<p>I am from Florida also. I’m not going to lie to you - it sucks. But the positives of the school outweigh it imo. It’s REALLY cold, really snowy, really icy, and unfortunately it’s really long. Buy a warm jacket and good boots and you’ll be okay.</p>
<p>UW has a really great meal plan where you only pay for what you eat. You do have to get it if you live in public housing, but it’s like a debit card - you put money on it and everything in the cafeteria costs a certain amount (very cheap, I might add) and there’s no obligation to put a certain amount of money on it - you only pay for what you eat. I like it and I think it’s a smart way to do things. The food is solidly okay. Some things are good, some are weird…it’s standard cafeteria food, you know? They make pretty good pizza though, they make it to order and you can even get it delivered to your room. I think it’s pretty good system.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about many freshmen hanging out with their HS friends- it is very easy to never see people you knew- an advantage of a large campus. Being OOS is something interesting for learning how others live. Res Halls- public dorms- is the way to go.</p>
<p>The “meal plan” involves putting money into the food service account part of your Wiscard/student ID. You/your parents add money to your account as you need it- maybe $300 to start in the fall, adding more when your balance gets low- if you run out and have to pay cash, or use money on the other part of your Wiscard account you pay the full price instead of the dorm resident price. You can take food back to your room, have pizza and subs delivered to your dorm ($0.50 delivery charge) that you ordered online… Each room comes with a dorm size refrigerator and you’re allowed one microwave oven per room that you or your roommate provide. No minimum/maximum food charges. Anyone can eat in any Res Halls food service place- convenient when you find yourself at one area or another and with friends not living in the dorms but want their food. Around $1200 is what Res Halls quotes as average dorm resident food services money spent per year (they don’t know how much everyone spends on groceries or restaurant food purchased elsewhere). Leftover funds returned to you.</p>
<p>Food variety- see the website for menus. Like home, after a while things repeat themselves. Unlike home- you choose what and where to eat all of the time. I’ve heard the food is good with various cultural and dietary options available. Easy way to try out foods you’ve never had- the “wierd” dishes .</p>
<p>The weather. Not boring (neither is the campus with the lake and hills). Definitely get to experience all 4 seasons. Winter weather makes it easy to spend your time indoors to study. Experiencing a different climate while a college student is a great way to see if you like it before committing yourself to a job later. Also, in college you can do the kid stuff in the snow you won’t do later in life.</p>
<p>PS- Wisconsin has had some well below normal temps recently- everyone is complaining about the cold.</p>
<p>I see from the posts that everybody reccomends being in the dorms, but what about the greek system? What are the reputations for the different sororities? I’m from out of state, and don’t really party, but I’m not opposed to it either! Any advice would be great!</p>
<p>UW Greek here. Could definitely go into providing you with the supposed “hierarchy” of sororities, but honestly, you really have to remember that it’s a pretty subjective topic of conversation. While there truly are a few very exceptional houses, the rushing process at UW is nothing like the culture of sorority rush in the south (UGA, UVA, etc). None of the serious pressure regarding where you end up, I’d bet less than half know which house they really want to be in at the start of rush, etc.</p>
<p>It’s very organized and designed so that you get bids for houses that YOU fit well with. Don’t look at it as some being better or worse than others. </p>
<p>That being said, this is reality, and there definitely are different “generalizations” applied to each of the houses! I absolutely loved my experience in the Greek system. I found many very meaningful relationships and it provided an awesome social and philanthropic outlet. Be sure to get involved in Humorology if you end up rushing. Seriously amazing organization in the Greek system–you’ll have the time of your life.</p>
<p>You would still live in a dorm or wherever if you joined a sorority. I’m in one now. I can’t give you all the reputations, but they are all amazing houses. There are even some houses that have almost all people from out of state (like mine). I would definitely recommend rushing. It’s in the first week you get there, before you have any classes, and it’s a great, great way to meet people and I just love it. Usually sophomore year you’ll move into the house, but you will live in the dorm freshman year.</p>
<p>Oh okay! So if I plan on rushing, I would rush and be a part of a sorority and participate in all of the activites involving that sorority and the greek system, but I would be living in a dorm?</p>
<p>Yep, for freshman year. Sophomore year you would be moving into a house, assuming the sorority has a house (only one does not) and all the spaces weren’t filled.</p>
<p>Is the OOS tuition tough to swallow? I was accepted to Wisco and its one of my top choices (you have no clue how excited i was when i got my letter last week) but ive heard they dont really give scholarships to oos students; ive been cursed to live in md (the northern rural nothing going on end, not the cool urban southern or coastal beachy eastern or pretty and mountainy western parts. the cow country part.)</p>
