@anhydrite yes, my son will be applying to Minnesota. There are three Big 10 schools we are looking at: Wisconsin, Minnesota and Ohio State. We always knew that Wisconsin would be a reach but based on how similar it is to UT-Austin in many respects, we always knew he’d apply there. My son identified Minnesota as a potential target due to its relatively low out of state tuition and the his belief that the campus vibe was in line with his own outlook. Ohio State has a National Buckeye Scholarship and a Morrill Scholarship that would replicate something similar to what the Chancellor Scholarship provides, so my son is applying there as well.
This is all good, @fatherof2boys. Just to respond quickly to @Hookemgators, I’m aware that UT’s professional programs are ranked higher than UW’s, but UW’s sciences and humanities tend to outrank UT. I’m sure the OP knows the quality of UT’s programs, as he and his spouse are alums. I’ve also said upthread I’m quite fond of both. I’m sure if the OP’s son could gain admission to UT, that would rate highly among his choices.
Re: history: both UW and UT tend to excel in sub-fields of history: for example, UT excels in Latin American history, and others (I don’t know their departmental strengths as well, but easy to look up); UW excels in African, Women’s, sub-fields of American, etc. Also, there are portions of the UW campus named after the outstanding and influential 20th-century historian, German-Jewish emigre George Mosse.
This is a good table that speaks to the respective caliber of departmental strengths. It takes what I consider the most useful metric, peer assessment of fellow academics, and rates the universities’ respective departmental strengths overall. All of the OP’s proposed schools make the list, and they should all have an effect on the undergrad experience at large research institutions with this type of research-intensive structure:
@anhydrite thanks for the love no I recall coming across this a while back. I’m glad to see that the three Big 10 schools on our target list (Wisconsin, Ohio State, and Minnesota) are ranked so highly. This was one of the reasons my son decided to focus on large public research institutions because we noticed that the strengths of the actual departments exceeded those at many of the highly selective private schools.
We first discovered this when we were making comparisons between UT and Rice. As reflected by the table, US News significantly ranks Rice higher than UT. However when we reviewed the actual department rankings in head to head comparisons, UT’s academic departments outranked Rice’s in something like 13 out of 15 academic areas. Yet Rice is a top 20 school according to US News whereas UT is in the 50s. It was at this point that we realized that some of the private schools were ranked too high and some publics were ranked too low.
After reviewing this list I’m reminded that even some public institutions (UVa) may be overvalued as well in comparison to their peers.
Ahhh, yes, the Mosse Humanities Building - nothing like some outstanding 1960s-era brutalist architecture!
The classes were more inspired than the design. Poor George – he deserved better architecture.
But hey, it is riot-proof.
Thanks for the reply, @fatherof2boys. I would say that Rice provides an excellent undergraduate education. It just doesn’t structurally resemble UW, UT, etc., and therefore its graduate programs are smaller, with less depth and star faculty, etc. As you already know, the big schools require self-motivation and a willingness to seek out more individualized attention, research opportunities, etc. But it is there for the taking – super faculty, resources, and a great diversity of opportunities – and that challenge appealed to my personality back then. I ultimately chose the Big Research U. over the small privates I was also accepted to, for some of those very reasons.
It was just plain Humanities in my day- and ugly then. My understanding it is one of the buildings on a list to be replaced.