<p>
</p>
<p>Minnesota has “school spirit” too. I’m almost certain of that.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>And that can be quite the long “year or two” for a kid whose idea of a social life doesn’t involve barfing on the neighbor lady’s lawn. It’s disingenuous to define UW social life as UMN social life, when the UW social life is much more concentrated in a certain type of socializing / partying that - believe it or not - not everyone finds fun.</p>
<p>I’m not going to join in the barrons-bashing. I think his enthusiasm for Madison is a testament to the quality of the school and experience. I would simply advise that the OP view each opinion as just that - an individual opinion of one person. Nothing more, nothing less.</p>
<p>In any case, it can hardly hurt to apply to both schools and decide when more information is available. For now, just keep a level head and try to add an additional financial safety.</p>
<p>We know that Minnesota residents admitted to UW pick UW by about 2:1 over Uminn. It is pretty safe to assume most of them would also get into Uminn. I don’t think the Wisconsin residents pick Uminn over UW if admitted to UW by anywhere near that percentage. It is silly to assume the number of cross-admits are that skewed to one state given the tuition neutrality.</p>
<p>If you can’t find other things to do any night of the week to do in Madison you are not very creative. Going out to clubs and socializing does not equal drinking till you barf. It’s much more about chasing the opposite sex (usually). That’s where the fun comes in. And UW students have lots of fun.</p>
<p>At some point I really couldn’t read or get into this back and forth and it seems to detract from the OP. All I would like to add is that my urban Calif raised daughter who went to school in SF and LA and who spent summers in a midwest/south hybrid state, and went to undergrad in Providence said that Madison was a killer great town and she was loving it. She does not know from undergrad there for sure. Most of her circle are grad students or music people or hybrids. But she is a TA and knows undergrads. And she went to a ski club trip and met some undergrads she is in touch with.</p>
<p>I can’t compare to Minn since she has not gone there and I don’t know anyting except that is supposed to be a good area.</p>
<p>Listen to cost issues, please. it is not something to blow off.</p>
<p>PM if I can share anytihing else with you. I don’t think I want to read this anymore, likely you aren’t either.</p>
<p>“You have the many other superior aspects [in Madison] that I mentioned from the lakefront location and uniquely active and fun student union”</p>
<p>The Student Union is a great selling point when discussing things to do in Madison? Seriously?</p>
<p>“downtown Madison activities from the uniquely wonderful (as written by many others) Farmer’s Market to the many restaurants and cultural facilities within an easy walk of the campus”</p>
<p>Again with the Farmers Market? This thing must be the hotbed of fun times in Madison! And they have restaurants in Madison? Amazing! I am sure all the top chefs in the Midwest are clamoring to open restaurants in a town populated primarily with college kids who drink too much. Lol. Who doesn’t think of Madison when they think of fine dining!</p>
<p>I don’t have a dog in this race, but man is this thread hilarious.</p>
<p>Yes, the Union and market are hotbeds of fun in Madison and unique to it. Sorry if you have trouble getting your arms around that concept. And neither costs a dime to enjoy. </p>
<p>And obviously you know nothing about Madison as with nearly half a million people and 40,000 students the ratio students to the rest of the population is over 10:1.0</p>
<p>As to fine dining–while an array of ethnic foods dominate the downtown area there are numerous fine dining spots too. A small sample:</p>
<p>[L’Etoile</a> Restaurant](<a href=“http://www.letoile-restaurant.com/]L’Etoile”>http://www.letoile-restaurant.com/)</p>
<p>[Harvest</a> Restaurant - About Harvest](<a href=“http://www.harvest-restaurant.com/about_harvest.php]Harvest”>http://www.harvest-restaurant.com/about_harvest.php)</p>
<p>[Muramoto.biz</a> • Restaurant Muramoto • Sushi Muramoto](<a href=“http://www.muramoto.biz/]Muramoto.biz”>http://www.muramoto.biz/)</p>
<p>^ Oh, please, barrons, now you’ve gone completely off the deep end. I mean the Madison farmer’s market is nice and all, but Saint Paul’s is bigger, older, better. Not that I think a lot of undergrads are going to choose their school in the basis of who’s got the best farmer’s market. . . . </p>
