@wis75 here is a nice short one. Are you by any chance a faculty member at UW? You remind me of some I know and your perspective is very much like theirs. It’s great to get the academic angle but unless the kid is highly likely to head off to a Ph.D. program after graduating then other aspects of the undergraduate experience should be considered as well. 
No- a UW alumnus, former state resident forever until a few years ago. Never a professor but being intellectual is part of my and many others’ UW experience. Good then and now Honors Program, btw (L&S).
@wis75 – all a matter of perspective! I lived in NYC for many years so Madison seems like a smaller city to me. For my kid, Madison is simply the definition of perfection, and I’m not going to argue with that.
go to Kelley
There are mega cities/metropolises then there are big cities, medium and small cities. There are many cities that count as the area’s go to big city but perhaps even less than 50,000 or 100,000 population. Small cities that have no bigger cities close to them become the go to city for many. Some suburbs of major cities would count as a bigger seeming city if they weren’t so close to other political units in the same area. Everything is relative.
Madison is not big like Milwaukee or the twin cities but certainly is not small like some of the college towns in Wisconsin.