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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]These rankings are a joke. [b]Illinois ranked above Wisconsin? All the smart Chicago kids would rather go to Madison than Urbana Champaign[/b].[/quote]

but that is a measure of popularity, not the quality of the school. [/quote]
Wisconsin is a much higher quality school. Everyone but UWNWR thinks so. [/quote]

U of I's SAT scores are higher than Wisconsin's. Madison is a more lively town as state capital and it's closer to the northwest suburbs of Chicago than Urbana-Champaign which is a college town in the middle of nowhere.  (Plus a lot of those suburban Chicago kids who say they want to go to UW didn't get into UofI and won't admit it and have parents who can afford the out of state tuition--they'd rather go to a flagship school of another state than one of the "directional" state schools -- this happens with University of Iowa too which is also just a couple hour train ride away from Chicago.  [/quote]
Good points, but let’s not pretend that Illinois is an Ivy League school and that Wisconsin is a safety. Illinois is ranked only 3 spots above Wisconsin (which, despite the rankings, has a better national brand and reputation).  I highly doubt that there are a critical mass of Chicago kids who couldn’t get into their state university, but who could get into Wisconsin from out of state. There may be some, but don’t assume that Illinois is so superior that the kids who end up at Wisconsin are mostly those who were rejected from Illinois. Wisconsin is attractive in its own right to many Chicago students.[/quote]

I don't disagree.  They are not that dissimilar--but to opt to pay more for out of state for a slightly "worse" state school usually means a) you want the livelier city and your family has enough money not to mind higher costs, or b)you didn't get into your own state flagship.  There's not a lot of undergrad programs that UW would have a strong particular pull (grad programs--sure).  UW's undergrad admissions are surprisingly not that selective given its overall reputation.  I also wonder about the impact of state funding issues on UW system and its impact on its appeal (though if you're comparing Illinois they are both equally bad right now!)   [/quote]

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