@BrownParent It’s not. But at Michigan, the cold is worth it 
derprage: UWisconsin is one the country’s great universities. I’d say that the “cold is worth it” there, too.
Ditto to what @MYOS1634 said. I’d love to attend UWisconsin if I applied and got in.
Just curious - what are you basing your UWisconsin vs. Michigan opinion on?
You guys can’t be serious. Michigan is at a completely different level as compared to Wisconsin.
More competitive aka better students.
Better rankings across the board.
Better worldwide reputation (No one knows what Wisconsin is in my country).
Michigan is considered a ‘Top College’, among the ranks of Berkeley, Stanford, Ivies et cetera while Wisconsin is a 2nd Tier university.
@derprage, it’s pretty obvious that you’re not American.
Yes, they would generally be considered on different tiers (more like half-tiers) here in the US. No, they would not be considered considerably different from each other (except in business and law). Especially by people in STEM, they would be considered very close.
@PurpleTitan you have no idea how it feels to see all your friends go to Cornell/Berkeley etc. with lower scores than you in easier majors while you go to Wisconsin because you decided to study computer science.
It’s painful. I might commit suicide.
@derprage, I know you’re a teenager and living in a different country, but you’re not making sense. Where do you want to work? Google? Facebook? I’m pretty certain that
- Where ever you are, those giants would have operations in your part of the world.
- @BrownParent can confirm, but I’m pretty certain that all the tech titans who recruit at Cornell/Cal for CS recruit at UW-Madison for CS as well.
- You would be better positioned to work at those places with a CS degree from UW-Madison than your friends with non-CS degrees from Cornell/Cal.
- You won’t be able to work at those places if you commit suicide.
I’m curious, why are you going for a CS degree?
@PurpleTitan I couldn’t care less about working at a big company. I want to be an entrepreneur and I chose Computer Science because it’s the only subject I enjoy studying, but I don’t enjoy it enough to give up a Top College.
More than my major, I want the exposure that I can receive at a Top College. Just being amid smart people is worth studying anything.
How do you grow as a person if you’re in a field of mediocre people?
How do you come to terms with going to a college you never actually wanted to go but are being forced to go to?
How do you manage to graduate from a University that you aren’t even proud of being a part of?
How do you stay motivated? How do you maintain momentum?
How do you face friends and family?
How do you face yourself after realizing that your whole high school career was pointless?
Thanks for the help though, I truly appreciate it.
Derprage, UWisconsin may not be well-known in your country, but in the US, it is. To the people who matter (employers, grad school), it is extremely well thought-of. Is it thought of as Harvard? No. Is it Babson for entrepreneurs? No. But I don’t think your priorities are straight if you think the universities where you’ve been admitted have “mediocre” students and aren’t worth being proud of because of false perceptions some people may have in your country (or false perceptions your family, or friends, or yourself may have.)
UMichigan is part of the top in a group UWisconsin belongs to (top 15 or top 20 public universities). UWisconsin ranks well above Purdue and above UWashington, both highly considered nationally.
If you’re not proud of being admitted to top-flight public universities, you can take a gap year and try again applying to Ross and Babson (Babson would actually be better for entrepreneurship, as would Bentley.)
Or you can wonder whether people in your country may not be that well-informed about American universities, and attend one of these terrific opportunities.
All in all, no one is forcing you to attend a university you don’t want to attend. I realize you feel bad right now because you didn’t prepare for rejections and WLs, but really, if you don’t want to attend these universities, don’t, it’s that simple.
You’re being very myopic.
When you get to UW-Madison, you will meet some kid from backwoods Wisconsin dressed like a bum who will blow you out of the water in ability and talent. You can trust me on that.
A better way to put it is that you’ll find kids there who could have gone to an Ivy but chose UW-Madison because of costs and/or because they want to be close to home. If you’re lucky, you’ll fall in with them and maybe do great things with them. Or they’ll just do great things without you. If they can stay motivated and face their friends and family, I think you can as well.
“Better worldwide reputation (No one knows what Wisconsin is in my country).”
The opinions of people in your country who don’t know what they are talking about is meaningless. They aren’t knowledgeable about American universities.
“How do you grow as a person if you’re in a field of mediocre people??”
Get over yourself.
@myos1634 These ranking lists mean less than nothing.
