I am a vegetarian and had no problems with the range and quality of options - at least at ISR which is where most Grainger kids prefer to reside. Of the top of my head, there was a salad bar, mexican, pasta/pizza bar, and asian noodle/rice bowls with vegetarian selections. YMMV but yes there will be housing tours and you will be able to go inside the dorm rooms and eat at the dining halls.
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Thanks! I am also looking for feedback on the rigor of the CS/CE program. I am told colleges like CMU and Harvey Mudd are really rigorous. Were you able to get a feel of where UIUC falls during this Illini day presentations. How far behind CMU/HMC should we consider UIUC’s rigor to be?
UIUC is pretty hard. A college like HMC doesn’t begin to offer the depth and breadth of CE/CS courses offered by UIUC. The bigness of the department means a ton of upper division courses that then allow motivated students to pursue whatever degree of difficulty they are comfortable with. During the student panel discussion, one of the students basically said she got 44% on her mid-terms and the class average was 50% in one of the CompE elective course.
I wouldn’t worry about the rigor although its probably true that a Berkeley or MIT or CMU might have considerably harder problem sets.
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We loved Illini Day too. Beautiful campus, very well organized event, friendly vibes everywhere. The Green St. hustle and bustle took us by surprise, so did ISR dining room. It seemed like a happening, fun campus. You can sense Grainger is big and the curriculums are rigorous but yet, somehow felt the school knows how to balance. They stressed the professors availability, collaborative spirit of students. We loved Grainger library too, buildings are beautiful. Also impressive were the career fairs, research options and campus diversity. We are OOS and seeing that many students are from outside Illinois was reassuring.
It is a tight call for us between UIUC and UT Engg!
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We were also struck by how friendly and welcoming everyone was!!! You would think students might get annoyed by a ton of parents at a dining hall on Illini days, but not at all. They were all willing to jump in and help us find our way!! Great vibes:)
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I have been accepted to UT Computer Science Business Honors (in state under McCombs), RICE (full pay) and UIUC for Computer Science (Grainger), they all appear to be great programs. Any insight on one vs the other.
If you want to do Business + CS, then UT is an easy choice given IS tuition. UIUC and Rice are equally good CS programs but not sure if its worth spending the extra $$$.
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Did they happen to talk about how difficult it is to get into ISR as a Freshman? Finally taking my son to Illini Day on 4/15, but might have to give up my guest spot to one of his friends and I know neither of them will ask the questions that I want answered. Also, if you could share Illini Day schedule (my son has been admitted to Grainger for MechE) I would greatly appreciate it.
I didn’t think to ask that question about ISR. My impression was that you should be able to get into ISR since all dorms are equidistant from the central quad and people generally pick the one closest to their school.
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Thank you for sharing! We heard from a neighbor that ISR has a lot of upperclassmen, but that was during COVID so I am not sure if that is generally the case. I will try to find out and post back here.
I believe new students have to sign up for a time slot to choose their dorm. If they have a strong preference, they should sign up early to try to get an early slot. The better dorms fill up fast. ISR did last year. Current students already went through the process of choosing a dorm. I don’t have all the details because my daughter took care of it. She was aware of the process from the emails received from University Housing.
Good luck!
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I’m glad to hear that you had a great visit. I was similarly impressed the first time I visited the remodeled ISR. Maybe more so because I remember what it was like.
My son claims sign up spots are randomly assigned. He has not accepted his offer though so not sure if he got that info directly from the university or from friends.
We attended the housing session and the housing director mentioned that sign up spots are randomly assigned, so there is no advantage to signing up before May 15.
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That is what we heard as well from the Housing reps.
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I stand corrected. Thanks for clarifying this. Good luck getting an early enough slot with good options remaining.
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Has anyone attended the info session and campus tour for admitted students? My D22 is not able to attend Illini Days and we’re wondering how much we’ll be missing. Also trying to decide on Sat vs weekday visit. She visited campus last fall and was admitted to DGS.
At Illini day, the day started at booths set up with information ranging from study abroad to the health clinics. We looked around, but honestly there is more information online, so I don’t think missing that is a huge loss. After that, there was a presentation about the school more broadly that was very nicely done.
They then moved to a Q &A with a student panel. It was nice being able to ask questions of current students and hear their stories. I believe they still have some webinars coming up they include student panels, so you might be able to get what you need from one of those.
Next was the absolute best part of Illini day for us, the degree specific info session. Anyone out there attend Illini day for DGS? If so, they could probably give you a snapshot of what was discussed.
We then toured and had lunch at the ISR hall and dining facility. You could call admissions and see if a one on one tour could be arranged if you wanted to see that during your visit. If not, you could always just pop in, look around and buy lunch.
By mid afternoon your pretty much done. They did have some info sessions in mid to late afternoon with financial aid and other departments. We didn’t attend those because we didn’t have any questions we need addressed.
Best of luck to you and your daughter!
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Housing (except private) is random. You could be the first with your deposit and last on the selection day. It’s a risk with dorms because it’s a lottery system. You can never predict which Illinois dorm you will get. Have preferences in mind but have an open mind going in.
Ahhh good ole ISR. I lived in ISR many many years ago as a sophomore. Was very hard to get into as a freshman back then, and I ended up FAR my first year - long, long walk to campus from there.
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