Colleges University of Illinois—Urbana-Champaign

UIUC www.illinois.edu

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is a public institution that was founded in 1867. Its campus size 1,783 acres and is located in the twin cities of Urbana and Champaign in east-central Illinois, only a few hours from Chicago, Indianapolis, and St. Louis. It’s not hard to find something to do on campus with more than 1,600 student organizations, including professional, political, and philanthropic clubs. All freshmen are required to live on campus. Campus resources include one of the world’s largest public university libraries, with millions of items circulated and hundreds of thousands of reference questions answered each year. Outstanding centers for performance and training in the arts include one of the nation’s best performing arts facilities, the Krannert Center. UIUC was the first school to provide disability access to all university services, curricula and facilities.

Academics

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is a member of the Association of American Universities and is classified among R1 Doctoral Universities: Very High Research Activities. UIUC comprises 16 colleges and schools that provide more than 150 undergraduate programs and more than 100 graduate and professional fields of study. Its Graduate School of Library and Information Science, College of Engineering, and Department of Psychology are among the best in the country. The school’s College of Business, College of Education, and College of Law are also highly regarded. UIUC’s student-faculty ratio is 21:1, and the school has 39% of its classes with fewer than 20 students. Popular majors include Research and Experimental Psychology, Economics, and Accounting.

Special Highlights

Research Park. The Research Park at the University of Illinois is a leading technology hub that cultivates startups and accelerates corporate innovation. Research Park has more than 120+ companies and growing, employing more than 2,000 people in high-technology careers. At any given time more than 800 student interns are gaining valuable experiential learning and work experience while making real contributions to internal corporate R&D and product development programs.

Illinois Abroad & Global Exchange. Our campus study abroad office facilitates education abroad programs in locations around the world. We believe that international education is transformative. Not only does it foster global competencies, but also allows our students to enhance their skill-sets, broaden their perspectives, and gain a deeper understanding of their given fields. Our programs are open to students from all academic fields, backgrounds, and identities.

School Mission & Unique Qualities

Since its founding, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has earned a reputation as a world-class leader in research, teaching, and public engagement. The UIUC campus is known for its landscape and architecture, as well as distinctive landmarks. It was identified as one of 50 college or university “works of art” by T.A. Gaines in his book The Campus as a Work of Art. The campus also has a number of buildings and sites on the US National Register of Historic Places including Harker Hall, the Astronomical Observatory, Louise Freer Hall, the Main Library, the Experimental Dairy Farm Historic District, and the Morrow Plots. Entrepreneurship flows from the classrooms to Research Park, a space that houses everything from Fortune 500 companies to student-founded startups. The Activities and Recreation Center is one of the largest recreational facilities of its kind on a university campus. The University also hosts the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and is home to the fastest supercomputer on a university campus.

Student Reviews…

“There is a Quad surrounded by red-brick buildings where you can have picnics, play, or just relax. The nearby Japan House has a garden with cherry blossoms. It’s a great college town, and there is always something to do. Beautiful environment and high quality education.”