Liam Beran
UW students walking up Bascom Hill.
Since 2020, Universities of Wisconsin students have benefited from an agreement that allows them to transfer between UW schools provided they earn 24 credits at their current institution.
But there appears to be new eligibility requirements for transferring now listed on UW-Madison’s transfer agreement page.
“The Universities of Wisconsin are working to review the policy,” says UW system spokesperson Mark Pitsch when asked whether there is a new agreement in place.
Under the old UW System Guaranteed Transfer Admission program, students at any UW campus who had a 3.0 GPA and a minimum of 24 credits were guaranteed inter-UW school transfers, including to UW-Madison.
The agreement now listed on UW system and UW-Madison websites raises the bar for eligibility: applicants looking to use the guaranteed transfer agreement to enter UW-Madison would be required to complete 54 credits and UW-Madison general education requirements and have a minimum 3.2 GPA. According to the websites, students looking to use the agreement would have to be branch campus students seeking associate’s degrees.
Some of that information, according to the UW system itself, is incorrect. Pitsch says bachelor’s degree-seeking students at any UW campus may use the guaranteed transfer agreement provided their institution offers associate’s degrees. Asked to confirm if the other information provided on the websites is accurate, Pitsch referred Isthmus to a statement outlining that the program is under review and “as reflected in SYS 135 [the current guaranteed transfer policy] is outdated and in some cases current practices are inconsistent with the policy.”
“In 2020 and 2021 (during the pandemic) proposed changes to [the guaranteed transfer] policy, procedure and guidelines were communicated to UW universities. The policy was not updated to reflect these changes resulting in some inconsistency,” Pitsch says. “However, SYS 135 was never formally changed."
“We are working to create a new interim policy and eventually a permanent policy to clarify the guarantee moving forward and will work with students on a case-by-case to address any issues over the discrepancy,” he adds.
UW-Madison junior Cameron Schneider transferred from UW-La Crosse in 2022 using the guaranteed transfer agreement as a sophomore. Had he needed to wait until he was a junior, he says he “might as well just want to stay at La Crosse and finish out there.”
