Questions as a freshman

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Wisconsin
1

So, I was just accepted by Wisconsin Madison and i have a lot of questions. I’m an international candidate so if the questions seem kind of lame bear with me!

  1. How competitive is Wisconsin Madison( I’m a engineering major)? Sorry if I sound kind of rude but WM has a high acceptance rate so does it in any way affect the ‘competitiveness’ of the class?
  2. What kind of companies come by the campus?
  3. How big are the classes and how are the professors?
  4. Other than my engineering courses will I be allowed to take any other liberal arts electives like say literature or something?

Thank you!
First time poster!

2
  1. Academics are quite rigorous. Engineering is said to be more difficult than the average major.
  2. All kinds: https://ecs.engr.wisc.edu/public/student/employers.php.... select your field and away you go!
  3. Intro level classes are large, usually held in lecture halls. As your classes progress in difficulty, the class sizes diminish. "How are the professors?" Not sure how to answer as you can't generalize about every single professor. You can check sites like rate my professor to get an idea of what past students felt (note: most people go there to complain).
  4. Allowed? Nay, required. For example: http://pubs.wisc.edu/ug/ls_degrees_breadth.htm.

Congrats on your admit!

3

Engineering classes are more restricted than most majors, since the classes build on each other and there are fewer sections. There is usually just one section of the class per semester (big majors like Mechanical might have two) and if it is an important one, waiting a semester to take it could delay graduation a semester. Electives might be taught every other semester or just once in a while, if there is one you are really interested in you have to keep an eye out or ask to see how often it’s taught. Rate my professor can be helpful, but so is asking other (older is better) students about them. It only matters if you have a chance of what classes to pick. It is a good resource for electives where there is more freedom and you don’t know anything about the professors. Class sizes depend on your major, smaller majors typically have smaller classes.

I’d recommend joining the club (ASME, ASCE, AIChE, IEEE, etc) for the major you’re in, if you go to the meetings the free food is more than worth the price to join, and it helps you meet older students which are the best resource for advising and information. (Advising is limited and poor, at least in my major). Same with the design teams (mostly for Mechanical) or Engineers without Borders or another club that actually designs and builds something. Those give you hands-on experience which is good for getting a first internship.

Here is the latest job placement statistics they put online, if I remember right the placement for 2013-2014 was a few percent lower. https://ecs.engr.wisc.edu/public/includes/ECS_Annual_Report.pdf

There’s some liberal arts classes required, but if you have AP or IB or similar credits you won’t need much. If you want to get a certificate or double major you might take more, but in general the classes are hard enough without taking that extra elective and taking lots of electives might require delaying graduation. So people don’t take a whole bunch of liberal arts classes, especially those that want to get out in four years. Another option is research.