Getting To Know: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)

Published by Stuart Nachbar at October 26, 2025

An admissions profile of UIUC might scare some prospective students away.

This incoming class has:

An average SAT score of 1442. However, the ranges for some schools within the university push the average higher. UIUC is one of the few large universities that provides GPA and test score ranges by school. Overall, 60 percent of the freshmen submitted scores. But the percentages also varied by school. The university reported to US News that test scores were Considered.
About the same percentages of international and out-of-state students. Each group represents about 15 percent of the class. California and New Jersey are the largest sending states. China is the largest sending country for international students.
Over a fifth of the class are first-generation college students

Overall, 42 percent of over 83,000 applicants were accepted, though acceptance rates vary by school. The volume went up from just under 74,000 last year.

My past experience is that the business and engineering programs are extremely difficult to gain admission as is the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.

However, those who get into UIUC tend to stay.

Freshman retention is 94 percent while the most recent four-year graduation rate was 73 percent. Both numbers are quite high for a very large state school.

However, these numbers and interest from New Jersey students made me check out the numbers for Rutgers’ main campus which has about the same number of undergrads (around 37,000). For Rutgers these numbers were 93 and 69 percent. I know that each school offers majors that the other does not. But UIUC and Rutgers are similar in that:

Both schools are members of the Big Ten Conference.
Acceptance rates are about the same (42 vs. 41 percent)
They are members of the Association of American Universities, recognized for the quality and quantity of the research output of their faculty.
Each school is in a “blue” state in terms of their governor, US senators,, Congressional delegation and state legislature..
One can take a train into a major city from either school. However, Amtrak provides the ride to Chicago at a much longer duration of time and a higher cost.
Neither school is know to be especially generous with merit-based scholarships. However, it is possible for an exceptionally strong student to earn a full-tuition scholarship to Rutgers, even from out-of-state. Rutgers gets only eight percent of its undergrads from outside New Jersey.
Both are the only flagship state universities in their states and the only Federal Land Grant universities in their states.

The last point is important, especially given that Illinois is the nation’s sixth most populous state, just ahead of Ohio. The five more populous states (California, Texas, New York, Florida, Pennsylvania) all have more than one flagship as do Ohio, Indiana, Iowa and Michigan.

But UIUC is really not a “safe school” for most applicants, even if they come from Illinois. Chances are that if you do not get into UIUC as an Illinois resident you will be considering a Big Ten school in another state.

I’m a graduate of UIUC and Rutgers and visited them more than most schools.

UIUC is better resourced for agriculture, business, education, and possibly engineering. But I’d be hard pressed to believe that one school is truly “better” than the other.

Career services are excellent at both schools though UIUC alums are more likely to be in the Chicago area while Rutgers alums are more likely to be in or near New York.
Rental markets are expensive given that both are large, high-profile colleges. The housing market is larger around UIUC because Champaign and Urbana are a much larger community.
The sports culture is somewhat similar–fans go all-out for a winner, stay home for a loser–but UIUC is a more frequent contender in the two major revenue sports, football and men’s college basketball. The fighting Illini compete in larger venues and have some past experience at winning conference titles that Rutgers fans could only hope to win.

US News ranked UIUC 36th among National Research Universities. Rutgers was ranked 42nd. UIUC ranked 12th among the public universities, Rutgers 16th. If money matters to a New Jersey family I’m not sure that the “higher ranking” is enough reason to choose UIUC.

The big difference to me is visual.

Both campuses are quite spread out. The UIUC campus, with nearly 5,400 acres, is the largest in the Big Ten. It’s more than twice the size of Rutgers’ campus. Yet I never felt that I had to ride a campus bus at UIUC while I needed to reply on them to get around Rutgers. The UIUC campus tour is a walking tour. At Rutgers you will ride a bus. At UIUC you can bus easily from off-campus if you don’t have a car, but that might be the only time you ride a bus. Parking a car in the center of either campus is not worth trying.

The UIUC Quad is far larger than the main quad on Rutgers’ College Avenue campus. Its expansive greenery, flanked by the Illini Union and the Foellinger Auditorium, makes one feel like they’re at a more expensive school. If money didn’t matter and both schools accepted me, the Quad on a nice fall or spring day would likely sell me on UIUC. Rutgers is divided into neighborhoods that create a look and feel of smaller schools. The engineering and science students who come to Rutgers tend to live near their classes on the Busch campus to try to avoid riding buses. The same is likely to be true for agriculturally-oriented students on the Cook-Douglass campus. Pretty everyone else rides buses.

The visual differences extend to the communities.

UIUC is in the center of what locals call The Twin Cities for Urbana and Champaign.. The academic quad is technically in Urbana as are most of the streets that have the college-oriented bars, dining places and shops. Downtown Champaign is more for adults. Wite respect to Rutgers, New Brunswick is the least populous college town in the Big Ten. Shopping. like the massive Barnes and Noble bookstore, close to camus is more student oriented. As you dive further from campus the restaurants become more adult oriented.

Greek life is more important at UIUC versus Rutgers.

But Rutgers is better when it comes to on-campus housing. UIUC can house just over a third of all undergrads and relies on private certified housing to offer experiences similar to what students will find in residence halls. Greek life attracts 14 percent of the man and about a fifth of the women. At Rutgers, 40 percent of students live on campus while Greek life attracts ten percent. It’s quite possible to go to Rutgers and never need to sign a lease for an off-campus apartment. That’s less true for UIUC.

One rare positive for a large state school. UIUC has a Division of Exploratory Studies.

This division is for those who are undecided about a major, and helps them to transfer internally to one of the degree-granting schools. However, when I went to their admissions pages, it seems that they expect freshman applicants to submit test scores. While I like the idea of such a division, it is wise to ask about internal transfer requirements for the possible majors that you might want to pursue. It’s going to be harder to transfer into some schools than it will be into others.

Conclusions

I made the comparison between UIUC and Rutgers for a reason: both attract students from my home state, but UIUC is more the aspirational school. UIUC has many strengths in academics, athletics and campus life that could not be duplicated at Rutgers without significantly more money and resources. However, having been to both schools many times, the students are more similar than one might believe.

The Report Card for University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)

Four-Year/Six-Year Graduation Rates: A/A
Freshman Retention: A
Costs: B
Comforts: B+
Community: B+
Curriculum: A
Connections: A

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