What is the Academic Review?
The Academic Review is a crucial step in the Direct Admit Wisconsin program. It ensures that student information is accurate and complete before sending it to the Universities of Wisconsin. This guide is intended for high school counselors or academic professionals who need to review the data file to ensure it accurately represents students’ academic performance.
Who Should Do the Academic Review?
A counselor or academic professional who is familiar with the students and their academic performance should review the report at this time to ensure it accurately reflects the students’ grades and tier assignments.
Please Note: Before starting the review, you, or your IT professional (assigned SIS admin), should have completed the initial SIS setup and technical review of Direct Admit in your SIS before doing the academic review.
If you have not completed the initial setup, please reference the appropriate SIS documentation in our Technical Documentation Library
Running the Report
High Schools are able to generate a report to identify the participating students and their tier assignments. See SIS document for instructions. Ideally, the generated report has undergone the Technical Review process first to ensure data accuracy and that the correct students are being
reported. The report should be run or created to generate a copy for academic professionals to review prior to submitting to the Universities of Wisconsin.
The report will show all students who have opted in to participate in Direct Admit Wisconsin, and will include identifiable information, GPA, and a Direct Admit tier. When reviewing, aim to answer the following questions:
- Is this the correct cohort that should be submitted to the Universities of Wisconsin?
- Are all students who have opted to participate represented in the files? Be sure to check for transfer students, students taking dual-enrollment coursework, and students taking virtual classes (if applicable).
- Review the students being identified and ensure that their GPA and tiers are accurately reported.
- Review the students who did not receive a tier. Are the students identified correctly being represented? Is it accurate that they do not meet the Direct Admit Wisconsin requirements?
Graduation Requirements
Verify that students are on track to graduate based on your high school’s graduation policy. This includes meeting specific unit requirements in subjects like English, Social Science, Mathematics, Natural Science, and additional units from subjects such as foreign language, fine arts, or computer science.
Tier Assignment
Students who do not meet Direct Admit Wisconsin requirements should not be assigned a Direct Admit Wisconsin tier. Their tier value will appear as a null value (blank cell) in the spreadsheet.
Review of Un-tiered Students
If a student does not receive a tier then a review of that student’s academic record should be undertaken. Follow the steps below based on the outcome of the review.
Review confirms the student does not meet requirements
If a student does not receive a tier when your high school runs the tier calculation process, you should confirm that they do not meet the Direct Admit WI Requirements. If the student does not meet the requirements no further action is needed. The Universities of Wisconsin will not send communications to students who do not receive direct admit offers (students with no assigned tier). The expectation is that the high school will communicate with these students individually that upon review of their academic record they did not meet one or more of the eligibility requirements.
Review reveals the student does meet the requirements
If a student does not receive a tier but you confirm they do meet the Direct Admit WI requirements, the on-track status and tier can be manually adjusted by overriding the specific student to be included for Direct Admit. Most schools have designated personnel who have access to adjust status and tiers. If your school does not, provide a list of necessary adjustments to the person who has access to make changes in the SIS. There are some common situations that may lead to a student not receiving a tier when they do meet the requirements:
Situations that may result in a “not on track” determination for a student who is actually on track may include, but are not limited to:
- Transfer coursework that was not included in the calculation.
- A student who meets the math requirement with an Algebra I course taken in 8th grade
- Dual enrollment coursework that is not in the SIS.
- Charter school students whose academic records are not stored in the SIS.
Only if you can verify that a student will meet the graduation and specific math course requirements should you adjust a student’s on-track status and assign the appropriate tier based on the student’s reported GPA. A student who has been determined to be on track and is assigned tier should not have the tier adjusted up or down. The student’s unweighted GPA at the end of junior year will determine their tier range, and this should not be changed.
Note: If a student is not on track but could become on track by adjusting their senior year schedule (e.g., adding a math course), you may work with the student to adjust their scheduled courses to get them on track.
Note: Charter schools may have unique grading practices and may store academic information separately from the district SIS. These schools should contact us to discuss the academic review process.
Updated: 11/24/2025