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University of Wisconsin, Madison
U Illinois @ Urbana Champaign
Iowa State University
University of Washington

Thanks.

By Thenarrator (Thenarrator) on Monday, September 01, 2003 - 06:08 pm: Edit

They are all universities with an undergraduate program located in mainland United States.

By Perry (Perry) on Monday, September 01, 2003 - 06:31 pm: Edit

Mynock --

I went to graduate school at the Univ. of Wisconsin in Madison. It's a wonderul school, cosmopolitan, politically active, with lots of to do. Madison is also a great town, but the winters are brutally cold.

Nonetheless, be aware that like most public universities these days, the Univ. of Wisconsin has taken some savage budget cuts in the past two years. The budget situation there is worse than at most other public Universities. As a result, you should make some inquiries as to how the budget situation is affecting the academics in terms of class size, course selection, availability of courses that you need for your major, how many faculty have been laid off, if any, and what the future budget situation portends for the university's academic quality.

Wisconsin is the best institution on your list. I know that the Univ. of Wasington and Iowa State have also suffered brutal budget cuts. You should make the same kind of inquiries at those schools.

Good luck to you.

By Mynock (Mynock) on Tuesday, September 02, 2003 - 08:49 am: Edit

Hey, thanks for the advice. I should probably add that I am specifically wondering about the computer science departments. Do you think they suffered quite a bit from the budget cuts?

By Perry (Perry) on Tuesday, September 02, 2003 - 08:25 pm: Edit

I'm only guessing -- but I doubt the computer science departments have suffered much. You should look into it, however.

By Marite (Marite) on Tuesday, September 02, 2003 - 08:37 pm: Edit

If you are interested in comp sci, definitely check out UIUC, but beware of the impact of budget cuts as Perry suggested.

By Mike (Mike) on Tuesday, September 02, 2003 - 08:39 pm: Edit

U of Wash is huge with large dorms and large classes in the early years at least. If that is not a turnoff it offers a very good computer ed. and has support from Gates at Micro. The only real complaints I hear around the PNW is the size is very hard on some kids and the campus has lots of local kids who hang together and it sometimes hard to find your niche.

Mike's Dad

By Mynock (Mynock) on Tuesday, September 02, 2003 - 10:12 pm: Edit

I've also heard that Wisconsin and UIUC are pretty big party schools. is this true?