"Partying," said Brad Rothweiler, a UWM freshman. "There's a lot of parties."
Katie Woelfel, also a freshman at UWM, said many of her friends think UWM students party harder than Marquette students.,”Click to view interactive map of life at UWM
What are most University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee students concerned about?
"Partying," said Brad Rothweiler, a UWM freshman. "There's a lot of parties."
Katie Woelfel, also a freshman at UWM, said many of her friends think UWM students party harder than Marquette students.
"People think a lot of UWM students aren't that bright," Woelfel said.
UWM is also close to home for a lot of people, said Woelfel, a Racine native.
With more than 28,000 students, 93 percent of students come from Wisconsin, according to the UWM Web site.
Woelfel said UWM is often seen as a "last resort school" because it is not very hard to get into. She said people think the education at UWM isn't as good as other universities, but she said it is. Woelfel said she has learned a great deal in her classes.
She said individual students are responsible for making the effort to get the most out of his or her college experience.
Night life
"There's kegs all over the place, but you've got to look for them," said Ryan Johnson, a freshman.
UWM students can find the party scene on Maryland Avenue, Woelfel said.
"That's totally where it's at," Woelfel said.
If you walk down that street any weekend night you'll find a party, she said.
Ryan Norton, a freshman, said he was expecting a little more out of the UWM party experience.
"I'm not impressed," he said. "It's not all it's cracked up to be."
Academics
While kegs may grab the attention, students are concerned about academics and are not just concerned about partying, said freshman Julianne Bare.
"It depends on what you're coming here for," Bare said.
Bare is studying architecture and said her major is very competitive.
"If you don't make the cut you can be removed from the program," she said.
Others characterized UWM as less academically competitive than Marquette.
"You have to be kind of smart to go to Marquette, whereas at Milwaukee anyone can get in," said Rebecca Mantzke, a freshman.
UWM's admission guidelines state that "new freshmen are likely to be admitted if they rank in the top half of the class or have an ACT of at least 21.
The middle 50 percent of UWM's first-year students have ACT scores ranging from 20-24, according to collegeboard.com, compared to scores of 24-29 for the same group of Marquette students.
Some students said the early close time of the library—11 p.m. on weekdays, 7 p.m. on Fridays and 8 p.m. on Saturdays—contributes to a lack of good study spaces.
"Because UWM is such a commuter campus during the day the library is packed, but at night it's dead," said Anthony Villalobos, a senior.
Students are already being ushered out of the library 10 minutes before closing time, he said.
One computer lab remains open 24 hours, Villalobos said. But he said it is too small to spread one's books out like in the library.
Student Living
UWM students are not required to live on campus.
Forty precent to 60 percent of first-year students live off-campus in houses and apartments in the surrounding area, said Jenna Gerke, Neighborhood Housing Office Coordinator at UWM.
All dorms at UWM are connected to the same building. Sandburg Hall houses 2,700 students in its four towers, according to the Web site.
"It's really nice that everything is centralized," said Villalobos, who lived in the dorms his first two years.
"I would have rather lived in a house but the dorm is a good way to meet people," Johnson said.
Crime
Students agree that crime is a growing problem at UWM.
Both Woelfel and Villalobos said they know people who have been robbed.
There were 37 instances of burglary on campus in 2006, according to UWM's Annual Security Report. Nineteen additional burglaries occurred in the residence halls, according to the report.
Woelfel said crime mostly occurs in the areas around campus where students live.
Students receive an e-mail from campus security officials detailing crimes any time they are reported, Woelfel said.
"It kind of scares you," she said.
But crime doesn't have to be as big of a problem if students are smart about it, Woelfel said.
Woelfel said she often uses Be On the Safe Side, vans similar to Marquette's LIMO service. BOSS. runs 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. every night and will take students wherever they need to go around campus, Woelfel said.
The other side of the city
Villalobos said he was jealous of the Dwyane Wade jerseys he saw at the Spirit Shop when he was on campus visiting his sister, a sophomore at Marquette.
"I think it has to do with the fact that you guys have a basketball team that's actually good," Villalobos said.
Alex Sansone, an accounting graduate student at UWM, said it costs a lot more to go to Marquette.
"If I can pay the $3,000 and get a job at a world-class accounting firm then there can't be much of a difference," he said.
Undergraduate tuition for fall semester of 2007 was $3,478.70 for Wisconsin residents living on campus and $8,342.78 for non-Wisconsin residents living on campus, according to the Web site.
"A lot of people think that Marquette people are richer, conservative, straight-edged kids," Woelfel said.
Woelfel said many of her friends do not see Marquette students as big party people.
"They're all about school," she said.
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