GiveItToEmStraight

Absolutely not. Do you really think that it is plausible that, year in and year out, cohorts of unmotivated students wind up attending UW-M? C'mon! Something like this suggests more long-term structural problems, likely including poor quality advising by a majority of faculty, a culture lacking a prerogative for professionalizing their students, and perhaps problems in methods training. It could be any combination of the things I have already listed, as well as other factors that I haven't, who knows? BUT, I am quite confident in speculating that it isn't a problem of student potential or motivation, as that is just so highly unlikely. If you have reservations about the program, that's fine. Choose some other place (assuming you have more than 1 acceptance) where the evidence of placement and student success is more aligned with your goals.

I don't want to make too much out of this, but I do think that Wisconsin admits should keep their eyes wide open, so to speak. It is hardly a secret that higher ed in under attack in WI, and, since UW-M is a state school, it is worth considering. Also, in the past, their stipends have not been very good (15K is what I seem to recall). This isn't a major issue, as the COL is likely lower there than many places, but 15K still isn't great by any stretch. Also, how much money is guaranteed for conference travel? And, finally, I think placement ought to be a key consideration for everybody on this site, especially in your subfield. So, with UW-M, as with all schools that you are interested in, make sure that their placement history is reflective of your goals (especially in your subfield) in terms of quality of placements and in the percentage of students placed. On this note, make sure to press department's for a more complete picture!!!! Most places don't provide information on whether their placements are tenure track or simply term appointments (UW-M, for instance, does not provide this information). Also, make sure you have a good sense of how many students matriculate into a program in a given year versus how many placements they tend to average per year. This is important, because simply looking at a list of placements can obscure things a bit if you don't keep it in mind : example: Dept A admits 10 students per cohort and tends to place 6-7 in tenure track lines, and 1-3 in term appointments (either as VAPS or post docs), while Dept B tends to admit 20 students per cohort and places 10 in tenure track lines with 3-4 term appointments...Who places better? Dept A, clearly. Be smart about this stuff, y'all. And, related to placement, make sure the faculty members you'd like to work with publish with grad students....some departments have a great culture of coauthorship with grad students, some don't. I'll let you figure out which end of the spectrum UW-M is on.....