<li>what are the dorms like? nice compared to others? be specific</li>
<li>is the school food good?</li>
<li>what do people do there for fun?</li>
<li>any clear characteristic or truth about the school? (for example a response might be, all the asian kids and black kids hang out with their own race)</li>
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<p>Ones by the lake are nicest as are the privates. They are building new ones but not for next year. Most kids live off campus after a year and the choices are endless and fun--the best part of UW.</p>
<p>Food is decent and cheap. Lots of good off-campus places within a short walk so lots of kids eat out too.</p>
<p>Sports are huge--football, bball, hockey all sellouts. Concerts, bars, coffee houses, movies all within a short walk. </p>
<p>I think who you hang with is more your choice. People are friendly.</p>
<ol>
<li>For first year experience,you should definitely take one of the nice public residential dorms like Chadbourne. Its a key to college experience, after wards like Barron's said, most people go off-campus. It also would save you money and get to know more diverse backgrounds.</li>
<li>Adding to Barron's comments, its without a doubt, one of the friendliest schools in the country and also the biggest party school for 2005 :). The city of Madison is the greatest college city imho for its midsize, only other city i would consider close to for college students is Boston. Everyone is proud to be a badger, all the sports games mentioned above are also sold out fast so you have to get tickets soon as they come out. The people have a great spirt, and what po's me, is recently some arrogant students complain about their school on <a href="http://www.studentsreview.com/other%5B/url%5D">www.studentsreview.com/other</a> sites, you might have heard about the budget crisis in Wisconsin. But really, most states in the country now are have budget crisis and they complain how thats affecting their student life. Its really not, tution was raised very little even for out of staters at Wisconsin, and a lot of in aid is given still. They still have all their programs, and the school community is still the same. Maybe you can tell us a little more about this Barron's? The badmouth imo comes from Wisconsian kids, like in Jersey with jersey students and Rutgers who can not handle to the academic pressure of a big time research school. They usually drink their time away and don't have a balance in their lives, and no one feeds them like in high school thus they are ill trained. Like in any campus, you will find arrogant people.This is a big state school, but you have to make yourself active if you do not want to be a #- there are hundreds of clubs, and every weekends, a great deal of activities like concerts are happening on campus. Badgers are known more than to party. The academics have to be focused on because thats what your are going to the school for. Madison is tough with out a doubt, the courseload is not easy, trust me on this. And you must find a balance in your life, like the saying goes, study hard during the week, and party harder during the weekend. </li>
<li>Madison is an awesome place to hang out, if you are asking generally what do people do? Their is no answer to this, there are lot of concerts here. Recently, a close friend of mine told me that Diwali happened, and Indians as well as many other international students joined in, and celebrated the festives. Party/Drinking is a huge part here, but people here are cool if you do not want to drink. Usually after Sports games, in one night, an average student can hit up atleast 3 good parties. When its nice weather, madison has one of the nicest nature scenes i saw anywhere. People exercise/bike here alot in the spring/summer. in the winter, ice statutes, and snow fights are also common. Basic things like going to the mall/movies is also common, i know the university has a movie night. Different clubs do different things. And a small minority of students, the ones who have the car, can take that 1.5 hour drive to Chicago. Not needed, cause in madison you have plenty to do.</li>
<li>Lastly in any school this can be partly true and said of, but in Madison, I really do not see it all- all the hetrogenous groups hang out with one another, no matter of what ethnicity you are, hangs out with one another. Like my indian friends here hang out with whites, african american, east asians, everyone group you can name possible. However, the sterotype can be found in certain major departents where you meet most of your friends. For example, indians are also known to be more of science/engineering geeks, thus if they major in engineering, and one out of every 2 kid is asian, the possibility of having an asian friend is greater. In Madison however, it is very friendly as a whole, thus ethinic division is really not a problem here. When I went to Rutgers/Tufts, this sterotype of same ethnic groups hanging out with one another was distincly seen on campus. In the last couple of years, the university was under some scruitiny for not attracting minority groups in and this has changed a great deal. Madison attracts alot of international/minority students now, and everyone gets along with one another. In short, the clear characteristic or 'evil' truth about the school really doesn't exist.
