Wisconsin Prestige

Transfer
Fri, 13 Jan 2006 23:11:43 +0000

Well hello there,

First of all I am a second year Madison student. I’m a political science/econ double major. I intend on going to law school or graduate work in public policy. After high school I narrowed it down to Michigan and Wisconsin, picking the later because it saves me almost 9K a year for a nearly identical school. It boggles my mind how anyone from the state of Wisconsin would pass up UW-Madison for any other public university in the country, unless there was a very specific program, reason, or scholarship (I’m shocked when Wisconsin students go to Michigan and vise versa) although for students FROM madison and ann arbor, it seems to be more common.

I agree with a lot that has been said. I think that most people think of Big Ten schools are just their sports, however those “in the know” or academia/business world understand the quality of student coming out of Madison. I base this off the graduate placement records in law, business, and medical school.

As an underclassmen, you have more large into level courses. However, almost half of my classes so far have been “small” (like 20 students or less) including an 8 person political science course with one of the top professors in his field. That was really cool. The key is being SELF MOTIVATED. Go search out the reserach, classes, opportunities, and you will find them. UW-Madison is an internationally known research university, so it has numerous advantages for academics (not to mention culture/social life) over LACs.

As for the partying atmosphere, I think it’s what you make of it. There are specific learning communities and less, um, “loud” dorms for freshmen. Just plan it out correctly and you’d be alright. I agree that there is a lot of partying, but that is true for all universities, especially a large midwestern one. Not to mention being in a state which is culturally accepting of beer and alcohol.

The general theme about Madison life is that it is what you make of it. You can study all the time, party all the time (although they don’t make it past freshmen year and many people are great at balancing work/play, so don’t expect UW to be a cake walk of unprepared students), or whatever you want. The BIG-NESS of the university can be a plus, ya know.