<p>As for fine dining: do you seriously mean to suggest that Madison compares favorably to the Twin Cities in that category? I mean, Madison’s restaurant scene is nice and fun and pretty good, actually very good for the size of the town, which is to say, for a medium-sized Midwestern city. But it ain’t the big leagues. It’s not on the same plane as the Twin Cities. Not even close.</p>
<p>One bit of corroborating evidence: A Minneapolis chef, Alex Roberts, recently won the 2010 James Beard Foundation award for “Best Chef in the Midwest,” and 2 of the other 4 finalists in that category were from the Twin Cities (Isaac Becker of 112 Eatery in Minneapolis and Lenny Russo of Heartland in Saint Paul). In 2009 that award went to Tim McKee of La Belle Vie in Minneapolis. Also in 2010 the James Beard Foundation named Michelle Gayer of the Salty Tart in Minneapolis as a finalist in the national Outstanding Pastry Chef category. Not a Madison (or for that matter, any Wisconsin) chef in sight on any of those coveted lists. </p>
<p>And that’s not even to mention nationally-known celebrity chefs like Wolfgang Puck and Jean-Georges Vongerichten who have opened up fine dining restaurants in the Twin Cities due to the area’s burgeoning reputation as a foodie haven; or the thousands of other eateries including ethnic options literally spanning the globe. Heck, even our print and broadcast food journalists win national recognition: Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl of Minnesota Monthly won the Beard Foundation award for “best food column,” Minneapolis-based Andrew Zimmern of the Travel Channel (“Bizarre Foods”) was named “best TV food personality,” and Lynn Rossetto Kasper of Minnesota Public Radio (nationally syndicated “The Splendid Table”) was one of three finalists for “best radio show.” Again, not a Wisconsinite in sight.</p>
<p>^ clinton, I think you’ve gone off the deep end too. I don’t think any of this is relevant to a college student.</p>
<p>An “older” farmers market…how charming.</p>
<p>Like I said before, these are two very different schools. One is in a major metropolitan area, while the other is in a more rural (or suburban for those of you who get offended when I call Madison “rural”. I honestly don’t care. Eitherway, it is about a day’s drive to civilization). </p>
<p>OP - Decide whether you want a city or a college town. That decision should be the deciding factor, as these are the major differences btwn the two schools.</p>
<p>Enough with the ****ing contest between Madison and Minneapolis. Both are fine places to live for four years. They are just different.</p>
<p>UW-Madison will have the more collegiate atmosphere. I believe that is barrons point.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Oh, I completely agree. That’s why I said that I don’t think a lot of undergrads are going to choose their school on the basis of who’s got the best farmer’s market. I could have, and should have, said the same thing about the “fine dining” category, of course. Very few undergrads would be able to afford these restaurants even for a “splurge” celebration dinner. I was just having a little fun with barrons’ breathless and hyperbolic claims about how all thing wonderful are unique to Madison.</p>
<p>Exactly–and hardly a rural town. For its size it has more to do than many larger cities nearly all of it is within walking distance and generally at more affordable prices than in larger cities. When ignorant folks try to paint it as some backwoods little college town like Hanover that is just not the case and makes me angry. If you don’t know what you are talking about don’t. If Chicago is not civilization someone is just being ridiculous. And it’s within 3 hours with door to door bus service from the campus many times per day. Soon there even could be high speed rail service.</p>
<p>[Fact</a> Sheet: High Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program: Minneapolis/St. Paul - Madison - Milwaukee - Chicago | The White House](<a href=“http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/fact-sheet-high-speed-intercity-passenger-rail-program-minneapolisst-paul-madison-m]Fact”>http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/fact-sheet-high-speed-intercity-passenger-rail-program-minneapolisst-paul-madison-m)</p>
