GREEN BAY, Wis. (NBC 26) -- UW System Universities are reporting a 30-percent increase in the number of student applications they received compared to just two years ago. According to UW leaders, within their data they also discovered the number of first-generation student applications increased by 25-percent since 2019, and the number of minority applications rose over 20-percent in the same time frame.
Some of the factors likely playing into the trend according to Kate Burns, UWGB's Interim Provost, is the fact that Wisconsin Universities no longer require ACT test results from potential students. Additionally, Burns says students can also now apply to multiple UW System schools at once, free of charge.
"Students are able to fill out just one application and indicate as many of the UW System schools that they would like to apply to. They could then go to whatever one with just one application," says Burns.
At UWGB Burns says applications for the 2021 fall semester are up nearly 90-percent compared to 2020. This will be the seventh year in a row that UWGB saw a consecutive increase in the number of students applying to the university.
