I can’t seem to find similar questions to this, so forgive me if this has been asked before and I missed it! I got accepted into both schools. UIUC was my first choice because of its ranking alone, but I’m wondering if it’s a strong school for biology. I don’t know much about UIC’s biology program except that the school itself has a strong med program, which I’m not interested in. Does anyone have any insight on the bio programs at both of these schools?
UIC has a better bio program. If UIC cost less go to UIC. Undergrad biology doesn’t open many opportunities so going to either won’t matter. Personally, I took gen chem at UIC and the class was fairly easy, but the problem is a lot of the lab components are poorly done and there are a ton of problems with the lab manual and what the TAs expect of their students. Either way, you can’t go wrong with either school.
As for quality of education, I would say probably about the same. As the state flagship, UIUC will be a tier above in reputation and in selectivity of admissions which isn’t necessarily important depending on what you plan to do next.