UW Madison horribly underrated

[Anonymous]

I've noticed UW Madison gets massive underrated by people on this sub, which I think is a real shame/mystery. Lots of people call it "a mid tier public university" putting in behind Michigan or UNC. This concept is completely false for several reasons. First of all to those who think UNC is a better school, why does UW Madison have a peer reputation score of 4.2/5, better than UNC/Texas/GT/Georgetown/Notre Dame/Vanderbilt? Why do academics administrators think so highly of UW, putting it as the 5th best public university in America, if it's such "a mid tier public university." This is just the tip of the iceberg. UW is the "mid tier public university" with 26 Nobels laureates (most in the big 10), graduated more Fortune 500 ceos in the nation, graduated John Bardeen (won the Nobel in physics twice), J.H. Van Vleck (won Nobel for magnetism), Frederick Jackson Turner ("manifest destiny" historian), and John Searle (coined "philosophy of mind").

Oh I did I mention that UW faculty wrote the social security bill for FDR (John R Commons and Ed Witte), while also having an average department ranking of 10.4/154 making it one of the 5 public universities in the nation with all academic departments ranked 30th or better. They also have the 3rd most National Academy of Arts and Sciences members of any public, standing at a whopping 183 members. Oh I forgot to mention UW was an AAU founding member with Michigan and Berkley. What has UNC or UVA or Umich been doing to compete with these statistics? Well, almost nothing other than hyper focusing on their business schools. In short, UW is absolutely a top public school. It's laughable that people consider UNC or Texas to be a better school and I really want to know why so many parents and students make such a fallacy.

[Anonymous]

Considering you are in DCUM-land, weather is a huge factor with this board. Colder temperatures and snow rule out many schools. In addition, I am sure Wisconsin isn’t a bad place, just not a lot of interest. You do you.

[Anonymous]

We visited because DC was interested. It's also very white, which was a turnoff for our DCC, who went to a diverse HS. They ended up in Boston, at a school that has significantly less white

[Anonymous]

The weather there is incredibly awful. Lived in Madison for a few years.

[Anonymous]

Not sure why this is in general parenting and not college discussion. As an immigrant who learned about American universities through their international reputation, I would say that, though I have never been there, it's one of the best schools in the US. If you look at international rankings, it's ranked #35 in the world.

https://www.shanghairanking.com/rankings/arwu/2023

People here take their cues from US rankings which are not that heavily academically loaded and also care about stuff like weather, campus vibe, sports etc, which are all insane to me (and most other people around the world). On the other hand, people abroad care about Nobel prizes, Americans not so much. I mean, they send their kids to various SLACs nobody has heard of and claim these are somehow comparable to world class universities.

So, a lot of people think like you, roughly, but they are no in the US.

[Anonymous]

Move this gibberish

[Anonymous]

OP - I think a lot of it is just geography. Not enough Midwesterners on this board.

[Anonymous]

I’ve seen only good things about UW on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

It’s an excellent school with passionate alumni but it’s not very diverse, there is little to do in Madison but party, the weather is lousy and unless you are really into Big 10 sports you’re out of luck. Its football crowds are known for being rowdy, drunk whose cheers are often vulgar and they are proud of it. But, it is an excellent school.

[Anonymous]

Too cold.

[Anonymous]

My cousin's whole family moved to Madison so that their daughter could attend. I have no idea why they went with, but they are still in Madison I'm pretty sure. They have a high net worth.

[Anonymous]

Chicagoan originally from the East Coast - UW Madison was the hot school this past year for admissions out here. Two of my friends' kids got in off the wait list with straight A honors. Big 10 has a couple of schools that have great academics and a robust party culture and that is one of them. People love it and the campus is beautiful.

I also think Northwestern has had a few rough years with the football/hazing, cheerleader sexual harassment scandal and claims of anti-semitism, plus this ongoing issue with the town and the football field (all of which in DC you may know little to nothing about but are big news stories out here). I think the NU kids are looking at Madison.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve seen only good things about UW on DCUM.

same

[Anonymous]

Amazing location on the lakes, although most of the buildings themselves are pretty ugly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Chicagoan originally from the East Coast - UW Madison was the hot school this past year for admissions out here. Two of my friends' kids got in off the wait list with straight A honors. Big 10 has a couple of schools that have great academics and a robust party culture and that is one of them. People love it and the campus is beautiful.

I also think Northwestern has had a few rough years with the football/hazing, cheerleader sexual harassment scandal and claims of anti-semitism, plus this ongoing issue with the town and the football field (all of which in DC you may know little to nothing about but are big news stories out here). I think the NU kids are looking at Madison.

It was in DC too. I'm hoping it's not as brutal as last year. Same kind of kids rejected here.