University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Top Questions

blah... didn't see this ^^^^

the professors really do care about the students, especially in the upper level classes. they make themselves more available than most students realize. by my last semester, every professor and ta knew me by name because i was spending almost 20 hours a week in office hours for one class or another. the engineering education is what you make of it. if you want to be at the top of the class, you have to be really, really smart, or spend your entire life in the library. i went the middle of the road route. i still spent the better part of my week in the library, but i could still go out with my friends on the weekends and a night or two during the week.

I think that many of them are indeed true but they don't happen all the time. I have definitely noticed how segregated the campus is during the 4 years I have been here. Everyone sticks with people who are racially, ethnically, and culturally similar or the same.

Somewhat

there are alot of asians. there are things for anyone to do... you can party or there are plenty of other things to do with many other people

No, while the campus is more work than party, this doesn't mean we don't have fun. We just also get our work done

yes

I did see people from my high school walking around every now and then, but Illinois is such a big campus with so many different kinds of people and so many events going on, that you really are in a new environment.

They are all true

Not at all. Never have I felt like "just a number" or as if I were lost. The great thing about a large university is that you are guaranteed to find people like you, with similar interests and everything. Plus, there are so many opportunities to meet people and get involved that you never feel "lost." It is a big school; I'm not denying that. BUT to me, that just means more opportunities and more fun.

there are a lot of Asians, there are a lot of suburban kids, but not every fits any stereotype perfectly

Usually they're just generalizations that may be accurate in some cases but not in others

sometimes. they don't apply to everyone though

School is in the middle of nowhere-- Yes. Outside of campus and downtown there is not much to look at. Bars are the center of the social life and can get old very quickly. The age required to enter most bars is 19 which encourages a lot of underage drinking. The cops, however, walk around giving drinking tickets to underage kids standing within an arms length of an alcoholic drink. If they're going to ticket underage drinkers $300 per offense, please do us students a favor and raise the age to enter a bar to 21. Although there is not much to look at outside of campus and downtown areas, U of I is the perfect college town. It might seem like there is not much to do, but everything a college kid need and wants is within walking/bus route distances. Greek System-- Fairly accurate. While there are plenty of smart, driven students in the Greek system, there are also a large amount of students who go out every night and continuously make fools of themselves. These are the individuals who make the system look bad. Engineering Students-- Fairly accurate. Many people are not as outgoing, shy and so smart it is hard to articulate what they're saying. This, however, is not true of all engineers just like the Greek system is not comprised of all embarrassing, stupid individuals.

You do have to do well in high school to get accepted to U of I. However, a tip I would give is be EXTREMELY involved in extracurricular activities and it will help you out a lot! For me, I truly believe it was my long list of activities that got me accepted. It is true I think. Students work extremely hard here, but the partying is pretty good too.

In fact, approximately 77{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of students drink at U of I. Not everyone drinks at U of I. While a fair amount do, not everyone does. Some students don't like to drink or simply don't do it because they don't have time to go out do to their time-consuming major. It is not easy to establish a balance between classes and social life. You have to establish good morals and understand that if you decide to procrastinate, you will have to complete that assignment eventually, potentially when you really want to go to a U of I basketball game, but you cant because you already went out earlier in the week. In college, you have to make smart decisions and know what's best for YOU!

Yes and no, since our school is so huge it's hard to generalize, yes there are a lot of students that party, however there are a lot of students that spend their saturday nights at the library (trust me I was surprised too)

a lot of people are from Illinois and a lot of people are very intelligent but people don't tend to be the stereotypical antisocial book worm type of smart. Many students are also outgoing and sociable. They are smart enough to have good time management and so manage to go out a lot as well as keep up with their school work.

Absolutely!

Somewhat