<p>If you’d read my post, you’d have picked up on the fact that I never said UW-Madison was a party school. In fact, I said some nice things about it. Having lived in Wisconsin for six years and right next door for 30+, having been formerly married to a UW-Madison grad, and knowing a large number of people who have gone there, I suspect I know a bit more about it than the average East Coast resident who knows the Big 10 only as athletic institutions with universities attached.</p>
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Who needs USNews rankings? This right here demonstrates the intelligence of UW-Madison grads :D</p>
<p>And full disclosure, I am married to a UW-Madison grad (he is a second generation UW-Madison grad and there are many UW-Madison grads in his family)</p>
<p>Deleted, sent by PM.</p>
<p>I suspect that east coast opinions of many midwest public schools are changing because a growing number of easterners are sending their children west. It’s enough of a trend to make the WSJ write about IU a couple years ago [From</a> Bloomingdale’s to Bloomington - WSJ.com](<a href=“http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122057234017401625.html]From”>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122057234017401625.html). </p>
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<p>Another factor is that some of these big midwest state schools have large numbers of Jewish students, which then draws in even more Jewish students. On Reform Judaism magazine’s list of public schools with the largest numbers of Jews one finds Michigan-Ann Arbor(#7), Wisconsin-Madison(8), Indiana(11), Ohio State-Columbus(19), Michigan State-Lansing (24) and UIUC(26).</p>
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<p>Is that the Big Ten with 12 teams, or the Big XII with 10 teams? :)</p>
<p>Getting back to the original subject, Wisconsin (Madison) is well respected nationally for academics.</p>
<p>A friend of mine, a former Wisconsin prof, noted that the school is known for strong academics and hard partying. “Of course they are different people who immerse themselves in each”.
A common reaction from Easterners to Northwestern is “huh, it’s in Illinois? How can that be?”</p>
<p>Since the OP is asking about engineering I think we can put the issue to bed. Most engineers will know of Wisconsin regardless of where they live. People not in engineering, not so much.</p>
<p>Wisconsin is also well known in everything from Sociology and Psychology to Zoology to candy science (Mars uses UW to test and develop their products). In the sciences it has few peers and how many universiites had a faculty member on the cover of TIME, twice? Only a handful of schools hold more patents or produce more standouts from CEOs to Pulitzer prize winners.</p>
<p>UW-Madison is well regarded in my hometown(s) of Greenwich CT, NYC, and Philly. However, Michigan remains the “trendier” and more popular choice among the Big 10 schools.</p>
<p>Danas, I am on the east coast and I NEVER get that reaction. In fact, most people i know know it’s a fine school. Why would Northwestern came up in your conversation with people anyway since you didn’t even go there. Do you just like talking about different colleges randomly to people and survey their reaction all the time?</p>
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jym626,
This is another “story” that sounds cute but that I NEVER encounter myself before. I met people who didn’t know NU but I just never heard this one before, not even once. So it’s a little interesting to me somehow you met so many people that confuse them even you didn’t go there; why did you come across that at the first place if you have no association with Northwestern? Do you talk about colleges, including the ones you didn’t even attend, to your friends all the time? Somehow my friends or people I’ve met rarely talk about colleges/college prestige; it just sounds funny and tacky to bring it up when we are all professionals and are so removed from colleges.</p>
<p>Sorry sam, it isnt a story. Perhaps you haven’t encountered it, but I have, many, MANY times. And people get BU and BC mixed up a lot as well. Newsflash- the world is a little bigger than what swirls around your head.</p>
<p>I guess apparently your world revolves around college names/prestige perhaps a little too much for your age…</p>
<p>In my line of work, yes college discussions do come up a lot. Thanks for asking. Apology accepted.</p>
<p>Sam,</p>
<p>I’m with you. I rarely hear anyone talk about colleges except when I’m with parents of my D’s classmates, where it’s a natural subject. And I’ve never heard anyone confuse Northwestern and Northeastern either. Of course, here in Illinois, most people when you say “Northeastern” think you’re talking about Northeastern Illinois U. </p>
<p>Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using CC App</p>
<p>And people confuse Wake Forest and Lake Forest, and Miami U and U of Miami. There are lots and LOTS of these. There was a great thead about the colleges that often get mixed up. I’ll see if I can find it but I dont remember the name.</p>
<p>^^yea, lots of unbelievable stories on CC.</p>
<p>When I lived in Boston I met a lot of people who knew Northeastern but had never heard of Northwestern. But that was 30 years ago. It’s gotten a big boost from US News since then.</p>
<p>U Penn and Penn State. Caltech and Cal Poly. USC means different things depending on which coast you live on. U Miami and Miami of Ohio.</p>
<p>Georgetown, GW, Wash U, U Washington. Thre are lots of them. There was a story several year ago about an international student who showed up at Colgate, only to discover he had applied to, and been accepted by, Colby. Lets not forget Penn, not to be confused with Indiana University of Pennsylvania, not to be confused with California University of Pennsylvania (Known as Cal U, as if that makes it clearer, lol). Just to name a few…</p>