This article was originally reported in January 2026.
Five introductory courses at the University of Wisconsin–Madison appeared on student schedules 14,623 times in the 2024–25 academic year (fall and spring combined), according to a January 20, 2026, UW–Madison News story that called them “the Badger starter pack.” The figures come from the university’s course data at data.wisc.edu, and all five courses were offered again in spring 2026 (UW–Madison News, January 20, 2026).
The five courses
| Rank | Course | 2024–25 enrollment | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Music 113: Music in Performance | 3,862 | One-credit humanities course surveying live-performed styles from jazz and classical to Korean drumming |
| 2 | Chemistry 103 | 3,046 | General chemistry, usually taken by first-semester STEM majors and followed by Chemistry 104 |
| 3 | Economics 101 | 2,654 | Introductory economics (opportunity cost, supply and demand, externalities); required for economics and business majors and counts for General Education Quantitative Reasoning |
| 4 | Psychology 202: Introduction to Psychology | 2,625 | Decision-making, memory, learning, stress, persuasion and mental health |
| 5 | English 100: Introduction to College Composition | 2,436 | Small writing classes, taken mostly by freshmen to meet the Communication A requirement |
What instructors say
- Music 113: the course ends with “MIP Showtime,” where selected students perform; some students jokingly call it “clap for credit.” Professor emeritus Marc Vallon of the Mead Witter School of Music said students are often pleasantly surprised by it.
- Chemistry 103: senior lecturer Paul Hooker said the course also builds time management, accountability and responsibility for one’s own learning, which help students make the jump from high school to university work.
- Economics 101: Professor Alan Sorensen said ideas such as opportunity cost, supply and demand and externalities apply well beyond economics; classes use games such as trading extra-credit points and auctioning baked goods.
- Psychology 202: department chair C. Shawn Green said the course helps students understand themselves and others.
- English 100: Sara Kelm, director of English 100, described it as an “informal ‘introduction to college'”; some sections ask students to explore and write about the Wisconsin Idea, UW’s principle that the university should serve people beyond the campus.
Why these courses matter for planning
Most of these courses do double duty: they introduce a field and satisfy general education requirements (Communication A, Quantitative Reasoning or humanities breadth) or prerequisites for majors such as economics, business and the sciences. Because thousands of students take them each year, they are a common first-semester choice, and the spring offerings give students who miss them in the fall a second chance.
What international students should know
- English placement may replace English 100. International undergraduates who had to submit an English test score may be required to take UW–Madison’s English as a Second Language Assessment Test (ESLAT) and are then placed into ESL 114–118. ESL 118 fulfills the Communication A requirement for undergraduates, so these students often meet Comm A through ESL 118 rather than English 100; ESL 114–118 are 3 credits each (UW–Madison Global English Language Learning and Teaching: Courses).
- Large lectures are normal in first-year STEM and social science courses; use discussion sections, office hours and tutoring early, especially in Chemistry 103, which many STEM majors take in their first semester.
- About UW–Madison: UW–Madison is No. 34 among national universities in the 2027 U.S. News rankings and 35th in the 2026 ShanghaiRanking world list (Forward Pathway ranking database). Our UW–Madison school page (linked above) has admissions data, costs and international enrollment.