University of Wisconsin-La Crosse — Attraction in La Crosse

I completed my undergraduate degree here. Truthfully, I wasn't a big fan of the school. It is weird...the school is borderland obsessed with emphasizing their rankings and comparing themselves to the other UW schools (if I hear one more UW-L student talk about how much more "prestigious" UW-L is than UW-Eau Claire or Whitewater I am going to vomit!). Yet, for all UW-L's "rankings", I found a lot about the school to be really unpalatable. For one, the school has a very large number of inflexible general education requirements (partially to keep funding some programs/degrees). Also, because the school is not very large, you have a pretty small number of professors for each degree. Thus, if there a few "duds"--it can really torpedo your GPA and what you learn in your degree. Finally, one of the biggest turn-offs for me is that the school (but strangely enough not the student body or the wider La Crosse community) places their D3 athletics on a huge pedestal. What this means is that if you are a remotely decent athlete--UW-L will turn a blind eye to let you in. As a result, there are a lot of jock-type people at the school who are much more interested in partying than studying. Yet, very few people I know from my time at UW-L actually ever attended or cared about the UW-L athletics, which meant that the school really had nothing going on during the weekend. No school spirit and really nothing to do except go to 3rd Street and drink (which wasn't all bad!!). So, my experience was that UW-L really is average to below average academics, no school spirit, limited activities to do, and a very large party/immature culture on campus. Do yourself a favor before you commit or think of coming to UW-L....doing get caught up in some abstract ranking or comparison game....come here and look and see what UW-L really has to offer. You might be surprised (and not in a...

The campus is situated between the Mississippi River and beautiful riparian bluffs. It's campus life is very insular since its nestled in a small neighborhood. A great place to do your undergrad due to the competitive nature of the programs, smaller class sizes and lack of distractions you'd find at larger campuses. There is not much in the realm of diversity so keep that in mind if you're looking for a full diverse college experience; however, with the University having such a well known academic reputation, doing well in an undergrad program can lead to acceptance into a larger more diverse secondary program. Other notables: There is a much larger female population than male population on campus. Nationally ranked Physical Therapy program. Very large P.E. Program for aspiring gym teachers. Competitive Division III Sports Programs. Surrounded by nature trails, marshland and...

Nice campus, unfortunate that they disrespect and take advantage of the neighborhood. They took all the streets that cut through the campus, tore out the streets, and made giant walkways, then got rid of 30% of their parking. Selfishly creating a parking nightmare for students and a traffic nightmare for non students. Then (from what students tell me) the started charging a crazy high rate to rent parking in their parking garage and lot....