UW Madison Finance Struggles
So, I'm a math major at UW Madison, trying to break into financial math. I am an undergraduate, so I still want to go to graduate school, but I am getting really frustrated about how horrible a reputation the university has and I am worried I won't be admitted to any good graduate schools. To clarify, the math department here is awesome and ranked no. 7 in the US by ARWU and 2022 USNWR and I have so far had a great experience ( I am taking diff eq's right now). The problem is that UW Madison is laughed out of the room when I bring it up to people. I used to think it was a good school, but now I think it is a tier below ASU in terms of academic reputation and multiple tiers below Ohio State and Penn State. Northwestern and Umich are practically divine entities compared to UW. Seriously, none of my family or friends respect this school and keep telling me to transfer out. I just don't understand how a UW's stem departments could be ranked so high and everyone around is telling me it's slightly better than community college; they have a lot of noble prize winners too :(
So basically, I am a sophomore, and I have a 3.89 math gpa, with a 3.83 overall from UW Madison +12 APs from high school (I am instate Wisconsin). Do you think I should try and transfer to Umich/Northwestern. I actually asked a friend ( who goes to Ross) if I should go to Umich, and he said yes because " UW Madison is filled with bums" and that if I actually want a chance into finance Umich is the bear minimum, with NW being ideal. I just really don't know if I want to do it, so I figured I should post about it. Do employers think UW Madison is a bad as my family does? Furthermore, could I be accepted to graduate schools with UW on my resume? I'm just really panicking because it feels like I've screwed up my life before it's even begun.
Are people able to comment? Is it automatically enabled or do I need to do something?
I attended one of the schools you listed that perpetually gets shit on by people.
I’m 5+ years out of school and accelerated recruiting only started to take place after I had locked down a banking offer. So while I may understand some of the challenges you’re facing I’ve never actually had to go through them.
I think you’re fine staying at UW if that’s what you want to do. You’ll just need to maintain a 3.7+ GPA and network like a madman to make something happen. The market is really bad right now so even if you were to transfer it’s not a given you’d get an offer especially at Michigan or Northwestern.
It’s easier said than done but you should also stop caring what people think to an extent. If your buddy at Michigan or family is shitting all over UW and you like it there stick up for yourself. I had to deal with the same shit you did from my friend group and their parents when I decided to go to my school.
I never said anything and used it as motivation to succeed. 5+ years out of school conservatively I make at least 3x every one of them (probably more like 5X realistically) and my version of your Michigan friend who went to a similarly ranked semi target is working at a bottom tier big 4 job in deal advisory (not even real consulting). Imagine spending $300K on a degree and ending up at the Big 4.
You should also stop putting semi target and target kids on a pedestal. As someone who did a degree at a target school filled with Ivy League kids they’re not half as smart as they think they are. I’d argue a fair amount of them were fucking idiots and were just able to get guided through the system by their parents who know how to play the game. I’m talking Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Princeton, Yale, etc. kids that couldn’t grasp basic finance, accounting, or econ 101. Sure there are truly brilliant kids at those schools but outside of the top 10% none of these kids are any smarter than anyone you’ll encounter at UW.
You’ll also be able to get into a good grad school if you stay at UW and get solid grades. I did a hell of a lot worse than you did in school (3.3) and had mediocre test scores but supplemented that with strong EC’s and work experience but got into a target school with more than 50% in scholarships as an ORM. As a math major you’re already going to do better than I ever did on test scores and your grades are dramatically better so work on developing interesting EC’s that make you a more well rounded person. Obviously, nothing is guaranteed but assuming you get any decent kind of corporate job (F500) or internship and get promoted you’ll be able to get into a target grad school. At the lower tier ivy’s like Cornell I’ve seen retail bank branch managers get in and transition to IB.
Elaborate who is laughing you out of the room - how do they do that. Those people seem terrible and not worth your time.
Well, unfortunately I mean literally being laughed at. My friends at other schools will simply laugh at me if I bring up UW Madison and dismiss the conversation entirely. I guess they think I did not try in high school and that I'm just overly frustrated about my situation and venting ( honestly, it's starting the feel that way). My parents will listen to me about UW, but they'll still make jokes about it. Like they think all the math professors drink, which I find very insulting because there is literally a prodigy on the faculty named Jordan Ellenberg (who's very famous in the math world!).
