Engaged Students

Students at UW-Superior combine classroom work with active learning through undergraduate research projects, internships, lab work, performances and capstone courses that stress practical application of theories and formulas...

Focus on active learning

• The university currently enrolls 2,600 undergraduate and two hundred graduate students. Transportation and logistics management majors benefit from Superior’s role as a hub for water, rail, truck, pipeline, and air transportation, but also hold internships across the country.
  
  
• All social-work majors work at least 450 hours in a professional setting. Science students can work alongside scientists at the Lake Superior Research Institute on campus or at state and federal research labs in the Superior-Duluth metro area. Teacher education majors begin working with children on campus and then move into tutoring programs and student teaching in community schools. Music students perform with campus ensembles as well as with the local professional symphony or as freelance musicians.
  
  
• Each year, students travel to Bosnia to study the effects of war. Study-abroad opportunities include travel to Scotland, Korea, Costa Rica, China, France, Germany, and other countries. UW-Superior is a member of the National Student Exchange (NSE), enabling students to enroll for up to a year at NSE-member institutions across the United States and Canada.

Great Teaching

Scholars, scientists, artists, musicians, authors, experts -- these are the people who teach at UW-Superior. Professors teach all classes and focus on sharing with students their wealth of academic and professional experience...

Expect the best from your professors

• The most popular programs at UW-Superior are teacher education, business, sciences, psychology, and the visual arts. On average, 75 percent of the classes enroll fewer than twenty-five students. UW-Superior prides itself on the personal attention afforded to students, and most professors make sure they know each of their students by name. There are no classes taught by graduate students; all are taught by professors. In many programs, such as biology, chemistry, mathematics, and communicating arts, students have opportunities to work closely with professors on research or special projects. In English, award-winning authors teach advanced writing courses as well as freshman English classes.
  
  
• Students in the health and human performance program use the Kessler Exercise Physiology Lab, which provides graduate-school-level equipment to undergraduate students. Students in the legal studies and criminal justice programs often take part in UW-Superior’s mock trial teams, which compete in local, regional, and national tournaments.
  
  
• Student support services provides help with computer software, advice on choosing and scheduling classes, and one-on-one and small-group tutoring in courses at all levels. The writing center is staffed by faculty, staff, and students to help students on individual assignments and to improve their writing skills. Academics are a focus at UW-Superior, which boasts an impressive 88 percent retention rate for varsity athletes.
  
  

• The Senior Experience enables every student to engage in a significant scholarly or creative work. Students in all majors may present their research projects at the statewide University of Wisconsin System Research Symposium. Science students conducting research projects have the opportunity to present their work at the annual Undergraduate Research Symposium held on campus.

Academic Programs:
Accounting; aerospace studies/Air Force ROTC minor; anthropology minor; art (art education, art history, art therapy, studio art, photography minor); biology (cell/molecular biology, ecology, aquatic biology & fishery science, plant sciences); business administration (finance, international business, management, marketing); chemistry (forensic chemistry); Chinese minor, communicating arts (media studies, journalism, digital cinema, interactive media, media communication minor, journalism minor) ; computer science; economics; elementary education; English; first nations studies minor; geographic information systems minor; geography minor; German minor; global studies minor; history; individually designed major; information technology minor; legal studies (criminal justice); library science minor; mathematics (discrete applied mathematics); music (performance); music education (choral music, general music, instrumental); philosophy minor; physical education (community health promotion, exercise science, wellness/fitness management, coaching minor, health minor, health & human performance minor, sports management minor); physical environmental science minor; physics minor; political science (international peace studies); psychology; secondary education; social work; sociology; Spanish minor; theatre; transportation & logistics management; women’s & gender studies minor.

Vibrant Community

Students at UW-Superior learn and live alongside people from around the Midwest and from around the world. They find plenty to do, whether it's attending cultural events in the Superior-Duluth metro area, kayaking on Lake Superior or hitting the ski slopes just minutes from campus...

Expect to have fun

• Located in Superior, Wisconsin, at the western tip of Lake Superior, UW-Superior boasts the best of both worlds: its campus is situated in a quiet neighborhood, but it’s part of the Superior-Duluth metro area, with plenty of internships, jobs, entertainment, and cultural events. Within a twenty-minute drive from campus, students can attend concerts, a professional ballet, and a symphony, as well as enjoy coffeehouses, movie theaters, shopping, Lake Superior beaches, waterfront trails, cross-country and alpine skiing, and a state park.
  
  
• For students who like the outdoors, UW-Superior is a good fit. The Superior Outdoor Adventure Program (SOAP) offers guided trips in kayaking, canoeing, skiing, and snowboarding. SOAP helps students enjoy the winter with guided snowshoe trips to the ice caves on Lake Superior near the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore and ice-climbing trips to the cliffs of Lake Superior’s North Shore. Each year SOAP organizes a spring-break  adventure trip. UW-Superior’s campus is just ten minutes from alpine skiing, snowboarding, and cross-country skiing at the Spirit Mountain ski area. Outdoor equipment is available to rent seven days a week, and SOAP provides students with a cross-country ski and bike-repair shop. Some outdoor activities that are popular among students are kayaking, cross-country skiing, and mountain biking. The state-of-the-art Health & Wellness Center offers fitness, athletic, and academic facilities that include an indoor track, swimming pool, fitness center, weight room, climbing wall, physiology lab, and training facilities.
  
  
• UW-Superior has a number of new state-of-the-art buildings on campus. They  include the Marcovich Wellness Center where students have access to the field house, free weight room, and fitness center; the newly renovated Jim Dan Hill Library complete with two fireplaces and quiet study rooms; and the Yellowjacket Union which is our most recent addition to campus and is the center for student activity on campus. In Spring of 2011, there will also be another addition – the Swenson Academic Building - which will house classrooms and faculty offices.
  
  
  
• Students volunteer in the community by working at children’s centers, painting houses, and picking up trash. Each year, the alternative spring break program provides students with the opportunity to travel to a distant area to help local communities build homes or to assist the elderly. Student athletes volunteer at camps and clinics, tutor in local schools, and host Kids’ Day Out events.

The UW-Superior campus is fully wired and has wireless network access in many buildings and outdoor areas. Students enjoy online access to the library, course registration, grades, financial accounts, and course management information. Free Internet and cable TV access is available in all residence hall rooms. Students can bring their own computers to connect to the campus network or use the student computer labs found in most academic buildings and all residence halls. All students get a university computer account that includes e-mail and network storage. Specialized labs are available for computer science and geographic information systems, and the technology help desk is available to help students with technical problems.

Successful Outcomes

UW-Superior graduates know they have met the higher expectations that they have set for themselves. They have succeeded in a liberal arts program that teaches them to think, to learn and to communicate. They have acquired expertise that provides skills for their first job and a solid foundation for future careers...

Define your path and reach it

• Because of the close connection with professors at UW-Superior, students are likely to have a good idea of where they will fit in the real world. Alumni stay involved by coming back to speak to students and often hire graduates of UW-Superior. UW-Superior students enjoy a great deal of success in finding jobs after college, and in gaining enrollment to graduate school, medical school, and law school.
  
  

• Notable alumni include World War II fighter ace Richard Bong; photojournalist Esther Bubley; research psychologist Dr. Oscar Krisen Buros; David DiFrancesco, inventor of some of the processes used in creating animated movies; Donald Schmidt, inventor of the carbon-carbon material that protects spacecraft reentering the earth’s atmosphere; outdoors writer Gordon MacQuarrie; Air Force general Charles McDonald; nationally known artist Fritz Scholder; and the current governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Add to these or change any out?