<p>I heard it is in the "middle of nowhere".</p>
<p>I didnt have a chance to visit Illinois this summer, but I want to get some of you guy's opinion about the school's campus.</p>
<p>Is it nice? Boring? Relaxed? Noisy?</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>The main arts quad is absolutely beautiful, huge, with criss- crossing paths, flanked by classic red brick buildings. The engineering quad is beautiful, too.</p>
<p>Campus is very, very flat, so has a bit of a sprawling feel. But there are no major roads running through.
For such a large school, I think it has a very cozy, homey feel, compared to say, Wisconsin at Madison. The dorms are supposed to be very social but nothing special. There is reportedly some segregation among minority groups on campus. The rec centers are all either being renovated or have been -- very, very nice.</p>
<p>U of I is never boring. Kids have a great time there. Lots of Greeks and Big Ten spirit. Green St. borders campus with all the restaurants, etc.</p>
<p>Now is it Ann Arbor or Madison? No, absolutely no. Urbana/Champaign is definitely in a rural area. But it's an easy 2 and a half hour ride to Chicago, and there are bus services to Chicago every weekend as well.</p>
<p>There are far fewer out of state kids at Illinois than at some of the other Big Ten schools, so you might want to consider that.</p>
<p>To be fair it is almost never an easy ride into or out of Chicago, even from the suburbs. I love that city, but it has some of the worst traffic in the country.</p>
<p>thanks for the opinion. judging the virtual tour, it looks very nice.</p>
<p>It's honkin' big. Everything feels gargantuan. Champaign-Urbana has a nice college town feel, but dbwes is right, it's no Ann Arbor or Madison. And rjkofnovi is right, there's nothing but 120 miles of corn and soybeans between Champaign-Urbana and outer-ring Chicago suburban traffic gridlock. There's a train, but I don't know how the service is.</p>