Hi! I’m a high school senior and I just got into UIUC EA for electrical engineering (female)! I’m very excited!!
I have some pretty scattered questions and was wondering if any of you could give me any kind of insight or wanted to ask any questions of your own so we can get a good discussion going.
- What is the social scene like? Do all parties revolve around getting drunk, etc? I don’t drink or smoke but I still want to have fun so what kind of other options are there?
- What is there to do on weekends and on/off campus?
- How easy/hard is it for undergraduates to get research opportunities?
- What are the dorms like? How is housing overall?
- What’s the food like? Do you get bored of it really easily?
- How prevalent/dominant is greek life?
- How easy is it to get engineering classes?
- How rough is it to commute from O’Hare to campus? I’m from California and traveling to Chicago itself is gonna be an adventure.
- What are the cities of Urbana & Champaign like? What kind of fun stuff is there to do outside of campus?
- What is campus like? What is the culture like? (mainly for eng students)
- How’s work-life balance for eng students?
Thank y’all so much! Congrats to whoever else got in & I’m looking forward to visiting campus (is there anything specific I should look out/plan for?)
Hi there, current CS/Physics double major. I’ll try to answer these as best as I can.
- The school is massive, so the social scene is what you make of it. I have friends that get wasted every weekend and others who just stay in and play Shadowrun or Pathfinder. Parties suck imo, mostly just binge drinking low quality alcohol. I drink, but jesus they really do buy the cheapest garbage. However it's worth checking one out and giving it a shot to see if it's for you. Otherwise there's usually some events going on in town, and Krannert is super cheap for high-quality acts.
- There's a lot to do both on campus and off campus. We have a really cool art museum. The Krannert Center, which gets some really cool music/theater. State Farm Center/ Canopy Club have more contemporary music. Green Day came to Champaign last spring and it was hella cool.
- Depends on the department really. I dont know anyone doing CS research but almost all my friends in Physics are doing research. However that might just be luck.
4/5. The dorms are fine, no real issues. You can find people going more in depth on them. The food is actually really good because the University does it in-house and not subcontracting it, however PROTIP: avoid ISR food like the plague. You can go to any dining hall, don’t just stick to your dorm.
- It's large, but you can mostly avoid it short of the 220 bus late night on weekends.
- Do you mean registering for classes? Outside of CS, it's fine. However expect your first semester schedule to be inconvenient since you guys get last pick of classes. If you have AP credit, you end up with enough credit hours that after your first semester you can register earlier.
- Not bad at all, you have 4 options: Amtrak + CTA Blue Line from Clinton St. Station to O'Hare (cheapest public option, can be as cheap as ~$20 combined), Peoria Charter bus directly to O'hare (expensive but fast and direct), the racist bus company that loves to sue their riders (if you're into that kind of thing), or finding a carpool.
- I really like both cities. Urbana has a lower-density feel to it, and is super nice to walk around in. There are a ton of really good cafes and restaurants. Also if you're into music there's a pretty big emo/shoegaze/poppunk scene here and house shows are a fun time.
- Huge school once again, you'll find a group. Because of that it's hard to say that there's one monolithic culture.
- Meh, it's fine freshman year but it definitely gets more stressful and rigorous as you move along. You'll still have free time barring a scheduling disaster. (Don't take 5 relatively hard technical classes in a semester if you want to stay sane)
If you have time visiting, head to Flying Machine of Cafe Kopi in Downtown Urbana or Champaign respectively. Otherwise just walk around campus and enjoy yourself.
Hi pink2018, Congratulations on your acceptance! I have a daughter studying engineering at UIUC so I would like to reach out to you in case you still have questions. I will do my best to answer or I can check in with my daughter to get her read it there is anything on your mind.
Here are a few comments about the questions you raised.
We are out of state as well. It is very easy to get transportation to O’Hare Airport. Greek life is available yet there are many students who find others groups to join. There are some female engineers in sororities. However, it can be tough to juggle both. Additionally, there are many organizations like Women in Engineering, IEEE, etc. to also consider. There are many restaurants in the area and we always enjoy our visits to campus to find either a new place or a favorite to return to.
Have you made any decisions with your college choice? Do you plan to visit UIUC?
Best wishes to you!