I don’t care if I get this thread banned at this point. UW Madison is the most draining school I have ever been too: it acts likes it’s a top public school, but it really is so far from it by every measurable metric. UWashington, UNC, and Illinois are all at least several tiers higher on the order of public school ranking. So before all the UW apologists come at this forum let’s take a look at the facts. Fact: UW Madison takes 60% of those who apply; that’s why it’s ranked so low on undergrad ranking. Fact: UW Madison is ranked 102nd in the world, a drop by nearly 90 points since 2011. In fact, QS World Ranking singled out UW Madison “the university which has dropped more places than any other which are published through are methodology.”( quote: The Prestige Hierarchy: Five Universities Trained One Of Every Eight Tenure-Track Faculty At Doctoral Universities). How do you have the audacity to call yourself “a top public school.” And that’s not all UW scores hilariously low in. Employment outcomes and employer reputation: each around the 500-1000 range in QS’s world rank. As a reference, Michigan in 17th in the world, while Michigan State is 127th; two far superior academic universities clearly.
Was UW good at one point? Maybe. They don’t have any impressive alumni according to the rankings. If you disagree, blame the employers. But they have fallen tremendously over the past 1o years, with schools that never ranked higher than UW previously nabbing the top spots, especially Texas, Maryland, Penn State, Ohio State, Illinois, Minnesota, and the university of Washington. Now any of these schools can rightfully call themselves “a top public university”, but UW Madison no way! The next closest university to UW Madison on the QS World rankings is Michigan State, a fair peer school I’d say, but mediocre just like UW.
tldr: its outstanding people are gullible enough to give thousands of dollars to this school (both in-state and out of state). As the yield rate gets lower and lower (because people realize UW is now no longer thought of in Texas/UNC company), I think it would be wise for the state of Wisconsin to consider shutting down UW Madison which would promote the public good.