Hey guys, I’m having a really hard time deciding on which college to go to. Tuition isn’t a problem at all for me. It has more to do with location and academics.
Facts about me:
-I want to go into Pre-Med with a major in biochem or psychology
-I’m a Minnesota resident
-I’m of another ethnicity
-I plan to focus on mainly academics in college.
-I’m admitted into L&S Honors Program at UW-Madison.
-I didn’t get into the honors program at the U of M surprisingly.
I know going to the U of M will be like staying close to home because I live pretty close by which is a downside. But I also know they have great academics. UW-Madison will be a new experience for me but I heard they party a lot and determined to be focused on my academics. QUESTION: I heard UW-Madison is losing funding? Is that going to affect anything tremendously? Is it going to decrease in rank possibly in the future because of this?
I want to also be somewhere that’s diverse and has many people of different origins/backgrounds.
Which school do you think is right for me? I need to decide real soon so please help me out
Didn’t you post this a day ago? Based on people’s responses, if you have more specific questions, try asking them in your prior thread rather than just asking the same question again.
@Midwestmomofboys im sorry but i have two days to decide and haven’t received much feedback on my previous thread. i need to make a decision as soon as possible since this will be about where i spend my next four years.
One dreams to attend Wisconsin. Great school academically set in a great location. Variety of activities and opportunities . Decent fun sports to watch. Proximity to Illinois and Chicago rather than Iowa, the gateway to Nebraska.
@skyflower17 In some ways I would argue that U is better in this case. Minneapolis is more diverse than Madison.
There are many bio tech businesses in the Cities. I would be working hard with the department and the career center to find internships there. I know that you currently want to go premed but keep the door open to other jobs in the medical world.
My husband was a member of Minneapolis chapter of INROADS which matches college students with businesses for paid internships. For him they did a terrific job of exposing him to interesting workplaces, quality internship work, and having a job offer as he graduated from college. He ended up taking a job in a different city but INROADS experiences had given him the skills he needed. Recently I know of a student from our rural area who was able to join INROADS in the Cities where his college was located. He is now working for the company where he interned. I am pretty sure this student was DACA but not 100%.
COLLEGE PROGRAM
The college program is for students interested in the fields of Business, Finance, Accounting, Economics, Engineering (STEM), Supply Chain Management, Computer Science/MIS, Healthcare, Retail Management and Liberal Arts
You do not need to start with them your freshmen year. It is ok to start during your junior year of college and have just one summer with them.
My D is also pre-med and applied to both schools. We live 45 min from Madison and DH and I are UW alum.
Academics:
Did you get into CBS at U MN? If so, I’d pick MN. If not, I’d pick UW, since you got into honors.
Funding/State support:
MN seems to be functioning well on the state government level and U MN seems to have good funding and support. The opposite is true of WI. UW has lost tenure, which has caused about 24 professors to leave. The professors who have stayed are demoralized and stressed. UW has lost funding. I do think, if things don’t turn around, UW’s rankings will slip. But U MN is already ranked several spots below UW - not sure UW will slip far enough to fall behind U MN.
Diversity:
The Twin Cities is much more diverse than Madison. I grew up out West, and my perspective is that WI has a big racial problem, especially concerning blacks. Milwaukee was recently named the worst big city in the whole country for blacks. Yes, Madison is liberal and prides itself on acceptance, but most of thr in-state kids who will attend UW won’t be coming from Madison. When I was at UW, I, who am white, had a black roommate and a Latina roommate, both from OOS, and they hated Wisconsin.
Campus feel:
Wisconsin’s campus is larger and has more green spaces. If you like nature, you’ll find more of it at UW. We liked thr urban feel of MN’s campus, but we noticed the lack of big, open spaces.
University of Wisconsin system has had money reinvested from the governor. Plus Madison has a lot of donors. The UW-Madison is not going down the drain!! But go wherever you want because the students that choose Madison love everything, from the academics to the campus environment.
@4highkers I’m not trying to be hostile. I am a proud UW alum who has given to my school every year for the last 10 years. I am very saddened by the current state climate with regard to UW, and I feel students who are considering it have a right to know what is going on.
@wayneandgarth Minneapolis campus is East Bank 307 acres and West Bank 53 acres. You have to add in the St Paul campus, 3 miles away, to get to 2730 acres. So technically, you are correct, MN has the bigger campus, but since it is not contiguous, like WI, the Minneapolis campus feels smaller, more closed in, and lacks green space. This isn’t necessarily bad - DD and I really liked the more urban feel of the Minneapolis campus, DH liked the more open feel and green spaces of the WI campus - but it is a difference that might cause some students to prefer one campus over the other.
when someone posts about budget it should reflect the current year. Sorry to the above post that your daughter was waitlisted at Madison. I’m sure she will be successful in her future endeavors.
I agree that the undergraduate student body, and the surrounding community, is less diverse at UW than at U MN Twin Cities. At the same time, the legislature has increased funding for UW and the UW system, and UW has managed through the funding issue. The speech discusses in the first article linked in post #10 was from September 2016, when the Chancellor was asking the legislature to increase funding, and noted various needs. Funding has increased. While merely anecdotal, we know a highly regarded faculty member who left UW as the funding issue started, and has already returned. Bottom line, the sky is not, has not, and almost certainly will not, fall at UW. A MN student who wants to leave their familiar territory and take advantage of tuition reciprocity with UW will have amazing opportunities at UW.
While UW itself is not, percentage wise, as diverse as MN, it is so large that a student will have plenty of opportunities through student groups etc. to connect with students from different ethnicities. There is a freshman residential learning community for women in science, which might be attractive to the OP.
At the end of the day, there is no bad choice here. Good luck to the OP.
