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.
1 Like