<p>And what is unique to Madison is that everything is within walking distance. The St Paul market is about 8 miles away. Nobody is going for a stroll there for breakfast and shopping. The lake is part of the campus. And no, there is nothing like it anywhere I have seen–and I have seen most of them. But that is part of the typical UW student experience.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>^ barrons, from what I hear the Republican candidate for governor of Wisconsin, who is leading in the polls by a comfortable margin, is vowing to kill high speed rail. So I wouldn’t count those chickens just yet. It’s got some of us here in Minnesota pretty hot under the collar because that’s OUR high-speed rail link to Chicago, something that’s badly needed and long overdue. Of course we probably could re-route it through Rochester, Dubuque and Rockford, bypassing the Badger State entirely and cutting Madison and Milwaukee out of the action. But personally I’d like to be able to take the train to Madison when I go there for an academic conference, which I do with some frequency. </p>
<p>Oh, and in case you haven’t noticed, I actually LIKE Madison. I’ve said so on CC on numerous occasions, including in this thread. On the whole I much prefer the Twin Cities because I prefer a more urban lifestyle, but as college towns go Madison is one of the best in my opinion, right up there with Berkeley, Ann Arbor, Boulder, Ithaca, and a few others. I don’t find it much different from that group, except perhaps for the physical setting and the fact that in addition to being a college town it’s a moderate-sized city—but then honestly, from the student’s perspective, the additional population in the outlying and suburban areas is really pretty irrelevant, because as best I can tell students pretty much stay on “the isthmus” which is the part that’s like the other I mentioned. You obviously see it differently. Your loyalty to your alma mater is admirable.</p>
<p>No, actually that was pretty much what I was emphasizing–most of the best stuff in a medium sized city including the state Capitol, Madison Performing Center, lake, downtown, are all within the student orbit with no need to even have a car to access them–you can just walk to any of those things. The surrounding population makes those possible. It iS different from Boulder which I have also attended college and is no match for Madison, Ann Arbor which does have nearly everything but a lakefront–but there’s a reason lakefront property sells for double the same place a block from the lake–there is no substitute. What is the value of being able to grab a boat and go sailing Friday afternoon and then dock and spend an evening with a good band, beers, and 2,000 of your friends as the sun sets over Lake Mendota? Most Badgers think that’s pretty awesome and priceless. So does pretty much anyone I have talked to who has been there on that sort of day. That includes many non UW folks in town for short schools and conventions.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Fair enough, but I suspect many of us are not as enamored of boats as you are, barrons. Besides, the boating season in Madison doesn’t much overlap with the academic year; a little in September, a little in May in a nice year perhaps, but that’s about it. My experience of those lakes in Madison is mainly that they’re where those bitter winter winds pick up speed unimpeded by elevation, vegetation, or human-created structures. Ouch! Totally exposed out there on that isthmus! NOT a pleasant memory!</p>
<p>Dang just realized this was still going, my control panel said it wasn’t. And minnesota has been looking better, the money situation has been getting tighter and I just recently found out that all of my favorite bands (I listen to metal) go through the Twin Cities. Nile and Psycroptic are there in like 2 weeks and so is High on Fire… Does Madison have any metal scene at all? Philly and New York are excellent for it…</p>
<p>Well, learning to sail for cheap is a great life activity than many carry well into retirement. In Seattle many people have boats and sail. Many many students spend the summers in Madison and they are still boating right now. The sailing closes around Thanksgiving.
We found other things to do when it got too cold out. Like ice skating and cross-country skiing. Both easily doable right in town. Not to mention top ranked basketball and hockey teams. Those really icy windy days are now that common–global warming and all.</p>
<p>Metal stuff–not a big college town thing but:</p>
<p><a href=“http://host.madison.com/entertainment/music/article_a6bd6f01-61e2-5eb1-a3da-f3a1d33e2e36.html[/url]”>http://host.madison.com/entertainment/music/article_a6bd6f01-61e2-5eb1-a3da-f3a1d33e2e36.html</a></p>
<p>Not bad, not bad. But having big names come along helps tc</p>