University of Wisconsin--Eau Claire

The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire prepares students to succeed in a connected world influenced by global economic and social forces. Our Blugold Commitment program extends to all students the opportunity to participate in high-impact, experiential learning programs such as study abroad, internships, domestic or international cultural immersion programs and faculty-student research. Our students earn top-level honors, including Rhodes, Truman and Goldwater scholarships. In recent years, UW-Eau Claire has had more students receive Fulbright grants than most master's-level schools in the country. UW-Eau Claire is ranked third nationally - the highest of any Wisconsin university - for its number of chemistry graduates among the 339 colleges and universities that offer American Chemical Society-approved undergraduate chemistry programs, and we graduate more physics majors than most other similar colleges in the country, according to the American Institute of Physics. Our business program has distinguished itself from other business programs in Wisconsin and Minnesota through its ACCSB International accreditation - a mark of quality achieved by fewer than 5 percent of all business schools in the world. UW-Eau Claire has a nationally recognized undergraduate student-faculty research program. By their senior year, 35 percent of all students have worked with faculty on research and other scholarly projects as a supplement to their course requirements or plan to do so before they graduate. A growing number of courses also involve students in authentic research. Results from these projects have been published in prestigious journals (such as the Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness, American Speech, and Chemical and Engineering News) and are presented by students at regional, national and international conferences. Our highly respected music program features faculty and students who perform worldwide, and our Jazz Ensemble I was honored with the national Down Beat Award for Best College Jazz Ensemble. UW-Eau Claire offers many programs that allow students to study, live and work in international settings, as well as programs that bring international students to campus. UW-Eau Claire sends more students abroad for mid-length (quarter - or semesterlong) study-abroad experiences than any other master's level institution in Wisconsin, and it is the only Wisconsin school - public or private - on the top-20 list of master's-level schools that send students on mid-length programs. A growing number of education students complete their student teaching abroad. Many students earn scholarships through competitive programs to study and conduct research abroad, and more are completing internships in international settings. Students also are having meaningful domestic cultural immersion experiences, ranging from civil rights pilgrimages in the South to volunteer work in Wisconsin tribal schools to research in Western mountain ranges. UW-Eau Claire is one of just a handful of public regional universities in the country - and the only one in Wisconsin - to include service-learning as a graduation requirement. UW-Eau Claire has been named five times since 2006 to the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. Each year about 2,000 students generate more than 400,000 community-service hours and the value of their service totals more than $1.5 million a year. UW-Eau Claire is a signatory to the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment and in 2011 was named among the most environmentally responsible colleges and universities in the United States and Canada by The Princeton Review. In 2012 the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance placed UW-Eau Claire among the top three most selective universities in the UW System and as the second lowest in terms of student loan debt at graduation. Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine included UW-Eau Claire among its 100 best values in public colleges for 2012.