University of Wisconsin-Madison Top Questions

I think the worst thing about my school is the fact that registering for classes can be quite stressful. With so many students on campus, classes can fill up quickly. Sometimes you may not get the class you would like and you need to sacrifice in order to remain on schedule to graduate.

If you don't party, don't expect go get to know many people.

If you don't party, don't expect go get to know many people.

The only bad thing I can think of about my school is how cold it gets during the winter, but students are provided bus passes anyway, which really helps when getting to class in negative temperatures.

The drug and drinking culture can be quite liberal and therefore their respective crime rates can be relatively high compared to other states.

I think that this school could do a better job recruiting diverse minorities. There are a lot of international students that go here, but the school could do a better job recruiting more diverse environment within the US. The school should also look into parking for students that live off campus. Finding parking on campus is either crazy expensive or not available.

The worst thing about UW-Madison is the Wisconsin winter that descends upon campus in November and stays until March. The winters are filled with storms of heavy snow, frigid temperatures, and poorly plowed roads and sidewalks. The long walks students make on their commutes are lengthened by these unfortunate conditions that occupy the campus for many months. Although the snow can be beautiful upon first glance, that magnificence is deceiving. I am looking forward to migrating to place with a more hospitable year-round climate upon graduation.

The favoritism of minorities is the worst thing about UW Madison. More scholarships at Madison should be based on academic earnings, not your ethnicity.

The worst thing about the UW is signing up for classes. Although being able to sign up online is convenient, the system isn't efficiently designed for students to be able to find the msot convenient schedules.

I have abstained from drugs and alcohol while in high school and plan on that for college, too. I consider the drinking to be the worst part, but it is prevalent at all other universities as well.

At times the size of the university and classes can be really daunting causing me to feel disconnected from professors and academic counselors. However, after some time of getting used to my new environment, it hasn't been that bad. It can still feel intimidating when comparing yourself to so many other students in the same class, especially when we are focusing so much on competition and being the best.

Wisconsin winters are cold. So very cold. But at least we have awesome snowball fights and sledding.

The worst thing about Madison is the walking. None of the classes are close, but they are all worth walking too. You definitely have to think ahead if you want to go somewhere because you eithr have to walk 20 minutes are catch a bus, or ride a bike if you are lucky enough to have one. This is especially bad when it is raining (or snowing) but I have gotten used to it.

The worst thing about my school would have to that I don’t have any one-on-one contact with my professors. Yes, we do have TA’s that teach us during discussion, but I think that I would understand the material better if I could actually talk to the professors because they are the ones that are writing the books and the tests. Also because of the large class sizes I usually can’t ask the questions that I want to during lectures.

Not enough time to explore everything on campus.

The campus is very big and it can take almost an hour to walk from one end to the other. When it's the middle of december with negative 20 temperatures, it can kind of suck to have to walk that.

The worse thing about UW-Madison is also something I consider one of its strengths, the sheer size of the school. On one hand, you can meet new people everywhere you go and it is easy to find others that share your interests. But on the other, the enormity of the campus makes getting around difficult at first, and just about every class is a minimum of 15 minutes away.

One inevitably leaves the University of Wisconsin – Madison with a sense of regret. Unlimited paths lie before you as an undergraduate at Wisconsin, but which will you choose? Without question, there will not be enough time to do it all. The worst thing about Wisconsin is its abundance. As a student, you certainly have the time and ability to pursue any passions you could imagine. But no matter how many clubs, games, excursions, concerts, lectures, coffee shops, parties or sledding hills you find, you will eventually discover that another wonderful adventure escaped your grasp.

I cannot honestly say that there is anything bad about my school. I love the classes that I am taking, and there are so many opportunities here! I am really happy at this school. I suppose Madison could have less hills so getting to class wouldn't be such a workout, but I'm not sure that can really be changed.

The classes are too large which means that students don't always get the individualized help that they might need, and professors don't have enough time to help out outside of class. Also, it appears that some teachers were hired for their research skills rather than their teaching abilities.

The worst aspect to UW-Madison is the party atmosphere. There are numerous bars, clubs and other places of the sort on campus and nearby so students often indulge themselves in the nightlife a little too often and it becomes a prominent problem on campus.

The worst thing about the University of Wisconsin-Madison is that some of the classes, mostly introduction classes, are lecture halls full of hundreds of students. Therefore, it is possible for students to go entire semesters in a class without ever meeting the professor. However, the professors teaching assistants are usually fairly good at holding office hours for students to walk in and ask questions. Also, most professors do not treat their students as only numbers; they are usually open to questions and criticism. If someone has a question however, they cannot be shy about asking it.

The worst thing is the divided school population. By this, I mean that there are many students who come to UW Madison to learn and are serious about their studies, but there are also many students whose list of priorities don't even seem to include learning. On the upside, it seems that those whose primary interest is learning more than compensate for those who don't seem to care.

There aren't many bad things about my school. The worst for me is probably the size of some of the lecture classes. I came from a small town and small high school and wasn't used to being in a class with more than 15 students. It was a big change and definitely intimidating at first. However, after the first year I became used to lecture classes and now somewhat enjoy them. It's a different sort of experience that everyone should try.

