<p>College life at UW Madison, University of Iowa, Purdue, or Marquette? Any information would be helpful.</p>
<p>I’m not a student at UW, but I have lived in Madison for almost 17 years. Sports and drinking are a huge part of student life–I believe UW was named the number one school for sports by Sports Illustrated a few years ago. We also hold one of the craziest halloween parties in the country on State St. If you’re not into those things you’ll be fine–Academics here are very challenging and you will spend a lot of time studying. State st is good for shopping, and there are plenty of plays and music artists which come to Madison. I believe the is a good art scene too, but I am not sure. If you have any questions about Madison pm me and Ill be happy to answer</p>
<p>I was really impressed by the atmosphere at Iowa when I visited, but I can’t speak much about its social scene. It is probably similar to other big schools, but Iowa City is much more accessible to the University even more so than most other city campuses. Literally, across the street from the dorms is the pedestrian mall that has a lot of bars and restaurants, and a lot of variety too. There is a town ordnance that prevents too many fast food restaurants and chain restaurants. The only ones in town are a taco bell, a buffalo wild wings, and some random sandwich shop that looked like a chain, but I wouldn’t know because I’m not from the region.</p>
<p>I could possibly be attending Iowa this fall and can assure you socially and academically it would be your best choice.
Im not currently using a PC so when I get use one today I will come back to elaborate.</p>
<p>Check out the UW Madison section here at CC for more info [University</a> of Wisconsin - Madison - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-wisconsin-madison/]University”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-wisconsin-madison/)</p>
<p>Of the places you posted, Madison is the most well rounded. It has the best academics, excellent sports/social life as mentioned above, and is an overall terrific college town.</p>
<p>Perhaps if you’re interested in Engineering you might go to Purdue, or if you like city life Marquette, but otherwise I’d say Madison has the most to offer.</p>
<p>Well I wasn’t able to update yesterday, but since I said I would under my post why not today… I was going to post more yesterday but Iowa will offer a better social life and quality of education. You specifically ask about " college life", Iowa has over 600 clubs, living learning communities such as: law studies and legal careers, performing arts, international crossroads, and more. The campus is located directly across from Iowa City which is known to be one of the best college towns in the midwest/ nation. Iowa City was designated by the United Nations as the only World City of Literature in the USA, along with two other cities in Europe. Its seen as the cultural capitol ( state of Iowa first capitol is on the campus which its pentacrest have numerous events around the year) in Iowa with endless of things to do and see for your undergraduate years.
After Iowa, I would second UW-Madison and then Purdue.</p>
<p>Even though I never got to visit Iowa or UW-Madison, I heard plenty of great things about them. So I will second Coolbrezze’s list as well.</p>
<p>I admittedly have no personal experience with University of Iowa, but I also have no bias towards it. Iowa City is isolated. I have never been there but when I visited another Iowa school they were of the opinion that there wasn’t that much to do in Iowa City. UW-Madison is much less isolated. It is a great school with a lot of different people, and is a lot less isolated. But whether that is a factor depends on whether the isolation bothers you or not. It didn’t for me (though I ended up going to ASU, go figure). Have you visited? I would say go off your own feelings, only you can tell what will truly be best for you.
Marquette is in a bad part of town. And as much as I love Milwaukee (my home town), it isn’t a college town. It has some amazing things but quite a few issues as well. Lake is wonderful though, and the people I know who go to Marquette like it.</p>
<p>Thats odd, because out of all the state of Iowa universities, University of Iowa is the only one in a developing city. Others, such as Ames is more of a small town. Also, University of Iowa is located in what many identify as the nations heartland ( an area you may not experience to live other than the coastal states)… a nice environment to study for your undergraduate years with big blue skyes. Iowa City is also known for its big music scene, as there is usually some concert(s) to see everynight. Iowa City is about 5 hours away from major cities. Millions are visitors of the city every year. Most who I have talked to were always impress and surprise of Iowa City when visiting, so if you can definately make a visit. Again I would firstly suggest University of Iowa, second University of Wisconsin- Madison if Iowa is not possible.
Also, nearly half the students are not from the state of Iowa if your concern about being an OOS.</p>
<p>I really appreciate the input and would love more! I have another question though regarding “isolation”: Does anyone have any knowledge of if it is not easy to get an internship being hours away from major cities?</p>
<p>UW Madison would be my pick for atmosphere for sure (pretty much everything Wisco said). 2 of my cousins went to U Iowa, and while they loved it they did say that there was really not much else to do in terms of activities but drink/party. And there were lots of cornfields. Purdue is also nice, but I haven’t heard nearly as much about it. My impression of Marquette is rather biased - one of the most ******-baggy kids I have ever met goes there. </p>
<p>In terms of getting internships, any big state U will have plenty of jobs on campus. Off-campus internships are rather limited though, depending on where you are at</p>
<p>
This is nearly what many college students say in all Big Ten schools… though Iowa City has much more to offer, it definately varies on who you ask because I have heard this statement for all schools in the Big Ten.</p>
<p>University of Iowa is not really that isolated, and as I’ve said before have things to do everyday. The university recently had a visit by the president, last year president and other candidates running for election campaign there. Former President Bush visited the school in 2008. Politically, the school city gets a lot of attention since its the first caucus state.
As stated above, reguardless of location universities ( all in the Big Ten) will offer a endless amount of internships etc…</p>
<p>Edit: In a statement above I referred to Iowa as nations heartland, well the correct term is “American Heartland”.</p>
<p>Iowa and Madison are both pretty similar in terms of social life and stuff. Big time sports. Big time parties. Lots of Drinking. Kind of isolated but still have good connections to major cities for jobs and internships. Both are great college towns.</p>
<p>I still prefer the U of M in Minneapoolis though which has much more to do.</p>
<p>I’m just going to put out here that Madison is also a growing city. In fact, if your interested in science, UW is great. Also, Madison (WI in general) has more natural beauty than Iowa. UW is on Lake Mendota and there’s Lake Monona nearby. And the Dells! Also Spring Green is cool. I would check for your program of interest at the different schools and compare that too.</p>