<p>So after getting waitlisted from my number one choice. I've decided to go to University of Wisconsin. Is anyone else transfering there in the fall?? I'm looking foward to being a BADGER! yay</p>
<p>haha i'm at madison now and i'm transferring OUT. or at least trying to. :) madison seems to be quite the popular place for westchester-ites! i know 6 people from westchester alone.</p>
<p>haha well that makes me happy!! Why are trying to transfer out and where do you want to go? Thanks</p>
<p>what goes on in wisconsin anyway? i mean...... ..</p>
<p>Hey, Wisco is the #1 party school in the country. A lot goes on here...if you're into that sorta thing...but if you're talking about the city, there IS no city. Madison is one huge campus; take away the university and you'd have a few gas stations and a lake. :/ Most people go to Milwaukee to have fun...there's Summerfest, the biggest music festival in the world, tons of theater, clubs, shopping, everything. A Chicago-lite, if you will. But I'm getting off topic. :)</p>
<p>I'm transfering b/c UW isn't a good fit for me. I'll start off with the good...
If you're going into science or pre-med, Madison is utterly unbelievable. Madison has the #1 biochem and biomolecular chem programs in the <em>world</em>, owing to all the stem cell research faculty do here. Students also have the unparalleled opportunity to get to do research as an <em>undergrad</em> in the stem cell research...my roommate last semester assisted in stem cell research, and this semester did stuff with genome cloning, and she's only a freshman. Chemistry and psychology are in the top 3 in the US, and engineering is in the top as well. But...now for the bad...</p>
<p>It's true that sciences are top here. Madison is a research university, and that's all they really care about. That and sports. Humanities get totally screwed here, and the university buracracy doesn't care, b/c science and sports is what brings in the $$. Your English building will be crumbling and share classes and offices with Anthro, Econ, Sociology, several foreign languages, and Philosophy and desperately needing funding for new <em>paint</em>, while the Physics dept. just got a brand new $$50 million building (Chamberlain Hall) b/c they whined over Chemistry getting a new one and not them. It's ridiculous. Madison is also TOTALLY huge, intro classes have over 500 students, professors are absolutely incapable of teaching, and 99% of your TAs will be absolutely incapable of speaking English. Grades are also insanely difficult in many classes, especially intro classes, but most professors curve so it's somewhat fair. Be prepared to rush from your math or science class absolutely thrilled with a 30% on an impossible exam b/c a 30% equals a B. I was in calculus last semester, a 432 person class, and the HIGHEST grade on the final was a 49%. Needless to say, I'm tired of all the beuraucratic nonsense, and feeling like a number. Hence, I'm transferring.</p>
<h1>1 in biochem and #3 in chemistry??</h1>
<p>I thought UW was #6 in biochem and #8 or 9 in chem.</p>
<p>WOW! GEEZUS(JESUS) CHRIST~ 30% B and 49% max?!!!
That must be extremely tough.</p>
<p>Heh
I'm transferring out of Madison too. And let me tell you this place is awesome, just not for my program.
C'mon NattieB, for the most of what you said, its untrue. Sure we got huge classes, but we got quite a few real good proffessors as well, and 99% of the TA's not speaking English is just an exaggeration.</p>
<p>In the Humanities, we got a pretty good philosophy and poli sci department, atleast thats what I think of what I know of them.</p>
<p>All the Science classes I hear are really tough, so are the calc so i hear you out on that. Don't forget we are awesome in engineering, ANY engineering.</p>
<p>Don_k, I don't think that anything I said above is an exaggeration. I've taken 12 classes here already, and I've had only <em>one</em> TA that was a native English speaker. Granted, not all of my classes have had TAs though. I guess it depends on what dept. you're in, but in math, science, engineering, and many times, philosophy and other social sciences, the TAs are mostly foreign, and never there to teach. They're there to do grad research, and TA-ing a class is mandatory. I'm not saying you'll never get a good TA. Just the chance you'll get a horrible one is much more likely. Of all my professors, only two of them have been at all tolerable. Most of them are either incapable of teaching, or are too old or foreign to be understood. Many of them have comically large egos. My chem professor freshman year gave everyone in class an autographed picture of him on the last day. I mean, c'mon...
But my two professors that I absolutely loved were in the Humanities. I love humanities here. :) They're strong, but not <em>exceptionally</em> strong, and that's a reason I'm transferring. I just think they deserve much more funding that the paltry amount they get.</p>
<p>But Madison's math, science and engineering programs are top notch. I've heard that if you can get through one of those programs with a high GPA (3.5+), it's <em>extremely</em> impressive, and holds substantially more weight than the same from an ivy. I have two very good friends who just got into Harvard med school from here. They had very good GPA's, and, most importantly, they did the impossible: got an A in organic chem here. Just to give you an idea, one of the O-chem professors, who's been teaching for over 13 years, has proudly boasted that he's only given out 3 A's in his life. Fun stuff.</p>
<p>I'm thinking of being a Psych major any comments on that?</p>
<p>Teensb, the psych intro class, psych 202, is hard coz of the curve. Its meant to be a weed out class to take out people who think getting the psych major is easy. It is pretty hard to get an A, last semester it was only because of psych 202 that I got a 3.7 or I'd have been easily a 4.0 (I got a C, lol)</p>
<p>Yeah. Nattie, but then I gues its each tothier own experience here. I've had one russian TA for math once and one south east asian dude for econ, needless to say I despised thier teaching coz I never understood what they were talking about. However, I've taken 14 classses, and only 2 were bad, the rest all spoke good english and I've even made friends with one TA and we're gonna be getting some beer after finals next week.</p>
<p>In the professor area, some are good some are just plain annoying but thats expected in most big and state schools, my absolute favourittes were Joe Elder, he teaches Indian Modern Civillisations and also some course regarding Sexuality, if you're around next sem I'd recommend him. Very nice chap.</p>
<p>The organic chem guys are scary, one of my friends have gotten 4 MID TERMS this semester and thats not counting the FINAL. I was like damn dude, that blows.</p>