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We shouldn't hijack this thread with a debate on the IU/UW relative merits.
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<p>There is absolutely no way that the OP should consider Wisconsin. Wisconsin is 20-25K more expensive than IU for the OP, and Wisconsin ranks lower in the desired majors that the OP is looking for, in addition to not even having one of the majors that the OP wants. </p>
<p>Wisconsin is a teriffic school option for people who are in-state, Minnesota residents, or for people who have money to burn. However, someone with financial need (as the OP has), who is an OOS student, shouldn't be considering Wisconsin, as they have no sort of aid for OOS students without extraordinary stats.</p>
<p>As far as your advertisement for Madison, every single thing you could have said could be related to Bloomington. I've been to Bloomington, i've been to Madison, i've been to Ann Arbor, i've been to East Lansing, i've been to Evanston, so I have experienced many Big Ten campuses. I do like Madison AS A TOWN the best, although Indiana's campus is the best.</p>
<p>Bloomington is rated as one of the top college towns in the country. Look no further than a post earlier in this thread by a unbiased poster who called it a "famous college town". It has the Little 500 weekend which has been noted as the "World's Greatest College Weekend". It consistently ranks as one of the top party schools in the country. Indiana offers great sports experiences, featuring a basketball team with one of the richest traditions in the country. </p>
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Do not rate a whole university on the basis of one or two majors or one school. A best fit is important- it may matter to have the best dept in a particular field or it may be more important that the whole school atmosphere is at a higher academic level.
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That is terrible advice, and it doesn't even apply in this situation. </p>
<p>If you come into college and you have an idea of what you want to do (i.e., "I want to major in Business, Mass Communications/Journalism, or Sport Management"), and you don't even consider the individual department's strengths/weaknesses, rather go off of prestige, you will have trouble obtaining jobs in many fields. </p>
<p>For Business, Indiana's business school outranks Wisconsin's in every single major but one (see above list). Wisconsin does have a good B-School, but they don't touch Indiana in terms of placement into I-Banking. Indiana has a Sport Management program, Wisconsin does not. Both have strong Journalism programs, even though Indiana ranks ahead of them.</p>
<p>But it doesn't really matter here, because neither school is on a "higher academic level", as evident by similar rankings in overall departments (see Business, Journalism).</p>
<p>And I have no idea where you are getting your anti-Sports ideas. No one implied that Sports = good school. No one was even talking about them, but you bring the topic up with strong messages against it. Why? For hundreds of thousands students nationwide they are a big deal. That's why so many students at each university attend the events. And for the OP, they are a big deal.</p>