Relocating to Wisconsin, need some help!!!!!!!!!!

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We (myself, husband and 2 kids, 4,7) are thinking of relocating to wisconsin. We have done some reasearch online with housing, cost of living, schools, and so on and so on. I have checked about some jobs and the prospects look good. what you read though is not always what is true. I could use some help from nurses or people that actually live there. We were looking in the Madison (surrounding ) areas as well as milwaukee and its surrounding areas. Any and all help and info would we greatly appreciated.

Just a little background. We live 35 miles outside pittsburgh and we are just tired of the TAXES, weather, roads, job market(especially for husband), people, cost of living(keeps getting worse), I could go on and on. We have never been to wisconsin however while searching on places to possibly go we were just getting a feel about the state. Plus my husband has 2 favorite football teams, the steelers and the packers.

The most important thing to us though is Schools. My son will be in 2nd grade and daughter starting kindergarten. My son was Honor roll for 1st grade and received a couple of awards in math and reading(he is a nerd like his father, lol). We just do not want him to lose focus and be in a school district that is below average. Any info would greatly be appreciated. Also if anyone knows if kindergarten is full day or half day as in our district now it is full day, which I think is much better as the children learn more.

Thanks in advance for any and all help!!!!!!!!!!

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What I can tell you is that Wisconsin is a FANTASTIC place to live and to raise a family. I grew up in Madison and went to college at the University of Wisconsin. Now that I have moved, I miss it very much. The great thing about the Madison area is that the schools are great. I am not a big fan of Milwaukee, don't really recommend it, but that is just me. Let me know if there is anything I can help you with.

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I used to live in Wisconsin, (although I live in Iowa, now) and I LOVE Madison. I remember hearing that Madison is in the top 5 cities in the US for quality of life? Anyway, I know it was really high on the list. It's beautiful. My friend and I are considering working there when we get out of school. I can't tell you much about the job market (as I don't have one yet!) but I can tell you that the schools are excellent. My brother and I went to elementary and middleschool in southwestern Wisconsin and I know the teachers were impressed when we made the transition to our Iowa highschools. I have heard that Southwestern Wisconsin is renound for their math, history and science programs, which are subjects noticably lacking in other states. I haven't heard much about Milwaukee, but there a lot of great rural communities to keep in mind, too. Good luck with your move and welcome to the midwest!

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Specializes in Government.

My perspective is a bit different. I am a New Jersey native who resettled in Wisconsin 16 years ago for my husband's job. I now work in Madison although I also have worked in Milwaukee. We live in between. I've lived in 5 different states.

Madison is an oasis of liberal thought in a state which is overall quite conservative. I always tell people to make sure they are at peace with the rest of the state since Madison itself is quite a small town. You have to leave it sometime ... that can be a shock. I was alarmed at the anti-Semitism I encountered. Also, other than Madison and Milwaukee, the state is very homogenous. There is a whole menu of Lutheran churches here, reflecting a strong Germanic presence.

Madison is a city built on an isthmus. As a result, traffic and parking are killer. Taxes are extremely high for the region...a friend of mine owns a 800 sq foot house on a tiny lot in a Madison east side neighborhood and pays 4,000K a year in property taxes. If you want to move to this area without the tax burden, look to some of the outlying areas.

Madison has a zillion parks and recreational offerings. The schools are thought to be excellent...in fact, some think the special ed programs are so good they cause people to move here. You should know that Madison prides itself on being GLBT friendly and that you and your kids will be exposed daily to many different lifestyle choices. I thinkt that is a good thing but be aware.

Mass transit is great within Madison, not so hot connecting to other areas. Also, the winters are brutal and long here. Our last frost this year was in late May.

I find WI natives to be huge boosters for the state but sometimes a bit blind to its faults. There is a lot of xenophobia here. However, there are a lot of recreational opportunities and there are no tolls! Feel free to PM me if I can help in any way. Best of luck with your decision.

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My family and I live about 30 minutes north of Milwaukee. We just purchased our first home, which happens to be a block from the elementary school my son will attend 2nd grade next year. I have heard nothing by wonderful things about the school, so I am very excited about it!

If you want to PM me, please feel free to do so, and I can share more with you!

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I am sorry to hear that you experienced such anti-semitism. Sadly, many areas of the midwest tend to be "homogenous" and intollerant. My apologies.

