Action deadline and receive a holistic review, with decisions by 31 January.
Then there is the route where a number is the whole decision. A homeschooled student or a student at a virtual private school qualifies for the guarantee on an ACT score at the 90th percentile nationally, and at UW-Madison the 98th percentile, which Madison publishes as 33 or higher for the spring and fall 2027 cycle. Madison states that SAT and concorded scores are not accepted, so a homeschooled Wisconsin student cannot use an SAT score for this route at any strength. He has to indicate on his application that he wants the score considered and have ACT send it officially.
In-article image 2 Shows: the three routes into a University of Wisconsin side by side, with the three non-participating universities marked Alt text: Three routes to admission at a University of Wisconsin campus compared by what each one requires File name: wisconsin-three-admission-routes Size: 2760×1440
Set out together, one route asks for a class rank and one asks for a 33. A public school student reaches the Madison guarantee by ranking in the top 5% of his class, and a homeschooled student reaches the same guarantee with a 33.
Washington handles the same group of students differently and far more gently. There, home-schooled applicants and applicants from schools without letter or numeric grades must submit a score, but no threshold attaches to it. Wisconsin sets a threshold and sets it at the 98th percentile.
Is the Test Requirement Gone for Good?
The test requirement is not yet permanently gone at the Universities of Wisconsin, although it is close, and most coverage of this has it wrong.
The sequence runs as follows. The requirement has been waived at all thirteen campuses since 2020. In April 2026 the full Board of Regents approved extending the waiver for the high school class of 2027. In September 2026 the Regents’ Education Committee backed making the change permanent, and that proposal awaits a final vote at a future Regents meeting, for which no date has been published.
So no University of Wisconsin campus requires a test score for the class of 2027, and the change is not yet permanent. A committee recommendation is not a Board decision.
The distinction matters to anyone planning more than a year out. A sophomore reading this is relying on a policy that has been extended one graduating class at a time, and that is a weaker thing to plan around than a settled rule. Washington’s flagship removed its requirement permanently in 2020 and says so in those words, and the difference between that and a repeatedly extended waiver is worth understanding before treating either as fixed.
Does Any Wisconsin Scholarship Require a Test Score?
No Wisconsin state financial aid program published by the Higher Educational Aids Board requires an ACT or SAT score.
The Academic Excellence Scholarship is the state’s main merit award and it runs on grade point average. It goes to the senior with the highest grade point average in each public and private high school, designated by the school, and pays up to $2,250 a year toward tuition, half from the state and half matched by the institution. It needs no application. It requires full-time enrollment by 30 September of the following academic year, continuous enrollment, and no more than eight semesters.
Its design is unlike anything else in this series and deserves stating plainly. The competition runs inside a single high school rather than across the state, so a student’s chances turn on his classmates rather than on a statewide bar. A student with the second-highest average at a strong school gets nothing, and a student with a lower average at a smaller school may get the award.
The Technical Excellence Scholarship pays up to $2,250 a year on demonstrated proficiency in technical education subjects, by school nomination, and is usable only at Wisconsin Technical College System schools.
The Wisconsin Grant is need-based for residents, with a separate version for residents attending Wisconsin private non-profit colleges. Both require the FAFSA, are prorated by enrollment and carry a ten-semester limit. The minimum and maximum amounts are set annually by the Board and are not published on its programs page, so no figure appears here. A student should get the current year’s maximum from the Board directly.
The Talent Incentive Program is need-based and aimed at educationally disadvantaged students. It requires nomination by a financial aid office or a Wisconsin Educational Opportunity Program counselor, and initial awards run from $600 to $1,800.
Two smaller programs are worth knowing. The Indian Student Assistance Grant pays $250 to $1,100 to residents who are at least 25% Native American, and the Hearing and Visually Impaired Student Grant pays $250 to $1,800.
Set against the states this series has already covered, Wisconsin sits at one end of a clear range. West Virginia’s PROMISE Scholarship needs an SAT total of 1080 with both sections at 510. Tennessee’s HOPE Scholarship makes a score one of three alternatives. South Dakota’s award is effectively the score itself. Wisconsin asks for nothing, and its largest merit award goes to whoever has the highest average in his own building.
What Medical Schools Are in Wisconsin?
Wisconsin has two medical schools, both awarding the MD, and the private one is the larger.
The Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee is private, and its incoming class of 274 students is spread across three campuses, with 225 in Milwaukee, 25 in Green Bay and 24 at the Central Wisconsin campus in Wausau, where the figure reflects a planned increase. Wisconsin residents make up 53% of that class, which the college describes as its largest home-state share.
The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison is public, with an entering class of 171 drawn from 7,968 applications and an average cumulative grade point average of 3.81.
At 274 students against 171, the private medical school enrolls approximately 1.6 times as many first-year students as the public one.
