College Spotlight: The University of Illinois

In this installment of College Spotlight, we take a closer look at The University of Illinois. Located in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, this college is well known in the Midwest for it's academic excellence and prestige in all of their academic areas. Most notable are the College of Business, College of Engineering and College of Education. The University of Illinois is a great choice for a student that is looking for a Big Ten college with a well rounded choice of majors and academic areas.

The University of Illinois is a public college that gets right around 27,000 applications per year, including in-state, as well as out-of-state applicants. This four year, coed institution is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. They offer bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in many different academic areas. As opposed to trimesters, The University of Illinois is on a semester based calendar and also offers summer courses if so desired.

This college is located in an urban, Central Illinois setting, but don't let that fool you. The University of Illinois is a small city in itself with well over 40,000 students. The opportunity to meet new people and experience a variety of a different things is abundant at this college. The vast majority of students at Illinois are in-state, with around 11% being from other states.

The University of Illinois participates in Division I NCAA athletics and has a very wide variety of sports. Men's Basketball, Football and Baseball are a few of the more nationally known sports at this college. Women's sports range from Softball, to Swimming, and offer the female athlete the same Division I competition. In addition to the NCAA sports, this college offers a large intramural program that many students take full advantage of. Athletically, there is plenty to do at Illinois.

The price tag at The University of Illinois has gone up in recent years. Currently, in-state tuition is priced at $9,882, which is a little pricey when compared to other schools in the state. But, the education you receive at Illinois is second to none in the state, and other Illinois colleges usually gage their admission criteria by what The University of Illinois is doing in a given year. This college sets the bar high, but rightly so. Out-of-state tuition is priced considerably higher at $23,968. Neither of these figures includes living expenses or room and board.

The final aspect of this college I'd like to cover is admission standards. The University of Illinois is one of the more difficult colleges in the state to get admitted to. If you are applying to the College of Engineering, you can expect to be denied unless you have at least a 30 on your ACT test. Other colleges within the school are less demanding, but still have high standards and expectations once you're admitted. As a general rule, students applying to this college should have a mid to high 20's on their ACT, with a grade point average of 3.5 or better (on a 4.0 scale). As always, other factors go into admission, but these are just a general rule of thumb.

If you are a student looking for a quality, Big Ten college education, The University of Illinois offers a great opportunity to earn a very good degree in your area of academics.