<p>As the parent of a bright but not super-motivated HS junior who's determined to be the last one admitted into UW next spring before the door gets slammed shut, it behooves me and him to have backup plans. Has anyone compared University of Iowa to UW Madison, on non-academic aspects such as quality of life, progressiveness, prominence of Greek life (or lack thereof), etc?</p>
<p>Note that I am not asking which institution has the better ACADEMIC reputation. I know UW has. And we can evalute the program of interest to him at one school vs. the other just fine. I'm talking about the intangibles OUTSIDE of the academic.</p>
<p>But as UW becomes more competitive, the question for some becomes, where I can one go for a near-Madison experience?</p>
<p>University of Minnesota over University of Iowa for a closer to Madison feel.</p>
<p>I agree, countrygentleman, but Minnesota is definitely a step above Iowa as well. I know people who have had their hearts set on Madison and ended up at Iowa. I don’t know if they think it substitutes the Madison experience, but they have definitely enjoyed it and have no plans of transferring out.</p>
<p>I’ve spent time in Iowa City and attended UW. I love IA. My impression from visits and from friends who attended is that it is a smaller sort of version of Madision. Liberalish college town (not in a city like Mnpls) with a nice campus. The arts and humanities are strong attracting some artsy kids. Lots of kids from the Chicago area like Madison, minus the large numbers of NYC or Cali kids. I’d say the greek thing is similar to Madison in that it’s a smallish % so you don’t need to join to have a great social life.</p>
<p>I’d look at Indiana too. My list would be Minn, Indiana, Iowa in order.</p>
<p>Wife & I both attended Iowa, and D1 just graduated from Iowa. D2 picked Madison over Iowa, and will be a frosh in the fall. She got major scholarship $$$ to attend Iowa, nada from UW. Her main rationale was that she’s seen Iowa City all her life, it’s great but she wanted to forge her own path (albeit expensively!).</p>
<p>I think it’s established that UW-Madison has MORE highly-ranked majors than does Iowa, but Iowa is definitely up there in the health sciences, actuarial sciences, and few others. In addition, the Writers’ Workshop (mostly a grad program but undergrads take advantage of the faculty) is top-ranked nationally.</p>
<p>Iowa City has a feel-good, small town vibe, with still a bit of 60’s liberalism. D1 immersed herself in the Greek system & thrived, but if Greeks totalled 15% of the student population, that would be a lot. One caveat–it is easy, like Madison, to get caught up in the partying atmosphere at Iowa, and a freshman has to be careful to study first, party later or he/she could be a Christmas break casualty–Iowa ain’t THAT easy.</p>