University of Wisconsin-Madison Top Questions

Wisconsin kids (sconnies) and east coast jews

My classmates are enthusiastic about their learning experience at our university.

the best friends i'll ever have

I generally feel very out of place here. I'm a female, pink-haired, bisexual, hard-partying, hard-studying, honors biochemistry student, so maybe I'm coming from a bit of an odd background... I'm not a big drinker, so there's not a lot to do on weekend nights. Contrary to popular belief, the campus is not very politically active, nor very liberal. A large portion of students are rich east coast "preps" that don't seem to interact much with the rest of the students. There is a large population of foreign students, but a distinct lack of other minorities. The LGBT community has been rather unaccessible from my point of view, but some people seem to be quite happy with it.

My classmates are exceptionally diverse, motivated, and most are willing to do what it takes to succeed not only in college, but in life in general.

On the surface they are hard-working with laid-back personalities. Work hard, play hard. However, many of the students are afflicted with what I call "sophisticated-hippie syndrome" . They like to use big words to preach about open-mindedness and the right to make your own choices, but if your choices are different from theirs you aren't allowed to make them. For example, if you choose not to binge drink and have casual sex every weekend you are quickly labeled as a stiff who never wants to have fun. Never mind having different political views or faith.

I would say my classmates work hard then play hard, and while some can be irresponsible about it, taking the "play hard" motto too far, for the most part it makes for a challenging academic life and a fun and relaxing social atmosphere.

They are very heavy drinkers, but also very academically focused to the point where they will give up everything else in their lives to just focus on school to be able to do well.

amazing

More generally, Wisconsin isn't a very diverse campus, but as I said before, with 40,000 students you can find people who are like you. Especially since there are so many organizations on campus, you can easily find a group to match the interests you have. You can wear anything at UW-Madison and people wouldn't care. The most students are from Wisconsin itself with the next being from Minnesota due to reciprocity. The rest are from the Midwest and then there are also a lot from the east coast.