<p>I am currently an IE major at UW madison and it just hit me that a degree from this school may just be seen as a degree from a large public university, nothing special.</p>
<p>I know that UW is well respected in the midwest, but how is it considered in the northeast (boston nyc, etc...) ?</p>
<p>The midwest is nice and all, but I don't want to stay here after college.</p>
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<p>Well, isn’t it? I mean, UW-Madison has name recognition because of its athletics, which gives it a leg up on UW-Platteville (for example), but Northwestern it’s not.</p>
<p>I’m guessing that 90% of WI grads have their first jobs in either WI,MN,IL,MI, or IA because almost all college recruiting is regional. Does not mean that you have to stay there forever. It does mean that finding a job in another region may take some more work on your part.</p>
<p>Some national firms with regional offices might interview you and then refer you to an office in another region. Accounting and consulting firms commonly do that.</p>
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<p>Oh, please. That comment is not only insulting, it’s just plain ridiculous. UW Madison is one of the nation’s greatest research universities, and it’s got an extraordinarily distinguished faculty in discipline after discipline. Among academics Wisconsin is recognized as a great university, and its graduate programs are justly world-renowned. </p>
<p>At the undergraduate level, US News ranks it #13 among public universities and #45 among all research universities, public and private, and many people would rate it even higher. But like many large public universities, it has a very large undergraduate student body and serves diverse constituencies and public mandates, and it is not nearly as selective as the leading private universities—or even the most selective publics.</p>
<p>I think in Wisconsin and surrounding states, it’s widely recognized that the University of Wisconsin is a place where a student can get an outstanding education, comparable to anything they might get at Northwestern or similar schools—though because it is not highly selective and its student body is so varied in their academic abilities and accomplishments, some less talented and possibly less well-prepared students will come out of Wisconsin as well, so it’s a high-variance thing and job applicants need to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. But the top students coming out of Wisconsin are competitive for any job around. I think in the Northeast where public universities are generally a cut or two or three below the Wisconsin level, there’s not as much recognition of the greatness of the great Midwestern public universities, and a Wisconsin degree probably won’t open as many doors.</p>
<p>But there are certain fields where Wisconsin is outstanding. By “IE” I assume you’re referring to an engineering field—industrial engineering, I’m guessing? Wisconsin’s engineering programs are outstanding, easily on a par with Northwestern’s; in fact, US News ranks Wisconsin and Northwestern tied for #13 (along with Johns Hopkins) in undergraduate engineering. Even in engineering a lot of hiring is regional, but if it’s engineers doing the hiring, I should think they’ll recognize the quality of a Wisconsin engineering major. Even in the Northeast.</p>
<p>Wisconsin is a fine school and should have quite an alumni network in your field. I would explore this early and make contacts with alums in the region where you wish to work.
I actually think that alumni connections work best in locations far from alma mater.</p>
<p>Oh, well, if USNews ranks it, then that settles it. The fact is, outside the Upper Midwest and the small minority of people who give any weight at all to the USNews rankings, it’s known mostly for football and basketball, like all the other Big 10 publics.</p>
<p>Not to say that there aren’t some excellent programs, teachers, and students. But the OP’s question was about how it’s perceived in the East.</p>
<p>And even among those who are deluded by USNews, Northwestern it’s not.</p>
<p>Wisconsin in Madison is a great school, but to answer your question, it is considered a land-grant midwestern public school to those of us from the northeast. We know it is a good school, just not a top school. I didn’t think people in the midwest thought of it as anything more than that though. Is it considered “prestigious” in the midwest?</p>
<p>Doing well at Wisconsin will be perceived well regardless of where you are in the country. It’s ranked 17th in the world by ARWU. And regardless of what some people want to say about rankings, it is a pretty good indication of overall prestige.</p>
<p>You will be fine, a Wisconsin degree won’t be holding you back from going to the Midwest.</p>
<p>If you want a job out of the midwest, haul yourself down to the career center, and tell the counselors that that is one of your specific goals. They should have a list of everyone who recruits on campus for your major, and they should also be able to put you in touch with alumni in your field who are living and working in other parts of the country.</p>
<p>UW Madison. is well respected. Both my stepfather and husband went to UW Mad for undergrad. (mechanical engineering). My stepfather then went to Stanford for his PhD and husband went to Thunderbird for his MBA. We’ve lived in the east for the past 12 years and I have to say that we’ve met many, many alumni in the DC area. The UWmadison engineering school is within the top in the country still --good luck and stop worrying!</p>
<p>Husband had a well paying job at General Motors right out of school. He was quickly recruited out of undergrad. I know this is a bit out of date, but really, the reputation of UWm engineering is tops still.</p>
<p>Agree that UW-Madison is a well-respected school, and well known in the NE and elsewhere. IMO, its sports aren’t all that impressive, though football has done well and gone to a few Rose Bowls, and their hockey is strong. But that is not what it is known for. It has solid programs in the sciences and other areas. Your degree from there will be fine. Enjoy Madison.</p>
<p>A note about regional impressions of universities. I spent 10 years at ASU in Phoenix.
