Looking for QUIET area in Urbana-Champaign; Regional Adjustment Question Too... (Chicago: credit, loan)

[JohnEH81]

Hi Everyone,

I'm moving from Alabama to attend UIUC for a phD, and my main concern above all is QUIET. I'm in my late 20s, and really don't want to hear banging up above me, music blaring from the sides, 18 year olds acting obnoxious after their first ever sip of alcohol, etc. I'm very open to renting a house as well as duplexes or quiet apartments. Thanks in advance for any help on this front as time is drawing closer...


Also, I came up a few weeks ago, and wonder if there is such a culture shock that I might ought to reconsider altogether? It seems like the UIUC area is really overcrowded, and the people don't seem quite as friendly (granted there are jerks as well as good people everywhere). I don't think I have too much of an accent, but I must have been asked three times if I was from Texas (I've passed through there maybe twice in my life), was asked if I'd ever heard of DVDs, and was even asked if everyone walked barefoot where I'm from! I have a sense of humor and it was all good natured, but I hope this isn't a sign of four years to come!


I'm more concerned with the former paragraph and finding quiet living arrangements, but am open to comments on the latter paragraph as well. Thanks to any/all and cheers...

[linicx]

Education aside, Champaign campus among other things is home to an Internet backbone and because of it, the school is a magnet to the young and restless engineers.

Try Rantoul. You will find this farming community lower key and more conducive to your lifestyle.

[RC2216]

There are plenty of quiet grad student apartment complexes north or the campus(off of Lincoln Ave).

Green St. is the one st you want to avoid like the plague. It holds most of the bars, restaurants, and stumbling 19 year olds on friday nights.

[jessiegirl_98]

Originally Posted by JohnEH81

Hi Everyone,

I'm moving from Alabama to attend UIUC for a phD, and my main concern above all is QUIET. I'm in my late 20s, and really don't want to hear banging up above me, music blaring from the sides, 18 year olds acting obnoxious after their first ever sip of alcohol, etc. I'm very open to renting a house as well as duplexes or quiet apartments. Thanks in advance for any help on this front as time is drawing closer...


Also, I came up a few weeks ago, and wonder if there is such a culture shock that I might ought to reconsider altogether? It seems like the UIUC area is really overcrowded, and the people don't seem quite as friendly (granted there are jerks as well as good people everywhere). I don't think I have too much of an accent, but I must have been asked three times if I was from Texas (I've passed through there maybe twice in my life), was asked if I'd ever heard of DVDs, and was even asked if everyone walked barefoot where I'm from! I have a sense of humor and it was all good natured, but I hope this isn't a sign of four years to come!


I'm more concerned with the former paragraph and finding quiet living arrangements, but am open to comments on the latter paragraph as well. Thanks to any/all and cheers...

Hello,
I went to UIUC for undergrad. I loved it there and you will get a great education; however, the undergrads will get a bit old. You just want to make sure that you are NOT on campus. My last year there, I lived at 303 W Green. It was close to campus, but far enough away that, at the time, there were a lot of grad/law students living there. I would definitly check with current grad/law students to see where they are living.

No, don't take that as 4 years more to come. It'll be ok The other thing is that people rent apartments VERY early (like in October for the next school year). If you are looking for Fall 2008, I would start looking soon. Good luck!

[Katiana]

I moved there from Pennsylvania some years ago and there was a lot of semi-hostility to easterners at the time. I don't remember much of any animosity towards southerners. As I recall, there are a lot of southerners there, from what I call the "midwestern south": KY, TN, MS, AR, etc.

I don't think I'd recommend Rantoul; you're going to want to be near the library, etc for studying. Both north and south Champaign and Urbana would be good choices for apt hunting; more grad students and townies. Also west Champaign and east Urbana. In other words, the edges of town.

[corncountrytoct]

We are about to leave C-U after 1.5 years - we came here so my husband could do a post-doc. We rented a zero-lot (like a duplex) in Savoy and we love where we live. We have a view of U of I cornfields out our back windows and it is really quiet, except for the weeks in the fall when the corn dryer is running...
There are lots of quiet options - as other people have said, you just have to look outside of the core campus area. C-U has really good bus service, so find a house or apt. on the edge of town and take the bus in. With the real estate market the way it is right now, people are opting to rent out houses and condos instead of selling them, so you should have lots of good options for rentals.