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I just briefly read your thread about relocating to WI. In brief, Madison is a great place to live. I went to UW-Madison, and LOVed the city. It is fantastic for a family, and the educational system is TOPS, in all levels. I suggest that you go to http://www.craigslist.com and find the link to Madison, WI. If not, I believe they have a link to Milwaukee where you can post threads & inquire of more information related to Milwaukee & Madison in any area of interest. Also try http://www.madison.com, http://www.onwisconsin.com/flash.asp. Good luck!

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First of all, thanks to all who have answered, I am happy to hear the school systems are good. I am sorry I have not responded sooner as I have been working some overtime as we are short staffed and people are just calling off as we do not have a unit manager at this time. This is making for some really bad times as every other dept is taking advantage of us as there is no manager to stick up for us. As you can see this is another reason for me looking elsewhere.

Right now I have a recruiter that I am working with to get me some job offers. As of right now there has been a pretty hefty response to my resume as I am a critical care rn with my ACLS. She is working on setting up phone interviews for next week and after those if all goes well the sign-on and relocation packages will be worked out. She has told me that everone so far is offering either a larger sign-on or relocation package or a smaller sign-on and relocation package. She advised me on the interview process so I could wow them and she could get a larger package. I will know next week the names of the hospitals and maybe I could get some input from some of you on how they are as it will be a few weeks before me and my husband get the opportunity to visit the state.

I have done or should I say my husband has checked on the internet about shopping as we are both avid shoppers and were very pleased at the malls and the stores as steve and barry's is there and we get alot of childrens cloths there. Also happy there were starbucks as my husband could not live without his mocha frappachino latte or whatever he gets(hehe). Needless to say we are starting to get a little excited.

What I wanted to find out was just a few more things. What is the crime really like? It is pretty bad around here and getting worse, shootings almost everyday and some kind of murder or arson everyday.

What about the weather? How are the summers? Is there alot of humidity in the summer? The winters, how much snow do you get? We don't care about the cold as we actually like it better than the heat. We would also like to actually have snow for christmas rather than rain, sunshine or slush. We are also really tired of getting 1 or 2 inches of snow every other day, we never get any large amounts of snow anymore. It looks like we get alot of snow by the end of winter hower it is alot of smaller amounts that just makes it miserable as the life long residents of this stinken state can not drive in the snow and all the elderly buy every roll of tp and all the milk when our weather people say we are getting a snow storm. than the storm drops 4 inches and there is 500 wrecks and nothing on the shelves at the store. Sorry I am ranting as this state just makes me that way and if you think I am bad you should get my husband started on the subject(lol).

Well any and all help will greatly be appreciated.

thanks

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good luck:)

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nicmoe, thanks for the reply and info. I had a interview at ST. Joes hospital and was offered a position in the Critical Care Department. I like the hospital however I did notice that the people were rude. We were in Marshfield for 4 days and that seemed 4 days to many as there is just not much to do compared to what we are used to. It was at least an hour drive to go anywhere where there was some fun however we did like the weather. We would have ended up paying more than we do here because the health insurance was more and they wanted to start me out making about 50 cents an hour less. We ended telling my recruiter that we did not want to move where we were going to make less money and pay more out, since telling them that I have not heard from her as she is supposed to checking in other area's. I guess she did not like that I was not going to take the offer that they gave me, however I could not see moving to make less and pay more out of pocket.

anyway thanks for the info!!!!

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Family living in Wisconsin are going through some love/hate times right now. They are thinking of moving, just have not made up mind as yet to where. They do complain to me about how the price of food, utilities, insurance and taxes have skyrocked in the last 3 years. Kids schools are getting a little rough too. They are close to the Green Bay area. :rolleyes:

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i am a native to wisconsin. i have lived in madison, north of wausau and am currently in onalaska(outside la crosse). i have also lived in minneapolis.

we returned to this area (onalaska) b/c of lower taxes, great schools, goodness of people and over all saftey. la crosse is the home of two hospitals. i am employed at gundersen lutheran hospital (www.gundluth.org) one of wht midwests leading health care providers. the other is franciscan skemp(www.franciscanskemp.org) a memeber of the mayo health network. both are teaching facilities and provided cutting edge treatment and research.

we are located on the mississipii river and 2 1/2 hours from the twin cities, 1 1/2 from madison, 3 from milwaukee and 4 from chicago.

the area is home to viterbo college and uw lacrosse. we have several areas for shopping,education,relaxing and entertainment.

no, i haven't lived in new york, or boston, or l.a.

but, i have no desire to.

i'm sorry you were treated badly in milwaukee- please don't judge by that expirience!

good luck in your search! check out the sites i have listed- even if you aren't interested- the area is beautiful- come and visit!!

nella

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