<p>I haven’t toured the campus yet, but my dad is in the process of setting up a trip to Madison.</p>
<li>How’s the honors program?</li>
<li>How are the Economics and Political Science departments?</li>
</ol>
<p>I’m sure I’ll get into the program; I just want to hear about it from someone who is currently in it or knows a lot about it.</p>
<p>Also, are there a decent number of kids from California and how do they adjust to the weather?</p>
<p>Econ and Poli sci are both excellent. Both have some national level stars in the dept. </p>
<p>The Honors program is more lowkey than some. You don't get a bunch of special benefits but you do get some smaller classes and a better degree.</p>
<p>The Honors program is good from my and my son's experiences. The idea of honors courses is to get a more rigorous course, you can also get honors credit in regular courses by doing more work. The math/science courses often involve more theory and the beginning courses will cover more material, exempting you from some courses (eg cover 3 semesters in 2, or 4 in 3). The H courses will put you with the top students, giving you the best peer group. The Honors thesis is a year long individual research project in your major, a good experience. There are also opportunities to work in grad labs for parts of some lab courses. You can choose to work towards a comprehensive major by getting H credits in a variety of fields or you can choose to get honors in the major only. As a freshman in humanities/social science there are several Honors courses that sound worth your while. A nice thing about the Honors Program is that you can enter/leave it at almost any time (senior year is not the time to try to enter), giving you chances to change your mind. I like that you are integrated with the rest of the university, with no special dorms, especially now the academic level of the student body is high enough you may not be able to tell who is/isn't taking honors courses. There is no need to have a college within a college at UW. You are not restricted to only H courses, the Honors Program expands your choices, adding a layer to the regular experience. Being lowkey doesn't mean lesser academics, it means more flexibility.</p>
<p>You can see the statistics for geographical distribution on the UW admissions website- over 100 CA residents were in one recent class, there were more New Yorkers (WI, MN and IL had the most, of course). </p>
<p>The weather- attitude counts no matter where you are. People here know how to have fun with snow- Res Halls even shows students sledding with borrowed dinner trays in their brochure. Staying out of the heat in hot climates is similar to staying indoors in cold ones. Cold can mean sunshine, not the cool, cloudy damp of the Pacific NW. You choose to come here for the academics and to experience something you can't get at home. You do adapt to temperature changes that are gradual- 35 degrees can seem bitter or balmy depending on the season.</p>