[Drover]

Well, the soft real estate market -- more accurately, the soft credit market -- cuts both ways. Those with marginal credit scores that would have qualified for a home loan a year or two ago aren't qualifying today, so they're in the rental market right alongside all the transients.

As for your culture clash question... the Chambana area is pretty rock-ribbed "Middle America" in terms of its core values. With a lot of the locals in particular, I would imagine there will be familiarity with what you'd find in a similarly situated town in Texas. Of course, it is a Big Ten school meaning you'll get your share of standard university leftist/progressive values that sometimes causes some tension between the student body and the locals, but it's not a huge source of problems. Additionally, a lot of the undergrad student body is drawn from the Chicago area, which is sometimes another source of tension between locals and students ("big city" values dropped into the middle of a small city), but again, it's not a huge source of problems. Most of the time, the respective camps stick with their own kind and stay out of each other's way.

But if you're a grad student, chances are your circle of friends and social contacts are going to be primarily other grad students. And the grad programs at U of I tend to draw people from all over the country, making their respective student populations a lot less Illinois-centric or Chicago-area-centric than the undergrad general population. So the bottom line is there won't be a "you the outsider versus all the insiders" in the circles you're most likely to run in. In essence, you'll all be outsiders, putting you all on an equal plane.

Someone recommended Rantoul. Don't. Locals call that place "Rantucky" for a reason, and it's not just to be funny. If you want to be that far from campus (about 15 miles), there are far, far better options.

[illini84]

I went to UIUC after growing up in southern Illinois and had a bit of a southern accent. I too endured people asking me ignorant, condescending questions for about the first year, but it went away...after my southern accent faded. A UIUC resident advisor once told me that about 85% of UIUC's student body comes from Chicago and its suburbs. I wouldn't say there's an "unfriendly" vibe, but it'll take some adjusting to since I imagine most people in your area are nice and friendly southerners (like where I came from). UIUC is a great school and this is no reason not to attend...you'll adapt!

[chambana]

Originally Posted by linicx

Education aside, Champaign campus among other things is home to an Internet backbone and because of it, the school is a magnet to the young and restless engineers.

Try Rantoul. You will find this farming community lower key and more conducive to your lifestyle.

Don't try Rantoul IF you DON'T want to drive 18 miles each way everyday. Besides, Rantoul's atmosphere is blah...
There are plenty of great places to reside in chambana that are relatively close to campus, are secure, and offer good atmosphere. I've lived here going on 8 years and my brother is a retired prof who has lived here over 40 years. Between the both of us we can offer you a plethora of alternatives...PM me and I can offer areas/phone numbers.

[M TYPE X]

Why anyone would want to attend a relatively decent world-class university but live in some small town is beyond me. The faculty love to do so; I have professors in Monticello and Sidney. We have too many icy and windy days for me to enjoy that. If I go one mile south of the Quad, I'm in farms. Not quite cornfields, but close enough.

I'm in a place on the east side of campus, very quiet and fairly pricey (newish construction). I'm not really excited by the prospect of having some southerner move in and complain about the Big Ten. You have to remember that, while we do have Texans etc here, there are lot of Chicago/Detroit/St Louis/etc people here and they enjoy a faster pace of life.

I recommend Savoy. You can park your pickem up truck there, and maybe your dog.
Watch out for the apartment complexes that cater to undergrads. I don't understand it ... in Ann Arbor, one does not see undergrads so far from campus, but it's perfectly fine here to plant them in the cornfields. No wonder 25% of them are absent from the class (I have to take attendance in an undergrad class; the prof requires it) on any given day.

I'd rather have big city values in a big city, but I'll take what I get here in Champaign-Urbana for another 2.5 years or so.

I'd be nasty and push the Rantucky idea on you, but that would be cruel and unusual punishment. If you must live outside Champaign or Urbana, Savoy and Mahomet are options. As you are already aware, parking on this campus is awful. But that's to be expected. But don't live in Champaign between campus and Neil ... campustown is and will always be a pit, no matter how many flashy tall towers, jam-packed with two-bedroom units of suburban Chicago undergrads they erect.

But if you're a grad student, chances are your circle of friends and social contacts are going to be primarily other grad students.

The coolest thing about having OTHER grad students is hearing about their awful apartments. For example, there's this guy that has an 'awesome' monthly rent in some place off of Cunningham Avenue in Urbana. I almost feel sorry for him.

If you can swing it, look at southwest Champaign. There are apartments/condos off of Windsor, Kirby, Mattis, Prospect, etc