Having attended UWSP for two years, I think it is one of the better institutions in the UW system…read more Also, at the time of this review, it is also the cheapest UW school in terms of tuition and housing costs, which is pretty awesome. The campus is pretty condensed (nothing wrong with that, you can walk from one end to the other in under a half hour) and located in the heart of central Wisconsin; this is bad if you're not capable of entertaining yourself, since there's not all that much around off-campus except for some local specialty shops and restaurants. Still, there's usually lots going on around campus at any given hour, such as free concerts, art shows, movie screenings, guest lectures, sports and other outdoor recreational activities, and of course the crazy stuff that goes on in the student dorms.
The campus is pretty picturesque during the summertime and into the fall, with lots of flowers in bloom and plenty of open, green spaces. The campus buildings are eyesores for the most part, with a brutalist-esque architectural motif that probably came to fruition during wartime. Still, the university makes an effort to "update" at least one building a year, with the student union and fine arts building both receiving huge, expensive overhauls in the past decade (it's worth it; these are two of the nicest buildings on campus at the moment). The dorm housing is on-par with pretty much every other UW school; it's not posh, but charming and accommodating. Since every hall is only four stories high, the atmosphere in the dorms is more intimate than what you would find in the skyscrapers on Madison or Milwaukee's campuses. UWSP Residential Living has been doing construction on one campus dorm hall every summer to update them with room A/Cs, finished walling, and better lighting, so the standard-of-living will progressively get better for all on-campus students as time goes on...
The student population was pretty agreeable when I went to UWSP; most students are nice and down-to-earth, and there aren't that many frat-esque "bros" walking around (UWSP has a noticeable lack of a greek community on campus, and that's probably a good thing). You will, however, find a lot of Wisconsin hunters (mostly in the College of Natural Resources, naturally) who wear orange blaze to class and perpetually chew smokeless tobacco. I've often heard that a lot of professors cancel classes the week that hunting season begins; I'm sure it's true, but I never had any classes where that happened. Most people that go here aren't crazy wealthy or anything, and those who are hide it. The exception is the foreign exchange students; you will know who they are when you see them driving their BMWs down Reserve Street. The diversity (I really hate that term, it's overused but succinct I guess) on campus is mostly limited to white students and Asian students...Like I said, this is central Wisconsin. The campus has a sizable Hmong population made up of students from Wausau and Minnesota.
All of the professors I had at Stevens Point were really nice and approachable. The "ivory tower" attitude does not apply here. Most professors are busy with their own research, but they all enjoy teaching classes and interacting with students, be that in office hours or through other on-campus activities. The "strongest" academic programs at UWSP are natural resources (for which an entire sub-college and building are devoted), the fine arts (art and music), and communications (the campus radio station and TV station both offer good hands-on experience for this program), though the school offers a lot of other liberal arts programs, such as English, philosophy, political science, geography, economics, etc. If you're looking for the small-town college feel and professors who actually know your name and care about your success, check out UWSP.
