“Reputation” as a party school- not the experience for many students. This has no bearing on any student’s decision to attend UW-Madison. It is a large enough campus that those who p[arty will do so and those who don’t won’t. Likewise with sports events. Natalie- even when you spend the summer in Madison it will be a different experience than during the school year. You have no first hand knowledge of life at UW. My own experiences eons ago and son’s in recent years show there are many different lifestyles possible. Some students are gung ho athletics and parties, others have an equally great experience without that lifestyle.
Excellent Chemistry and Chem E ( I still get my badger Chemist- I got my undergrad degree in Chemistry). Both UW and Michigan will be good. Choose the campus that is most appealing to you. Climates the same on either side of the lake (Michigan). btw- Wisconsin alumni are also active and I question the statement about Michigan’s being larger. That doesn’t matter if you don’t care (I’ve never joined alumni activities).
If you choose UW it may be easy enough to find an apartment on the west end of campus even currently, near the engineering part of campus (near Union South). Michigan has a split campus from what I’ve heard while UW’s is contiguous.
It may come down to a coin flip- two good choices.