On the original list of public ivies, UW Madison was not included, while schools like UVermont and Miami University were. No offense to those schools, but doesn’t that seem a bit illogical, given UW Madison’s department rankings and graduation rate (especially at the time). Additionally, schools like Texas and UNC were on the list, which were considered Wisconsin’s peer at the time but somehow Wisc didn’t make the cut. Does anyone know why? This seems to adversely affect the school’s reputation, I’ve seen students frown about saying they to UW Madison, saying “yeah, it’s almost a public ivy, but not really”. I think this really hurts the school’s ability to attract student. It doesn’t matter how good your academic strengths are, if you don’t have the reputation to match it. And since this"public ivy list" has come out, most students and employers (not academics) consider schools like UNC and Texas a tier higher than UW Madison. This is evident in the low yield for UW, and the poor job prospects, with LinkedIn reporting only 20% of UW Madison grads successfully landed a job outside Wisconsin.
Dude….you need to find a therapist to help you with whatever your self-hating issues are with UW. I know you wanted to go to Michigan, wonder why UW is considered a good school and now wonder why it’s awful. Get the help you seek.
Why is UW Madison not considered a Public Ivy?
You mean besides the fact that Public Ivy (and Southern Ivy and Little Ivy, etc) is an insane moniker? Or that the actual Ivy League is a sports conference and not the top 8 US universities?
These lists are made by websites and publications to get clicks and sell ad space. There really are no “public Ivys” or “little Ivys” or anything of the sort. It doesn’t matter.
I know I am very anxious about this, but you do realize people make split-second assumptions about you, even subconsciously, depending on where you went to college. Right now, I am very embarrassed to put UW Madison on my resume, most people do not think highly of the institution. I mean, most people do think too highly of Umich in general, so you can imagine how much lower UW Madison is on that prestige hierarchy. And yes, employers have prestige hierarchies. Why do financial firms (not even the big ones) hire almost exclusively from target schools, same with Tech fields. Yes, I know UW Madison has amazing academics, that’s why I’m baffled by its disproportionately bad reputation among employers and students.
Very, very, very few actually do.
Well, the jobs that give you the ability to never have to worry about money again, like investment banker or biglaw lawyer, definitely have prestige hierarchies.
This is not true…do you have any data that support this statement? Real data, not you and your friends sitting around commiserating?
It is not the same in tech fields. Lots of Wisc grads go to FAANG companies and the like, working alongside students from MIT, CMU, Alabama, Florida Tech.
I also encourage you to stop thinking about this, stop catastrophising , and stop posting these negative Nellie threads. All you can do is control what you can and move forward…and that includes proudly putting Wisconsin on your resume and LinkedIn.
Investment banking, yes. But law firms…only care where you went to law school and you can got to a top law school from literally any undergraduate program in the country as long as you have excelled there.
And the irony of someone with the username Friedrich Engels lamenting about his lack of competitiveness for a career in investment banking…
Well you at least agree that having UW Madison hurts my resume a lot for that field. For many people who go to Umich or Ivy League schools, having the simply the option of going into investment banking is perhaps the single greatest benefit of getting the education. There are many departments at UW Madison that, by ranking, are better than Brown University or Umich, but what the benefit if you just end up working at Best Buy, while the Umich/Brown kids are working at Goldman Sachs.
Has come out where?
Please listen to what everyone on this thread is saying. UWisconsin is a good, well respected school, and your concerns are unfounded.
Having anything other than Harvard, Yale, Princeton, or Stanford probably hurts your chances in IB…But that is a burden that like 99% of the population must bear. Sorry, but get over it. You go to a fine school and if you focus on making the most of your time there you will be well-positioned for an excellent career. Right now, the choice is yours. Don’t waste the great opportunity you’ve been given there. Your success is based on YOU, not on the college name on your resume.
In Public Ivies: A Guide to America’s Best Public Undergraduate Colleges and Universities in . . . 1985.
I’m having an increasingly hard time believing that this series of threads is for real.
But on the off chance it is…
There are many things that can hold a person back in life. In your case, there are several that I’d be far more concerned about than any prestige gradient between UW-Madison and UMich et. al.
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Critical thinking ability. A student who can get into this level of school ought to be able to evaluate arguments and sources of information, and shouldn’t need us to explain that there is no authoritative arbiter of which universities are “public ivies” and that indeed, that is an arbitrary and meaningless label that somebody made up. (Also, “only 20% of UW Madison grads successfully landed a job outside Wisconsin”…? Even if we presume that LinkedIn data is complete - and how could it be? - you’re assuming that 100% wanted to leave Wisconsin?)
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Negativity and distorted thinking. You are literally manufacturing things to go into an emotional spiral about instead of getting on with the opportunities in front of you. All this gloom and doom is self-fulfilling prophecy waiting to happen.
and 3. Entitlement. Do you know how many young people would be thrilled to take your place at UW Madison? Yet you persist in dwelling on having been robbed of your rightful place at somewhere “better.”
Look, people aren’t trying to be mean here, but this is ridiculous. I really kind of hope you’re just playing with us.
Yes I’m aware of that list. But that’s ancient history at this point. OP made it seem like a new list has come out.
Regardless, he’s worrying about nothing.
It has a good rep in nyc and most everywhere else I have heard of
If this is true, then I’d be glad I went to Wisconsin!!!
Really, you need to drop this. There are kids who choose Wisconsin over Harvard and many many many kids who choose it over Michigan.
A guy wrote a book and he decided what to include.
That’s it.
You’re waaaaaay overthinking it.
You’re seriously warped in your thinking.
and it’s untrue - many/most employers couldn’t give a rats patooie where you went to school.
But for those who do, Wisconsin is a good look.
But if you feel it’s wasted, go to community college and transfer. Why spend money if you don’t feel the value is good. Personally, I think the value of Wisconsin OOS is better than Michigan - but that’s me.
ps - I think 99% of society don’t know the difference between Michigan, Wisconsin and Nebraska. Yes, job hirers will - and very very few would hire a Michigan but not a Wisconsin - and btw - it goes the same the other way.
My kid at Alabama works with MIchigan grads at the same salary - and my daughter at C of C was hired at one of the top think tanks - and they typically hire Ivy and Gtown.
If you go out there with this lack of confidence - then people won’t hire you -but it won’t be because of where you went.
Look, I’m well aware I am extremely privileged to be in this position. It does give me an existential crisis. But times have changed a lot and I’m not sure how aware you are of the reputation of UW Madison, at least amongst middle class wisconsinites. I would know, I am in-state Wisconsin and the general consensus from my public high school was that either a. you need to go to umich, even if it means loans b. go to a more expensive private college. Most young high school students do not think of UW Madison too highly, I get that that is privileged but it just is what it is. The kids at Harvard who think they are better than everyone else are also extremely privileged, but there’s nothing anyone can do about that. And the reality is, this effect of students not thinking highly of the university also rubs off on employers. For example, some students at Madison want to be actuaries in Chicago. I know this one guy from rice lake wisconsin who tried very hard to maintain a 3.9 gpa in math to become an actuary, only to have every interview from big name Chicago firms (like Deloitte) denied.
This is your third thread on the same topic, apparently unconvinced by responses you received from posters in the first two. You want repeated confirmation that UW–Madison is prestigious and has merely been shortchanged in ranking. When posters provided you with encouraging facts about the school and good advice on how you could maximize your experience there, you don’t seem to value them. Instead, you kept finding new ways to dislike the school and wishing that you were at Michigan. Sadly, it looks like you have made up your mind to be unhappy at UW–Madison, and no amount of facts and advice are going to change that.