University of Wisconsin-Madison Top Questions

My biggest advice for meeting people on campus is to live in the residence halls your freshman year, and make a point to introduce yourself to people and leave your dorm room door open when you're home. During the first week of school students love to pop into each other's rooms to say hi and get groups together to eat dinner or go to a Wisconsin Welcome Week event. This is the easiest time to meet people and make friends, and if you keep to yourself too much at the beginning of the year it can be harder to make friends later on. There are over 700 student organizations on campus, and it only takes 3 interested people to start a new one, so feel free to get as involved as you want to!

greek life is SO overated! (in the school, i mean for real.) Students in dorms do leave their door open. the footaball games are such a big deal in the school. If i were awake at 2 am, i would prob. be watching something on tv and eating pizza. kids party every night here. you CANNOT do anything on saturday night that does not involve drinking. PERIOD. this is a drinking school. forget about it.

There are so many people and a million different student organizations there's no reason you should ever feel alone or left out at a school like Wisco. Even better- if there isn't a student org for your interest you can easily start one! Different dorms have different reputations as far as sociability is concerned. Generally Southeast dorms are known to be the more social dorms whereas Lakeshore is more quiet and studious. Madison is famous for its annual Halloween party but my favorite tradition is the Mifflin Street Block Party that is held the weekend before finals begin every year. Its basically half of the student body having a great time and enjoying the last days of spring (and sanity) before finals begin. There are plenty of things going on around campus on a Saturday night that you can go to if you aren't drinking. The Union almost always has some sort of show going on and there are lots of art performances going on year round. Plus there's tons of great restaurants on State Street.

There's a million events every day, seriously. There's posters up everywhere - if you want to go to a play or an ethnic concert or make crafts on a Saturday night, you'll find something on campus. I met my closest friends by living in the dorms and being in a super small major. I really recommend living in the dorms at least for your first year - it's hard to make friends with people you don't live near. Also, beware that the city of Madison starts renting apartments super early - like, in November for the next school year. So, if you're planning on signing a lease, be sure that you know the people you'll be living with. They could turn out to be psychos and then you'll be screwed. =) One other thing: if you plan on coming to Madison with all your BFFs from High School and living with them, don't plan on making a lot of new friends. If you don't want to branch out, you probably shouldn't even go to college.

The weekends of the fall semester are completely centered around football season. The games are awesome and the tailgating before hand come in a close second in terms entertainment. For student involvement the outdoors clubs (Hoofers) are very popular and many students are active in one of the groups within this club. The winter gets a little tougher because the snow and the cold does keep people inside more but it just makes for more opportunities to meet people in the dorms and apartments.

there are like 700 student orgs. you're dumb if you can't find one you like... or 6 you like for that matter. yes.. students leave their dorm doors open for the first half of the year. after that everyone knows each other pretty well and doesn't feel insecure about knocking to come in. i found that the second part of the year i wanted a little more quiet time being i had already met a lot of people and had a pretty good idea of who i wanted to spend time with. so yes.. open doors are prevelent... i personally had mine open when i felt like it and closed when i napped. athletic events- deservingly popular. football games are unbelievable. guest speakers are really popular too.. but they happen more frequently so there's not as "dense" of a crowd. theater is popular too. probably similar to guest speakers. the union has a lot of free movies offered... like superbad and that recent one w/johnny depp. can't remember it's name. the dating scene. well... there are a lot of cuties on campus. the girls seem to be more concerned with dating than the boys... who tend to have the "college mindset" of only living once. they get more mature though eventually.. i met my closest friends the first year in the dorms (SELLERY ROCKS!!! SOUTHEAST DORMS ALL THE WAY!) and then also through my sorority! i didn't know a single person at WI when i came.. and now have over 500 wisconsin friends on facebook :) it really becomes a small place.. and you meet SOOOOOOOO MANY PEOPLE. if you're awake at 2 am on a tuesday.. you're most likely studying. however.. you might be watching a movie w/friends/boyfriend/girlfriend or stumbling back from the bar. it all depends what your preference is. frats and sororities are as important as you want them to be! i'm in delta gamma and love it ..even though i'd never thought of myself as a sorority girl to begin with. it basically quadruples your network of friends.. how often to people party? thursday, fri, sat are a given... sometime wed... or sometimes just once a week. for the most part you usually are so burned out from using your brain all week that thursday is perfect timing for a little breath of fresh air. there's a lot of stuff you can do besides drinking. like i said.. the union has free movies. the union south has bowling. someone's always in their room playing video games. shopping... ians pizza..

This school has everything that you could ever want. If you want to go out one night and get trashed there are probably 4 or 5 keggers on every street not to mention the rampant bar scene. If you want to stay in there are several libraries open 24/7 and always movies or other activities going on all around campus.

Living the dorms was so much fun. I met tons of people, many that I'll remain friends with forever. It's just a great experience.

One of the great things about the university of wisconsin madison is that there is so much to do any given evening. As i tell prospective students on my campus tours, if you are bored on a friday night, you're not looking hard enough. Our student union offers a plethora of activites. From nightly concerts at the rathskeller and on the terrace to movies shown throughout the week, there is always something to do. one of the best things about our student union as well, is that beer is sold to students of age. While very strict in enforcing the 21 and over rule, it is none the less something very fun to do with friends on a lazy saturday afternoon on the terrace, over looking lake mendota. Elsewhere, you will find year round badger sporting events to attend. Whether football in the fall or hockey and basketball in the spring, there is always some even to go and cheer on the badgers. The Kohl center is another endless source of entertainment, hosting regular concerts and speakers. Recent events include the blue man group, Barak Obama, billy joel, bon jovi, and, i am ashamed to admit, brittney spears. Off campus, the university offers two malls, one on either side of campus. Both are readily accessible to students through our free bus passes, and perfect places for girlfriends to drag their significant others for a torturous night of shopping. It would also be heinous if i did not mention state street. Running six blocks, from campus to the capital, state street is my favorite place in madison. It has sources of entertainment, from bars with local and semi local bands such as Youngblood Brass band and Zox, and our famous overture center, which plays host to traveling broadway musicals such as Spamalot and The Phantom of the Opera. All this aside, my favorite thing about state street is the endless supply of food it offers students to sample. with over sixty different resturaunts, you can get calzones the size of your head, or pizza topped with hamburger and french fries! who can say no to that? A friend and myself have made it a goal to eat at every resturaunt on state street by the time we graduate. In this past year, we've made it about 2 and a half of the 6 blocks, which shows you how much more we have to go!

Frats and sororities can be popular with certain groups of people. Sports are always really popular too. I'm in band and an honor society, I really enjoy both and I've met some great people. Two big tradtions are the annual Halloween party and the annual Mifflin Street Block Party, both are pretty well known (ask Wikipedia haha). Generally a lot of drinking occurs at those events, but people can have a good time without drinking too. The Terrace behind the Union is a popular place for live music. State street shopping and restaurants are amazing too!