@Wis75 I think that while they may not be offering many merit scholarships, Wisconsin does a very good job of offering experiential enticements. That is valuable and the understand that. They do a good job of making the case to students for why they should choose Wisconsin over other options, highlighting the campus, the rah rah Wisconsin experience, the opportunities, and the athletics. Many peer institutions would do well to sit in on some of the applicant and admitted student events that Wisconsin organizes and compare it to their own.
@wis75 What will you be saying next year when they start giving merit $?
@Much2learn My own kid was knocked over by the admitted students day at UW – he already knew he would attend, but wanted to get back on campus. The big event at Union South was extremely well-organized, probably 2-300 admitted students and their parents, and was a great “sell.” Jonathan Martin, an atmospheric sciences prof, spoke, and had my philosophy/humanities kid ready to take science classes, he was so riveting. Tours, smaller group meetings, everything well-organized. A stark contrast to our in-state flagship (don’t get me started).
We have a very happy transfer student, in her junior year, at UIUC. Looks like D2 will be “taking the money” at an OOS flagship. She did not apply in-state. I agree with @BeeDAre re: the general perception of the IL directionals.
UW is joining the merit wars.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/12/18/university-wisconsin-ups-its-merit-aid-effort-better-compete-peers
Barrons thanks for posting the article. I, for one, am for merit scholarships at Madison. My 3 in-state high achieving students (two who were NMFs and Vals. of their schools) might have considered Madison if merit was offered. My oldest did come back to the state to work, but my middle son graduated and is now working elsewhere. Not sure where my sophomore college student will end up. We had no ties to Madison, unlike alot of our neighbors, so it was easy for us to look outside our area/state to find a comparable education for less money. Both my two older boys graduated in four years with no debt because of merit scholarship; something they probably would not have done if they went to Madison.
Article in Slate today regarding UW: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/education/2016/03/university_of_wisconsin_and_the_aftermath_of_destroying_professor_tenure.html
This time it is Wisconsin, but every public college is increasingly experiencing these struggles. If this cost cutting continues, the gap between the quality of education at public and private institutions is only going to grow, one budget cut at a time. That is unfortunate.
I continue to think that for the top public, research universities like Wisconsin, it could make a lot of sense to develop a plan to build the endowment and gradually convert to a private institution over time, so they are no longer controlled by the whims of government officials.
I LMAO at that Slate article…it’s so full of hyperbole it felt like an article in the Onion.
Not only is UW-Madison DOOOOMMMEDDD, but so is all of “Higher Education”!!!
WAKE UP SHEEPLE!!! ~X(
The important issue in that article was not funding but rather the state (and the governor’s appointed board of regents) taking control over program decisions.
I dislike that merit aid change philosophically. However, I see where many upper middle class students would go for the money as needs are not always met.
And, I wish schools would get to use numbers of National Merit FINALISTS instead of only those getting money. I could wonder if I would have gotten more NMS money if I had listed UW first eons ago and I purposefully did not encourage our NMF son to list UW as I know others could use the money (we parents made use of our educations to be financially well off). Some of my nonNMS friends were better students than those of us garnering that scholarship.
Shared governance isn’t dead at UW (neither is research or tenure). The board has always played an important role in governance.
The UW System board:
https://www.wisconsin.edu/regents/
This isn’t much different from many other boards.
Here is a listing of responsibilities for the state of Florida Board of Trustees (each of the 12 public universities have their own Board of Trustees):.
It isn’t much different. The key points are general oversight, budget approval, and selection/evaluation of the presidents/chancellors.
Most program (majors/degrees) changes still flow through the normal shared governance process. Since UW is a “System”, the board likely also makes the final decisions on which degrees are offered at each of the satellite campuses (to reduce “duplication”). If the UW-system board is similar to other system boards, it’s decisions are dominated by UW-Madison(the flagship), much to the chagrin of the other satellite campuses, when it comes to which programs can be offered at each school.
The new policy gives the board more flexibility to make changes, but still within it’s normal framework (dealing with the budgets as presented to it by each of the campuses). Don’t expect the “Walker” board to “remake” UW. The state legislature, on the other hand…
I warned here several years ago about what a loose cannon and overall bomb-thrower Prof Goldrick-Rab at UW is. She has just become more extreme over time and has zero credibility about anything related to UW. Temple will regret their decision shortly and UW is much better off with her gone. UW lose a few every year. Some for money, some for climate and some for other reasons. But the numbers recently have been well below historic averages…
@barrons This really is the first time I’ve heard about Prof Goldrick-Rab and her “twitter incident”.
I’m betting that when she was made an offer by Temple, UW didn’t try to counter it…
My favorite part is the back on forth on tweeter between the Professor and the new group of Badgers…
^^wow
@SouthFloridaMom9 my exact reaction.
"While claiming to stand for academic freedom, she has in fact damaged that principle and our institution "
That is true, but really she has not done a small fraction of the damage Scott Walker has done. I wonder when their statement of dismay about his actions will be coming out? lol
like UW-Madison, U of Illinois seems also go down, the decreases in state government financial funds? :-/