Change my mind: UW Madison blows
I stand corrected; I'll admit it. I was totally wrong about UW being a good school. I recently looked at the employment reports for graduates and man, I didn't know if I should laugh or cry. This school has a really bad reputation just in general. It's nationally renowned....as a party school. I know I was talking about Nobel laureates, famous/smart alumni which UW definitely has...it's just that nobody cares at all/thinks UW is a good school on the employment level. In hindsight, I definitely should have taken Michigan; I wouldn't wish UW on my worst enemy.
With that being said, I won't totally reverse everything I've said. UW still holds major prestige in academia; a kind of secret prestige that the general public/employers/Umich alums don't really know about. This is where the Nobels laureates/Wisconsin school of economics/diplomatic history/discovery of vitamins/ come into play. Because UW has made important academic contributions, it gets a lot of prestige in academia which means it gets a really high peer reputation score (4.2/5, 5th among publics). This means that for graduate school applications, UW alumni are set and I think that shows in the amount going to Harvard Law/Business school as you can check on LinkedIn.
In short, yes I'm wrong UW is a strong non-target and has a bad/party reputation overall. Would def avoid and only choose as a last resort, even if the resort is Nebraska or Iowa. BUT, if you are unfortunate enough to be stuck here, UW historically has been an elite public university, but that is outside most people's modern memory. After all, this was a founding member of the AAU with Michigan and Berkley. So, in the end, there is still hope for the few Wisconsin students who aren't losers/drunks.
Why go to UW when you can go to an Ivy or a top finance program
yeah lol, like why doesn’t everyone just go to HYP. Kinda stupid not to imo.
Going to an Ivy League is worth it
it’ll be the worst four years of your life but when you go back home all the ditsy blondes throw themselves at you. life is all about sacrifice
We know buddy, we know.
Dude you’re single-handedly making the entire U of W seem like a bunch of squids every time you post on bitching about your school. Nobody likes a pussy. Either break in from there or get the fuck over it.
plot twist: it’s a guy from iowa or michigan running an elaborate smear campaign
*Kelley
What is the point of this post lol no offence. Did people think UW particularly strong for finance recruiting?
This thread topic and content is embarassing and quite frankly irresponsible, to the extent any college-aged readers of this forum are immature enough to take it seriously.
A balanced view of UW is as follows:
- Good, but not great, school overall. Look at US News for positioning. A little below Michigan, Virginia, UNC (which is an accurate assessment) but not materially so.
- Pretty good for Chicago / Minneapolis investment banking recruiting. Less so for NYC (but still doable btw, there are a fair amount of alumni on the street)
- If you are smart and apply yourself, you'll easily be able to launch a successful career upon graduation from UW. No employer disrespects the school. However, the brand doesn't possess an "elite aura" safety net, and therefore if you don't apply yourself while you're there and putz around, you won't find the job you're looking for when you graduate (hello, law / medical school)
What do you make of UW unusually higher academic peer reparation score of 4.2 out of 5. According to academics, UW is better than UNC by a margin. Why do academics and everyone else have different opinions? Is it because UW generally has stronger graduate programs, especially in the humanities?
Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach. Professors’ views on student quality is not the same as industry. Industry doesn’t care how well you perform on an exam (as long as you pass SIE) or how brilliant you are. IB is not rocket science; it is hard work with long hours, but not particularly that intellectually difficult. Industry would rather have the kid who worked hard for a 3.9 GPA. Academia would rather have the kid who got a 3.9 due to higher intelligence and little effort.
Good take. I went to UW and have several friends that made it into top IB positions in NY. If you're smart enough to have a GPA at the top of your class and apply yourself, join IB club, etc., you'll have plenty of opportunities. If you aren't good enough to do that, then who are you to complain anyways.
You have to keep in mind that a lot of the b-school / finance majors at UW are kids that grew up in Wisco / Minnesota and have 0 desire to work in IB or move to New York. You're really not competing against that many other students for the positions, and honestly half of them aren't worthy of working in top IB spots anyways. If you're set on IB, are smart, and apply yourself, you're going to end up with a solid position out of college.
Buddy.....UW blows. Never disrespect me like that again.
This is literally just bait lol
This guy is fun at parties
Sugma
I've had 3 analysts/associates over my career that came out of Michigan and maybe I got a bad bunch, but for the life of me I can't figure out why it recruits so well. Not one of them was above-average.
To be honest, I've had analysts and co-workers from a broad spectrum of universities and I almost find the school you went to completely irrelevant as a predictor of how good you are post-grad so long as you at least went to a university that can hang in the top 50. I really don't think that most careers in finance require you to be that intelligent - you really just need to have a certain baseline of "book-smart" intelligence which any top 50 college with a solid GPA can check the box. The true separation comes from things such as communication skills, grit / how bad do you actually want it / your interest levels, common sense, etc. and I've found that the school you went to to be a useless indicator of these things. I went to a top 50 public university and I've worked with ivy league grads that check all those boxes and I've also worked with several ivy-league grads where me, the public school guy, is constantly scratching my head wondering what the hell is wrong with these guys. When I think of the most impressive people I've worked, they are from a broad mix of universities including some I'd never heard of before all the way to ivy league guys.
One of my best friends went to a Big 10 school not named Michigan, struggled terribly in college courses and worked his ass off just to get a 3.5 GPA. But when it comes to actually working, something clicks in him and he's super dialed in, works long and engaged hours, and is a top tier communicator. He networked hard as well and landed an IB analyst spot with a great banking group out of New York and has been top bucket every year. He's now a VP and already being groomed to be an MD and has been turning down sick job offers from clients and PE groups left and right (he's a nut case and loves banking).
Point being, if you are at UW, quit whining about it not having the same business prestige as some of the other universities. Very few people in the real world once you're past the age of 25 really care where you went to college (real life evidence of this - UW ranks #1 in terms of Fortune 500 CEO's with 14), and UW is good enough to get you any finance role you want out of college if you're good and driven enough to land it. There's UW grads that work / have worked at Goldman, Blackstone, etc. Not to mention that they probably love hiring other UW grads if they can get their hands on a good one, and as you've seen there's really not that much competition coming out of there (maybe 10 - 15 grads per year that can land those roles? Go be one of them, it's not that hard if you want it)
This still underrates UW Madison; we're not talking about a "top 50 public university." We're talking about a school ranked in the top 10 of the public schools, and top 5 for academic peer reputation score.
If UW was so good, why is it a non-target school? If UW was a top public university, why is it a non target school? The best schools are target schools, so logically UW is not one of the best schools because it is not a target school.
I find it hard to believe that UW could decline so much such that many people would chose UMD or UGA over it.
Laborum doloribus perferendis voluptas aut. Quidem ut quaerat est quasi voluptatem. Consequuntur voluptatem minima aliquam dolores.
Sunt ipsam qui aut totam. Laborum consequatur esse porro. Deleniti tempora voluptas odit eius dolor ad. At et est nihil numquam. Aliquid consequatur possimus nam aliquid eum possimus rerum.
Repellat dolorem minus voluptate quis veniam possimus aut. Et facilis ut dolor est dolore. Sit quas tempora molestiae tempore quidem voluptates. Quasi cum et voluptas voluptatem consectetur rerum. Facilis alias facere qui error.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...
Possimus eveniet maiores doloribus nam magnam architecto molestiae. Unde nihil saepe ipsa in rem. Tenetur blanditiis nisi quam porro beatae numquam aut animi. Neque perferendis veniam quae magnam sed.
Eligendi omnis minima aut. Rem quod nobis incidunt sit error.