<p>Is it incredibly rural or is it fairly urban? I want to know if i should apply there but i don't really like rural towns...</p>
<p>bump 10char</p>
<p>Champaign-Urban is never going to be considered an "urban" neighborhood. Or even suburban. It's a medium sized town surrounded by farmland. </p>
<p>But C-U has considerably more stuff to do than when I went to school there years ago. It has a OK mall, some very nice restaurants and even a cigar bar. </p>
<p>And the university is a world unto itself.</p>
<p>With over 42,000 students (grad and undergrad), UIUC won't feel like a rural environment and a lot is happening on campus, but it is in the Illinois farm country and one of UIUC’s claims to fame is their agricultural research. They have a cornfield on the campus which serves as an experimental genomic lab for the ag students.<br>
Urbanna-Champaign is quite a ways from anything that you could reasonably term a significant city. Springfield is about 90 miles west, Indianapolis is about 120 miles to the east, St. Louis is about 180 miles to the southwest and Chicago is about 140 miles north.</p>
<p>It's a huge school. Big bands come to perform. There are stores, restaurants, bookstores, etc. But it's not Madison or Ann Arbor, not by a long shot. Definitely surrounded by the cornfields.</p>
<p>what is springfield or indianapolis like? why do ppl keep saying UIUC is rural and all..i hope i dont regret making my decision to go there lol</p>