<p>I got accepted by both the U,im an international student and i dont know much about the schools except the overall ranking,which uiuc is bit ahead of psu,im not sure which one to pick.i hope u guys actually from the U can tell me something more specific about the school such as the academic,people,surroundings..or just how americans think of the two schools also comparing? thanks a lot!</p>
<p>I am not sure which school you mean by UIUC. Go on line and visit the school web sites. Take the virtual tours. Check out the major you are interested in pursuing. Look at the opportunities offered. I attended Penn State as did S1. It is large and varied and your experience will vary depending on what you want out of the university. There is something for everyone. Were you admitted to University Park campus?</p>
<p>Jenny - UIUC and PSU are quite similar, though I’d agree that UIUC is a bit better academically (especially in the computing majors). Both are large schools in fairly isolated areas. Both have large and diverse student bodies. Both have big-time sports programs. I’d choose UIUC (full disclosure: my spouse is an alumnus and my niece currently attends), but both universities are excellent.</p>
<p>If you were admitted to the University Park Campus, choose Penn State. They are pratically the same academiclly, but the football team is much better at PSU.</p>
<p>The Universities of Illinois are big in adding fees which are not covered by GA/TA/tuition scholarships. At both UIUC/UIC campuses, there have been a lot of issues with the grad students over this.</p>
<p>They were both schools that D1 applied to. UIUC was her safety school, and when the Penn State acceptance came, she was thrilled that she didn’t have to stay in-state. She later chose Syracuse as she was a journalism major.</p>
<p>Good infor given above regarding the students on the main campus vs. satellite campuses at Penn State.</p>
<p>Campus wise, UIUC is rather drab looking. Penn State is an absolutely gorgeous campus. One of the things that impressed my daughter is the heated sidewalks. In the winter, you don’t have to wait for the plows to come through and clear the sidewalks of snow because they’re heated. Nice feature in an area that gets a lot of snow, yet the campus is big and requires a lot of walking. I’d say State College is even more isolated than Urbana-Champaign, though. But if I was going to be isolated on a big campus, I’d choose College Park.</p>
<p>What are you interested in? UIUC is great in computer science and engineering. Penn State has very strong mechanical and electrical engineering programs. They are both huge, isolated, rural, generally decent public universities. </p>
<p>Students love Penn State (University Park) and its community, although I have to say that lots of good students from the city choose Temple or Pitt over Penn State because they don’t want to be in the middle of nowhere. UIUC is in the middle of a slightly different nowhere. As noted, the Penn State area is quite beautiful, in the middle of some (low, old) mountains. (One of the many names by which its town goes is Happy Valley.) The UIUC area is very, very flat.</p>
<p>The two institutions are really a lot more similar than they are different, I suspect. You probably can’t go wrong picking either one.</p>
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<p>Damn straight.</p>
<p>overall, UIUC has a much better international reputation. When I was working with a lot of European and Asian colleagues overseas, a lot of them knew UIUC to be an excellent public school, being part of 10 Ten. I don’t think Penn State has a similar international standing. </p>
<p>Being close to Chicago is not bad - hey, it’s only 3 hours ;-). However, Illinois winter is BRUTAL.</p>
<p>I have no idea what the 10 Ten is.</p>
<p>He probably meant “Big Ten”, to which of course Penn State now also belongs.</p>
<p>Yeah, I was going to say…</p>
<p>Good to know Nova10. My D applied to several grad programs - UIUC and Penn State were two she was accepted to. She chose Penn State out of all of them for several reasons. Grad programs would be alot different than what the OP is interested in, but D is very excited to move to PA in August!</p>
<p>I am an Illinois alum and live in State College. The winters are comparable, but the summers in Illinois are much worse (very hot and humid). In my day, it was possible to take the train from CU to Chicago; I don’t know if that is still possible. There is a “Chinatown” bus from State College to New York. I agree that UIUC has more of an international reputation.</p>
<p>wow thanks for everyone infos and ideas! they are all very helpful.and yea im an undergraduate accepted by psu main campus and going to study business.which i heard before psu has a large alumni network in business area,is that so? what do you think of their busniess programs?</p>
<p>PSU has a more than respectable College of Business (Smeal) and the alumni network is very strong. Whether or not it would help you beyond the eastern U.S. is debatable. Toneranger might be able to weigh in on this.</p>
<p>Smeal is probably better than UIUC’s COB, and the alumni network is definitely stronger from PSU, but it’s not like you’re at a severe disadvantage going to UIUC. It’s one of the most respected public schools in the country.</p>