<p>What makes that University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Michigan so prestigious?</p>
<p>Are you serious? They have everything they need to be a good school. they have money, faculty, resources, everything.</p>
<p>Yeah, I am serious because they have such large student bodies, so class sizes are bigger, I hear that a lot there are a lot of TA's that do the teaching instead of teachers-especially at Michigan...etc. I am not trying to bash these schools, I was just wondering why they were so prestigious.</p>
<p>Because they are really, really good schools, among the best public universities in the country.</p>
<p>o.. and the sports thing does NOT hurt :)</p>
<p>Many people don't consider them prestigious. </p>
<p>Prestige is tough to measure. It's extremely relative, and everyone has their own opinions about what is or isn't prestigious.</p>
<p>They are top public universities because they have faculty who do cutting edge research of all sorts -- from historians who win prestigious fellowships and write award-winning books to scientists who publish research in the top scientific journals, win important prizes, and are awarded large research grants.</p>
<p>All large schools use TA's--even Harvard and Yale. For most classes the TA provides extra support to the class you don't get in smaller classes. You get an hour a week where you can go over tests, ask questions and have lectures explained. Relatively few classes are taught completely by TA's.</p>
<p>momfromme hit the other key points. UW and UM are #2 and #3 in total research $$$$ in the US.</p>
<p>Because they have a crap load of top 10 programs.</p>
<p>Lots of faculty and facilities ---> lots of research ---> lots of scientific progress and national attention</p>
<p>If the issues you mention are an extreme issue for you, then you would probably be better served at a smaller university, or an LAC. I know that I felt the same way.</p>
<p>However, as other posters have mentioned, these excellent public schools have many qualities that make them great. For many students, a large student body is seem as a positive, and for even more, it is seen as a price well worth the fine sports, graduate programs, and instate price.</p>
<p>There are prestigious schools of every size, and it is up to each student to decide which is right for them.</p>
<p>Michigan is good in every program you can think of:) Engineering,Undergrad Business,Graduate Programs in Social Sciences,Life Sciences,MBA,Law, Medicine. In fact, you check any ranking, be it originated in China,UK, or USA, you will find two common names Michigan and Berkeley.</p>
<p>Don't most TAs only teach in undergrad classes?</p>
<p>Michigan is "prestigious" for many reasons.</p>
<p>1) Along with Stanford, it is the only university that has top 10 graduate programs in Business, Engineering, Law and Medicine. Business, Engineering and Law are all ranked among the top 5 from time to time. </p>
<p>2) Michigan is one of just 6 or 7 universities that is ranked in or around the top 15 in every single discipline, inlcuding top 5 departments in Anthropology, Archealogy, Classics, Earth Sciences, Political Science, Psychology and Sociology and top 10 departments in Economics, English, History, Mathematics and most languages and International Studies. Even its "weaker departments (like Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science and Physics) are ranked between #13 and #16 in the nation according to the latest USNWR.</p>
<p>3) Michigan's undergraduate Business program is generally considered one of the top 5 in the nation. Only Wharton is considered better. Michigan's undergraduate Engineering programs are also very highly regarded.</p>
<p>4) Michigan facilities are impresive to say the least, from its Medical Center (the largest fully owned and operated university hospital in the US) that is ranked among the top 10 hospitals in the US to its modern, state-of-the-art Engineering facilities, to its 8 million volume Library to its football stadium that seats more than 110,000 spectators (the largest stadium in the US). Michigan is now in the middle of building a $150 million Business school facility that should rival any facilty devoted to Business education.</p>
<p>5) As of July, 2006, Michigan's endowment stood at $5.7 billion, behind only Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton, MIT and Columbia. </p>
<p>6) Michigan research expenditure flirts with the $800 million mark, exceeding all other university research budget with the exception of 2 or 3 universities. As such, its impact on human development is significant.</p>
<p>7) Some schools, like Duke, Georgetown, North Carolina, Notre Dame...and Michigan, have won major athletic championships in that has enhanced their overal reputation and general appeal.</p>
