1. Annual Admissions Process
French & Italian Dept.
Annual Admissions Process
By Andrea Palm, Grad Coordinator

2. Graduate Applications
The due date each year is December 20th for the following fall.
Generally, we do not allow students to start in the spring because they should ideally take certain courses (French 820 and Italian 821 – pedagogy; French 626 – critical approach to French lit.) during their first semester, and these courses are offered in the fall.

3. Materials Required from Applicants
French:
Online application (no supplemental app. required)
3 letters of recommendation
GRE scores for North American applicants
TOEFL as required
2 copies of transcripts
Statement of purpose CV
Writing sample in French
Separate list of French courses taken and grades received
Italian:
Online application (no supplemental app. required)
3 letters of recommendation
GRE scores optional
TOEFL as required
2 copies of transcripts
Statement of purpose CV
Writing sample in Italian

4. Other Info about Applications
I try to follow up as much as time allows with applicants, letting them know if we are still missing pieces of their application.
We have allowed ourselves a “grace period” after December 20th, which ends soon after the New Year when faculty begin viewing applications – so we do accept late materials as long as everything is here by the time faculty view applications.
At this time, I make hard-copy application files for each applicant and do not scan and upload materials into GWIS.
However, I am looking at doing that for next year, because it will make the faculty viewing process smoother than needing to “check out” paper folders from me.

5. Admissions & Fellowships Committee
Our committee make-up may change from year to year with faculty assignments.
The format is 3 French faculty and 3 Italian faculty, with a Co-Chair selected from each side.
French faculty only evaluate French applications, and vice versa.
Besides new student applications, the committee also considers applications for fellowships of all types, including Chancellor and University dissertator (humanities).

6. The big January meeting
The meeting is held in mid-January, usually around the time of the first week of classes.
Committee members create a ranked list of applicants (one list for French and one for Italian) which we will use throughout the admissions & guarantee offer process.
At the January meeting, committee members decide which applicants are “admissible” and which are not. The number deemed admissible is not pre-determined – it is based solely on the quality of that year’s applications.
For our top ten or so admissible applicants, a “faculty contact” person is assigned, based on similar research interests.
Incoming University and AOF fellowship nominees are decided. If we have been awarded Chancellor fellowship funds for the next year, we also decide which applicants will be offered a Chancellor Fellowship.

7. After the January Meeting
I deny or recommend admission on GWIS.
For international applicants, a timeline for degree completion needs to be decided. Based on whether or not they need to complete a Master’s first, I assign an estimated degree date in GWIS.
Funding status for international applicants at this stage is always “undecided.” We decide on support guarantees in March and that status is updated later.
Using GWIS templates I have set up, all applicants are sent either an “admit” or “deny” .

8. Fellowship Nominations
University Fellowship nominations for the following fall are usually due around January 31st each year.
I submit our incoming fellowship nominees (as well as any university humanities dissertator fellowship nominees) online using the Grad School fellowships portal.
AOF fellowship nominations are handled differently. I submit an online nomination to our L&S C-GRS representative (Brian Bubenzer). These are due March 1st.

9. February events
Faculty contacts for our top applicants get in touch with the applicants they were assigned. Faculty also share their research interests with the applicants.
Top applicants are told that we hope to make them an offer of support pending budgetary approval by early March.
This helps to hold a candidate’s interest even though we are not able to make a guarantee until our budget is approved. Other universities may be able to make offers earlier than we can so this step is important.
Working with our department administrator, a budget is submitted to Letters & Science, which includes a count of how many guarantee of support offers in both French & Italian we’d like to make (based on how many students we have continuing in the program next year).

10. Offers of Guaranteed Support
Once our budget is approved (usually around March 1st), we begin making offers of guaranteed support to our top-ranked applicants.
By now, we also know the results of the university fellowship competition. Any fellowship winners are automatically first in line for a guarantee of support.
Guarantee offers are sent via and are for either 3 years (for someone with an MA) or 4 years (for someone without an MA).
Most guarantees are for TA-ship support, unless the person is being offered a fellowship. Then that counts as their first year of support.
If guarantees are made to international students, a copy of the guarantee letter is sent to the Graduate School. Department support drastically reduces the amount of funding applicants need in order to be admitted and receive an I-20 form for Visa purposes.

11. More about guarantee offers
April 15th is the deadline for applicants to respond to an offer of support.
Most of our offers are made in March. If we are not getting the positive response rate we expected sometimes we make offers later, even in early April.
During early April, I work closely with the Co-Chairs of the Admissions & Fellowships Committee, monitoring the acceptance rate and deciding if more offers need to made.
Permission is needed from L&S if we want to make more offers of support than we originally were granted permission to make.

12. After April 15th We know how many guarantee offers were accepted.
We have an idea which admitted students who didn’t receive a guarantee offer (the lower-ranked ones) still plan to come to UW-Madison in the fall.
Any students who I know aren’t coming are withdrawn from GWIS.
The rest of the admitted students receive fall orientation information in June via .
Receiving orientation information helps to “weed out” those students who have not clarified their plans. They will almost always respond to the orientation and let me know that they are NOT coming.