Excellent opportunities await you at the UW-Madison
Written: Mar 18 '00
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Pros: one of the best public schools in the United States
Cons: some may find the social environment harsh if you don't share the overall point of view
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| poseidon's Full Review: University of Wisconsin-Madison |
I graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in May of 1990 with a Bachelor of Science degree in English Literature. I was a transfer to Wisconsin from the University of Denver. For two years of my college career I majored in both English and Journalism. I attended Wisconsin in my junior and senior years of my education.
There are many aspects to this school for which I have written various reviews. If you are looking for more details on any aspect of this school that I touch upon, you may wish to visit those specific reviews.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison Campus
This is one of the most gorgeous campuses you will see at any college in the country. The architecture is vast, as the buildings were built spanning the last 180 years. All the architecture seems to reflect the period of time for which each structure was built. There are ivy-covered buildings and very modern looking buildings.
Bascom Hill is at the heart of the campus. It is the single highest point in the City of Madison, and houses the College of Letters and Sciences, which is the heart of the academic program at Madison.
The campus is built around Lake Mendota. This lake is beautiful and is huge and provides enough distraction between ice fishing and sailing. The polar bear club also meets every January on the shores of Lake Mendota.
You will find plenty of green grass, large hardwood trees, and lovely scenery.
The Academic Program at UW-Madison
In 1988, when I first applied to the school, it had the third highest-ranked Journalism program in the country and the fifth highest-ranked English program. The university was in the top ten public colleges in the United States. It also housed high-rated Schools of Pharmacology, Law, Nursing and Engineering.
I took a variety of courses in Natural Sciences, History, Social Sciences and Philosophy. Of course, I also took Journalism classes and a majority of my work was done in the English Department. Almost all of my classes were taught exclusively out of the College of Letters and Science.
Classes are typically huge. It is not uncommon for freshman- or sophomore-level classes to have several hundred people in attendance. In fact, until you reach senior-level classes or are taking something of a very specialized nature, most of your classes will seem large.
The professors at the college are definitely top-notch. In many of the classes I took, the professors were leaders in whatever field the course of study was. Many were published in their own trades and some in the Natural Sciences Department had made important discoveries that furthered science.
I found student advising to be about the worst aspect of the entire academic process. I’m not sure if it was limited to the English Department and School of Journalism, but my advisors were awful. I almost failed to graduate because of a simple process my advisor failed to notify me about. Luckily I was able to explain the situation to the powers that be and I did graduate on time.
There are a few minor libraries scattered about the campus along with a main library that provide research and quiet study facilities for the students who need them.
This is a school that practices and enforces academic probation. If your grades slip below a 2.0 in any given semester, you are placed on academic probation. If you fail to pull up your grades, you are dismissed from the school.
The Housing Situation at the UW-Madison
One of the downfalls with attending a school the size of UW-Madison is finding a place to live. Madison is not a large city to begin with, and you are in competition with over 30,000 other students. While there is student housing available on campus, it is limited and available on a first-come-first-served basis. This means as soon as you are accepted to the school, the first thing you want to do is apply for housing.
Freshmen are almost always guaranteed housing on-campus. Juniors and seniors are almost encouraged to find some apartment or rental house to live to make way for incoming underclassmen. The school did state on various occasions that it would try to find on-campus housing for anyone that wanted it but would make no such guarantees.
Most of the rental houses around the university are about 100 years old. The rooms are typically small and the facilities are bare-minimum. The good news is they do border the outskirts of the university, so you don’t need to take a bus or drive to your classes.
Many of the off-campus apartments are at the border of satisfactory/unsatisfactory. There was an organization that kept track of complaints for off-campus housing, and almost all the apartments had many complaints. I lived off-campus my senior year in one of these apartments and would agree with the assessment. If you live in an off-campus apartment, research very carefully who the management company is before you sign that lease.
Unless you are rich, don’t bother bringing your car. You can purchase an annual street permit for $12.00 (in 1990), but the City of Madison required that you move the car every 48 hours, otherwise it would be towed at the owner’s expense. You simply can’t move the car up 20 feet; it had to pretty much be on another block entirely.
You also have the option to rent a private parking space. I tried that my junior year, and it set me back $350 for a nine-month lease. For that price, you are still walking several blocks from wherever you live to your parking space, and your space isn’t secure. Basically you are renting driveway space from someone who owns a house.
