Questions about University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

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

Hello, I am a current junior living in the state of Michigan. I am compiling a college list and am taking at UIUC and have a few questions.

1.) What is the reputation of colleges outside of the College of Engineering? In particular what is the reputation of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences for a hard science major?

2.) What is the town of Urbana-Champaign like? Is it similar to Ann Arbor?

3.) I know the state of Illinois has had a lot of economic trouble lately. Has this affected the University?

4.) What is the general caliber of students? Are there a lot of mediocre students? How difficult is admission to the honors program?

2
  1. UIUC is excellent and incredibly well respected for chemistry and physics. The Beckman Institute drives a lot of applied physics and chemistry research and holds a lot of enriching outreach events that are open to undergrads and the general public. The chemistry teaching labs and lecture halls are newly renovated and shiny. The lecturers are very devoted and good. In chemistry, there are a lot of incentives for the grad students to be excellent TAs, and it shows.
  2. From what I hear, Champaign-Urbana is not like Ann Arbor. C-U feels very suburban once you get out of the few blocks of campustown, downtown Champaign, or downtown Urbana. The buses are free for UIUC affiliates and you can get around pretty easily, but a car is definitely helpful. I have The whole campus and town are pretty nerdy with great libraries and public maker spaces, etc. There is a lot to do and lots of very engaged and well-educated locals, especially considering it’s a city of 200k. There are more and more restaurants and cafes and other new businesses too. If you like shopping though, you might need to catch the train to Chicago for the weekend (direct Amtrak from downtown Champaign for $15 each way if you book early).
  3. Yes, it affected the university, but not really where undergrad students are concerned. A lot of top notch professors got better offers from UChicago and Northwestern, or other schools out of state and left. These were not professors known for teaching but rather for research output, so it’s mostly felt in the research and prestige realm. Construction and renovations have continued pretty on pace, and especially teaching buildings and student spaces are very shiny.
  4. I’m not the best person to answer this, I don’t interface with the college students much. It’s a huge school. There will be smart and motivated kids, and there will be smart slacker students, same as everywhere else. The few undergraduate students I know are very smart and motivated, so they exist on campus. There are a ton of cool academic opportunities for students to take advantage of on campus - research, workshops, engineering teams, start-up/entrepreneurship programs, etc. Also the career advising resources there are excellent.
3
  1. Depends on the major. From my understanding the Chem and Math departments are very well regarded in LAS. Physics and CS as well, but their kinda organized strangely being both in LAS and Engineering.
  2. I'd agree with the above poster, though you should check out other threads about this Chambana as well. One thing to add, if you're living in a dorm, don't waste your money on bringing a car down here and buying parking. Cars are nice if you live in an apartment because it makes grocery shopping easy, but they're a hassle if you're living on campus.
  3. Eh, UIUC is fine along with UIC and ISU. The smaller Illinois public universities are in a bit of a crunch though. The current front runner in the 2018 gubernatorial race has talked a lot about increasing higher ed funding in Illinois, so we'll see how that goes.
  4. Eh, it's a huge group. Even in "prestigious" majors you'll find all sorts of individuals.
4

Thank you geraniol and literallymarx for your replies.

Is there any difference between Engineering Physics and LAS Physics? I would apply either Physics, Biochem, or Bio.

Can you easily switch majors?

Also is it easy to double major? I want to double major or at least minor in philosophy or poli-sci.

5

LAS Physics has a more theoretical curriculum, designed for people who want to go into Physics at the Grad School level. Engineering Physics is a more flexible degree. In practice, Engineering Physics majors have slightly less 400-level theory requirements, but take some sort of concentration in an area (E.g. computational physics) instead. Also, Engineering Physics has a lighter foreign language requirement since it’s not in LAS. There has been talk of merging the majors, but I haven’t heard anything about this since last year. Check out the UIUC physics website for more details.

Easily switch majors? Depends on the major. Generally it’s just take a couple classes and do well in them. However it is really hard to switch into in-demand majors, particularly CS, ECE, MechE, and BioE.

I’m actually a current double major with CS and Engineering Physics. One thing to note is that you can only double major in the same college. Getting a double major in a different college is actually called a “dual degree.” It’s more involved and has a bunch of requirements that you can look up. Getting a minor is pretty straightforward though.

6

To expand a little, LAS Physics has 3 main options, a grad school curriculum, a teaching curriculum and a professional curriculum. The professional (Science and Letters) path is similar to the Engineering Physics curriculum. Both offer similar courses with a set of technical elective options that include pre-law, pre-med and various physics related specialties like biophysics (that includes some biochem classes). The Engineering Physics degree is 128 hours, vs. 120 for LAS Physics. They have somewhat different elective requirements. Both are managed by the same Physics department staff. Both are charged at the highest tuition rate. You can technically transfer from one to the other, as long as you have time to complete any differing elective requirements in time.

https://physics.illinois.edu/admissions/undergraduates/degree-programs