Good luck with your admissions :)!</li>
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<p>Barrons what is your take on Statesider and Towers for a Freshman.</p>
<p>Both are very popular. Great location but can be a little noisy from the street on weekends. Towers tends to get many east coast and Chicago kids while Statesider may be more diverse. Lots of OOS kids parents leved at the Towers when it was the only major private dorm and send their kids to it. Most were east coasters so it's a tradition.</p>
<p>I'd shoot for Chadbourne first.</p>
<p>The financial crisis was real and typical of most states. I hope things improve in the next cycle as many think the cuts were too severe and need to be reversed. Hopefully the economy improves and money is more available. They still have room to increase instate tuition significantly while OOS is topped out.</p>
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<li><p>There are many university dorms and several private buildings, so it might be easiest if you told us what you are most interested in as far as these go. Liz Waters is generally regarded as the nicest campus dorm, but it is only open to women and fills fast. There are several others spread down the hill to the west, and some science/engineering/medical students prefer those because they are closer to class buildings. Chadbourne is right on the downtown edge of campus and has a unique academic enrichment program, but the rooms are very, very tiny.</p></li>
<li><p>& 4. There is no single activity that everyone does. The major advantage of this school is that it is so huge that you can find someone who likes to do every thing there is to do. Parties, drinking, political involvement, sports, coffee houses, and academic clubs are the most visible student activities, but only account for a tiny part of what the city has to offer. Madison has four museums, several concert halls, a continual stream of cultural events, the country's largest farmers' market during the summer, state government, a thriving hippie district, zoo, Victorian mansion district, blocks of interesting little shops, bike paths and canoe rentals, study abroad programs, plays, public art studios, ... etc. It is not possible to name everything. Also, the school does not produce one "type" of student; you can find people of every personality, interest, and background here.</p></li>
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<p>They do pretty well after college</p>
<p>Is there a single room in the public residential dorm?</p>
<p>A few I think but probably only for upperclassmen. Better go to the private dorms for that.</p>
<p>Barrons, I am going to play devil's advocate. A friend of mine's son was accepted into Wisc. He lives in Cal. When he visited he saw a lot of drinking and overweight people. True? What do the Beach Boys say about girls from the midwest and California girls?</p>
<p>Dstark, I am going to address some of your concerns. First of all, drinking is a big problem in every university in the country from your Harvard University/ivyleague in the easy coast, to stanford/uc's in the west and ut-austin in the south, to uw-madison in the north, wherever you go, you will see that college students drink. Even in the conservatories of religion, students drink.
Wisconsin, is a state always known to have heavy drinking people. It gets cold here, and the basic consensus is what exactly can you do except to be merry? Do most people here drink, truthfully yes. This is a social norm here (and trust me, in any university in Cali, you will find drinking, it is a social norm in any university mentioned earlier), does everyone drink their brains out, no actually most people can control themselves and know their limits. I personally don't drink and all the my friends here are cool with it. People here are very liberal and accepting. I love your second part, California boy saw a lot of overweight people. Interesting, considering 60% of the US is overweight and he only saw this problem in Wisconsin. Freshman in any college, not only here do build fat fast, and Madison is know for the equistive and cheap food. Biggest reason is drinking, second, because they have no restictions, no formal time to eat, no formal attitude of what to eat and they do not eat healthy. But in their sophomore years, they realize this problem, and start exercising, eating less, etc.. However, is our whole school made of overweight people, the answer is a definitely no. Our ratio of overwiehgt people to any other college in the country is the same. Did this California boy go to some old folks buffet in Madison to come up with this reasoning? <a href="http://badgerherald.com/news/2005/03/10/national_program_exe.php%5B/url%5D">http://badgerherald.com/news/2005/03/10/national_program_exe.php</a> is an interesting site to visit about the drinking problem btw. </p>
<p>In a eye of a California guy, what he would he took of midwest girls. Woochiwawas,kakakawoowowowowhabahabahaba,and salivia comes forth. Truthfully, in any region, you have ugly girls, moderate girls, and beautiful girls. In california, this seems to be not the case I heard from a friend once- in San Diego you have the most beautiful natural girls there can be, in LA, you have beautiful girls, but not genuine as San Diego. In Wisconsin, their all genuine as can be, some are beautiful, some are not. Case closed</p>
<p>I went to LA and saw lots of overweight people too. Many are Mexican and from the Pacific Islands. Actually the UW is one of the fittest schools around and I don't believe you could find any evidence the students are overweight at all. Most students walk or bike to school every day and that burns lots of calories-especially when it's colder. Most of those California girls have grandparents in the midwest.</p>
<p>Random example of things to do without drinking</p>
<p>I actually have a close friend who has a beautiful California daughter and a mother who lived in Wisconsin and graduated from Madison. :)</p>
<p>I do worry about the weather. </p>
<p>However, to be fair...</p>
<p>The global warming thing has taken the bite out of winter in Madison. More likely now to have mid 40's in January than 10 below like in my day. Once you get the right winter gear it really can have some fun aspects--ice skating in the local parks complete with hot spiced cider, cross country skiing, and getting friendly in front of a roaring fireplace on a cold day. </p>
<p>Thanks for that link. I had missed it.</p>