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You may find it rather difficult to get an internship, especially for the first couple summers, as many of the job postings are closed to internationals.</p>
<p>@GoBlue81
I really understand how hard it is to find an internship or a job for an international student nowadays, but I do have the wish to stay in a developed country rather than a country running by a highly corrupted government…</p>
<p>I think international students can get legal working permits under CPT or OPT program and for my majors (statistics and mathematics) I can get the working permit for working as an intern for 12 months plus a 17-month extension…</p>
<p>honestly, I can’t really speak for uw-madison…but i always hear really positive things about it- good academics, sports and it’s fun (big party scene)! But the UMN is really nice too! but it’s HUGE lol. I also know that the UMN is very affordable for out of state and international students —but luckily over here for MN residents we have tuition reciprocity with WI schools- including Madison 
at the UMN there’s always things to do, and it’s so big that you should have no problem finding your niche (D1 sports…lately hasn’t been doing too great 
and over 300+ clubs + organizations). The campus is spread out in both MPLS & St.Paul…but there have shuttles so getting around shouldn’t be a big deal…and but for your major I think most of your classes will mostly be on the MPLS campus (west bank?). So yeah, I suppose since the campus is urban that’s a plus because there’s a lot more to do and more opportunities for things like internships etc. Minnesota is also home to big fortune 500 companies like Best buy, 3M (think post it notes), target, general mills ( foodstuffs, cereals like cocoa puffs blah blah blah) and delta/northwestern airlines…just to name a few off the top of my head.</p>
<p>I know that UW-Madison is more “prestigious” but the UMN lately has been gaining a much better reputation and they have solid, top-notch academics with tons of research opportunities (since after all it is one of the nation’s top research universities).</p>
<p>You might also might want to visit both schools to get the general feel for both…and also consider if you’d be able to afford madison.</p>
<p>“@rjkofnovi
HAHA, how come you know that i have been accepted by UI. UI is a good school for accounting, engineering, and computer science… BUT I really don’t want to spend four years in a place surrounded by a large field of corn… :-D”</p>
<p>The UI I was referring to was The University of Iowa. The one you were accepted at is normally referred to as the UIUC. In any case, it was meant as a little sarcastic dig to another poster who commented on this thread. :-)</p>
<p>“Don’t listen to such blind, uninformed prejudice against public higher education.”</p>
<p>Actually, I have nothing against public higher education institutions. What I said about the in-staters being less smart compared to the out-staters or internationals ON AVERAGE is true and you would know it if you had attended a public university before. Furthermore, I was only replying to OP’s main reason of why he/she was hesitating to attend UMN. VVV AND he/she was referring to the whole university…not just the Honors Program. So, you should stop being such a SENSITIVE poo poo head.</p>
<p>"actually it’s the people around me who got accepted by UMN(or already in UMN) that make me hesitate… Some of them know nothing about college admissions and they even make other people write their essays and apply on the behalf of them. (i think this is cheat…) there is one guy i know who went to the UMN last year, and he even make his friend help him finish the online placement tests…</p>
<p>I feel so sad when I see they can get what I want very easily(college admissions) while i have been working so hard to achieve the same things."</p>
<p>These people are dumb, UMN all day every day. Madison is BARELY better.</p>
<p>Minnesota is the better school academically, but they are very similar in academics. They differ primarily in location. Wisconsin is in Madison which is very sub-urban and very rural when you get a mile or two out of town. Cute town. Not much to do though. Minnesota is in Minneapolis which is the 14th largest metro area in the country. So really, just determine whether you like big city life or small town life.</p>
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<p>LOL. I did attend a public university as an undergraduate. The University of Michigan College of Literature, Science & the Arts (LS&A) Honors Program, where the average entering freshman’s stats are roughly at the Ivy League level. I attended as an in-state student, and not to boast but I didn’t think any of the OOS students in that program were any smarter than I was (though some were probably as smart). In fact, I think on average there wasn’t a dime’s worth of difference between the in-state and OOS students in that program. </p>
<p>As for the larger university, possibly it’s true that OOS students have slightly better stats on average than in-state for the university as a whole, but not by much, and certainly not in every program. Michigan’s pretty darned selective for in-state as well as OOS, and the most selective programs—like LS&A Honors, Ross (business), and Engineering—just take the best applicants regardless of residency status. So I think it’s a huge mistake to generalize, and to imply that an international applicant is necessarily going to be disadvantaged by rubbing shoulders with dull in-state students. The thing is, in a large university most people are not in your classes. I’m sure I never shared a class with a School of Nursing student, for example, so although the (largely in-state) Nursing students might bring down the overall average freshman class stats a bit, that didn’t affect me in the least. In the OP’s case, because he’ll be in the Honors Program at Minnesota, tracked with the best and the brightest from day one, the average in-state v. OOS stats in some other part of the university won’t affect him at all. </p>
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<p>My, such language. What are we, 4?</p>
<p>As for internationals, my experience at least was that many were whizzes at math/science/technology kinds of things but most had small-to-major deficiencies in written and spoken English. Not to say they weren’t smart, but on the whole they just didn’t perform at nearly the same level in humanities and social sciences as the native English speakers.</p>
<p>Hmmmm…28 posts and no word yet from barrons…must still be celebrating St. Paddy’s Day!</p>
<p>I don’t know about U Madison, but the U of Minn has an outstanding program for welcoming international students and guiding them throughout their stay.</p>
<p>As an international traveler, you may have more flight options into Minneapolis than into Madison.</p>
<p>Actually I am on vacation and just checking in. I think bc made a good case and I would dismiss informative as being his usual "un"informative. Madison has a large international contingent and has for decades. But if Uminn is cheaper and the academics are close Minn is fine. Probably better for internationals who don’t get into the typical campus life–although some do.</p>
<p>Virginia is great this time of year–sunny and 80 today. Can’t wait to get out of Seattle for good.</p>