The second half of that comparison needs care. The Medical College of Wisconsin publishes a 53% Wisconsin resident share, and the UW School of Medicine and Public Health does not publish a resident share on its admissions pages. That is an absence of a published figure rather than evidence that UW’s share is lower, and a student who needs the number should ask UW’s admissions office for it. In every other state in this series the public school was the one documenting its in-state commitment, and in Wisconsin it is the private one.
Wisconsin has no college of osteopathic medicine, so a Wisconsin student who wants the DO is applying out of state. That is worth saying for anyone arriving from the two pages before this one, both of which featured osteopathic schools prominently.
The UW school runs two statewide training tracks. The Wisconsin Academy for Rural Medicine, known as WARM, trains students through regional medical centers in Green Bay, Marshfield and La Crosse, aimed at rural physician shortages, with Marshfield Clinic hosting since 2009 and Gundersen and Aurora BayCare as partners. Training in Urban Medicine and Public Health, known as TRIUMPH, places students in Milwaukee-area hospitals and community clinics with Aurora Health Care as a partner. The school does not publish cohort sizes for either track on its statewide campus pages.
The geography is worth one observation. WARM uses Green Bay and the Medical College of Wisconsin runs a regional campus in Green Bay, so two medical schools train students in that one city. WARM’s La Crosse site sits in the same city as UW-La Crosse, row seven of the table above.
The standard caution applies. Attending the undergraduate campus attached to a medical school helps with shadowing, research access and knowing the faculty, and it does not improve admission odds by itself. Wisconsin publishes less about residency than most states in this series, so the sensible move is to ask both schools rather than infer anything from where the campuses sit.
Eleven States, Eleven Different Residency Rules
Wisconsin is the least documented of the eleven consecutive states this series has examined on residency, and that absence is itself the finding. Neither school publishes a residency rule in the form the other ten states did, and the only published figure is the Medical College of Wisconsin’s 53% resident share.
West Virginia has two public MD schools running opposite rules, with Marshall stating that other non-residents are not considered. Washington reserves approximately 95% of 280 seats for five states and admits out-of-region applicants at a three-year average of 0.5%. Texas caps non-residents at 10% of every public class by statute. Utah publishes a 132-seat table reserving 90 for residents. North Carolina’s Brody School of Medicine bars applicants who are neither residents nor recent UNC System graduates. Tennessee’s UTHSC caps out-of-state admissions at approximately 10%. Oregon’s OHSU writes four criteria into a numbered policy. South Dakota’s Sanford grants residents an interview. North Dakota’s UND ranks a state degree inside a preference order. Vermont’s published policy governs tuition rather than admission.
A Wisconsin student cannot look up where he stands the way a student in those states can. The practical consequence is that he should ask rather than infer, and should not read the absence of a published preference as the absence of one.
Where Wisconsin Breaks the Pattern in This Series
Wisconsin is the first state in this series where one of the series’ own findings does not hold. The pattern was established across South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas and confirmed in Washington and West Virginia: the minority test in a state reads higher, because the smaller group who sit it are self-selected rather than a cross-section. Wisconsin is an ACT state, so the SAT is the minority test here and should read high.
One correction applies before the figures. Adding two SAT section percentiles together overstates a real composite by approximately 20 points at each end, because no single student sits at the same percentile in both sections, and every figure below carries that adjustment.
It does at two of the five institutions reporting both tests, and not at the other three.
UW-Madison’s SAT figures sit approximately 20 points above its ACT equivalent at the lower end and 40 above at the upper, which fits the pattern. Lawrence University matches exactly at both ends, with adjusted SAT figures of 1180 to 1400 against an ACT of 24 to 31 that concords to 1180 to 1400. Marquette sits approximately 60 points below at both ends. Saint Norbert sits approximately 67 below at the lower end and 40 below at the upper. Carroll sits approximately 60 and 30 below.
So the pattern fails in Wisconsin, and this page says so rather than quietly leaving the result out.
There is a likely explanation and it is a hypothesis rather than a finding. Only five institutions here report both tests, and four of the five are private colleges where an applicant chooses which score to submit. That is a different selection mechanism from a statewide testing regime, where everyone sits one test and only a self-selected few add the other. It may be why a rule that held in five states does not hold in this one, and this page does not claim to have settled it.
Lawrence’s exact match at both ends is a curiosity worth one line and nothing more. Two score sets agreeing to the point across a seven-point ACT range is the kind of thing that happens occasionally and means nothing in particular.
What If Your Scores Are Below the Range You Want?
A Wisconsin student whose score sits below the range he wants is in an unusual position, because in this state the score mostly decides nothing. It does not decide admission at any public university, it does not decide any state scholarship, and no University of Wisconsin campus requires it for the class of 2027.
Four places on this page are the exceptions, and the table gives the distances for each.
University of Wisconsin-Madison at 45% is the only selective public university in the state, with an admitted ACT range of 29 to 33 and SAT sections of 670 to 740 and 710 to 780. A score is optional there, and a strong one is still evidence in a holistic review.
