Hello guys, I’m currently a senior in high school and UIUC is one of my top choices. I was accepted into computer engineering. As the post title says, I’m considering the two residential housing above (private vs public i believe?). Any comments on these two specifically?
ISR is an old residence hall, has air-conditioning (unlike majority of UIUC halls), small rooms, community bathrooms on the floor, and is close to the engineering and main quad where most of your classes will be. It has a large contingent of engineering students and, for the UIUC residence halls, a larger than usual contingent of upper classmen which can result in some of the freshman who apply not being admitted as a first choice. Hendrick House has larger rooms, semi-private baths (one per two rooms), and is only a little further than ISR to the engineering and main quad. It also has many engineering students and the majority of residents are upper classmen (true in general for the private residence halls). I do not know if there is difficulty for freshman to get in this year. However, be aware the private residence halls have their own residence hall contracts and application procedures and unlike the UIUC residence halls it is not a lottery system for all freshman who apply for residence halls by mid-May. Instead, the private halls tend to follow priority in order of application and they have already been taking applicaitions for next year for some time.
The meal plans when staying in a UIUC residence hall allow you to go to other halls and provide points for using at the concession places in the Illini Union. The private residence halls, including Hendrick, have meal plans that cannot be used anywhere else.
Like all private residence halls, Hendrick carries a bigger price tag than the UIUC residence halls.
Bottom line is that Hendrick gives you more space, more privacy, and somewhat more comfort, but a more restrictive meal plan. and somewhat less of the more typical freshman experience with lots of other freshman that you get at the UIUC residence halls.
Hendrick meal plans can be used at Presby and Neuman also. Just signed my son up for Hendrick last week but after eating the Hendrick food I’m not sure why you’d want to go anywhere else. That was some great food!
@UIUCDAD Hi! Congratulations to your son. I’m a current resident at Hendrick House. I’m sure your son will have a great time here next semester. And you’re right about the food - and it only gets better! Shrimp cocktail night, sushi night, breakfast-for-dinner night…
Could not find floor plans for hendrick, are they trying to hide something?
@joecollege373 This is the second post I’ve seen you make regarding the certified private housing options at UIUC. They’re college dorms, not luxury accommodations, and they’re part of college life. Bromley is like a prison to you? Hendrick is trying to hide something? Come on. You seem to be looking for a reason not to attend UIUC. My son, now an aerospace engineering grad student, chose UIUC for it’s educational, research and networking opportunities. Dorms weren’t very high on his list of priorities. I see from other posts that your daughter got a full ride at Alabama, but that you’re instate for UIUC. That proximity made a big difference to me. Holidays, even short 3 day weekends were easy to implement. That helped him stay grounded. But 100K more over 4 years is a tough sell. In the end, college is what your daughter makes of it, no matter where she is. I can tell you that she’ll be challenged at UIUC and she’ll be surrounded by students that were all high school rock stars. I don’t know much about Alabama, but I do know that UIUC has been great for my son…regardless of the dorms.
We are just looking at the different housing options trying to figure out if there is something better than Bromley because it seemed pretty awful when we visited. We didn’t have time to visit the other dorms when we were there, but we will be visiting again. We had heard that the private housing food was terrible, but not sure what that means because it depends on someones perspective of what good is. Most if not all other colleges will include room dimensions for the housing, but I could not find anything for hendrick. It looks like hendrick might be one of the better housing options, but not sure. In general it seems like the housing is way overpriced at UIUIC for what you get. I do not expect luxury accommodations, but it would be nice to have lower prices if the housing is not very good.
My son seriously considered Alabama, but ultimately decided on Illinois. My husband and I went to Illinois as well. Honestly, none of the dorms are nice when you compare them to the super suites at Alabama. I’m not sure which rooms you saw at Bromley, but some seemed much nicer than others when we visited recently. I’m sure Hendrick House would be happy to answer any questions if you e-mail them. I’ve e-mailed a couple of private housing facilities, and they responded promptly.
Thanks for the info. My daughter does not seem that concerned with the housing either way right now. We should be visiting again soon because she needs to decide by May 1st. She is waiting for acceptance from other schools yet also. I shouldn’t pick on UIUC because the housing at most colleges is overpriced compared to what I have seen at Alabama and Iowa State. The housing at Iowa State is just much lower cost and they have very nice apartments for upper class students.
@joecollege373 Hi! I commented earlier. I’m a current resident at Hendrick House. Although it seems your preference is not UIUC, I just wanted to assure you that Hendrick House is a pretty great place to live. If you have the opportunity to visit tours are always available. Like I said, the food is amazing. Hendrick House has an East and West side. The East side dorms are smaller and there are more dorms per floor, but it is very social and lively. The West side only has 6 dorms per floor and the rooms are larger, but it is very quiet. The dorms are arranged into pairs, or suites, which share a bathroom, so no more than 4 people per bathroom. As for atmosphere, Hendrick is located just South of the engineering quad, so most of the residents are engineering students or in STEM majors. FYI, I’m a female physics major. I live on the West side and am very happy here!
I just found a guy that I work with and his son has stayed at Hendrick the last 2 years and liked it. He said the food was good also and the building was pretty quiet.
Thanks, that is good to know. Will definitely try to visit Hendrick next time we visit.
I like UIUC, but like the one person said earlier, my daughter has a pretty good scholarship to Alabama which is going to be hard to turn down. They are almost paying her to go there and the dorms and facilities are unbelievable. All new engineering buildings, rec centers and apartment style dorms.
Well, it’s a tough decision, but I’m sure it will work out for the best. TBH, my decision to come to UIUC was mostly financial. I was accepted to a certain well-known East-coast school but they offered me no aid whatsoever, and, like your daughter, UIUC practically paid me to go. In the end, it was the best decision. Good luck!
We visited the UIUC housing yesterday. The housing seemed fine at both ISR and Hendricks. But we did not have a good experience at ISR dining. At first I thought it was fine until I started to eat the food and realized it was not very good. Not sure if I just went on a bad day, but I would definitely not want to eat there again if it was like what we had. I could see why you would want to get the smallest number of meals possible if you had to eat there. Luckily you do get to eat at other cafeterias. Ikenberry looks very nice but it happened to be closed when we got there. Ikenberry is on the other side of campus, so it is not really convenient to go there unless there is a better way via bus.
For hendricks, the people at the front desk were raving about the food and it looked fine. We had already eaten, so we were not ready to eat another meal when we visited hendricks but it looked good. At hendricks they gave my daughter a cappuccino that she really liked.
The parking seemed very convenient at Hendricks.
The suite style rooms seem like a nice setup, the west side rooms are about $1,500 more per year.
Both dorms have a lot of engineering students because it is very close to engineering.
Thanks for the updates and information. We heard that a downside of some of the suite style living is that they can generally be less social and conducive to mingling with other hallmates (no common bathrms so students can stay in their own dorms). This could be a concern for Freshmen who are trying to meet other new students. Any comments about this theory?
If you want to maximize social interaction you will want to be around as many new students as possible. Freshman are most likely to keep those doors open and participate in meet/greet type activities that are organized at all dorms.
Suite style and bathroom options are less important than being in a place where everyone else is new too.
ISR has a great location and sophomore+ students take up most of the spots. Private housing is also known to be minority freshman, but check with individual dorms for details.