University of Wisconsin-Madison Top Questions

A lot of people would probably answer this queston in the same way that I do: the tuition. I know that $20,000 a year isn't as bad as it could be, but coming from a single-income family of 8 makes paying even that difficult. I think that the cost of room and board is the most expensive and should be lowered to encourage more students to attend college.

I'm currently an engineering major so I'm taking class in th Engineering buildings. Also, I'm a freshmen so I still live in the dorms. I live in the dorm thats the are the far east side of campus and the engineering buildings are on the far west side, so it is almost a mile walk to get down there.

The options at UW-Madison are endless. With interesting and exciting professors in all the fields there, it is hard to pick just one major to pick as a course of study. Perhaps the personal fault is my ability to find so many subjects interesting, but I also feel that in this respect, UW-Madison is sometimes too big. It's easy to choose going to a big school if you don't know what you want to study because it seems like it would have the most choices, but too many options makes it equally hard to choose.

Expectations are high and everyone is smart! I have always studied hard and performed at the top of my class. It was different for me to come to school and have to work my butt off for a "C"! While I say this is a frustation, it is also the reason I chose this university. I am earning a valuable degree and learning so much about life in the process.

You don't get much personal attention academically at UW-Madison. Even TA's have a lot of students to be aware of, so it takes a lot of effort to get one-on-one attention. You usually have to join a study group for this. And sometimes your questions go unanswered.

One of the most frustrating things about my school is the racial divide among students. Often times, the white students socialize only with other white students and minority students chose to stay solely with other minorities. This divide causes a tension between the racial groups when issues relating to race are brought up on campus, issues like affirmative action or funding of minority organizations. It is a self-segregation process that is not conducive to gaining the full benefits of this diverse student body.

I get frustrated with the large size of the campus sometimes. I know people at other schools that have only a five minute walk to class. I, on the other hand, have to leave 20 minutes before class in order to get there on time. Knowing I have such a long, cold walk ahead of me doesn't help me get out of bed in the morning.

If we are paying so much to be here, why can we not choose to pair certain majors? It is very frustrating to be interested in two majors, for example graphic design and journalism, and not be able to pair them as a double major because of technicalities. I realize there have to be guidelines for which courses students need to take for each major, but we should have the freedom to choose our futures. I love this school but I hate the governing behind it; it simply does not seem that it is in the students? best interest.

The class material is extremely challenging especially for students like me who come from inner-city public schools. The material is far more advanced then I feel I was prepared for attending a public (non-college prep) high school.

The most frustrating thing for me is trying to find good clean fun - any parties on campus always involve excessive amounts of alcohol. Not only am I underage, but I also don't like to drink and don't enjoy being around very drunk people. It's difficult to find crazy fun things that don't include drinking and all of the things that come with that. Any parties I have been to that don't have alcohol are usually religiously-affiliated and only play Christian music, which of course is not exactly exciting to dance to.