I went to high school just a few blocks from Camp Randall, the infamous football stadium on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. Maybe it’s because I didn’t grow up in Madison, but I’ve never been able to grasp the mass sense of exceptionalism that is so present there. I have never quite understood why anyone in my high school would want to move two blocks down to go to college. The way I perceived it, your undergraduate education is a chance to get away from what you know and experience something different for four years — except for most Madisonians.
Obviously, that is a matter of personal opinion, so I applied to multiple schools, including UW-Madison. UW-Madison accepted me, among some others of my top choices. I decided on the University of Minnesota.
About 30 percent of my senior class went to UW-Madison, while many who didn’t get in went to other state schools with the intention of transferring back.
Since attending the University of Minnesota, I have become extremely sensitive to the superiority complex plaguing most of the UW-Madison students I have encountered.
Whenever I return to visit my friends there, it is guaranteed that one of their new college friends will ask me, “If you’re from Madison, why didn’t you go here? Did you not get in?”
Maybe I’ve become too sensitive, but these types of conversations have instilled in me this sense of competition that I haven’t felt since competing in state-level high school sports. I think I speak for every Gopher from Wisconsin when I say: We have to win this game.
I don’t appreciate belittling those going to a different Big Ten university. Both schools have their own merits, but let’s highlight some of the great things the University of Minnesota is known for. We have two top-ranked hockey teams, our pharmacy program is ranked third nationwide and our engineering programs consistently rank in the top 20 nationally.
The fact that there are more than 50,000 students here should testify to the great things happening on our campus. So, to all you Gophers from Wisconsin who are considering wearing red on game day: Don’t. You are a Minnesota Gopher, and that is a wonderful thing. It’s time to relish in it. Stay golden, Gophers. Ski-U-Mah!
