<p>I'm a freshman at UW-Madison (majoring in electrical engineering and actuarial science) who's considering transferring to the University of Minnesota-TC. Would this be a wise decision?</p>
<p>Being very family-oriented, as my family lives in Minnesota, I am always lonely at UW, and in my experience, the university very much lacks in diversity of its student body. So, for me, it's kind of difficult to meet and relate with people. Furthermore, my family is poor, and I don't want to have to take out tons of loans for my education just to be swamped in debt later on. I'd save a lot of money if I were commuting to the U.</p>
<p>Now, I am continually told that the quality of education I'd receive at Wisconsin is much better than that one would receive at Minnesota. Is this really true?</p>
<p>Please talk me into or out of this. I'm in need of advice and suggestions.</p>
<p>My two cents as a practicing electrical engineer who also does occasional recruiting.</p>
<p>1) Wisconsin's EE department isn't sufficiently better than Minnesota's for you to be unhappy. </p>
<p>2) I thought that Minnesotans received tuition reciprocity from Wisconsin so that you paid instate tuition. Is that not the case? If it is the case then is the money that you are saving is by living at home and commuting?</p>
<p>3) Would living at home be a distraction; would daily commuting waste too many hours. It wouldn't be free, so how much would you really save. EE is very hard and requires long hours of study. Study groups are an excellent way to learn difficult material and would living at home preclude your participation. If the incremental amount of additional loan that you're talking on is only for housing or around 35K over 4 years, I would say that it is worth it if the living on campus allows you to excel. </p>
<p>4) Perhaps the best approach might be to transfer to Minnesota so that you're happy and to live on campus there. This way, even if you only have a little bit of time, you can visit your family for dinner occasionally and easily.</p>
<p>5) In short, your loans are a small investment for a lifelong successful career. Ensuring your academic success is paramount.</p>
<p>I agree with the above from ClassicRockerDad. I would also suggest that you have an opportunity to grow by being away from home now, and that is a good opportunity for you. </p>
<p>I'm somewhat puzzled by the remark about diversity on campus. The two ethnic groups I can think of that are more prevalent in the Twin Cities than in Madison are Somali and Hmong, but doesn't Madison have quite a few students of various ethnic groups from all over Wisconsin and Minnesota and indeed from all over the world? I think if you practice meeting and relating to other people you will get better at that, and then you will enjoy the diversity of people at Madison more. </p>
<p>Note: It is my standard advice to suggest to students that they study away from home. If you were a Wisconsin student studying at Minnesota, I would also tell you to try staying at the more distant campus.</p>
<p>At UW-Madison: growing populations of Hmong and Hispanics, lots of Asian-Americans and Asian internationals (at the grad level), and African-Americans. </p>
<p>Sula: You have been very ambivalent about attending Madison. As I recall you needed lots of reassurance. If you are not happy go back to Minnesota.</p>
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4) Perhaps the best approach might be to transfer to Minnesota so that you're happy and to live on campus there. This way, even if you only have a little bit of time, you can visit your family for dinner occasionally and easily.
<p>ok no matter what people tell u or what the usnews rankings say, wisconsin's academics are not overwhelmingly better than minnesota's. i visited both of them for engineering and they were pretty much the exact same...so dont even go by prestige. its really up to you, but it sounds like you'd be better off at minnesota. but im pretty sure minnesota doesnt offer actuarial science...so you'd have to drop that part.</p>
<p>sorry about that i was lookin through the catalog and they do have actuarial science. im not sure what ur situation is exactly but if you want to continue actuarial science ull have to go through carlson which is extremely difficult to transfer into.</p>