With my choices for an education severely limited by my meager finances, I had narrowed my possible schools down to UW-Milwaukee and the "U," and looking back I'm quite happy with my choice. I wasn't always happy with the required courses I had to take or the red tape I had to cut through, and the film studies program, despite the efforts of the professors, wasn't anything too spectacular, but the opportunities the U opened up for me and the quality of the German department made it all worth it and then some. Without the U I never would have experienced any of the other 14 items and people on this list. It is the backbone of my time here, and because I want to keep taking courses even after I've graduated, it's difficult to leave the U behind.

Once again, the U wasn't all glitz and glimmer, and putting up with all the construction and not having Coffman for the majority of my time here really soured on me on the U. In fact, I have to say that at this point I have no intention of ever freely giving money back to the U as an alumnus, as they already squeezed more than enough money out of me to build buildings which I will never get to use. Screw those behind me - I built it and they get to use it - to hell with them. There are also other bits to the Twin Cities which I will miss more, and so that's why, despite being the catalyst, the U sits back here at number 5.