Acceptance Rate
42%
Avg. SAT
1520
75th percentile
“Engineer the next big thing at this Midwest research behemoth, where massive scale delivers top-tier opportunities amid Big Ten roars and relentless winters.”
Champaign, IL
Location
Small City
Campus Setting
You step onto the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's sprawling campus knowing it started in 1867 as a gritty land-grant university under the Morrill Act, designed to teach farming, mechanics, and practical trades to Civil War vets and Midwestern workers—no ivory tower pretensions here. Over 150 years, it ballooned into a public research juggernaut with 35,000 undergrads, fostering a personality that's unpretentious, collaborative, and fiercely innovative, like a giant workshop buzzing with tinkerers. Ambitious students who thrive on big resources and self-directed hustle fit right in; if you crave intimate seminars or hand-holding advising, the scale might swallow you whole.
Nestled in Champaign-Urbana, a twin-city college hub of 200,000 where students make up a quarter of the population, you'll find walkable Green Street lined with dive bars, boba shops, and farm-to-table spots fueled by nearby cornfields. The area's affordable (in-state tuition under $15K) and safe, but tradeoffs hit hard: you're hours from Chicago or St. Louis, so travel means planning, and winters bury everything under snow, forcing you indoors for months while summers sizzle with humid festivals.
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Admissions
Acceptance Rate
Test Policy
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Average GPA
Application Fee
Academics
Student-Faculty Ratio
Programs Offered
Full-Time Faculty
Women Faculty
Research Spending
Degree Levels Offered
You'll tackle rigorous coursework in world-beating programs like Grainger Engineering or Siebel Computer Science, where freshmen dive into undergrad research via programs like REUs, rubbing shoulders with profs despite the 20:1 ratio that packs intro lectures with hundreds. Classrooms buzz with Midwestern directness—profs cold-call without mercy, and group projects in the Innovation LLC hone real-world teamwork—but upper-level seminars shrink to 20-30, letting you geek out on AI ethics or quantum materials. The intellectual culture rewards grinders who chase National Science Foundation grants early; tradeoffs include weeder courses that cull the pack and less handcrafted feedback in massive gen-eds.
Research pulses everywhere, from the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (birthplace of the web browser) to ag biotech labs tweaking drought-resistant crops, with undergrads co-authoring papers more often than at smaller privates.
Student Body
Total Enrollment
37,140 undergrad • 22,098 grad
Undergraduate
Graduate
International
White
37%
Black / African American
5%
Hispanic / Latino
11%
Asian
19%
Other / Multi-racial
29%
Campus Life
Campus Setting
Champaign, IL
Varsity Athletics
NCAA Athletics
A typical week kicks off with 8 a.m. lectures on the historic Quad, segues to lab sessions or study grinds in the undergrad library (the largest public university one), and peaks Friday at Assembly Hall for Illini basketball, where the Orange Krush student section shakes the rafters. With 1,000+ clubs—from hackathons to Bollywood dance—you'll find your tribe, whether Greek life (25% participation) parties on frat row or a cappella groups busk Green Street. Residential quads mix freshmen in theme halls like Innovation or Sustainability, easing the enormity, but the vibe skews work-hard-play-hard: competitive engineers huddle in basements, while weekends explode with tailgates at Memorial Stadium.
Positives abound in the inclusive, diverse energy (40% students of color), but challenges loom—the sheer size fosters anonymity if you're shy, social scenes cluster by major (CS kids vs. ag majors), and polar vortex winters mean cabin fever, countered by indoor rec centers and escape-room pop-ups.
Housing
On-Campus Housing
Housing Capacity
Meal Plan Available
Average Room & Board
Athletics
Athletic Association
Big Ten Conference
ROTC & Veteran Support
Army
Yes
Navy
Yes
Air Force
Yes
Veteran’s Programs Available
Credit for military training
Yes
Dedicated point of contact for veteran support services
Yes
Recognized student veteran organization
Yes
Member of DoD Voluntary Educational Partnership MOU
Yes
Cost & Aid
In-State Tuition
Out-of-State Tuition
Room & Board
Estimated Cost
Financial Aid
Students Receiving Aid
Receiving Pell Grants
Average Grant
Average Federal Loan
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Outcomes & Earnings
Retention Rate
95%
4 Years Graduation Rate
76%
6 Years Graduation Rate
87%
Median 10-Year Earnings
$81,054
95% of first-time, full-time students complete their freshman year at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and return in the fall. 76% of first-time, full-time students graduate in 4 years, and 87% graduate within 6 years.
Graduation Rate
4-year grads
76%
4-5 years
11%
6-8 years
1%
Non-grad
12%
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Key Statistics
Type
Public
Tuition
$14,542
Acceptance
42%
Undergrads
37,140
4-Year Grad Rate
76%
Endowment
$2.5B
Champaign, IL 61820-5711
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