<p>I’m not sure about OOS tuition, I pay resident rate (actually I pay nothing because of a program I am in for students with extreme financial need) so I wouldn’t quite know. There isn’t much in the way of financial aid for out of state, they want your money lol. If you’re extremely poor I know there’s a program that will pay your full COA for four years, I’m in the one for Wisconsin residents but I know they have one for out of state as well. It’s called BANNER, but I do think you have to be pretty poor in order to get that.</p>
<p>But yeah, it’s kind of steep I think, like 20k in tuition, and then there’s room/board, etc.</p>
<p>thanks! my dad got a new job/raise recently, but im nervous about going out of state and asking them to pay all that extra money (esp since umcp is a very respectable college itself)</p>
<p>how have the profs/ta’s treated you? and are the class sizes really as big as they say? (lectures w/ 500+ students seems kinda exaggerated…)</p>
<p>Hey I’m filling out the housing app, definitely doing Sellery first and Witte second but what’s the third best SE dorm for freshman? Smith and Ogg look more in the SE neighborhood but I hear they’re mostly sophs and Chadbourne looks kinda out of the way and I hear it’s boring? Idk what do you think?</p>
<p>All dorms with freshmen have at least 50% freshmen, no matter which dorm you are in there will be mostly freshmen. This includes both ends of campus- Lakeshore and Southeast. You will be able to revise your rankings before the dorm lottery next May.</p>
<p>Depends on what you’re looking for. Ogg and Smith are mostly sophs, that’s true. There’s a dorm called Merit House, it’s very very small though. Chadbourne has one of the best locations on campus. It is known as kind of a nerdy dorm but all my friends live there and they aren’t nerds. They care a lot about doing well though. It also is very nice there, though strict about alcohol and stuff, which they aren’t in Sellery or Witte. There definitely are people who like to party in all the dorms though, you’ll find them if you look.</p>
<p>cammac - Depends on the class, really it does. I haven’t had any 500+ classes, but I haven’t taken many freshman intro classes because I exempted a lot of stuff and I like to take different things than the typical freshman. I’d say your average for large lectures will be around 200-300. I haven’t really seen many lecture halls that would hold 500 people, either.</p>
<p>I haven’t loved the profs I’ve had, one was the most awkward person I’ve ever met in my life, and one was really self-absorbed and pretentious, but I had two that were pretty solidly okay. I only had one TA, and he didn’t even speak English, so I never went to the discussion lol. You do tend to run into a lot of TAs that are extremely hard to understand. So that’s annoying.</p>
<p>I have a few transfer-related questions: How easy is it for transfer students to acclimate into the social life at Madison? How easy also is it to get housing as a transfer student? Finally, are there many people from California?!?</p>
<p>Um, I’m not exactly sure how easy it is for transfer students. There is a whole dorm specifically for them, though, it’s pretty nice and has singles, I think, but it is in the Lakeshore area which is kind of anti-social and quiet as a rule. I think it’s fairly easy to get housing, especially if you put the transfer dorm (Tripp) as your first choice. </p>
<p>And, yes there are a lot of people from California. I know quite a lot. A good friend of mine is from there and she’s introduced me to so many people from California, lol. Many people from there do tend to live in private dorms and the Lucky apartments, they are also often in sororities and frats. Just so you know, in case you were looking to find people from where you are.</p>
<p>Rox–for the sake of getting students the most accurate information possible, as a current student, it would be best to defer things you’re not quite sure on. </p>
<p>As for transfer housing, the spaces are extremely limited and every year transfer students are left without housing in uw residence halls. In the past two years, transfer students have been accepted well after the majority of freshmen. (Many as late as June). Under this procedure, housing contracts were either not offered or were for expanded housing.</p>
<p>Also, the “transfer dorm” is a “transfer house,” with the equivalent of about ~70 spaces available. It is not an entire residence hall, but rather, a community within one. My friend transferred in and lived in a transfer-student community in Lucky101. Given how transfer students are forced out of uw housing in many cases, the private hall apparently recognized the demand and created a community specific to the needs of incoming transfers in addition to their program for first-year freshman. He loved it and chose it because he wanted the “dorm experience” of meeting a ton of different people right away, but in a full apartment.</p>
<p>Transfer students should ask lots of questions–sometimes you can be in a precarious and overlooked position when working with a variety of university departments.</p>
<p>How likely is it to get on-campus housing if one gets accepted early, like around February or so? Also, in the event that transfers do not get on-campus housing, what are some decent off-campus options? I see that Lucky101 got mentioned quite a few times, what about The Towers?</p>
<p>What about social life for those living off-campus then? do they still have the same opportunities as on-campus residents?</p>