University of Wisconsin--Madison | Student Reviews | Best College

Student Profile

Ruth

Class: Junior
Major: History
Gender: F

High School: East HS, Duluth MN
Transfer Student: N

Big Picture

The best thing about Wisconsin is the school environment/structure of the campus, with a small school feel at a big school. I would change the excessive amount of binge drinking or curtail it a bit. I like the size. Other people know UW is kind of a wild, fun place but also where lots of smart, academically-oriented people go. This is definitely a "college town"; the campus is right downtown but very contained so there is a definite campus feel. The biggest recent controversy was probably being named #1 drinking school by Princeton Review in 2005. There is tons of school pride, especially at football and other sporting events. Although they are "plagued with alcohol", I really like events like Halloween and Mifflin St. Block Party. It's great to see lots of people coming together to have a good time.

Academic Life

Since UW is such a huge school, it is much harder for professors and students to carry on a close relationship, even in upper level classes. This can be a problem, but it is also fairly easy to go to your professor's office hours if it matters a great deal; otherwise, TAs make the lecture hall experience more personable as well. I feel that students study quite a bit here--- I guess it depends what you're getting into. I am in the honors program so that gives me a bit of a different perspective. Students arguably are more competitive here, but overall I've been very impressed with academic life here. One of my favorite classes was an honors seminar I took my freshman year where we read "Paradise Lost" and "Omeros". The latter became one of my favorite books. I also did an honors project with a professor for a 20th century American history class, which I LOVED because that is my favorite thing to study. It was on the Harlem Renaissance - pretty cool experience.

Student Body

There isn't a ton of racial or sexual orientation diversity on campus. There are definitely groups like LGBT alliance that are out there, however. As far as race goes, there is hardly anything out there dealing with issues of race because I feel like on campus it is more of a non-issue. As far as socioeconomic status, I think UW is fairly diverse. There are a fair amount of working class families, but also a significant portion of out-of-state students and other groups that are more upper-middle class or upper class. There is a bit of segregation among these socioeconomic groups. There is a fraternity/sorority mentality on campus, and there are also more expensive dorms for freshmen stereotypically designated for students from the coasts/more well-to-do students that generally don't interact much with Wisconsinites/midwesterners (unless they are in the Greek system together.) Students are predominantly left politically.