<p>Hi all,
I am currently debating whether I should attend UW Madison or Georgia Tech for undergraduate studies in Computer/Electrical Engineering. Can you please advise me on this decision?</p>
<p>Factors influencing my decisions:</p>
<p>Current Residence - I live in Madison, WI and would be close to family if I went here.</p>
<p>Tuition - Georgia Tech will cost me 27000/yr after scholarships; UW Madison will cost me 7000/yr after scholarships</p>
<p>Campus Visit - I visited Tech and was impressed by the campus, program, classes, labs. I've seen UW Madison a few times but was not equally impressed by their offerings</p>
<p>Co-ops/Internships/Study abroad - Tech seems to offer and encourage Co-op, internships and study abroad more than Madison</p>
<p>Education difficulty - Everyone says that doing well at Tech is hard. GPAs are low and 4 yr graduation rates are low.</p>
<p>My post undergrad plans - I want to pursue a masters degree in a similar field and want to be prepared well for that level of education with my undergrad degree.</p>
<p>Both universities are well regarded. Since transition from HS to college can be stressful sometimes, it may be a good idea to attend UW Madison and reevaluate the situation after 1 or 2 years. This would be cheaper and allow you to take the core courses at reasonable cost. You can always work with the administration to customize study abroad and internships.</p>
<p>UW certainly encourages and offers many co-ops for engineering. Most people take at least one. Same for study abroad. Not sure how you got that idea. Also if you ever want to change out of EE, UW has way more to offer. GT is not a fun place go to college. The admin is neither progressive nor pro student. Many hate it their.</p>
<p>I too live in Madison and am looking into UW. Does anyone have any experience with attending a school in the same city you grew up in? I really want to know what it is like</p>
<p>My sibling does, attends Michigan State University which is only about 10 minutes from my home. Although sibling comes home mostly every weekend, sibling also likes the school but things that are frequent: seeing relatives/ friends around town ( ofcourse), seeing students from your high school on campus daily… although they were not admitted ( or either currently in HS), etc… My sibling has made indications of either moving off campus to apartments with friends or even moving back home to commute for the following school year.</p>
<p>Thanks! Unless I get some amazing scholarship offer from another school, I probably will go to UW. I basically have a student assistant job guaranteed at the physics department (even though I will probably be an econ major, lol), and my family already has enough money to pay for four years of tuition. Plus, with the money that I will have saved from staying in-state I can study abroad for a semester</p>
These would be only a few of the great reasons to choose UW-Madison. Though is this the same cost including living on campus or commuting? Either or, definately still UW-Madison. Though if this excludes living on campus maybe you can talk with your parents about allowing you to live on campus at least your first year.</p>
<p>Well my mom and dad both have $20,000 saved, my grandma promised $5,000 a year and I will hopefully be working throughout college. I want to make it as if I was living out of state, but it is nice knowing that if there is an emergency or if I simply want some home made food my house is a 10 minute bus ride away. Coming out of undergrad school I want as little debt as possible so it is not dragging me down for the rest of my life</p>
<p>My D goes to school, IU-Bloomington, in our hometown. She lives on campus. Admittedly we live about 1/2 hour away from the campus, but it’s still her hometown. The student body of IUB is similar in size to UW’s size. She rarely sees high school classmates on campus. She’s had a former classmate/friend in a couple of classes, one by choice. She doesn’t really come home any more frequently than the other kids on her floor, and we’ve yet to run into her while running errands, etc. There are a few advantages we’ve discovered. When she realized most of her floor was going home for the weekend it was easy to do a quick pickup and come home for the weekend. Move in was easy. Even though a former high school acquaintance lives on her dorm floor, neither felt a lot of pressure to be friends. At the beginning of the year she arranged to go to a meeting with some former high school classmates. It was nice that they could all walk in knowing someone there at the large campus. I think she would be the first to say that being a college student in our town is very different than being a resident. One thing I insisted on was that she stay on campus for the first 5 or 6 weeks without any weekends home. I felt that was an important time for her to adjust and become a college student. We give our D her space. </p>
<p>I do wonder if you did a tour of UW or did an overnight? As silly as it seems I did make our D do both. Living in a college town and going to the college are two different things. </p>
<p>Consider yourself lucky that you live in a state with a good university. Many kids around the country would love to go to UW for that price. Don’t let the fact that Madision is your hometown discourage you. Both schools are well respected so you might as well save the money for grad school.</p>