Milwaukee School of Engineering at 59% and Lawrence University at 64% are the next two most selective institutions. Lawrence publishes ranges to aim at and Milwaukee School of Engineering publishes none, so for one of the two there is nothing to measure against.
The homeschool and virtual private school route to the Wisconsin Guarantee is the one place in Wisconsin where a number is the entire decision, at the 90th percentile nationally or a 33 at Madison. For those students the test is not optional and the bar is the highest anything on this page asks for.
Out-of-state applications are the fourth, and Wisconsin’s arrangements do not travel. A Wisconsin student applying to a college in another state is governed by that college’s rules, and plenty of them still want a score.
Our students since 2008 have normally needed approximately 40 hours of focused work to move a score meaningfully and approximately 80 hours for a larger jump. An ACT point is worth approximately 25 to 30 SAT points, so those hours convert between the tests.
A Wisconsin student should put those hours into the ACT. He will sit it at school in eleventh grade whether or not he prepares, twenty of the twenty-five institutions here report it, and the homeschool route to the guarantee accepts it and explicitly refuses the SAT.
The honest close is that in Wisconsin a test score is worth preparing for at Madison, at a small number of selective private colleges, for an application out of state, and for one group of students whose entire guarantee rests on it. Everywhere else on this page it is close to irrelevant, and a page that suggested otherwise would be selling a Wisconsin family something its own universities have already decided they do not need.
A student who falls into one of those four groups should sit a full timed test before committing the hours. Take a free diagnostic and work from a real score rather than an impression of one. Our guide on how to improve your SAT score sets out the method, and the conversion above makes it apply to the ACT.
Should a Wisconsin Student Take the SAT or the ACT?
A Wisconsin student should plan around the ACT, and this is the clearest case in the series.
The state gives the ACT to every eleventh grader, so he will have a score without arranging anything. Twenty of the twenty-five institutions on this page report an ACT composite and only five report SAT sections, and not one reports the SAT without also reporting the ACT. The homeschool route to the Wisconsin Guarantee accepts the ACT and explicitly refuses the SAT, even concorded.
That is also why the table above leads with an ACT column rather than the SAT columns the rest of this series uses. The column order follows what these colleges actually publish.
The case for adding the SAT is narrow and real. An application to a college in a state where the SAT dominates is the clearest one, and that includes most of the East Coast along with both states covered immediately before this page. A student applying widely outside the Midwest has a reason to sit both tests.
How to Read These Score Ranges
Every ACT range on this page covers the middle 50% of admitted students who submitted that score, and the same is true of each SAT section range. A quarter of admitted students scored below the lower figure, and the top quarter scored at or above the upper one.
Two things follow that students regularly get wrong. A score below the lower number does not rule a student out, because a quarter of the admitted class was there. And a score just above the lower number is weaker than it looks, because it sits at the bottom of the middle half rather than in the middle of it.
Three cautions apply to this page in particular.
Five institutions publish no score of any kind and all five are private. One of them, Milwaukee School of Engineering, is the second most selective institution in the state, so there is nothing to compare against at exactly the place where a comparison would help most.
An ACT point is a wide unit, and a reader coming from the SAT pages in this series will underestimate it. A single ACT point is worth approximately 25 to 30 SAT points, so a range of 18 to 24 covers more ground than it appears to, and two institutions one ACT point apart are further apart than two SAT figures thirty points apart.
The self-selection caution is weaker here than almost anywhere else, because the state tests every junior rather than leaving students to decide whether to sit a test at all. It still applies to the SAT figures at the five institutions reporting them, where submitting was a choice and stronger scorers are likelier to have submitted.
Pre-Med Programs in Nearby States
Wisconsin borders Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois and Michigan.
Both Wisconsin medical schools train students across the state rather than only in Madison and Milwaukee, through the Medical College of Wisconsin’s regional campuses in Green Bay and Wausau and the UW school’s rural and urban tracks. A Wisconsin student considering medicine is not choosing between two cities.
Leaving Wisconsin has a cost attached. The Wisconsin Grant does not travel, and the Academic Excellence Scholarship is half matched by the institution, so it is tied to enrolling at a Wisconsin college. A student who wins the award at his high school and then enrolls out of state forfeits it.
Our pages for Illinois and Michigan cover the colleges, costs and medical school rules in each.
Pre-Med Colleges in Other States
Every state page in this series follows the same format, with admitted score ranges, costs, admit rates and the state’s own medical school and scholarship rules. Our pre-med colleges by state index lists all of them.
Glyn Caddell
Glyn Caddell holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from NJIT and has been tutoring New York City students since 2008. He founded Caddell Prep in 2012 and is the author of Digital SAT Math Secrets: Lessons & Tricks to Quickly Improve to a Perfect 800 on the Math Test, which contains over 900 practice problems and is used in Caddell Prep’s SAT math classes. He is founding president of the Staten Island Technical High School alumni association and teaches every lesson on this site personally.
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