<p>8) Michigan's alumni network is huge, very wealthy (thanks to its very highly regarded professional programs and its many alums who come from old-money) and rabidly loyal. There are currently 14 living Michigan alums that are billionaires, among them, Bruce Wasserstein (CEO of Lazard) and Larry Page (co-founder of Google). Other notable alums include US President Gerald Ford, Surgeons General Leonard Scheele and Antonia Novello, MIT presidents (Charles Vest and Jerome Wiesner), Charles Merrill (co-founder of Merrill Lynch), William Mayo (co-founder of Mayo Clinic), Louis Border (co-founder of Borders Bookstore), NFL superstars Tom Brady and Charles Woodson, James Earl Jones (the most recognized voice on Earth and Darth Vador's voice), Lawrence Kasdan (screenplay writer for the first Star Wars Trilogy and the original Indiana Jones Movie), Lucy Liu, Madonna, a slew of Fortune 500 CEOs too numerous to mention, 7 Nobel Prize winners and more NFL/NHL and NBA players combined than any university in the nation. </p>
<p>9) Graduate school placement. According to a 2004 survey conducted by the WSJ, Michigan placed 156 of its students into top 5 Medical, Law and MBA programs. Only 4 universities (Harvard, Yale, Stanford and Princeton) placed more students into top 5 programs. As a ratio, Michigan was #18 among national universities, with a similar ratio to Cal, Caltech, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Notre Dame and UVa. </p>
<p>Roughly 50 Michigan students students are placed into each of Michigan's graduate professional programs annually. Michigan also places a significant number (and ratio) of its students into top 10 graduate programs. There are currently close to 500 living Harvard Business School alums who completed their undergraduate studies at Michigan. Only 10 or so undergraduate institutions have produced more HBS alums. A couple of years ago, 15 Michigan alums enrolled into Wharton's MBA program. Only 6 other universities were better represented. In academic circles, Michigan is very highly regarded. This can be seen everywhere, from its 4.5/5.0 (tied with Brownl, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, John Hopkins, Northwestern and Penn) peer assessment score in the USNWR, to Fiske's ***** academic rating, to Gerhard Casper's (Stanford University president) letter to the editor of the USNWR etc...</p>
<p>10) Professional placement is the final aspect I will touch upon. Almost every major company from every industry recruits heavily at Michigan. Pretochemical firms like Shell, British Petrolium, ExxonMobil, Dow Chemical, Chevron and Dupont. IBanks like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Citigroup, Lehman Brothers, Lazard Brothers, UBS, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse and Merrill Lynch. Consulting Firms like Bain, BCG, Booz Allen, McKinsey and Mercer. Aeorspace Engineering firms like NASA, Jet Propulsion Lab, Boeing, Northop Grumman and Lockheed Martin. Biotech companies like Medtronic, Amgen, Stryker, Ely Lilly, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Bristol Myers Squib and Merck. And the list goes on and on.</p>
<p>As mentioned by some, including the OP, given its size, Michigan is not as selective as some of its smaller peers and at intro-levels, classes do tend to get large. But TAs don't really teach undergrads. Some freshman discussion groups are led by TAs, but 97% of classes at Michigan are taught by professors. And classes, are only slightly larger than at smaller private peers. However, that does not alter the fact that Michigan is a highly prestigious university, particularly in academic and professional circles.</p>
<p>Wisconsin is not quite as strong as Michigan, but it is certainly not far behind. I think the main distinction is the overall quality of its professional programs.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Don't most TAs only teach in undergrad classes?
[/quote]
No, almost all large classes at research universities, whether graduate or undergraduate, have teaching assistants.</p>
<p>Students in my graduate program generally TA only for graduate classes.</p>
<p>Wisconsin has 70 academic departments ranked in the top 10 nationally. And maybe the best social life in the country. So, there are a few things.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Wisconsin has 70 academic departments ranked in the top 10 nationally
[/quote]
</p>
<p>ummmm....what?</p>
<p>Are there even 70 departments? there probably is but still......</p>
<p>Generally speaking, when a universities lists the number of top 10 departments, it includes all departments, including all the Languages, the various Regional/International studies, all the Social Sciences, Humanities, Hard Sciences, Life Sciences. I think "sub-departments", like the dozen or so Engineering discplines, and sub-divisions such as Biochem, Astrophysics etc... </p>
<p>I would not be surprised if Wisconsin really had 70 top 10 departments. It is one of the most well-rounded universities. </p>
<p>Michigan has over 100 top 10 departments and sub-departments. Cal does as well.</p>
<p>I believe that is based on the Gourman rankings. </p>
<p>Also see</p>