Politicians seem to be taking shots at UW all the time since I left the state, about 5 years ago. What's the deal? When did it become popular to bash UW? For anyone living in Wisconsin, the University is well-respected nationwide and something you should be proud of. Some of those silly studies turn up a nugget of knowledge and they almost always produce a grad student with critical thinking tools. By the way, I did my grad work out of state and my major project was in the area of $250K. As an offshoot, just a strange idea I had one day, I came up with another study that I wanted to try. Now, everyone told me it was a waste of time because everyone already knew the answers. Guess what, everyone was wrong and the silly study was accepted for publication. That silly study had a final cost of $0.00 b/c I talked the suppliers and lab folks into giving me the equipment and material for free. So if you ever think some academic exercise is a waste of time and resources, just let it slide because someone might learn something.