I have just been accepted to the liberal arts school at Twin Cities and the college of Letters and Science at UW Madison. I am now trying to make my decision on which one I want to go to. I want to major in Spanish and Economics in college. I know that Madison if ranked higher and I like the campus but i’m not sure how much I will like the party scene. Any advice?
Do you better in red or maroon?
Have you visited both?
One of the differences here is that at the UW, regular faculty teach most of the undergrad Econ courses. Econ graduate students do most of the teaching of undergrad courses at UMN. Some Econ majors never have a tenured or tenure track faculty member teach them during their entire four years and then have trouble getting good letters of recommendation for grad school.
Yes I toured both of them.
What about the party scene at Madison concerns you? Too many? Too few?
If you don’t want to party, you don’t have to. There are plenty of students who hole up un the library on weekends to focus on their assignments.
I was also going to say, there are definitely going to be partiers and non-partiers both at Madison and UMN. Are you pro-party or would prefer a quieter college existence?
My son was admitted to both too and still waiting on other decisions but there is a pretty good chance he will end up at one of these. One things he likes at UMN is the option of honors housing (if you’re offered honors anyway), which is not an option at Madison. I suspect he will be less of a partier.
I will probably party at college but Madison just seemed a little extreme when I was doing my research. Although I’m not sure if it is actually like that in reality.
Partying at UW is there if a student is interested, and can be ignored if a student is not. Some of the larger living learning communities, such as in Chadbourne, can provide a moderating influence on first year excesses and the Lakefront dorms are generally reputed to be “tamer” than Sellery/Witte. Greek life participation is around 10%, so not a dominant force in the social life. If UW works academically and financially for a student, I wouldn’t let the party reputation stand in the way of an amazing education and an amazing experience.
Did you apply to Honors at either? If offered Honors at either it’d make a huge difference v. The other university ‘regular’. Would Chadbourne appeal to you?
I didn’t apply to the honors college at either. I am looking at housing and Chadbourne is on my list as a potential.
DO apply to the Honors college if you’re still allowed. It’ll especially make a big difference due to your major.
Chadbourne isn’t just housing, it’s a significant difference between both universities - a comprehensive college that offers an intellectual community.
You don’t have to explicitly apply for honors at the U of MN. You are just selected and notified after being accepted. There is a somewhat length application for Madison’s honors program (multiple essays). You have until May to apply I think. My kid is going to Madison to audition for music at Madison so if that goes well and he likes it, he’ll apply for honors after that.
Check the UW Honors app – at least in past years, the due date of the application was several weeks after your own specific acceptance date to UW, so not a uniform due date. The essays are thought provoking but not overwhelming. There are no Honors dorms at UW, so the decision about Chad etc. is not tied to Honors, though Chad is an intellectual kind of living community so there may be, practically speaking, overlap between Honors students and Chad residents.
UW Madison must have changed how they run their honors applications. My kid got an invite to apply and it said the final deadline for application was May 15, but they recommended sooner rather than later with no specific due date. We’ll be on campus mid February so he’s going to wait for that visit. A bit burned out on essay writing after the Jan 1 push.
I really like the look of Chadbourne for my kid, we’ll check that out on our visit. Thanks for the heads up!
@MusakParent, my sister lived in Chadbourne, and I lived in its neighbor, Barnard, back when both were women only. Their location is great.
@MusakParent Thank you for that update on Honors app, that is indeed a new procedure and good for me to know. Feel free to head over to UW board to read past threads on Honors program. Full disclosure: my recent UW grad did Honors and loved his Honors classes.