UIUC for OOS student

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

Hi Parents and students that attend UIUC or any OOS school, can you please post your experience attending UIUC as an OOS student.

  1. How many times in a school year do parents visit student ?
  2. how often in an year can student go home for holidays ?
  3. will there be lot of homework to complete in holidays that student can take home and complete?
  4. Does UIUC university provide free transportation to student to nearest airport?
  5. If student wants to graduate early, do they need to take summer classes? if so, how rigorous are summer classes?
    instead, can student take similar class from local community college near home in the summer?
  6. How simple or difficult is it to enroll for classes? Do all students get the classes they want to sign up for?
2

Hi, current student

1/2. not sure about OOS students, if you’re far from IL the only real opportunity you get to go back are thanksgiving/spring breaks (1 week), or the breaks between semesters (3/4 weeks for winter, 12/13 weeks for summer)

  1. There's no homework over Summer or Winter breaks, other breaks are professor dependent. I've usually not had major assignments due over break but it can happen.
  2. No, your cheapest option would be getting cheap Amtrak tickets to Chicago and then taking the subway to O'Hare or Midway (can be as cheap as ~$15), there's also Peoria Charter which runs buses directly to the airports (~$30), finally some people fly out of Champaign's airport.
  3. It's possible to graduate early if you have credit coming in or take classes over the summer or in a CC. I highly recommend doing core math classes (Calc 1-3 if applicable) outside of UIUC.
  4. This is major dependent. One of my majors (CS) is a complete mess when it comes to registration, the other (EngPhys) is straightforward and easy. Usually you can grab a spot in a class if you really want it though, just go to the lectures at the start of the semester and sign up when someone drops the class.
3

@literallymarx , Thank you for the helpful information.
good to know about computer science class scheduling as my D applied to CS major.

4

Generally scheduling is only a worry for sophomore and junior years when you start taking technical electives (some of which are really popular like AI and don’t have enough seats for everyone) since seniors have priority and freshmen don’t take tech electives.

5

@literallymarx

  1. There’s a Dad’s Weekend in the Fall and a Mom’s Weekend in the Spring. Hotel prices are increased. We usually pick a non Dad’s weekend in the Fall and then attend the Spring Mom’s weekend.
  2. My d only came home for one weekend that wasn’t a school break. She surprised me for my bday!
  3. The students have homework and studying over Thanksgiving (which they get the whole week with no classes!) And of course, there is homework during their March - spring break.
  4. My d has taken a Greyhound bus going east to Indy.
  5. If AP credit is taken and semesters loaded, some students can graduate early. Not sure about CS-- this is for other Engineering disciplines.
  6. No problems for my d to get into classes. She said there’s some shuffling in the first two weeks of the semester so it’s easy to check via computer for openings.

Hope this helps to answer your questions!