<p>Many people have told me that the UIUC campus is extremely ugly and in the middle of nowehere, which definitely turns me off from the school b/c i visited indiana which was unbelievably gorgeous and fun. I know that college isnt about beauty or the town feeling, but how bad is it? I got admitted last week and am wondering.</p>
<p>Where did you hear that? I've heard the opposite from people that have visited it.</p>
<p>UIUC is a pretty campus and has many fun things to do. It's a great school and my D loves it! There is something for everyone. I think you would really enjoy it while getting a very good education.</p>
<p>The campus is the farthest thing from ugly. As for the middle of nowhere, that is relative. Compared to a large city, it's going to feel like the middle of nowhere, but for central Illinois, its far from it.</p>
<p>The campus is actually very nice with its quads, many old college buildings and many impressive new ones. Champaign and Urbana are just typical midwest fairly small cites, some good areas, some bad areas, nothing great to write home about but adequate. Many not from the midwest can be disappointed -- once you get out Champaign/Urbana, you essentially have little but farmland and trees 50 miles in any direction and there are literally no hills.</p>
<p>Note, though I am biased toward UIUC, I would agree that Indiana has the more impressive campus (although Bloomington is also a midwestern small city), and you can find hills and rock quaries nearby.</p>
<p>I'd say Bloomington as a town is better due to the arrangement of its commercial district and its campus-town. UIUC campus is very nice; it's contained, contiguous, organized, and colonial. It's very Big 10 and actually better than most Big 10 campuses. Location of Champaign-Urbana is a significant negative in my view. It's 3 hours to Chicago and only has a minor airport. If UIUC was within an hour of Chicago, it would be significantly more popular for OOS IMO.</p>
<p>It's not quite 3 hours from Chicago, it's much closer to two. I've done it in exactly two hours, but my dad is a lead foot, and we ran into no traffic in Chicago</p>
<p>UIUC is terrific. Plan on a visit so that you can make the most informed decision possible. And good luck.</p>
<p>It's around two hours to Chicago. It's literally going straightf or 110 miles on an empty road until you hit the traffic of Chicago.</p>
<p>It's not as bad as it's made out to be by the naysayers. The quad is actually very pretty. The rest of campus is about what you'd expect from most college towns, only the greek houses are (for the most part) much nicer.</p>
<p>It's not a small town either. 110,000 is not small. I don't think i've ever heard anyone here say, "man, this city is such a small little farm town, we gotta get outa here."</p>
<p>Frankly, i'm not sure how much more or less "in the middle of nowhere" it could possibly be compared to Indiana.</p>
<p>yes the campus is quite nice, they do a pretty good job in keeping it well kept. but the city itself however in my opinion is somewhat mixed. less than a mile outside of campus you can see low class housing and somewhat shabby living standards which make me cringe a little when i see it. overall C/U is not very rich itself and there are quite a few lower class people in the area. not to say that everyone there is poor but quite a few are. also green street seems to have a lot more homeless people walking around than usual. sorry to sound so depressing.</p>
<p>i went to indiana my freshman year and then transfered to UIUC. indiana has a GORGEOUS campus and surrounding areas geared toward outdoor fun if you're into enjoying things like hiking and cycling and just taking in beautiful scenery of wooded areas and lakes- i really miss it, but thats about the only thing i miss.</p>
<p>uiuc's campus, in my opinion, is extremely dirty and ugly. there is literally garbage littered everywhere around residences, which are in close proximity to campus buildings, and Green St. often smells like vomit. there is very little green space on campus and the brick buildings are visually unappealing. there is also a lot of construction going on, but that will likely change. in my opinion, the campus is just bleak and uninspiring. while there are some fancy parts of Champaign-Urbana, the majority of outlying residential areas can be pretty shady and there is a lot of crime around here. businesses dont seem to do too well.</p>
<p>however, UIUC is FAR superior to IU academically (depending on your major, of course, but in general UIUC is a better school, I believe). the people who go here are also extremely different. no offense to anyone or anything, but in my opinion uiuc is full of nerds and IU is brimming with elitists. just my opinion!</p>
<p>Shut up man. Go back to Indiana. What's your name? I'll withdraw your admission.</p>
<p>I've never ever heard anyone from damaging UI's reputation like you did.</p>
<p>gt3000, i dont think you can generalize the uiuc student body, cause with so many students, there is every kind and your experience of who goes to u of I is purely a personal experience.</p>
<p>polluxs, if you are really an adult, you are pathetic. if you are a kid pretending to be married to faculty, i applaud you.</p>
<p>U of I has an awesome looking campus. VISIT. dont take anything that anybody says about any college because they are probably half retarded, like the kids at my high school that went to UC Irvine because they said UC Davis was a cow town.</p>
<p>It doesn't really matter what 1 mile away from campus looks like, because chances are you will rarely if ever end up there. I think its possible to go to school here and never leave campus, considering lots of green street is considered campus. </p>
<p>this school is definitely NOT in the middle of nowhere.. it just happens to be sitting on the most badass campus on earth. you will not feel like you are in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do, because you will have thousands of students living all around you, with tons to do/drink.</p>
<p>when i come home for breaks, I am bored and look forward to going back to school. my friends at the UC's dread going back to school and think their breaks are hot ****, when I know the breaks are just high school all over again. </p>
<p>woooo, only like a week and a half till school starts.</p>
<p>I agree with Taffy. Don't judge. Come visit.</p>
<p>But I can safely say that once you visit, you're going to love it. The campus actually is really pretty. When I was applying to colleges, UofI was my last choice, and I didn't want to go at all, but once I visited I completely changed my mind. Now I love it and am glad I go here, so you should visit to make the best decision possible.</p>