I mean if I were to be totally blunt with you, the most frustrating part is that UW Madison has good academics, better than most state schools. It just has a tremendously bad reputation and I can't understand why, it's like once people see those party school list they immidialaty chuck UW in with ASU. UW Madison has all academics departments ranked 30th or below, with 76 ranked in the top 10. Do you know who can't say that: UF, ASU, UNC, UVA, Texas, Washington, Indiana, every UC except Berk and LA, Ohio State, Penn State etc etc. But guess what, all the schools I've listed get much better job recruitment/have a much better reputation. Like for my niche field (math) recruiters claim to be going for academics, but they just so happen to go schools like UNC (whose math department is ranked 83rd) and skip over UW Madison, whose math department is ranked 7th. It's literally a nightmare and I can't figure out why. To suggest that a school like UF (which has no academic department ranked below 50) is a much better school than UW Madison is not only wrong, it's downright disrespectful. It's disrespectful to all the faculty and graduate students who work their asses off (like Jordan Ellenberg) to publish thousands of papers, while also teaching, to keep UW's rankings up; Our old Chancellor fought so hard to keep UW's research budget in the billions (4th in the nation for research spending) that it actually killed her. Anyway, this is more of a rant I wish I could tell to my friends [but I'm too much of a coward :( ]. Still, I don't think your argument holds for UW, because it absolutely is a better school than an Ohio State or Florida State.
Just curious did you attend ASU? I'm currently trying to decide between ASU and UW-Madison and I'm really unsure what to do. It seems like ASU is worse than Madison and especially for finance. It doesn't really seem logical to pick ASU over Madison but I really wanna go there and get out of here and experience some new warm things for awhile just not sure if it would set me far behind career wise and finance wise compared to Madison. Feel free to PM or if anyone else has any knowledge on this.
I have never had an experience where being a UW student was a detriment in recruiting for finance roles. And I graduated from the law school. I wasn’t even in the business school and I came straight from undergrad.
With that being said, I was definitely not apply to any “harder math” finance roles. I am a mere M&A guy
Midwest guy here. Madison had an amazing network. I can put you in touch w a guy. I would stay and focus all time on networking and getting some finance experience
Dm me for contact.
This is interesting, I’ve met a fair share of UW Madison guys from my firm and they’re not clueless at all, multiple have been #1 in II in their respective sectors too. Best thing is they’re personable and know how to keep a great convo
You got this bud. Just follow your heart.
I've connected with multiple UW undergrads that moved to grad schools as high as Duke. Embrace the party school reputation it has and show that you're still sharp.
Don't let other people's thoughts define you
I do know of UW students being accepted into MIT/Harvard, but they were brilliant and all from out of state. I guess it gives me some hope. I wouldn't really try and gun it for Duke, because as far as I know UW Madison has a better graduate school than Duke for most fields in general (math especially, Econ is also a huge plus). But you are right that Duke has a superior reputation, it's kinda like the Notre Dame effect where having a really strong undergrad program leads people to think you must have a good graduate school.
Ngl, only retards are obsessed with collegiate reputations. Every school is a self-aggrandizing money making institution, and no amount of quirky Latin mottos is going to change that. Most schools have little to no material differences in curriculum, which means that it’s repetition stems from piggybacking off of alumni success and bribing organizations that rate schools.
Fuck anyone that says that shit about UW to you. Madison is an amazing school and quite literally the definition of work hard play hard. We are highly ranked in essentially all academic areas and UW alumni ride hard as hell for each other. The school invests so much into themselves and their resources and nobody knows how competitive the school actually is. The only reason anybody could think bad about it is because of the party scene and people hear about that and automatically think down upon Madison academically which is not valid. The new chancellor has really been trying to change the stigma about the partying and the whole atmosphere of it in general. But there's nothing wrong with sitting down and enjoying a couple cold Busch Lights after studying all day and night for your Econ 320 exam.
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