<p>Pursuing MA in comparative literature, I am wondering which campus is better? BTW, Department of Comparative Literature at Milwaukee does not require GRE, while the one at Madison does!</p>
<p>I am surprised that you think there's any contest. Why do you think UW-Milwaukee is in Madison's league? As for requiring the GRE, that by itself suggests a more serious program.</p>
<p>yeah, Milwaukee is a very regional, very middle-of-the road state school with average academics...Madison is a world class institution with kids from all over the planet.</p>
<p>UW Madison is the flagship school for a reason. It is the big leagues, UWM is not.</p>
<p>On a full disclosure note--Madison is likely phasing out the dept. of comp lit so I might look elsewhere.</p>
<p>Very different places but Milwaukee is an excellent school with a very attractive, compact campus in the most beautiful part of a terrific city. You could do far, far worse.</p>
<p>An addendum to my previous comment: I happen to love Milwaukee. A lot of people find it to be more exciting and livable than Madison, particularly the east side. UWM's campus has some beautiful old buildings in the heart of a beautiful old and very safe neighborhood. The two schools, however, simply don't compare.</p>
<p>uwmilwaukee is a very nice school, but its very old.</p>
<p>the neighborhood is nice and its minutes away from the beach =D</p>
<p>^So old colleges are bad? I hear Harvard is pretty old. Oxford, too.</p>
<p>Beside that, UW Madison is older than UWM. You're a fv.cking idiot.</p>
<p>great vocabulary...</p>
<p>anyways i did not say UWMilwaukee is bad, my Dad went there and I lived there for at least a good 8 years. I simply voiced my opinion that parts of it looks run down.</p>
<p>You must have lived there a long time ago. The Milwaukee campus is in fantastic shape these days. I was last a student there in 1977, and I can say definitively it has never looked better or had better facilities than it does today.</p>
<p>As for Wis75's childish comment that UW is "the big leagues" and UWM is not, it is, unfortunately, a shining example of the kind of sophomoric ignorance and stereotyping that passes for wisdom too often on CC. I could introduce her to many of the leading businesspeople, artists and government leaders in Wisconsin who would beg to differ -- and who not coincidentally have attended or taught at Milwaukee. It is a very fine urban doctoral university. I have degrees from both Milwaukee and Madison and love both schools, and have contributed financially, significantly, to both schools. Trust me; the differences between them are mostly immaterial to a committed student. Each of course has programs and emphases that the other does not, and where they have similar programs, each can claim to be better than the other in certain areas. </p>
<p>Their undergraduate experiences are very different because of the nature of the schools; Madison offers the more "classical" undergraduate experience with football and fraternities. The graduate experiences are quite similar, but Milwaukee has the advantage of a far more diverse and interesting urban environment than Madison can offer, something the older student would appreciate more. Madison has professional schools in Medicine and Law that Milwaukee does not, but that would seem irrelevant to the original poster.</p>
<p>trizkutt there is no need for such language on this forum...............</p>
<p>Milwdad it is obvious that you have a very personal experience from both schools. Given that personal bias, you have to admit that inspite of similar "experiences" at both schools, they are definitely not in the same league, as is very aptly depicted by US news and world reports which ranks Universities. UW Madison is ranked 34th amongst the TOP tier of all the National Universities. UWM is in the 4th tier. What does that tell ya? Obviously "very fine Doctoral University" does'nt cut it with those folks who are performing a very objective and thorough analysis of the colleges. Wis75 has not made a childish comment. It is the truth. Which is probably why the top 20 kids in my kid's high school class have 10 at Madison, 2 at Northwestern, 3 at Marquette, 1 at Harvard, 1 at Vanderbilt, 1 at MIT, 1 at WashU, 1 at Minnesota and NONE at UWM.</p>
<p>Having said that, it does not matter a whole lot where you go to school. It is more important what you do with the education that you get. Coming from a highly ranked school might get your foot in the door for a job, but there is no substitute for hard work, good attitude and good work ethic.</p>
<p>The differences between the two campuses mean a great deal to the committed student. The average ACT 25-75 %ile of the students at UWM is far lower than that of UW's. There are some very highly qualified students at UWM, but you do not find the same numbers to form the same academic peer groups.</p>
<p>The two cities and campuses are nothing like each other- I have lived in Milwaukee. The big leagues- prove that UWM has a national reputation in many fields, be specific. UW is ranked highly nationally, as stated above. UW was set up as the flagship school. UWM is one of the original UW system schools, but was never intended to be in the same league as UW. It does a fine job for its students, but its mission is not the same. The state has designated some campuses for some majors instead of trying to have too many very small departments at each school, hence you will find not all of these majors are available at UW. UW also has the outreach mission for the state. Finally, UW-Madison also has national and international recognition that UW-Milwaukee does not.</p>