About Milwaukee

Downtown Milwaukee

Known as A Great Place on a Great Lake, Milwaukee is located on Lake Michigan and is just 90 minutes north of Chicago. Milwaukee offers numerous cultural and recreational opportunities, and is famous for its many ethnic festivals that take place throughout the year. Its scenic location on Lake Michigan provides a wide range of outdoor activities including water sports, biking, camping, and snow skiing, all within an hour’s drive of the city. Public transportation is readily available to all parts of the city, as well as to Chicago and other locations in Wisconsin.

The University is located in a quiet residential section of the city near Lake Michigan. With an enrollment of more than 28,000 students, the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee is the largest of ten universities and colleges in the metropolitan area.

The UWM campus is located near the lakefront area of the city of Milwaukee where many outdoor activities take place during the warm summer months. These include summer festivals such as Summerfest (featuring musical groups from throughout the U.S.), ethnic festivals (Festa Italiana, Irish Fest, etc.), Lakefront Festival of the Arts, Bastille Days, River Splash, and others.

Students are also encouraged to participate in extra-curricular activities to better learn about Milwaukee and the Wisconsin area. The program also offers opportunities to volunteer in the local community. Volunteer sites include local theaters, music festivals, environmental causes, and campus events. As part of the University, students can also join student organizations; attend concerts and theatrical events; and use the athletic facilities, library, computer labs and health services.

UW-Milwaukee is also among the top colleges and universities in the country when it comes to research! UWM earned the highest rating – R1 – for a research institution from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, the gold standard for assessment. The rating was given to only 115 of the 4,665 universities evaluated in 2016.

The ESL program was my gate of entrance in the USA. There, I had my first contact with the culture, diversity of races, the language and its skills. The teachers and all ESL staff were pro-active and open-minded with our needs and concerns. I was very welcomed, and exposed to a lot of programs that was developed to enrich my experiences here besides English classes, such as conversation partner, road trips, and electives. To be part of ESL program gave me necessary knowledge to attend academic classes with confidence and maturity.”

Juliane Da Silva Pereira, Brazil