The University of Wisconsin - Madison

I was a psych major who ended up going to med school. I grew up in Chicago, but my family moved to Wisconsin during high school, meaning I (i.e. - my parents) paid some bargain-basement tuition.

The Good…
- UW was what you made of it. If you had initiative and got to know your profs/teaching assistants/instructors, then the classes didn't really seem so big. For the amount of money paid as an in-state resident (parents spent way more on my parochial high school’s tuition) you received a really great education from brilliant faculty. It was often the case that the textbook used was written by the one teaching the class.

- Madison received far more "respect" than anticipated (considering the fact that it’s a public university/non-Ivy) when I was applying to med school.

- There was an overabundance of opportunities to participate in research. It’s what they do.
- There was also an overabundance of departments/majors to choose from when deciding what classes you were interested in taking. That’s always good.

- Pseudo-celebrity student-athletes were your classmates, which could be incredibly entertaining. I spent four years living in a building by Camp Randall where they housed the football team. Ron Dayne (RB for the Giants) was two doors down freshman year. How often do you have a future Heisman Trophy winner for a neighbor? I’ll never forget the night (senior year) Michael Bennett (RB with the Vikings), who lived a few floors below, kicked down the door of a neighboring girl (with whom he was fighting), who called 911. The ensuing media hoopla (our building was on ESPN SportsCenter the next day) was priceless. Good times.

- The city and campus are liberal. I went in a Republican and came out a Democrat.
The Bad…
- It could be difficult during registration to get your first choices, as there were thousands of other students to compete with for a spot in each class.

- Pre-med classes (G-Chem, O-Chem, Bio, and Physics) could be hypercompetitive. Since everything was graded on a bell curve there really was no incentive to work in groups, as doing so could be detrimental to your final ranking in the class (needed to be in the top 10 percent for an A; no grade-inflation).

- Different profs/teaching assistants/instructors in charge of a class could have incredibly different ways of teaching/dealing with students. You needed to be very pro-active in finding a good match for your style of learning and personality.

- Since there were a lot of students in certain classes, office hours could be pretty crowded. There were times I was lucky to get even one question answered. You had to be very assertive.

- There was a lot of animosity between the “city kids” (from Chicago, NYC, or anywhere out east) and the “hicks” from in-state. Students typically fell into either the former or latter. The only noticeable exception would be the international students. Incidentally, most of my friends were rarely from Wisconsin.

- There was noticeable animosity between Greeks (stereotyped as shallow, vain, immature, and yuppie) and non-Greeks.

- There was some animosity between Med Scholars (often viewed as arrogant and/or condescending) and traditional pre-meds/med students (often viewed as insecure). I always thought it was kind of silly.

- There was some animosity between athletes (who received a free education, "preferential" treatment, and "tutors") and non-athletes (who were somewhat jealous of this).

- Madison’s a small town. Bar-hopping and athletics were often the primary sources of entertainment.

- The school wasn’t the most diverse of places.

4th Year Male -- Class 2001

Education Quality: A, Surrounding City: D