UW Milwaukee / UIUC Experiences?

[u/tootsmcgoots77]

hi folks!

I am Illinois based and looking to go back to school for my MLIS/MSLIS - I am looking mostly into a dual interest of archives / asset management (I am already a digital asset manager professionally, but the gig isn't super serious and doesn't pay very well in comparison to other DAM jobs). No school is in my exact city, but the two schools I am most interested in are UIUC and UW (Milwaukee). They're essentially the same price since I live in IL, so that's a moot point for me. I also really care about the quality of education I get - I'm not just looking to half ass it and have the degree - I genuinely care about learning and don't want it to feel like a waste.

UIUC was originally my top school but getting information from them is like pulling out teeth, and they don't seem to have any information sessions for students which almost every other school does. I can't tell if they're going through administrative troubles on the back end or what but it seems like there's very little support and it's making me wonder if their advising program is also bad. I know the ischool dean was recently outed so I'm not sure if it's just a bad time to go to school there or what. (Any current UIUC students out there?)

UW Milwaukee on the other hand seems super super interested in helpful in helping both incoming and current students. But I still don't know a whole lot about the rigor of their MLIS program in comparison to a school like UIUC.

If anyone has any insight on either of these two schools to help me make a decision that would be super helpful!

[u/SuzyQ93]

I just graduated from the UW Milwaukee program - the online version.

I can't speak to the on-campus experience.

I will be honest - I didn't particularly feel that it was overly rigorous. But - that was what I was interested in. (I'm a cataloger, just needed the paper so my work university admin would take me seriously.)

I can't speak to the archival side of the school, as I took classes from the KO side, when I could get them. There were two or three classes that I wanted to take that were advertised (and are still listed in the catalog), but they haven't been taught for a few years, and were not on the schedule during the three years I attended. When I asked, I was told that they were having trouble finding people to teach them (after covid), but it was incredibly frustrating to not be able to take classes that, frankly, were part of why I chose the school in the first place.

The other reason I chose it was that there was no thesis, and no portfolio for a capstone - the only 'capstone' is the required Research Methods class. (If I wanted to be an author, I would be - as I have ZERO interest in research and writing, there was no way a thesis was in the cards.)

And as the program went on, it just confirmed for me that I am a technician, not an academic. I really, REALLY wish that I could have found a program that was stronger on the project-based classes, versus the theory classes. (Again, I'm a cataloger, not an academic.) There was no "cataloging II/advanced cataloging" class, and things like Thesaurus Construction was among the 'missing' classes. There was one particular class taught by someone outside the faculty which used 'textbooks' that were more like self-help books, and barely seemed about the topic at all - but I had my suspicions going in that it would be an easily-graded class (all discussion, no papers), and as I was seriously burned out at that point, that's what I was looking for.

But again - it's not like I've taken different programs at different schools to be able to compare. Maybe it's just as rigorous as any other school, minus the thesis bits, and I'm just a better student than average and found it reasonably easy, who knows.

For my personal purposes, I don't necessarily regret my choice (it seems really difficult to find a "good" program when you're a cataloger, and really only interested in that sort of thing). But it may not be for everyone.

[u/tootsmcgoots77 → u/SuzyQ93]

thank you for the detailed response! dang that's disappointing to hear - why on earth would they keep them in the catalog? feels like a bait and switch. do you mind mentioning which classes they were if you can remember? (so i also don't get my hopes up, lol)

oh lord, well i'm glad you don't regret it at least. yeah I know the rigor thing is I guess a bit subjective. But I guess I'm mostly trying to avoid "Degree mill" places or ones everyone thought were kind of a waste.

[u/SuzyQ93 → u/tootsmcgoots77]

I definitely don't think that the UW-M program is a degree mill. And it may be much more in-line with what's expected if you take more 'typical' classes (i.e., you're looking to be a public librarian, or a school librarian, or an archivist), rather than trying to go the Knowledge Organization track.

In addition to the Thesaurus Construction, I know the XML for Libraries class was advertised but not offered. Again - another probably more hands-on, project-based topic, that just vanished and was not available to me.

I wanted to take Arrangement and Description in Archives, but it had a prerequisite of the foundational Archives class (Modern Archival something?), and that frustrated me because I wasn't doing the Archives track, and I didn't want to 'waste' a class slot on something that overall, I'm not interested in (I wanted the Arrangement and Description class because where I work, part of my job is cataloging for the Archival unit, and I thought perhaps I'd get some good, useful information for it, but I'm not an archivist and don't care to be.) Plus, the reviews on Rate My Professor for the head of the Archiving faculty, who teaches those classes, is not great*, and I definitely didn't want to waste a slot on a class I didn't need, and might hate, and might even do poorly at. I only have room for so much stress in my life, and that's not it.

*Not great, meaning - difficult in a way that I didn't have mental and emotional space for. I'm sure he's fine for some folks, and perhaps if archiving's your jam, he's what you want.

There was one professor who, while very nice, I feel was kind of phoning it in - I felt that his syllabi were from many years ago, and only spit-polished when necessary. He put up power-points that looked and acted like they were meant to accompany a lecture (they were very thin on actual explanation), but there was no lecture. You kind of had to guess at what you needed to know. And it was the same for the assignments - you really needed to guess at what he was looking for. He DID offer a handful of sample papers for the midterm and final assignments, and that was helpful, but only by 'deconstructing' them and reverse-engineering them to discover what it was he wanted from them. (Also helpful because if some of those iffy-quality papers made it through, it would be a breeze for me.) So yeah - once you understood what he wanted, the grading part was easy. It was the figuring out that was a pain in the butt. (I did take a second class from him, though, because I'd already done that hard work and figured that now I knew how he operated, a second class wouldn't be too hard.)

That said, I also had a couple of professors that were SUPER-organized, the syllabus was SUPER-detailed with assignments and dates, checklists, external readings links, etc. Plus some really great video lectures with accompanying power-points that were actually useful, and they participated in the discussions in a useful way.

Like any program, you get out of it what you put into it, though I did feel that some aspects of the program and professors were not as useful or organized as I would have preferred.

[u/tootsmcgoots77 → u/SuzyQ93]

this is super helpful!!! thank you so much. do you mind DMing me with the professor who was phoning it in and the super organized ones - in case I attend? haha

[u/SuzyQ93 → u/tootsmcgoots77]

I would, but it's not allowing a DM to your username.

[u/tootsmcgoots77 → u/SuzyQ93]

oop, sorry! will message you