For those interested in studying in Wisconsin, we have a very useful list. We selected the best Wisconsin institutions for prospective students. Please know that rankings are based on academic research, alumni reviews, graduation rates, as well as assessment from peer colleges. On the page, you will find major admissions stats such as acceptance rate, tuition fees, average SAT scores for each ranked college or university.
| Rankings | Schools |
| 1 | University of Wisconsin-Madison (Madison, WI) Tuition: in-state: $10,384, out-of-state: $26,634 Total enrollment: 42,441 Fall 2011 acceptance rate: 50.5% Average freshman retention rate: 94% 6-year graduation rate: 83% Classes with under 20 students: 43.9% SAT/ACT 25th-75th percentile: 26-30 |
| 2 | Marquette University (Milwaukee, WI) Tuition: $33,244 Total enrollment: 12,002 Fall 2011 acceptance rate: 56.8% Average freshman retention rate: 89% 6-year graduation rate: 81% Classes with under 20 students: 38.7% SAT/ACT 25th-75th percentile: 24-29 |
| 3 | Edgewood College (Madison, WI) Tuition: $23,740 Total enrollment: 2,658 Fall 2011 acceptance rate: 71.9% Average freshman retention rate: 78% 6-year graduation rate: 51% Classes with under 20 students: 81.4% SAT/ACT 25th-75th percentile: 20-25 |
| 4 | Cardinal Stritch University (Milwaukee, WI) Tuition: $24,330 Total enrollment: 5,358 Fall 2011 acceptance rate: 47.6% Average freshman retention rate: 69% 6-year graduation rate: 54% Classes with under 20 students: 80.7% SAT/ACT 25th-75th percentile: 19-24 |
| 5 | University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Milwaukee, WI) Tuition: in-state: $9,380, out-of-state: $19,088 Total enrollment: 29,726 Fall 2011 acceptance rate: 71.0% Average freshman retention rate: 72% 6-year graduation rate: 40% Classes with under 20 students: 40.2% SAT/ACT 25th-75th percentile: 19-24 |
Wisconsin Recent History
During the Civil War, more than ninety thousand Wisconsin citizens fought in the army of the northerners, more than twelve thousand of them died.
By the end of the 19th century, the Wisconsin soils, depleted by intensive farming, stopped producing high yields of wheat, and farmers needed alternative directions for development. They began to grow cranberries and tobacco in the state, but very soon dairy farming became the leading agricultural industry in Wisconsin (by 1899, ninety percent of the state’s farms bred cows). The climate of Wisconsin and its soils were well suited for forage crops, serious research was carried out at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to improve the quality of dairy products, and as a result, by 1915, Wisconsin became the leading producer of dairy products in the United States, remaining so until the end of the 20th century (when the first place in the production of dairy products milk in the US took California). Wisconsin began to earn its fame as “America’s Dairy Country” and the largest cheese producer in the US.
The state successfully developed brewing, paper production, engineering and other industries.
At the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries in Wisconsin, as well as in Oregon, Idaho, Washington and some other states of the USA, the policy of “progressivism” was very popular and supported by the majority of the population. One of its most prominent and well-known representatives is Robert LaFolette, a former member of the House of Representatives and the Senate in the US Congress, the governor of Wisconsin and the US presidential candidate from the Progressive Party in the 1924 elections. Many of the laws passed in Wisconsin during the Progressive Era on welfare, pensions, unemployment benefits, and others served as models for legislators in other states and in the United States as a whole.