D accepted by both and we are deciding which one to go. Plan to visit UW Madison campus and RPI campus this month.
academically which one is stronger ?
D got some scholarship from RPI which will lower the private school tuition some.
We are OOS for both.
Thanks much
UW Madison is academically ranked significantly higher in CS .
Glad you are getting to visit both - they have very different feels, sizes, location!
Good choices to have!
They’re both good and strong in CS. Academics should not be the factor to consider between these two. UW-Madison is much bigger. I would go with cost and fit.
I assume the costs are similar for both schools then? OOS tuition is so very steep at Madison. I don’t know anything about RPI’s campus but Madison is just incredible. My daughter is deciding between Madison and U of Delaware for Biomedical Engineering and she is having the hardest time deciding. It’s just killing us watching her struggle to make the final call. Good luck with your son’s decision.
Great options, congrats to your student! My kid was OOS at UW – tuition is about $15k less than full pay at a private school ($37.6 for next year) and we found the room and board as well as other cost of attendance estimates on the high side, though your mileage may vary. For a full pay family, UW can be significantly less for an OOS family than a comparable private school. On the other hand, for an OOS family with financial need, UW is generally not going to give aid, so it becomes all loans, and that would not be advisable.
Costs aside – consider admission to specific majors – CS at UW is within the College of Letters and Science, the requirements for the major are not as onerous as majors within the College of Engineering. As a public university, UW is obligated to make a lot of information publicly available so you can look at course lists, past history of grades given in every class in the university etc. For instance, here is the public search function for fall '19 classes, you can search for all courses offered in CS, for example. https://portal.sispub.wisc.edu:7052/psp/public/EMPLOYEE/HRMS/c/COMMUNITY_ACCESS.CLASS_SEARCH.GBL?
Hopefully the visits will make the decision easier, agains, congrats!
Oops, re-reading my message, I think I was confusing in referring to UW’s costs of attendance. What I meant was, the official estimates of room, board, books, incidentals etc. were much higher than my kid’s actual expenses, so the “official” estimates may not be your actual experience.
@Midwestmomofboys I was confused by your numbers as well. We are OOS for UW Madison and our cost with room and board would be $55,000.
Regarding reply #1, undergraduate CS programs tend not to be ranked by national publications. U.S. News, for example, certainly doesn’t rank them.
@sunnryz Since schools vary by how they estimate misc. extra costs, we focused on comparing tuition and actual room and board for our student rather than include all the other costs. Tuition next year at UW is $37.6 for OOS students, plus a $1400 surcharge if you in engineering, so $39k. Room and board will vary, but UW dorms plus typical board is listed at $11.5 That makes tuition, room and board and fees as about $52.k – still a lot less than full pay at any private. UW generously includes incidentals in predicting the cost of attendance – those are costs you and your kid have control over – how often they order pizza delivery etc. If a student has to fly to one school they are considering, but not others, then certainly, include several round trip tickets a year in the predicted cost. But I always found UW’s “official” cost of attendance – because it included estimates of incidentals – much higher than my kid’s own experience. Plus, when he moved off campus, housing costs dropped further.
@Midwestmomofboys That makes sense.
Wow two very different schools. Madison is a wonderful town. I think the campus is wonderful. The two schools have such different vibes that I’d think anyone would know which of the two they preferred after a brief visit to each.
If you look at csrankings.org which is pretty accurate IMO (except for the low ranking for CalTech) you’ll probably see that UW-Madison is way up there.
Thank you guys. UWM seems more comprehensive school covering wide areas of studies. We are going to check it out 
We are OOS, now need check if we can get any financial aid…
Computer science is in L&S at UW- not engineering so no added surcharge. UW is a world class school with name recognition. An excellent choice if finances are there (you started this thread on the UW site…).
Your D needs to look at required, recommended and available courses for the CS major at each school. She needs to look at other requirements for a degree. My son started with honors math and physics sequences, doing the reqs for honors math and finished CS as a second major. Your D may want heavy math (excellent for CS). You said CS, not computer engineering, an entirely different field.
Thanks Yes I have never been to the North did not realize Wisconsin is so great. 19 Nobel prize winners !!!
I myself went to GaTech.
Both great schools, but very different environments and atmosphere. If at all possible, should visit both and see where you feel the most at home. The advantage of RPI is that it is smaller and more secluded, so that if you feel that this is your haven, it can be a very nice place for someone being with people much like themselves. I know many computer"geeks" who felt so out of place in high school and in life, in general, find a true home, and themselves at RPI. I found myself at some senior event in Saratoga Springs one year that was part of RPI’s celebrations, and a more joyful event, would have been hard to find. THough, Troy, not a tourist type town, you have the Springs not far away, and upstate NY is beautiful and peaceful.
Then you have Madison, Wi. It’s a whole other scene. Big state school in a very nice city. So much to do. Everything a state U can have. IT’s a hustling bustling scene. Very different from Troy NY and RPI. All a matter of preferences.