Life at UIUC

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
1

Hi all! I’m currently in the process of receiving decisions from my EA schools (admitted to UIUC, deferred from U-M). I am considering UIUC for undergrad, though I’ll wait to make the decision till I receive my regular decision update from U-M in the spring, as it is my top-school.

Since I’m considering UIUC, I do have several questions regarding the campus and the political science program.

Firstly, how does UIUC compare to other major Big Ten schools like U-M and MSU in terms of social life (from my understanding it’s more of a suburban/rural setting, as opposed to the urban setting of Ann Arbor and Lansing)?

Secondly, is UIUC comparable to other prestigious national universities such as UVA, Georgetown, U-M in regards to its political science program? U-M offers opportunities to intern in the Federal Government and provides other politically related opportunities to students, so I was wondering if UIUC has anything similar. My aspirations following college are in politics/law, so ultimately I’d like to know if this is a school that will prepare me for those endeavors.

Best,
JL

2

I can’t answer to political science questions but I can compare UM to UIUC. As far as setting, the campuses themselves are very similar, a mix of more modern buildings and cool older architecture, sprawling spaces, multiple quads, etc. Ann Arbor is a more bustling city than Champaign Urbana however it doesn’t make much impact on student life since most students spend just about all their time on campus and not much time off campus. So yes, Urbana Campaign is surrounded by cornfields but you don’t see them day to day as students because they are outside the city itself. You could pick one campus up and drop it anywhere without the day to day life of the students changing at all.

3

@adaorange Thanks for the info on the campus, I really appreciate it! I’ll be touring it in February, so I’m hoping to get a better understanding of the campus and the environment. Any info on the political science program? How does it compare to other national universities (top-tier or subpar to schools like Michigan, Georgetown, Yale, etc.)?