Finally, there are the university parking permits. Unless you are related to someone on the Board of Regents, this is a lost cause and a waste of time to even attempt to get a permit. On top of that, the student parking lot is a good 25- to 30-minute walk to the closest classroom, and a good 40-minute walk to the closest residence hall.
The Food Service Program at UW-Madison
There are various dining halls splattered across the immense campus. Some are at the student union, and others are located at various residence halls.
I won’t try and convince you that the food is gourmet by any means. At the same time, this isn’t the military food your parents and grandparents complained of either. The food is, for the most part, good. It is healthier and tastier than most fast food restaurants and less tasty than a family restaurant. I guess what I’m trying to say is you will survive nicely if you enroll in the food service program.
The menus are similar to what you’d find in any cafeteria. You have a decent selection of soups and entrees, and there is even a salad bar if that floats your boat.
You can pay for meals either in cash or by utilizing a meal ticket. Meal tickets are sold with a $20 face value. There is a huge black market for meal tickets which is either ignored or accepted by the university. Theft of meal tickets was a large problem when I was attending the school.
Extracurricular Activities at UW-Madison
If you have a cause, there is at least one organization for you, if not several. If you are looking for an academic club or organization, you will have no troubles. If you desire a religious club, your choices are immense. If there is some sport that grabs your fancy, you’ll find probably an intercollegiate and an intramural team that gives you an opportunity to participate.
In fact, the extra-curricular activities at UW-Madison are so immense, one may wonder where the students have time to do his or her studies.
The Greek System and its Influence at UW-Madison
I never experienced any pressure to join a fraternity when I was a student. Perhaps that was a result of my transferring into the school and not entering the school as a freshman. When I lived in the residence hall in my junior year, however, most of the freshmen indicated a fraternity had not approached them. The ones that were interested had to seek out and pledge the fraternity they had some interest in joining.
If the fraternity or sorority has any national recognition, it most likely has a chapter at Madison. Almost every academic fraternity, such as Phi Kappa Beta, was represented as well.
Campus Life at UW-Madison
The environment at Madison is probably the most interesting aspect of the school. UW-Madison has to be one of the single most liberal campuses in the country. This can be a blessing to students with that utopian philosophy or it can be pure hell for a student who was raised with traditional values and wishes to continue to live in that lifestyle.
There is a march from the bookstore to the Capitol building almost every day to demonstrate for some “human-rights” cause. Many days there are multiple marches, since there are only so many days available a year and so many causes to march for.
Drinking is a major past time at this school. Beer flows freely, despite the age restrictions set in place by the state government. Liquor stores and bars make up several of the businesses around campus, and many people are drunk from Friday afternoon to Sunday evening.
The drug trade is also rampant. There is an annual “sit in” on Bascom Hill where students smoke pot in front of the police to demonstrate their desire to legalize marijuana. Arrests are usually not made in this situation unless you cause some sort of trouble. This “sit in” attracts hundreds of demonstrators annually.
Homosexuality is not only prolific; it is encouraged. If you are remotely suspected of being “homophobic” you are given the choice to undergo a re-education course or are dismissed from the school. I am not making this up. I myself was forced to undergo this “re-education” class in my senior year and given the choice to take the class or leave the school. Naturally I was more interested in graduating then standing up for myself and fighting the system.
Bigotry was a large problem when I attended the school. If you were black, white, Asian, Native American, Amish, Polish, Christian, Jewish, gay, bisexual or straight then you experienced some sort of bigotry. I definitely experienced my fair share of it in 1989 and 1990.
Conclusion
The University of Wisconsin at Madison has consistently been ranked in the top ten public schools for many years. It provides an education that is only rivaled by the Ivy League schools. Both the huge sprawling campus and class sizes can be intimidating to incoming freshmen. Social life at this school is very unique and should be investigated thoroughly prior to making a decision to attend the university. Also, being located in the upper-Midwest and in-between four lakes, winters are extremely frigid and can last close to eight months.
If you can deal with the negatives, I would definitely attend this university, because you will be endowed with close to the best education available.
Recommended:
Yes
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poseidon
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Member: Jeffrey Schwartz
Location: Highlands Ranch, Colorado, USA
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