<p>Well, the reason why he'd say that is the same reason you're bias towards UT. It's a regional thing and in Minnesota, top students go to Madison over UM because there is reciprocity between the states. Therefore, it has a great reputation in Minnesota.</p>
<p>I don't think Wisconsin is <em>better</em> than Texas or UNC, but it's for sure in the same peer group, that I believe UCLA and William and Mary are in. I'm glad though, that you Kcirsch, a prestigious individual on the collegeconfidential boards has the authority to call the provost of a internationally recognized, major research university, an idiot. Minnesota is actually highly ranked in several fields, namely law and chemical eng., political science, etc.</p>
<p>I would say, though, that for many fields Wisconsin is better than UNC. Several friends from Atlanta (I go to UW) picked Wisc over UNC for that reason. Two were chemistry and one was physics. I am political science and economics, another set of fields in which Madison has some of the finest departments in the country. There is a reason why despite slightly less competitive admission standards (thousands of students in each class @ madison have 1400+ SATs and 30s or above on the ACT, so I stress slightly) that Madison remains 32nd in the US news, an abysmal 3, count them, THREE, spots lower than the elite University of North Carolina, which is 29th.
/sarcasm</p>