Could someone with knowledge of these schools compare/rank these schools? I saw that Howard got a lower rank on usnews rankings but is the more selective of the two. For someone aspiring for a science degree and maybe even going to a top grad school, which would be a better place to start?
ethnicity: doesn’t matter, but am black
citizenship: international
gender: female
not heavily into partying so that shouldn’t factor much
I like being challenged ( >2000 on SAT; 4.0>/=x>3.0 GPA; straight distinctions in local/regional exams)
would learn to play an instrument
plays soccer
Howard is not more selective than UW-Madison.
http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg01_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1024
http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg01_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1703
I used a different source that sited HU with a 35% acceptance rate while UWM had a 53%
@emmaspirant what source did you use? Can you share?
a simple google search does the trick for both (wikipedia’s article preview for both schools comes up on my computer at least and that is where I got the initial stats of 35% and 51%). Also usnews rankings. Additionally I used collegeboard compare colleges which gave HU a 48% acceptance rate for 2014 freshmen admit and UWM a 50%
https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/compare-colleges
https://www.google.co.uk/search?sclient=psy&hl=en&site=&source=hp&q=university+of+wisconsin+madison&btnG=Search&gws_rd=ssl
https://www.google.co.uk/search?sclient=psy&hl=en&site=&source=hp&q=university+of+wisconsin+madison&btnG=Search&gws_rd=ssl#hl=en-GB&q=howard+university
note that the 2013 acceptance rates were 57% for HU and 51% for UWM and then there is supposedly a decline for HU but not for UWM
To be honest Probably will only be attending HU and due the full ride basically. ANd also the classes I am interested in are less populated than at UWM where it happens to have larger class sizes (8:1 compared to 17:1). The only draw back is the Historically black thing. As a black I appreciate being among persons who I assume wont be racist towards me but I’ve never been in a school setting where a function of us being there is to combat racism or support (in a sense) homogeneity. The is in complete contrast to UWM’s high dominance of white to negligible Blacks.
If get off the waitlist for any of my top picks then I would readily overturn any offer though (truth)
It’s is NOT called UWM, unless you are referring to UW-Milwaukee.
These are two very different kinds of schools. They also attract quite different applicant pools. You should be aware of a certain type of self-selection, meaning there are many candidates who apply to each of these institutions with similar credentials, and sometimes, backgrounds. UW has become significantly more difficult to gain admission to. Thus some students in the state of Wisconsin, which UW serves more than any other, no longer even apply if they don’t have higher grades and test scores.
You should note that quite a number of first-rate public flagships have higher admission statistics; UW is by no means an outlier. Their number of students, and missions to their respective states demand such. It does not necessarily diminish the quality of education at all; in some, such as the better public Big Ten schools (e.g. Michigan, Wisconsin, UIUC) their outstanding research, facilities and expenditures actually enhances the quality of education.
If you want to compare Howard’s selectivity to a school like UW, you’d have to perform a more rigorous analysis which accounts for performance of candidates, backgrounds, potential majors when applying, etc. You also are aware that Howard’s traditional black community may either be an advantage or a disadvantage for your college experience (or perhaps both). I think if it comes down to these two acceptances, you should do some more research, and try to imagine more what your life and career prospects will be like at both. Best of luck-
Don’t worry about the acceptance rate, think about the academics. Also- the class sizes can be misleading. There is nothing wrong with large lectures with small group discussions.
Howard is a historically black college- therefore you will find large numbers of African Americans. I do not understand your racism comments- there is no function as you suggest. In the past blacks were excluded from many colleges and started colleges, hence the large proportion of black people at Howard. Wisconsin is historically settled by mainly Europeans and never was a slave state so the state demographics reflect that in this public school.
You need to decide which setting most suits you. Being with large numbers of American black students or with mostly white students from the Wisconsin region. You should also look at the courses offered and required for your proposed major. Regardless, I bet you will be in for a culture shock because of your background.
@emmaspirant You should look at the average GPA and ACT scores of the 2 schools: 3.21 GPA for Howard vs. 3.63 for UW-Madison, and 23 ACT for Howard vs. 29 for UW-Madison. I see your point of having full ride at Howard, so it’s good for you financially, but you can’t say Howard is better than UW-Madison statistically. Racially speaking, I’m not white, but I prefer a more diversified school like UW-Madison with 83% white rather than Howard with 94% black.
Average GPA and test score are much better indicators than acceptance rates to determine how difficult to get admission a school can be.
I’m sorry if my comment sounded racist (that was NOT my intent). What mean to say is that the first thing I learnt about Howard was that it is historically black and that makes me wonder how much racial issues get played out in the everyday student life. It might make the atmosphere tense for me as I am from a culture that glorifies mixes and no homogeneity of any race. I live in demography of heavily mixed ethnicities and it’s a give or take whether backs are dominant in my high school but no one cares because as long as there are no racial slurs being thrown around we only care that we are in school. So that is what I meant about it being a function of the school- I know what historically black represents and am by noo means racist towards my own race!! I have considered the culture shock and realize that whether I went HU or UW-Madison (for those annoyed by my use of UWM) I would be in for a culture shock just of different types. I understand entirely that acceptance rate makes poor judgement of a college’s best assets and argue that my first commenter started it (I mentioned it in my description but not as a major thing).
Sorry my first commenter got this thread off track by contesting the stats I had put in my description. Thank you though for your insight. I see that I want course rigour then I would choose UW-Madison. This is a no-brainer I see now especially as my stats compared to those at UWMadison are way up there suggesting that of the two UWMadison is a better chance for challenge. As for the class size, UWMadison has more popularity with science majors like Biology and they report larger class sizes which I will assume co-relates to their more popular majors?
It would be nice if I could get a comparison of the communities these schools are in. SO if anyone with knowledge would like to share ^:)^
I think for your goals, you should focus on academics first. UW as a starting point for the natural sciences, and specifically for a top graduate program, is hard to beat, anywhere in the country. From that perspective, I’d recommend it highly over Howard. Take a look at the rankings of Wisconsin graduate programs in chemistry, bio-sciences, physics and earth sciences. The facilities and research opportunities provide a great stepping stone, and Wisconsin is one of the very few universities in the country to obtain over $1 billion annually in federal research grants, many of which apply to the sciences (the other schools that typically rank as highly in grants are Johns Hopkins, Michigan, Washington, and more recently, Duke).
Wisconsin has also historically been noted as a very open and tolerant campus, with a great variety of international students and programs.
Choose wisely.
Haha! I think you just gave me the obvious choice. Thank you!
Just UW will do for the Madison campus (unless you are in the west where UW means U of Washington). In Wisconsin UWM will mean the Milwaukee campus. Important to know if you end up at UW.