I plan to study Computer Science and the two colleges I have been admitted in U of Washington Seattle and U of Wisconsin Madison, I’ve read different posts claiming Washington to be better and others claiming Wisconsin to be better if not equal but having a better campus vibe. Can anyone enlighten me?
Are you accepted directly into CS at UW-Seattle? If not, you may have difficulty majoring in CS at Washington – admissions into the CS program are difficult.
I have some typos in that post, probably happened when I erased to ask the question again.
I am in the same boat as you, the main things that I have collected or been told are
U of Washington:
-Commuter feel
-Kind of dead on weekends/holidays
-Seattle is a great city
-Husky sports are ok
-Superb CS department
-Rain
-Scramble to find and alt major
-Diverse student pop
U of Wisconsin
-College town
-Party school
-Strong CS department
-Badger sports are awesome
-Snow and cold
-There is still stuff to do in Madison and you can walk to every where
-Easier to get into CS Department
-Diverse personality within the student pop
U of Wisconsin is in a better location like dburns1 said – easy to get around without a car and much better weather. UW Seattle is isolated from downtown Seattle in terms of walking (although there is a bike trail, it doesn’t feed directly into the downtown area) and it rains 99% of the time. Academically, the CS dept. at UW is a little better than its counterpart at U Wisconsin, but not by a landslide. It really depends on what type of campus you want and the ease of finding an alt. major.
These days, UWash has much more of a residential campus feel. The housing website says 7,280 students live in UW Seattle-campus housing (6,429 in residence halls, 851 in UW apartments), and over 70% of freshmen live on campus. Also, about 1/3 of the students are OOS and international, and they stay on campus in the evenings and on weekends. Of course, Madison is a great Midwestern college town, whereas Seattle is a major west coast city. It’s a matter of personal preference. Both are fantastic universities, no doubt about that.
Regarding weather, having experienced it during college myself, Midwest winter from early November through early April can be grueling. Seattle is not San Diego (or even San Francisco), but it’s not THAT bad compared to other parts of the country:
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/04/seattle-doesnt-get-that-much-rain/
In terms of school spirit I feel they are equal, even if the Huskies are not as good as the Badgers
the key question is: did you get into UWA CS, or just UWA?
Uw did not release its decisions so i think he is guessing but direct into cs of uw is very tough and if i dont get a direct i would suggest u go to wisconsin as a better chance into cs form general admission