Champagne-Urbana is not the college down that the other schools mentioned in this thread are. As such, unless you are from in state or doing one of those more selective programs, there is not a lot of draw.

Anonymous wrote:I’m a professor at UIUC and we have a lot of OOS and international students. I think we have more Chinese students than any other U.S. university. I always invite students to my home for Thanksgiving. 60k students, so there is something for everyone! I think it is a great school if you’re fine with a smaller city (300k) that is a 2-hour train or bus ride to Chicago!

You must have a huge house to invite 60,000 students. Very nice.

Anonymous wrote:Great school but what stopped us from applying there is the hassle traveling there. You have to fly into Chicago and then it's a couple hour drive from there.

The university has a small airport with flights to ORD and DFW.

Our kid is at UIUC doing Cs and loving it. Our kid specifically wanted good CS and bigger/ Party school

Anonymous wrote:Great school but what stopped us from applying there is the hassle traveling there. You have to fly into Chicago and then it's a couple hour drive from there.

Good point. Though we are out west and facing a similar issue with our kid being interested in VT. CLT seems the only direct way...

Anonymous wrote:Admissions to UIUC for CS, engineering, and business are *way* more selective than the overall admissions rate.

Accurate to the best of my knowledge. Really outstanding I CS & engineering, and business is excellent.

All of the Big Ten Conference schools are outstanding if one does enough research into a particular intended major. Psychology is a good example of an underappreciated major at Big Ten Conference schools. Lots of opportunities to engage in well funded research at all levels including as a sophomore or, often, even as a freshman. Psychology majors often can select a tract to pursue--want to be a PhD or a practitioner or another tract. I cringe when I hear or read that a students is attending a small school to major in psychology as they miss out on many valuable opportunities in favor of an intimate experience with minimal benefits.

UIUC is a really strong school. However, large universities are not ideal for passive students or for those in need of a security blanket.

Birthplace of HAL 2000.

Great school but what stopped us from applying there is the hassle traveling there. You have to fly into Chicago and then it's a couple hour drive from there.

UIUC is a top school for CS with a correspondingly low acceptance rate, from what I understand.

It's a good school that you don't hear about much on DCUM because it's similar to other schools that are closer to the DMV. I think that's really the reason.

I have visited UIUC, Indiana (Bloomington), Wisconsin (Madison), Penn State, and Michigan. I've been to Columbus, but not to OSU's campus. I'd be open to sending a kid to any of these schools if it was their preference.

My older kid is at Michigan. He also applied to Indiana at our request. He wouldn't do Wisconsin or Illinois because of geographic distance farther from home and too similar offerings.

The big Midwest schools have Chicago as a regional powerhouse job center. Maybe that's also not as familiar for DMV kids.

Admissions to UIUC for CS, engineering, and business are *way* more selective than the overall admissions rate.

I’m a professor at UIUC and we have a lot of OOS and international students. I think we have more Chinese students than any other U.S. university. I always invite students to my home for Thanksgiving. 60k students, so there is something for everyone! I think it is a great school if you’re fine with a smaller city (300k) that is a 2-hour train or bus ride to Chicago!

more econ and data degrees

comp sci kids really struggled there last year with outcomes from what i’ve heard anecdotally

Do you mean for Comp Sci? Or general school? CS is a tough admit at uicu.

much luv for UMich and even Indiana on this site, but rarely hear about UIUC. My older child works for a FAANG+ and says it’s the top school for public recruiting at his company. Is it friendly to out of state kids? seems like 20%-30% OOS, similar to Penn State etc