<p>Last night ran into a neighbor with two kids at UI and I mentioned my S was thinking of UW and besides the in state versus out of state reasoning for attending each he came out and said UI is definitely the better school academically than UW and I told him that was his own opinion that I thought for the most part they were equal or the nod to UW. Any thoughts on this debate.</p>
<p>UW is a bit better and good in more areas. But it's close. A long time ago it was easier to get into UW from Illinois than it was to get into UI instate--especially in the wealthy Chicago suburbs. Obviously that was more due to price and numbers of applicants but that's where that idea came from. Now it's about the same except for UI engineering which is tougher.</p>
<p>In terms of rankings, UW s ihigher than UIUC in all the rankings I have seen.</p>
<p>Generally, UW is better than UI. The gap is not huge but seems to be getting bigger. In engineering, UI is clearly better; in business, they are about the same with UI ranked right above UW. But, the biggest gap exists in Science and social sciences. Particularly in science, UW is among the best in the nation. I chose UW over UMich for this reason. I've never considered Illinois.</p>
<p>My major would be either Physics or applied Math. For some reason I got accepted to both of the universities(stats are relatively weak). I live in Brooklyn, NY so I'm out of state in either one. Where should I go? I'm thinking about visiting both.</p>
<p>UI has the edge in physics and UW in applied math. Both are in the top 20 or so in both areas.</p>
<p>It's tough because the schools are similiar (strong in sciences, large midwest publics with a lot of school spirit) but different (UW has a large OOS population, stronger in the social sciences, less rural) so on that comparison it is tough to seperate them when asking a lot of out of state kids. Few look @ UI. But with the academic question specific, excluding the above mentioned sciences, Wisconsin is generally tops. I can understand why smart kids from Illinois go to UI over other publics like Michigan or Wisconsin for price to quality ratios, but if the money won't be as big of an issue, and the major is right, go to UW.</p>
<p>Definitely UIUC for engineering.. Otherwise, I'd prefer UW. But I'd choose Umich over UIUC for engineering anyday.</p>
<p>A few comments,</p>
<ol>
<li><p>In state UIUC engineering would be in my opinion smarter than UMich, in many fields UIUC is even ranked better. To say "I'd take school 4 over school ranked 6 anyday" is a strange statement. They're incredibly comparable on quality.</p></li>
<li><p>Also I should tell the original poster that this website is pretty notorious for very black vs. white descriptions of schools. What I mean is that posters take one factor, US News ranking, and then determine that school "#29" > "#35" and the entire debate about the schools is very superficial. It centers around the US News rank, almost always. A critical student would check out the two schools themself. For example, while I concede that UIUC has a higher ranking engineering department, Wisconsin has one ranked around the top 10. The engineering website at UW talks about employment and salaries for graduates and it is quite impressive. Especially for MN/WI kids with in state tuition, it may be the better option. So the "definitely" take "x over y" mentality is a bit of a bad statement to me.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Honestly, i can name about 2 classes where i've learned something significant here at uw. I've found upper-level classes easier than intro-level classes. I despise intro-level classes (it's not hard material, but they make it hard by tricking you or citing the most minute details). Once you get past your freshman year, i think you'll be up for a higher GPA.<br>
That said, I havn't taken the 4-,5-,600 level classes yet. But i'd much rather take one of those than some 101 class again.</p>
<pre><code>But most importantly, though --- your education is up to you. Don't come to UW and think you're automatically going to learn or be smart. That's one of those romantic ideas freshmen have that they come to college with.
There are idiots here. (My friend got a 4.0 one semester but didn't know where Kentucky or Tennessee was on a map. Another got a 3.6 her first semester here, but her writing is embarrassing but she doesn't know it - hard to read through her entire essay = 8th, 9th grade level). There are idiots at UIUC. You can fudge in many, many classes, and get away with it easily. There are smart people and idiots wherever you go. It's not a given; it's not automatic -- what you learn is up to you, wherever you are.
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