UW-Platteville has been labeled the only “non-competitive” four-year school in the UW System, according to the 2009 Barron’s Profile of American Colleges.

The Barron’s guide ranks four-year accredited universities for high school students preparing for college. They rank schools across the U.S. on a biennial basis.

According to Barron’s, a college’s competitiveness is based mainly on admissions requirements or the academic qualifications of the students accepted.

According to the UW-P admission guidelines, applicants need to have a composite ACT score of 18 or higher and graduate in the top 65 percent of their class to be considered. Students are more likely to be admitted if they are in the top 50 percent of their class and received a composite ACT score of 22 or higher.

UW-Stout,  ranked “competitive” by Barron’s, requires students to be in the top 50 percent of their class and have a composite ACT score of 22 or greater.

UW-Madison, ranked as “highly competitive” by Barron’s, requires most applicants to have GPAs from 3.5 to 3.9, a class rank between 86 and 96 percent, and a composite ACT score ranging from 26 to 30, according to the school’s admission’s Web site.