Darn, was trying to edit to add some additional information, but it timed out. I was adding:
I don’t know specifially about transfer support, but UW has plenty of “midwest nice” as many undergrads are from Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois/Chicago area. And who wouldn’t want to live on a lake, with summer boating, winter pond hockey etc?
UW is usually in the top 10 or so (and above Michigan) in tech transfer – bringing innovations from the lab to market, and is 4th (behind Michigan at 2) in NSF research expenditures, so these two schools are much closer in many ways than the general public tends to think. As for budget cuts, Chancellor Blank has been very proactive in finding ways to manage the impact, and UW has raised over $200 million which is only for the purpose of keeping, and attracting, top faculty who might be inclined to go elsewhere.