Moving to Madison from Green Bay? (Milwaukee, Marquette: sales, apartments, job market)

[ms33]

Hi! I'm really new to this website, so forgive me if I'm doing anything wrong . As of right now I'm very young (haven't graduated high school yet, I'm not sure if there's anybody my age on here), but after graduating I'm thinking of moving to Madison! It's a ways off, but I do have some questions I was hoping you guys could answer. Is the city generally a good place for young people? Outside of school, what are the odds of me being accepted into the community/making friends? Is there a lot to do (shopping, museums, restaurants, etc)? Will it be a good place for me to start a career and family? What are the major differences between Madison and Green Bay?

Sorry if I'm being silly! I obviously have no experience with moving or even living on my own

[7G9C4J2]

Well, to start with, I have to warn you that expecting to earn a living wage in Madison with just a high school diploma is pure fantasy. If you are thinking of attending one of the colleges or universities in this city, terrific, but please don't move here expecting to be able to survive on your own on the wages you'd earn with nothing but a high school education. My elder kid tried for five years to do that, and it was not a happy experience for her.

As to your other questions, there are a lot of threads already going in the Madison forum that answer many or most of them, so I'm not going to go into a huge amount of detail here. If you click on "Search this forum" in the Madison forum, then click on "Advanced search," you can search on specific words to find posts and threads on those topics. In brief, though, you'll certainly find quite a number of young folks in Madison, especially during the academic year when the UW-Madison, Edgewood College, MATC and all the other colleges/universities are in session. Being accepted into the community is probably pretty similar to what newcomers experience in Green Bay - this is the Midwest, after all - with locals being friendly but not effusive. For a city of 240,000 people, there is a reasonable amount to do, though nowhere near as much as you'd find in Milwaukee or Chicago, of course. And many people do indeed start careers and families here, though generally not straight out of high school.

That, plus doing a bit of searching in the Madison forum, ought to get you started. Good luck to you.

[ranger17]

i'd maybe add to take a day trip down to Madison to just look around. I dont know the population of the GB area (easy enough for one to search for comparisons) but as Madison in physical size is not that large there may not be many visual differences in that area. Both cities have their smaller zoos that are nice to walk thru (i've always liked the one in GB as well as the sanctuary near Bay Beach), both have parks on water for summer fun, and both are heavy in supporting their sports teams. Madison has it's couple malls, GB and the rest of the fox valley have their share as well.
The biggest difference i'd see for one who is younger is the size of the student population between UW-GB and UW-Madison; and Madison having it's campus not only on/near the water but also located in downtown Madison (see State Street).

MBW has good advice on the work front, really that advice can be taken under consideration in near every portion of the country these days. The right degree will take you places. The wrong field, or no degree at all, will be a limitation starting out. Our daughter decided the major she was in was not going to lead to decent employment so went into the Madison workforce just before the economy crashed. It was tough, but she was able to land a good job and work her way up. You may find the fox valley overall has more opportunities for a younger worker then Madison would, depending of course on what you want to get into.

Things can be accomplished, heck my wife and I left a small town in Marquette county for Madison when we were starting off but that was "a few years ago" lol and we had jobs to start with. But continue to do your homework & research so what you decide works out for you.

[RedGreenGirl]

Hey, a few years ago I did exactly what you want to do, and I ended up moving back to Green Bay! Here's my advice:

* To move to Madison, you would need a job. If you only have a high school diploma, you most likely would only be able to get a job at a store or a restaurant or something like that. Maybe things have changed, but when I went there the job market seemed competitive.

* You would also need an apartment, and apartments in Madison are more expensive than in Green Bay. When I was there I rented a studio for $600 a month, and when I moved back to Green Bay I ended up living in a studio for $320 a month. You might be able to find something affordable if you have roommates, but otherwise it's hard to be a young person living on your own there.

* A lot of people don't drive cars in Madison. In some areas of the city, parking is really limited or really expensive. I think the monthly bus pass is a lot more than it is in Green Bay, but if you go to one of the colleges it may be paid for.

* If you do have a car and you need to go across town, traffic stinks. Because the city is so stretched out, there's no fast way to get from one side of town to the other. That's pretty different from Green Bay, where you can get almost anywhere in about 10-15 minutes.

* One little pet-peeve with Madison was that the thrift stores sucked because they were very picked-over.

* Another weird difference was I felt that sales people were very pushy. I had really weird experiences with them on state street handing and at the little stands in the mall, where the just had no reservations about coming up to me and pushing their stuff on me.

* On the plus-side, there really is a lot to see and do. Between the campus and the capital building downtown and all the interesting stores and unique events, it's a great place for a young person to be. Even the libraries there were kickass. Green Bay is more focused on being "family friendly" so that means there's less going on for young adults.


Overall, I decided to move back because it was too expensive for me and I really felt like a lot of people weren't as friendly as they are in Green Bay. Green Bay isn't super glamorous but there are lots of nice things about it too.