The University of Wisconsin - Madison

Yes, this place really is a bastion of radical left-wing activism. While the campus population represents a variety of views, the lefties are by far the most visible and outspoken groups (among the students as well as the profs). This can sometimes get annoying if you're not one of them.

The School of Music is supposedly one of the best in the U.S., though I'm not sure if it deserves this reputation. True, the professors are generally good musicians and scholars, but some of them aren't competent teachers, particularly those in the non-performance areas (on a side note, music composition is a "performance" major here, which doesn't make sense to me). Many of the TAs are superb, though they are sometimes constrained by their unimaginative and/or inept supervising profs. The undergrad music curriculum seems to place more emphasis on fulfilling a rigid set of academic requirements than actually learning something useful. The School of Music is located in arguably the ugliest and most run-down building on campus - a concrete monstrosity on the outside, depressingly drab on the inside, water dripping from the ceiling during the winter and spring, horrible climate control year-round...

Across the university in general, the academic quality is very hit-and-miss on many different levels (department, instructor, course, etc). Dealing with the sprawling bureaucratic machine of university administration can be frustratingly unproductive and time-consuming. Also, budget cuts are ever-present and always increasing, which means students are paying more and more for tuition while receiving less and less in return. Madison is a beautiful city, with three gorgeous lakes (all within walking distance of campus), lots of well-maintained parks, and trees everywhere. It's also relatively safe, as long as you take the usual common-sense precautions. Getting around can be tricky in the winter - a few times I've actually walked to class through nearly knee-deep snow, uphill both ways! But during the rest of the year, it's a nice place.