University of Wisconsin-Madison Visit Report by '08Holla

Visit Activities:

Information Session: Yes - PowerPoint with various facts and bits of trivia while everyone arrived. Video focusing on 6 students' experiences and backgrounds, followed by a short Q&A session with an Adcom.

Campus Tour: Yes - Only covered ~1/2 of the campus during 2 hours (it's huge). Great student guide who begged us to ask anything and anything that came to our minds, especially any concerns or doubts we had.

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Campus:

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It was summer, but the students that were there went out of their way to point us on the right direction.

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Kindly accommodated last minute changes in fully scheduled tour, helped us find parking.

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I love the older Wisconsin sandstone bricked buildings, and most everything is either new or has old Harvard charm to it. Covered in a foot of snow might be different.

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Nothing to mention that wasn't perfect (although few students in the summer). We saw a raccoon running through the bushes, but it was obviously used to people and did not appear rabid ;)

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It's a dorm, but they're all mostly the same design, and you have freedom to move stuff around as you please. Newer dorms look excellent, older dorms are mainly in 2 locations with different

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Big campus, but campus police as well as local police calm everything down. Over 80 emergency beacons and free taxi rides/bus passes provided by the school.

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It's a great campus, people need to find out if the school is right for them. It's big, so there's red tape, but also tons of clubs. It's the #1 party school, but there's plen

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Off-Campus:

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Downtown Madison feels like a friendly, smaller NYC or Boston to me. It's a pain to drive around, but walking is great and most students have bikes or mopeds. Lake Mendota is absolutely gorgeous.

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I loved the city's Midwest charm and overall atmosphere. Very liberal, but accepting to most any idea. Ate at Indian, Afghan, Italian, and Southern BBQ restaurants in a 3 day period.

Campus Visit Notes for University of Wisconsin-Madison

Visit Description:

I left San Diego with my parents for a wedding, and I thought to take a look at the campus to kill some time. I wasn't that interested in the school itself, but UW-Madison does have plenty to offer and has many excellent programs and students. The tour was full by the time we arrived, so be sure to schedule yours online well in advance. Without 40,000 students around the campus, it was a little difficult to gauge whether I liked the place or not. The visit and tour themselves were excellent, but most important to me, they never felt like preachers trying to convert me to their University.

Hotel/Lodging Recommendations or Comments:

Stayed at Holiday Inn Express on the end of one of the main roads. Great daily breakfast, M-Th free drinks, chips, and tortilla soup for a light dinner. Nice and clean, just learn to navigate around.

Dining/Restaurant Recommendations or Comments:

Michael's Frozen Custard and Babcock Hall at UW-M were great. Indian place, down the street from Michael's near Wingra was excellent. Afghan, noodle place on State St. superb.

Other Comments (Transportation, local attractions, parking, etc.):

Driving around is a difficult. In the summer, pack sunscreen and bug spray for the afternoons. Lakes are great to paddle around. Mt. Horeb (mustard museum) and nearby Cave of the Mounds are a fun day.