UW Madison horribly underrated

[Anonymous]

But why exactly is Michigan or UNC better? Sure by the US News rankings they’re higher( which makes sense cause those factor in things like selectivity). But by peer reputation score, UW is higher than UNC and slightly below Michigan. This just tells me parents follow these rankings like mindless sheep. When actually examining department rankings, you’d find that for most subjects UW makes a total fool out of UNC, and surpasses UMich in subjects like Biology, Chemistry, Philosophy, Math, Physics, Economics etc. Again UW has been a much more important institution than either of these schools in these fields. For math UW has has Rudin Umslaw, Breit and Feynman on their faculty, while currently retaining Ellenberg, Ohm, Paul among others. For Chem they’ve had Temin, Gobind-Khorana, Lederberg, etc. For philosophy, they’ve has Searle, Ollman, White, Russell among others. It simply outclasses UNC and is easily equal to Michigan. The fact that people have the unmitigated gall to place Michigan or UNC above UW just speaks to their laughable ignorance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But why exactly is Michigan or UNC better? Sure by the US News rankings they’re higher( which makes sense cause those factor in things like selectivity). But by peer reputation score, UW is higher than UNC and slightly below Michigan. This just tells me parents follow these rankings like mindless sheep. When actually examining department rankings, you’d find that for most subjects UW makes a total fool out of UNC, and surpasses UMich in subjects like Biology, Chemistry, Philosophy, Math, Physics, Economics etc. Again UW has been a much more important institution than either of these schools in these fields. For math UW has has Rudin Umslaw, Breit and Feynman on their faculty, while currently retaining Ellenberg, Ohm, Paul among others. For Chem they’ve had Temin, Gobind-Khorana, Lederberg, etc. For philosophy, they’ve has Searle, Ollman, White, Russell among others. It simply outclasses UNC and is easily equal to Michigan. The fact that people have the unmitigated gall to place Michigan or UNC above UW just speaks to their laughable ignorance.

People who understand academia are appropriately impressed with the institution. Most people are not in that world and they just look at US News for rankings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

These rankings are ridiculous regarding undergraduate programs. ASU is ranked above CMU, Rice, and a couple hundred spots above lowly Dartmouth College.

The international rankings are overwhelmingly focused on the graduate programs, not on undergraduate programs.

[Anonymous]

Wisconsin has excellent graduate programs.

For undergrad study, it lacks diversity, is very cold, and is a major party school.

The NU "hazing scandal" was blown out of proportion & highly exaggerated.

Students are applying to U Wisconsin because they have a chance of being offered admission whereas Northwestern University has less than a 7% admit rate.

[Anonymous]

Michigan has a 4.5 PA at USNWR. That’s why it’s better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But why exactly is Michigan or UNC better? Sure by the US News rankings they’re higher( which makes sense cause those factor in things like selectivity). But by peer reputation score, UW is higher than UNC and slightly below Michigan. This just tells me parents follow these rankings like mindless sheep. When actually examining department rankings, you’d find that for most subjects UW makes a total fool out of UNC, and surpasses UMich in subjects like Biology, Chemistry, Philosophy, Math, Physics, Economics etc. Again UW has been a much more important institution than either of these schools in these fields. For math UW has has Rudin Umslaw, Breit and Feynman on their faculty, while currently retaining Ellenberg, Ohm, Paul among others. For Chem they’ve had Temin, Gobind-Khorana, Lederberg, etc. For philosophy, they’ve has Searle, Ollman, White, Russell among others. It simply outclasses UNC and is easily equal to Michigan. The fact that people have the unmitigated gall to place Michigan or UNC above UW just speaks to their laughable ignorance.

I just perused USNWR rankings for graduate programs in Philosophy, Math, Physics, and Economics. Michigan is ranked higher in each of those disciplines you insist that UW excels at. As for the etc. comment, Michigan is ranked ahead of Wisconsin in the vast majority of comparable programs, especially in Engineering, Business, and Health related areas. You can complain about Wisconsin being ranked below other top public schools that aren’t Berkeley, UCLA, and especially Michigan.

[Anonymous]

Wisconsin is an outstanding school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wisconsin has excellent graduate programs.

For undergrad study, it lacks diversity, is very cold, and is a major party school.

The NU "hazing scandal" was blown out of proportion & highly exaggerated.

Students are applying to U Wisconsin because they have a chance of being offered admission whereas Northwestern University has less than a 7% admit rate.

Not everyone has a half million dollar budget for college, either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wisconsin has excellent graduate programs.

For undergrad study, it lacks diversity, is very cold, and is a major party school.

The NU "hazing scandal" was blown out of proportion & highly exaggerated.

Students are applying to U Wisconsin because they have a chance of being offered admission whereas Northwestern University has less than a 7% admit rate.

Not everyone has a half million dollar budget for college, either.

Northwestern University is an incredibly wealthy school which offers generous meets-full-need financial aid. Also, if budget is a major concern,then why pay non-resident tuition at U Wisconsin ?

[Anonymous]

Maybe look at 4-year graduation rate, which is significantly lower at UW than UNC, Umich or UVA. Or student to faculty ratio.

[Anonymous]

It accepts 1/2 its students and is an easy admit. It is ranked #35 by US News — about 20 spots too high. It is overrated, not underrated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

But they don’t mind the same weather in New England. So stupid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mid level kids, very white.
It is a fine school to go to when you don’t have better options

You are clearly a know nothing. Go away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But why exactly is Michigan or UNC better? Sure by the US News rankings they’re higher( which makes sense cause those factor in things like selectivity). But by peer reputation score, UW is higher than UNC and slightly below Michigan. This just tells me parents follow these rankings like mindless sheep. When actually examining department rankings, you’d find that for most subjects UW makes a total fool out of UNC, and surpasses UMich in subjects like Biology, Chemistry, Philosophy, Math, Physics, Economics etc. Again UW has been a much more important institution than either of these schools in these fields. For math UW has has Rudin Umslaw, Breit and Feynman on their faculty, while currently retaining Ellenberg, Ohm, Paul among others. For Chem they’ve had Temin, Gobind-Khorana, Lederberg, etc. For philosophy, they’ve has Searle, Ollman, White, Russell among others. It simply outclasses UNC and is easily equal to Michigan. The fact that people have the unmitigated gall to place Michigan or UNC above UW just speaks to their laughable ignorance.

People who understand academia are appropriately impressed with the institution. Most people are not in that world and they just look at US News for rankings.

This.

[Anonymous]

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

What the he!! are you talking about? There is beautiful architecture on campus.