The University of Illinois Urbana - Champaign

Date: Dec 06 2005
Major: Computer Science (This Major's Salary over time)
Overall UIUC was a overwhelmingly positive experience that took some getting used to being from the east coast, but was made great by the excellent CS department and fun big ten environment. I can't comment on other majors, but academically in Engineering you are getting a unique experience at U of I that rivals the best out there. Couple that with the big state school environment, and you've got a great place to party too. So places like Wisconsin/Purdue/Ga. Tech are probably similar to UIUC, but I doubt they provide as good an engieering education - just check out our engineering quad/libarary/clubs, they are amazing. MIT/Cornell/Stanford/Cal Tech, etc are certainly going to give you as good(well honestly maybe better) engineering education, but probably with about 10% of the fun you'll have at UIUC. While I was never in a frat (despite their prominence, there are plenty of independents), I had fun at many house parties and the bars. The bars are great in Champaign, I didn't realize how awesome they were until I left - 19 to get in, where else are you going to get that. The negatives would be that everyone is from Chicagoland, so when you aren't you feel a bit out of place in the beginning, unless you are naturally a social butterfly. And of course the large class sizes and remorseless class grading curves suck, but are tempered by the fact more smart students means great opportunities to learn from them at the labs/library. Finally, while I'd say we can compete with the best of em out there in Engineering, Accounting, Library Systems, etc; I've found that U of I doesn't get as much respect as it deserves out east. But it's plenty respeced in Silicon Valley and of course the midwest. Go Illini!