<p>Surely the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign deserves to be in the 'CC Top Universities' section? I've always considered it to be a stronger institution than the likes of the University of Virginia, or was I wrong?</p>
<p>It probably doesn’t help that U Chicago, NU and Wash U are all within 250 miles of U of I.
UIUC is a great school, but most of the schools in that list are fantastic and (usually) well rounded.</p>
<p>With that being said, it pretty much should go without saying that one should not make their decisions based on CC “Best University” list.</p>
<p>Same reason there are more “Top LACs” listed than top universities.</p>
<p>That and they’re too lazy to change it.</p>
<p>So is UIUC deserving of a place there?</p>
<p>Yes…
So are USC, Wisconsin, NYU and a dozen more.</p>
<p>There are plenty of great universities in the US. It doesn’t matter if they’re on the list or not.</p>
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<p>It does matter. When someone asks me what college I go to, I want to be able to log onto CC and go “Look! Look at where it is. It’s in the section reserved only for the nation’s top colleges!”</p>
<p>^It’s an unnecessary subsection of an online forum. It doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>Why don’t you use a more reputable source, for instance if you are in engineering log on to the USN report that says UIUC is #5, for instance, if prestige is so important to you.</p>
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<p>I’m a mathematician, not an engineer. Besides, rankings are ever-changing, CC is forever.</p>
<p>RamocitoMorales, you are a deluded individual. No, Illinois is not a top school. And no, Illinois is nowhere close to the University of Virginia (let alone be stronger). Not sure how one can be so misinformed. Maybe you’re just so obsessed with prestige, but couldn’t make it to a real top institution. Or maybe you’ve never seen what education at a top school is like. At any rate, your remark about pointing to Illinois on CC clearly indicates how pathetic you are.</p>
<p>Besides, you’re mathematics major. I could somehow comprehend your post if you were an engineer. But… mathematics at Illinois is not strong. It’s pretty good, but can’t even hold a candle to the top mathematics programs. You are among the last people to complain about anything.</p>
<p>Taking into account the overall quality of students and education, Illinois is not a top school and was never considered as such.</p>
<p>Get real.</p>
<p>P.S. Yes, I am a student at UIUC. ECE major in fact.</p>
<p>**** me, I think I want to shoot myself.</p>
<p>@RamocitoMorales</p>
<p>If you care so much about prestige, just go to Harvard :)</p>
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<p>Easier said than done.</p>
<p>Well Brahmin, I guess you don’t much about UVA which has a spotty engineering program at best and many depts at UI are ranked much higher than those at UVa. The main advantage is they are small thus propping up the average student stats due to high population nearby.
As for math, UI is Top 20 while UVa is barely Top 40. Same for many sciences and even liberal arts depts.</p>
<p>So UIUC is better than UVa (and UNC, etc.)? I mean, crap! I always thought UIUC was considered to be a very prestigious public institution!</p>
<p>As far as most measure go, yes. The average student’s scores might be a little lower but they have twice as many so there are easily as many if not more very good students. No contest in faculty quality. UI>UNC>>UVa.</p>
<p>@Barrons: oh right, I forgot that engineering determines the school’s overall quality. UVa has a “spotty” engineering program, therefore it’s worse than UIUC. You know, Yale’s engineering program is ranked with UVa. I guess Yale is overrated too…</p>
<p>And if you’re going to use USNews rankings as a true indicator, then use their overall rankings as well, and don’t cherry-pick what’s correct and what’s not:</p>
<p>UVa - 25th (2nd best public university)
UIUC - 49th (15th best public university)</p>
<p>Period. UIUC is not considered a top university. Nowhere close to UVa. So don’t try to equate them.</p>
<p>You can pull whatever excuses you want out of your ass, we all can. Let the numbers speak for themselves. </p>
<p>@RamocitoMorales: No, you are not going to a top school. No, CC is not adding UIUC to its list. You are not going to a top math department – no top department will have students testing out of its 400-level courses like ours (I tested out of three of them. Try doing that at Berkeley or UCLA), not top department will have such low performance on the Putnam as ours. Get over it.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t bash UIUC is I were you. Please note, one of the most respected CEO’s in the history of modern industrial history, Jack Welch, is a graduate of UIUC.</p>