UW–Madison’s incoming class and the people who got them here
The university welcomes nearly 10,000 new undergraduate students to campus this fall. Meet five of them — and the parents, partners and pets who helped pave their way.
This fall, the University of Wisconsin–Madison welcomed 8,587 first-year and 1,194 new transfer students to campus. There are 3,920 Wisconsin first-year students in the entering class.
For complete stats about the new class, visit data.wisc.edu/admissions/.
These new undergraduates come from every corner of the state, country, and world. And they were selected from 79,600 applicants, showcasing that UW–Madison remains a top higher education destination, both at home and abroad.
But the 9,781 students making up this year’s incoming undergraduate class are more than just enrollment figures; they also represent thousands of unique stories that are now part of the UW–Madison tradition. As they settle into the semester, five incoming students answered a simple but profound question: Who got you here?
“He was there for the daily grind.”
It isn’t surprising that first-year student Marlee Rae Lee is studying nursing. Her mother graduated from UW–Madison’s School of Nursing. Her grandmother did as well, earning her doctorate in nursing here.
“They are big Bucky fans,” Rae Lee laughs. “It’s nice that I’m here now though, full circle.”
What’s surprising is Rae Lee’s path.
She was accepted into the nursing program after graduating from her Milwaukee high school in 2016 but decided to go to the U.S. Naval Academy to study English and Chinese instead. After graduating, Rae Lee joined the Marines and was stationed at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. There, she married fellow Marine and Naval Academy graduate, Meng Hsuan.
Rae Lee did not reenlist, but she joined Hsuan in Okinawa, Japan as he completed his posting with the Marines. It was a difficult time for her.
“I decided that I wanted to be a nurse and had to take a bunch of prerequisite courses online to get into the UW Accelerated Nursing Program,” she explains. “And there [Meng] was, helping me study late at night, after his long day of work. He was there for the daily grind of getting me prepared for this program. He believed in me.”
Rae Lee’s preparations, and Hsuan’s support, paid off. She was accepted into the one-year accelerated program and is among the 15 veterans in this incoming class.
Hsuan left the Marines after his posting was completed and joined Rae Lee in Wisconsin.
“He lives in Milwaukee right now with our two golden retrievers, Roxie and Oakley, and I have an apartment in Madison. I come to Milwaukee on the weekends.” Rae Lee adds. “But I’ll be joining them all when I graduate.”
“Mom gave me her dancing genes”
Eva Espinoza-Almaza points out that Schofield, Wisconsin is about two-and-a-half hours from Madison. “Close enough to home, but not too close that mom will be bugging me every day,” Espinoza-Almaza laughs.
Espinoza-Almaza is a transfer student from the University of Minnesota, one of the 1,194 transfer students joining the UW this fall. Something her mother is excited about.
“She’s beyond thrilled. The ‘Wisconsin Mom’ hat — I don’t think she’s taken it off. There are bumper stickers and license plates involved.”
Her mother, Judge Jessica Almazar, is a UW–Madison alum and graduate of the UW Law School. She was also a cheerleading captain for the UW Spirit Squad who, Espinoza-Almaza shares, “would still whip out some of her backhand springs from time to time.”
Espinoza-Almaza plans to study philosophy and continue ballet. “Mom gave me her dancing genes,” she adds.
Her mom also gave her something else. “She taught me that it’s not only that I can do anything I want, which I can, but I also need to value the hard work that it will take me to get there,” Espinoza-Almaza says. “She is my number one supporter, and for lack of a better word, she’s simply the best.”
“I’ve always believed in my mom, and she always believed in me.”
When Maya Quade was in high school in Crandon, Wisconsin, she was offered the chance to go to a pharmacy summer camp at UW–Madison. The experience would end up shaping her future. “It was wonderful. Ever since then I have dreamed of coming here and becoming a pharmacist.” And she put her dreams into action, getting her associate’s degree before even leaving high school.
Quade is an enrolled member of the Sokaogon Chippewa Community and is a Wisconsin Tribal Educational Promise Program recipient. The program is now in its third year with 109 undergraduate recipients, 39 from this incoming class. Having her tuition covered creates a feeling of relief for her. It will allow her to join the Wisconsin Track Club and be “as active as possible” at St. Paul’s Catholic Student Center on campus. And it will give Quade the freedom to, as she put it, “really push myself. I am looking forward to my education at Madison being hard.”
