University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Student Experiences
We think that UW-Milwaukee is a great university, but don’t just take our word for it. Listen to what our students have to say about their experiences at UW-Milwaukee.

Student Experiences
Month	Topic
November	Why I Chose UWM
October	Honors College Office of Undergraduate Research

	Why I Chose UWM By Adriane Klingbeil Deciding where to go to college is challenging. When I first started looking at colleges, I was set on going to a small private school. I wanted to be close to a big city but in a smaller college that would offer smaller class sizes and a “family” approach to college. The thing holding me back was the cost so I looked into the UW system. I knew I would either go to Milwaukee or Madison and I wasn’t interested in Madison as a city so I went on a tour at UW-Milwaukee. When the tour was over, I knew this was where I wanted to go. Even though it is a large school in terms of numbers, the campus had the same feeling as the smaller campuses I had visited. Concentrated in a small area of land, the size of the campus makes it easy to get wherever you need to go within a 5-15 minute period of time. I also knew that UWM would help me continue with higher education after I graduated. I didn’t know that this would happen, but I found a “family” in my campus job at the First Year Center, so I have gotten everything that I wanted from a large, diverse University.
	Honors College By Adriane Klingbeil The Honors College is a small college on campus that offers students an opportunity to take small, seminar courses that have a maximum of fifteen students. These seminars facilitate conversation, critical thinking, and writing development. It gives students a chance to get to know their professors well in the classroom. The courses consist of interesting, challenging material, paper writing, and presentations. There are many courses that fall into Humanities, Social Sciences, or Natural Sciences requirements. There is a wide range of topics, including “The Art of Acting”, “Revenge Plots”, “Genes of Behavior”, “Gender and Anger”, “War Stories”, and many others. Many of the topics also change from one semester to the next with some repeating topics. The topics are inclusive of almost all majors. I was invited to be in the Honors College after I had applied to UWM and was accepted. An invitation is sent out to students who have a certain GPA and academic standing. Students can join the Honors College during or after their freshman year. The Honors College requires a certain GPA and certain number of credits completed before graduation. The courses can be very challenging with lots of reading and papers to write. However, the experience and connections made through these courses helped me through my other courses and gave me valuable skills. I led a class discussion, did a two day presentation and grew as a student and a person.
	Office of Undergraduate Research by Epiphany Outlaw For most undergraduates across the country, the idea of being a part of a research team is only applicable for their graduate studies; this is not the case of the undergrads at UW-Milwaukee. The Office of Undergraduate Research is UW-Milwaukee's way of showing that students need to get experience as early as possible to help with deciding career choices. With nearly one hundred opportunities for students that the Undergraduate Research Office at UWM offers, there are many choices and there is something for everyone. I had the opportunity to experience being in a research team led by Dr. Jonathan Kanter. Besides Dr. Kanter, the team consisted of graduate students and a handful of other undergrads (there were also a few other doctorate-looking people who stopped in every once in a while, but I usually had no idea who they were). Our team project: depression. The main gist of the lab was depression of minorities (specifically Blacks and Latinos); although, we often worked with students of UWM who wanted help with their depression. Though the Undergraduate Research programs are fairly new, it's surprised that more students do not partake in them. Being in a research team is such a great opportunity that many undergraduates do not have (it also looks great on a resume); to not apply would be illogical. The first thing that might pop into a student's mind when the word “research” is mentioned might be Peter Parker in a lab coat refilling his web-shooters or a bunch of scientists high-fiving each other because they just found the cure to consumption (at least those were what I imagined). While thinking like that may suit a chemistry major, it could possibly dissuade a student majoring in film studies from participating in research. The research teams range from all colleges and departments; these opportunities range from Archeology, to Metalsmithing, to Zebrafish. The entire list is shown here. The opportunities are open to all students, regardless of the intended major. For instance, an English major could participate in a study that revolves around Economics. The idea of researching in any field might seem too heavy for an undergraduate. It's a good thing that the research professors all were once undergraduates and could understand. The “research” that the undergraduates do are beneficial for undergraduate level, but still not up there with graduate and doctorate research. The undergraduates' labor consist of work that is not too intense. In my experience, I did whatever the grad students and Dr. Kanter asked me to do to assist the projects. These things included – but were not limited to - making phone calls to potential study participants, making copies, renting books from the Golda Meir Library, stapling surveys for students, being a practice participant, and recruiting students to participate in depression studies in front of lecture halls. That last one quickly made me get rid of my fear of public speaking. Are you interested yet? Check out the Office of Undergraduate Research website for more info. Maybe we’ll even be on the same research team?