Would you rather go to UW-Madison or UIUC?

College Search & Selection
21

<p>
[quote]
UIUC has more name recognition due to its engineering rep. UW-Madison is just an all-round decent Big Ten school with nothing outstanding on the national level (correct me if I'm wrong, but that at least is my perception from the NE).

[/quote]

You can't be more wrong. UW outranks UIUC in almost all fields outside of engineering, with nationally top ranked departments in biological/health/medical/agricultural sciences, social sciences, languages and humanities.</p>

<p>< Department >...< UW > .<uiuc>
Overall(UG) .......... 35 ...... 40
Business(UG) ........ 13 ...... 13
Engineering(UG) ..... 13 ....... 4
Clinical Psych ........ 1 ......... 9
Pharmacy ............. 9 ........ NA
Vet Med ............... 5 ........ 18
Social Work .......... 12 ....... 18
Mathematics ......... 14 ....... 18
Computer Sci ........ 11 ........ 5
Biological Sci ......... 15 ....... 29
Microbiology ........... 3 ........ 11
Chemistry .............. 7 ......... 7
Physics ................ 16 ......... 8
Earth Sci .............. 15 ........ 34
Economics ............ 11 ........ 28
English ................. 16 ........ 19
History ................. 11 ........ 22
Political Sci ........... 16 ........ 22
Public Affairs ......... 14 ........ NA
Psychology ............ 9 .......... 5
Sociology .............. 1 ......... 34
Education ............. 12 ........ 25
Library/Info ........... 11 ......... 1
Medical Research ... 27 ......... NA
Medical Prim Care ... 13 ......... NA</uiuc></p>

<p>UW also outranks UIUC in other fields like antropology, philosophy, agriculture/dairy, medical sciences, languages, etc. Btw, even in engineering, UW has a top 5 chemical engineering.</p>

22

<p>Wisconsin- beautiful area, sports, great academics, more recognized here on the east coast (to me anyway)</p>

23

<p>To you maybe beanieboo, but U of I along with Purdue and Michigan carry much bigger of names than Wisconsin in Seattle and the Silicon Valley, anywhere you've got high tech industries. You'll have a hard time arguing to an engineer in a high tech company that Wisconsin has better academics than any of the other three engineering big names in the Big Ten.</p>

24

<p>I guess the former CEOs of Autodesk, Cisco and current head of Epic Sytems might disagree. Not to mention old Bill Gates himself.</p>

<p>Bill</a> Gates surprises students as "stand in" professor (Oct. 12, 2005)</p>

25

<p>My D would rather go to Madison. I think they're comparable schools academically (although each has its strengths, such as UIUC engineering), but UW Madison has a prettier campus, is in a town on a beautiful lake that is the state capitol as opposed to a town situated amongst the cornfields, and is closer to home (but not too close!). However, UIUC is our state flagship and has the benefit of lower tuition. D will be happy to get into and attend either of them, but UW Madison would be her preference.</p>

26

<p>Barrons, Michigan and Wisconsin are both excellent. But I'd have to say that Michigan is a better school overall. The top 5 most prestigious public universities in the US have always been UC Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan, UVA and UNC. Wisconsin is definitely top 10 though.</p>

27

<p>Yes and no. I think both UW and UM have far more depth and breadth than UVa and UNC which are mostly strong in liberal arts and little else. Uva has a small so-so engineering school and UNC has none. Both are also not as strong in the hard sciences. I'd say the Top 5 are really UCB, UCLA, UM, UW and UIUC.</p>

28

<p>
[quote]
UM may have a better rep whatever exactly that's worth but in factual areas of quality they are closer than most might think.

[/quote]

Barrons, is that you? You're starting to sound a lot like Hawkette. :D</p>

<p><em>Not that I don't agree with you</em></p>

29

<p>
[quote]
I'd say the Top 5 are really UCB, UCLA, UM, UW and UIUC.

[/quote]

UM, UIUC, and UW have more breadth and depth than UCLA. </p>

<p>IMO, it would be:
UCB, UM, UIUC, UW and a tie between UCLA and UT-Austin.</p>

30

<p>UCB. You dissing UCLA again? ;-)</p>

31

<p>^ :D</p>

<p>I guess I should be nicer to the 'ruins.</p>