UW Madison vs. U of I at Urbana-Champaign

<p>Okay, so i was looking for some input as to which college I should go to. Being an Illinois resident with absolutely no financial support for college, U of I seems like the better pick, but I really liked the programs and atmosphere at UW better. Your input would be greatly appreciated, thanks.</p>

<p>I would probably say go to U of I to save money, but if you really like UW that much, then go there. What are you majoring in? Good Luck.</p>

<p>thats another thing, it’ll either be biology/genetics or education of some kind, but i’m still undecided</p>

<p>UIUC is better if you ask me. Most people’s arguments is that Madison is a better town, but Champaign is definitely not a bad place either, plus it’s only 2 hours from Chicago. It’s renowned for its sciences and engineering, and the campus is much more diverse than UW Madison’s.</p>

<p>For bio/genetics UW>>>>UI. UI is 90% instate–hardly diverse.</p>

<p>As opposed to UW’s 80% white student body, yes it is diverse. What state you come from hardly means anything.</p>

<p>Save your money!</p>

<p>Ha! I laugh at ignorance! My sibling applied to U of I (yes I am an IL resident, hence, the name) and they gave her no aid at all. She was accepted into U of I’s honors college and wanted to major in biology. People have this misconception that U of I is really cheap, it isn’t. The final price my sister had to pay for one year was $26k, and this is coming from a family making a combined $75k a year. Madison will run you about $33k, so U of I is still cheaper, but Wisconsin has a better science program. U of I has a good program, but not as good as Madison. Both student pops are similar. Lots of kids that want to get drunk (not the case with all students, just many of them). Wisconsin has more out of state diversity, and U of I has less white students and basically everone is from Illinois. I’d go to Madison, because of the better program and the fact that the state of Wisconsin doesn’t put a 10% tax on food and clothing like Illinois (we like to tax the hell out of everyone here as you know lol) , but it’s up to you. Also, if you change majors and want to go to a different college, it is impossible to make such a change at U of I. Good luck</p>

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<p>Except for switching into business or engineering, switching major is very easy. I’d think that business and engineering schools at UW are also harder to transfer in.</p>

<p>As for bio, UIUC opened a new genomic lab, witch has great facilities and opportunities to participate in research.</p>

<p>In this case, it makes sense to think outside the box.</p>

<ul>
<li>UIUC and Wisconsin aren’t your only options. In the near term, you might have to start at one of the colleges to which you were admitted. But while Wisconsin is a popular alternative to UIUC for Illinois residents, it’s far from the only one. It’s also far from the cheapest one. UIUC is so expensive for in-state students that an Illinois resident can go OOS to various schools for not much more than it costs to go to UIUC. For example, OOS tuition at Minnesota or any of the SUNY (New York) campuses isn’t much more than in-state tuition at UIUC. Even International tuition at most Canadian universities isn’t dramatically higher than in-state tuition at UIUC. If you liked Wisconsin, you might also like McGill (in Montr</li>
</ul>

<p>"Wisconsin is tolerant of people from different backgrounds. UIUC is dominated by the Greek system "</p>

<p>This is an excellent point, although I think you can find community at UIUC if you seek it out. That said, Madison is the Berkeley of the Midwest (or vice versa :wink: and if you felt comfortable there and the cost is not THAT much more, than you may consider Madison. UIUC tends to be Greek dominated, but there Urbana-Champaign has its share of organic food stores, liberal politics (they got rid of that racist mascot) and the “hippie ghetto” to go along with the “unofficial” Greek drunkfest. BTW Urbana-Champaign also has a great and underrated music scene.</p>

<p>Honestly 3100836, you can’t make a bad choice they are both great. Also, I think the CIC allows for you to spend a semester or even a year at another academic Big Ten campus if I am not mistaken. So you could conceivable spend a year at Madison for the price of UIUC!</p>

<p>My bad the traveling scholars program is only for grad students :frowning: Sorry about that.</p>

<p>[CIC</a> Home Page](<a href=“http://www.cic.net/Home.aspx]CIC”>http://www.cic.net/Home.aspx)</p>

<p>In the last few years UW has built major new facilities for Microbiology, biochemistry, medical research and is building the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery which we cover all areas of science research. This week they announced another major advance in stem cells.</p>

<p>[Wisconsin</a>, Morgridge scientists excise vector, exotic genes from induced stem cells (March 26, 2009)](<a href=“http://www.news.wisc.edu/16473]Wisconsin”>Wisconsin, Morgridge scientists excise vector, exotic genes from induced stem cells)</p>

<p>[Wisconsin</a> Institutes for Discovery: About Us](<a href=“Discovery Building | UW Conferences & Events”>Discovery Building | UW Conferences & Events)</p>

<p>thanks so much you guys, you’re helping so much, you don’t even know how grateful i am</p>

<p>vociferous: Yes, I agree that a liberal element exists on campus. Still, someone who is liberal and uninterested in the Greek system is likely to be mostly limited to the liberal/“hippie” subculture. This is true for whatever other subculture one is part of. It’s important to realize these social barriers exist to assess whether this is somewhere you’d be comfortable. It’s suboptimal for anyone, as people in university should be able to try on different identities to learn more about themselves.</p>

<p>ETA: You’re welcome. I’m glad I could help. (You posted your response as I was writing mine, so it didn’t appear until I had posted it.)</p>