Quade credits her mom for giving her that work ethic. “My mom worked three jobs and was going to a community college to become a nurse. She worked really hard.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, her mother was a traveling nurse and her stories of helping others during the pandemic left an impression on Quade.
“She was helping in our clinics and our hospitals. It was inspiring.” But it was also difficult for Quade, who, as the oldest child in her family, was left to take care of her two younger siblings. “I practically raised my brothers during the years of COVID. It will be a really big step for our family with me not being there. It’s going to be really hard on them.”
But her mother pushed her to get a medical education at UW–Madison.
“She knew I could do it.” Quade says. “I’ve always believed in my mom, and she always believed in me.”
“It must have been really hard for my father.”
Adityan Thirumani Srinivasan is from India and went to middle school and high school in Abu Dhabi. He is part of a cohort of 932 new international undergraduates attending UW–Madison this fall. Though he will be triple majoring in computer sciences, data science and information science, Thirumani Srinivasan’s focus at UW will be on something else: entrepreneurship.
Thirumani Srinivasan says his focus at the UW will not be on grades; he wants to learn how to build projects and create start-ups. If this approach bothered his father during high school, who Thirumani Srinivasan describes as being a very “traditional Indian parent,” his father made sure not to show it.
“He could have pressured me to focus solely on my grades,” Thirumani Srinivasan says. “But my dad didn’t say a single thing.”
That silent support meant a lot to Thirumani Srinivasan. By his junior year, he had already started several successful projects and earned third place in the “Best Youth” category at the Dubai App Olympics, noting with pride that he was the only high school participant competing in the category against university students.
As Thirumani Srinivasan entered his final year of high school, he had set his sights on UW–Madison and creating the “greatest application the university has ever seen.”
Thirumani Srinivasan knows his high school journey couldn’t have been an easy one for a parent. “It must have been really hard for my father,” he admits. “I don’t think every parent would have remained silent for their child and respect their path the way [my father] did,” he says.
“I’m going to need to find friends here with cats.”
When Allouez, Wisconsin native Frida Galt was asked what they plan to study at UW–Madison, their response wasn’t what one might expect. “I’m an artist, but I don’t want to pursue art as a career. I want to incorporate art into science!”
Over the past few months, Galt, who plans to become a geologist, has made a clay trilobite wall sconce, a fabric anatomical heart, a jumping spider made of bits of plastic and — their most proud achievement — a wooden camera obscura based on drawings in a history book.
Galt joins 1,034 others in their incoming class as a Bucky’s Tuition Promise recipient, which guarantees four years of tuition and segregated fees for any incoming new freshman from Wisconsin whose family’s annual household adjusted gross income is $65,000 or less. For Galt, this promise is tied to being a Wisconsinite. “I love Wisconsin I want to stay here and get involved to better this community I am a part of.”
Galt is also very proud to be one of 1,608 first-generation students this fall.
Like their art, Galt’s response to the question, “Who got you here?” was also not expected. “Babushka, my cat,” they say. “He’s the one who got me here.”
When Galt was in middle school during the pandemic, they struggled with their mental health. “Babushka was a consistent supportive presence,” from long walks together in the backyard to his napping on Galt’s lap while working on homework.
“Of course, I’ll miss my family and friends, but pets are different in that you can’t exactly call a cat and talk to them whenever you miss them.” Galt adds, noting that Babushka is staying at home. “I guess I’m going to need to find friends here with cats that I can visit so I don’t get too sad.”
Class of 2026 Facts
There are 57 sets of twins and one set of triplets entering the class. These triplets join their older siblings, who are also triplets, in attending UW–Madison.
Most first-year students were born in 2007 or 2008, sharing a birth year with AirBnB, Spotify and Google Chrome.
UW–Madison welcomed 28 first-year students born on February 29, 2008 (2008 was a leap year).
Incoming students come from six continents and two-thirds of the world’s time zones. That means students will be calling home across a 19-hour time difference during some parts of the year.
The university’s preliminary fall enrollment is 50,965.