Faculty know the quality of the UW education.
Business people and staff…not so much. I would often wear an Iowa State t-shirt while living there. People that had never lived in the Midwest would often ask…
Is that the one in the Big Ten or Big 12?
Did you know Chuck Long?
Did you wrestle?</p>
<p>To the general populace not from the Midwest, all Big Ten schools can be lumped together (including Northwestern, and I am a grad) as solid schools with hardworking graduates that will serve you well anywhere in the US. Most people I knew in Arizona had no clue that Northwestern is a private school and ‘different’ than the other 11 schools.</p>
<p>Here in California I always heard UW-Madison referred to as “the Berkeley of the Midwest”, both for the feel of the city and the academic reputation of the campus. They’ve got an excellent reputation in the sciences and engineering.</p>
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<p>Leave US News out of it; I’d put a Wisconsin engineer up against a Northwestern engineer any day. They’ll be competitive for exactly the same jobs, in any region of the country, if the hiring is done by people who know engineering.</p>
<p>And frankly, once you get beyond the small handful of people who have that kind of inside knowledge, Northwestern isn’t really any better known or respected in the Northeast than Wisconsin is. I’ll bet not one in ten people you meet in the street in New York or Boston could tell you whether Northwestern is public or private, where it’s located, and what its academic reputation is.</p>
<p>To those of us in the East who don’t know crap that is. Actually for many decades when the big schools in the east were discriminating against Jews and other minorities UW was welcoming and has a very high standing among the eastern Jewish communities to this day. While most grads do settle in the midwest after college there are still sizable numbers who return to the coasts.
And all this was well before UW had some decent teams. UW was also a founding member of the AAU which included the top schools of the time and has maintained that ranking for over a century. It is hardly just another land-grant university in the midwest with a research budget over $1 Billion and numerous leaders of industry and many other fields amongst the alumni. Your ignorance speaks volumes.</p>
<p><a href=“Who's in the Corner Office? - The New York Times”>Who's in the Corner Office? - The New York Times;
<p>Good points, bclintonk and barrons. And I can’t begin to tell you how many people get Northwestern and Northeastern confused, which really upsets the Northwestern folks!</p>
<p>I’m guessing more people would know of Northwestern than Madison. That being said those who know Northwestern would think of Madison just as well.</p>
<p>And I understand that US News, or any ranking system for that matter, isn’t the best metric. However, that poster clearly didn’t know much about Madison, referring it to it as a mere “party” or “athletic” school. People like that tend to do well when they see actual rankings.</p>
<p>If anything, it’s Northwestern that’s gotten a big recognition boost from readers of the US News rankings. It was basically a very good regional private university, barely noticed outside the Midwest, before US News started publishing its national rankings. The top Midwestern publics, Michigan and Wisconsin in particular, had more name recognition and stronger national reputations as academic powerhouses before the advent of the US News rankings. (And barrons is absolutely right about Wisconsin’s history and standing in the Jewish community in particular; exactly the same deal at Michigan, which like Wisconsin welcomed Jewish students with open arms at a time when the Ivies were imposing thinly veiled, or sometimes even explicit quotas). </p>
<p>But US News’ metrics being what they are, large public universities, even the very best of them, don’t fare particularly well there, while smaller private universities do better. That’s helped schools like Northwestern and Duke enormously. And over time, the US News rankings come to be somewhat self-fulfilling, as highly ranked schools attract more applicants and become even more selective, and so on. </p>
<p>But I still maintain that beyond the readers of the US News rankings, Northwestern is still not very well known to the general public outside the Midwest.</p>
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<p>You don’t know how much I’d like to. But you were the one who mentioned it - twice - in your defense of UW-Madison.</p>
<p>You’re the only one who seems to think UW - Madison is some party school. I think the OPs question is settled.</p>