Moving to Portland OR or Madison WI? Which one?! (Eugene: school, university)

[Kel23]

Hello Everybody!

I am trying to decide between moving to Portland, OR or Madison WI. I currently live in northern CA and am going to move away for school. I used to live in Eugene and I remember really liking it there, but Portland is quite different and I am curious if anyone had advice on either of these cities???

Thank you!

[Steve Pickering]

Do you like cold, or colder? Madison is much smaller. Choose the school, not the city.

[EnricoV]

I don't know Madison well, but feel like it's more of a college town. More like Eugene. Portland is a city, with colleges in it. So it depends on what you're looking for. And which city's weather you'd like better.

[NickyBilly]

Move to Madison. You'll have a much better time, experience great people, live in cool environment and you won't get caught up in a lot cliques/self-proclaimers that you would if you picked your other choice. Good luck and go Bucky.

[urbanlife78]

Originally Posted by Steve Pickering

Do you like cold, or colder? Madison is much smaller. Choose the school, not the city.

I generally agree with this, but at the same time, I choose the city over the school and don't regret that choice either.

I was either going to go to UW for architecture or PSU for architecture, and I ended up choosing to move to Portland because I fell in love with the city and wanted to live there much more than I wanted to live in Seattle. In hindsight, UW would of been better for the college purposes, but I don't think I would be where I am today if I had picked Seattle over Portland because I bonded with Portland to the point that I now consider it to be my hometown.

[ccjarider]

I grew up in Madison and the surrounding area (GO PACK/Go Bucky) and lived in WI for 40 plus years.
We now have lived in PDX area for a few years.

In my opinion, the school program and quality is the most important factor assuming you are then willing to go anywhere afterwards for career.

Having said that -I do not think you can go wrong with a UW education and Madison is a pretty fun town although very insular and pompous around the UW. UW likes to think it embraces "diversity" because they have some kids from other countries. In reality it is a place of group think, wealthy white kids and old hippies.

If you are diligent about your education though, you can come out of there with a good background and a good pedigree. Our kids went there and are doing quite well.

As far as cities go, we like PDX much better. The winters and summers are much more pleasant here and the diversity of geography and free time activities are greater here too. Winters can be cold in WI. Summers can be hot and sticky and you should know that the mosquito is the WI state bird. PDX summers feel like 3 solid months of midwest Sept. Warm sunny days and cool nights - awesome.

Any specific questions?

[new112]

UW is much better school! But Portland is a better city-in a way. Madison can hold its own.

UW >> Portland state

Portland slightly > Madison

(my opinions)

[karlsch]

I was going to say that it isn't always easy to be accepted at the very selective and very highly rated University of Wisconsin, but then I read this from the OP on the Madison forum: "I'm going to school for hair design/cosmetology."

[cosmicjoke]

Really? You just happened to be browsing Madison's forums or you were kind of stalking the original poster? Lol, just curious, I don't have the time or energy to check any of the other forums or play detective on posters, so I figured I'd live vicariously through you.