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/top-public
Penn state ranked about UT Austin? LOL
Irvine is ranked over UWisconsin? LOL
We need to rely on name value when rankings mean less than squat. Name value is everything. When people look at ‘UC Berkeley’ on your resume, you are automatically respected.
I would think about it this way, I made a massive mistake by picking an extremely competitive major (CS). I could have taken an easy major and I could have gotten into UCLA and then I could have gotten a job in LA. Now I am in LA, and now I am free to network and begin working towards beginning a good startup and have a good life.
Except I took CS, didn’t get into a top college, got into brutal cold midwest and now I need to worry about getting out of here first. And in the process, I don’t get a reputable degree. I don’t get the name value.
@PurpleTitan well then. I could just go to penn state. or any college as a matter of fact because there will always be someone smart. So why go wisconsin? Whats the point? Why pick Wisconsin over penn state?
@Pizzagirl I know their opinion is meaningless. But that means I have to give up my country completely. Never return.
And yes, most of the people on the world’s richest lists or people from the new startups or whatever, great things in general are from top colleges.
I am not saying I am better than everyone. I am saying that if I go to a top college, I can be the person of my dreams. Otherwise, I will most likely fail and live an average life.
Um, no, correlation isn’t causation. Whether you become the person of your dreams is entirely up to you, not the school you go to. I do admit that it’s not looking very promising, though, as you seem unable to overcome even a small hurdle. The folks who become wildly successful entrepreneurs believe in themselves. They believe that they can reach any goal of theirs even if they drop out of a state school.
And sure, go to PSU. UW-Madison has a better CS network, but if you’re not going bother researching opportunities, just do whatever.
Actually, yes, you could go to Penn State instead of UWisconsin.
In the US, what matters is what you do with the opportunities you’ve been offered. UWisconsin, Penn State, etc., offer you with great opportunities. The name value for these is huge (you clearly don’t understand) AS LONG AS you do your part. If you do intend on doing everything you can, take advantage of every opportunity, what matters is what you do. The US values individual actions, not “name”. The CS program at UWisconsin is better (academically) but Penn State’s alumni network is better. Ultimately it doesn’t matter whether you attend UWisconsin or Penn Stateor whatever - choose the campus you like best, the course sequence you like best, the weather you like best. What matters is what grades you’ll get, whether you’ll attend office hours and participate in discussion sections to the point you’ll be known by a professor, whether you’ll get his/her recommendation for a summer research program or internship, whether you’ll get into the program, whether you’ll do well, what recommendation you’ll get from there, etc, etc. When you graduate you’ll do OPT and from there a Master’s - and that’s WHEN you need to have a degree from a university that’s known worldwide for its research output. Everything you do until then is work toward that acceptance, and you have the same odds regardless of where you come from, based on what you did with the opportunities you had.
Perhaps it would be better if you attended college in your own country.
Thank you for your help, I really have come around after listening to your arguments @PurpleTitan and @MYOs1634
I know I have been quite pessimistic. I will try to look at the bright side of things (as all failures do)
and Erin’s Dad, no it definitely wouldn’t be Nothing like coming to the United States of America, the land of equal opportunity and the land where dreams come true.
UW-Madison has always been respected as a first-rate public university. I come from Massachusetts, Ground Zero for intellectual and academic snobbery, and I heard it mentioned in the same breath as Berkeley and Michigan when I was growing up in the '60s and ‘70s. Perhaps people in your home country aren’t familiar with it, but I imagine they would do what any employer worth working for here would do when encountering an unfamiliar foreign university on a resume: use the ol’ Interwebs to find out about it. I imagine that employers in the Computer Science field can figure out how to investigate a college’s reputation. Root for Wisconsin against Kentucky this weekend; you won’t be alone.
“We need to rely on name value when rankings mean less than squat. Name value is everything. When people look at ‘UC Berkeley’ on your resume, you are automatically respected.”
No, we don’t “need” to. You’re coming to the US for a reason - because we offer more opportunities than your home country. Part of why we offer more opportunities is that we rely on who the person is and what they’ve done with themselves - we don’t automatically throw flowers at people who went to top universities and bricks at people who haven’t. I’m really sorry your home country is so prestige-driven, but that’s precisely why you’re coming to the US - because we have a more flexible society.
And, no, in the US, if someone has Berkeley on their resume, they aren’t “automatically respected.” We meet the person and we judge the person as being worthy of respect or not.