Other aspects besides academics

Swamifez
Thu, 10 Nov 2005 00:41:08 +0000

For first year experience,you should definitely take one of the nice public residential dorms like Chadbourne. Its a key to college experience, after wards like Barron’s said, most people go off-campus. It also would save you money and get to know more diverse backgrounds.
Adding to Barron’s comments, its without a doubt, one of the friendliest schools in the country and also the biggest party school for 2005 :). The city of Madison is the greatest college city imho for its midsize, only other city i would consider close to for college students is Boston. Everyone is proud to be a badger, all the sports games mentioned above are also sold out fast so you have to get tickets soon as they come out. The people have a great spirt, and what po’s me, is recently some arrogant students complain about their school on www.studentsreview.com/other sites, you might have heard about the budget crisis in Wisconsin. But really, most states in the country now are have budget crisis and they complain how thats affecting their student life. Its really not, tution was raised very little even for out of staters at Wisconsin, and a lot of in aid is given still. They still have all their programs, and the school community is still the same. Maybe you can tell us a little more about this Barron’s? The badmouth imo comes from Wisconsian kids, like in Jersey with jersey students and Rutgers who can not handle to the academic pressure of a big time research school. They usually drink their time away and don’t have a balance in their lives, and no one feeds them like in high school thus they are ill trained. Like in any campus, you will find arrogant people.This is a big state school, but you have to make yourself active if you do not want to be a #- there are hundreds of clubs, and every weekends, a great deal of activities like concerts are happening on campus. Badgers are known more than to party. The academics have to be focused on because thats what your are going to the school for. Madison is tough with out a doubt, the courseload is not easy, trust me on this. And you must find a balance in your life, like the saying goes, study hard during the week, and party harder during the weekend.
Madison is an awesome place to hang out, if you are asking generally what do people do? Their is no answer to this, there are lot of concerts here. Recently, a close friend of mine told me that Diwali happened, and Indians as well as many other international students joined in, and celebrated the festives. Party/Drinking is a huge part here, but people here are cool if you do not want to drink. Usually after Sports games, in one night, an average student can hit up atleast 3 good parties. When its nice weather, madison has one of the nicest nature scenes i saw anywhere. People exercise/bike here alot in the spring/summer. in the winter, ice statutes, and snow fights are also common. Basic things like going to the mall/movies is also common, i know the university has a movie night. Different clubs do different things. And a small minority of students, the ones who have the car, can take that 1.5 hour drive to Chicago. Not needed, cause in madison you have plenty to do.
Lastly in any school this can be partly true and said of, but in Madison, I really do not see it all- all the hetrogenous groups hang out with one another, no matter of what ethnicity you are, hangs out with one another. Like my indian friends here hang out with whites, african american, east asians, everyone group you can name possible. However, the sterotype can be found in certain major departents where you meet most of your friends. For example, indians are also known to be more of science/engineering geeks, thus if they major in engineering, and one out of every 2 kid is asian, the possibility of having an asian friend is greater. In Madison however, it is very friendly as a whole, thus ethinic division is really not a problem here. When I went to Rutgers/Tufts, this sterotype of same ethnic groups hanging out with one another was distincly seen on campus. In the last couple of years, the university was under some scruitiny for not attracting minority groups in and this has changed a great deal. Madison attracts alot of international/minority students now, and everyone gets along with one another. In short, the clear characteristic or ‘evil’ truth about the school really doesn’t exist.
Good luck with your admissions :)!