The worst/best thing about the University of Wisconsin ? Madison, depending on how you look at it, has to the level of competitiveness shown by the students. It makes for a challenging learning atmosphere but also can be very distracting and at times over-intensified. This places a lot of unnecessary pressure on students.

Since the University of Wisconsin-Madison is home to thousands of students, it is hard to get individual attention that students need. It is also challenging to stand out from the crowd. Although Madison offers a lot of advising and extra help outside of classes, it is difficult for advisors and teachers to find the time to meet with each student that is in search of help.

The worst thing about Madison is walking across campus in the cold, on slippery sidewalks.

The worst part about Madison is that it is so large and the school is not interesting in helping freshman adjust. It is definitely a taste of the real world. Adjusting to college was hard because Madison offered few events to help freshmen get involved and meet other students and also provided no resources for academic help. You are truely on your own.

I believe my school is very competitive in academics and is sometimes hard to pursue your interests if you are not necessarily the best in the field. If you are not in the head of the class, you may feel discouraged and think you are doing poorly, even though it is just because there is so many people competing for the same spot as you are.

If I had to choose the worst thing about my school, I'd probably have to say the class sizes. The reason for this is that with more students per professor, one loses the student teacher interactions that were so common during high school. People really have to take it upon themselves to meet with their teachers if they have concerns whereas in high school, the teachers kept close tabs on all of their students. While I'd say this could be considered bad, I also am able to find a good side in that it builds independence and responsibility.

While Madison is fantastic, its endowment is nowhere comparable to, let's say, a university like Harvard. We have money and grants constantly coming in, but resources are limited. I have seen fantastic research done by so many grad students and undergrads, but I have also seen projects cut short or the failure to pursue a project due to lack of funding. In this sense, discovery is probably stunted, and while Madison's biotech is world-renowned, this emphasizes that fact that even more discoveries and more innovation could be cultivated if there was more money.

Located on a sprawling 935 acres, the campus can be a challenge to navigate between classes. With 40,000 students attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the campus is often crowed which complicates transportation across campus. The large population of students can seem overwhelming for a new student. Joining clubs, social groups and campus organizations helps with socialization and campus engagement making the huge University apear smaller.

The worst thing about my school is that if you don't drink alcohol there can sometimes be not much to do on the weekends. There aren't any movie theatres or bowling alleys etc near campus.

This particular university is very large and is at times difficult to make acquaintences.

My college was exceedingly large. The smallest of my classes had about 50 people in them -- so they weren't small classes at all. Many had hundreds of people in them. Even getting around campus could be difficult; you need a large amount of space to accomodate all those people! It never felt cozy to me. Also, most people are from a small or medium-sized town in Wisconsin, and it rarely felt like they were friendly to outsiders. In a lot of ways, small town beliefs prevail, even at a world-class institution like Madison.

It is a little too liberal for my more conservative tastes. The price is getting hard to swallow, too.

I think the worst thing about our school is the academic advising and some of the professors. I have switched majors 3 times, and have had more than 5 different advisors. I feel like I don't get any help from them because they are too concerned about their research, or have way too many other students' problems to deal with because we have 40,000 students on campus. The professors teach classes of 400 sometimes, so it's really hard for them to remember you, and therefore get a letter of recommendation.

The size and confusing organization of campus. Much of the campus is spread out over a large area so it can take a long time to walk to class and initially the organization of campus can be confusing to new students, I find its helpful to carry a map of campus with me at all times even after I've learned my way around there are always others that ask for help.

There is not as much emphasis on career advising as I would like there to be.

Personally, I think the large class sizes make it more difficult for me to grasp subject matter and concepts as swiftly as I might in smaller classrooms. Even though many lectures have discussion sections, I prefer to learn and review material more often than once a week (which is the typical frequency of discussions). Additionally, smaller classes help me to stay on top of my work and I usually ask many questions which cannot be as thorougly answered by professors in lecture halls. Plus, I enjoy hearing other students ideas and opinions regarding the material.

Probably the worst thing about our school is the off-campus housing. The area property management companies know that college students need places to live and therefore charge high prices for pretty low-quality housing. In my experience, the companies are fairly good at responding to calls about house problems. Just make sure you speak with the property managers before they change anything in your house (or just read your contract) because they may charge you for damages, even if they are just from normal wear-and-tear.

If you are not THE BEST, you are not good enough it seems and coming here makes you feel very unintelligent. I am lucky enough to be able to keep up academically, but have almost crumbled a few times. You must have a good work ethic to come here.

The lack of diversity is the worst thing about the school. It is in the central midwest, and a large portion of the students are white, straight, middle-class. There are groups of other ethnicities, social standings, sexual orientations, etc., but they are small and don't really feel a large part of the campus.

very researched focused, not enough on practicle careers

The winter weather. The city is beautiful and the weather is perfect in the spring and summer, but it gets really cold during the winter. During the warmer parts of the year I enjoy swimming in the lakes around campus and to excercise outside, but the weather interferes with this during the winter, which might be better for me academically.

Winter. 100+inches of snow.

bad weather

The large classes and the fact that they assume that you know everything already so that its basically you teaching yourself. I feel as if i am not getting my moneys worth because in all honesty i don't feel like im being taught.

The cold weather and poor winter conditions in general (ie: ice/snow on sidewalks)

The location; the weather is terrible.