University of Illinois Urbana Champaign (Chicago, Sherman: apartments, sex offender, hotel)

[sarahhassaballah]

Hello,

I am stressing out about finding a decent place to live off campus. I will be flying overseas to start my Graduate study at UIUC. Can anyone point me in the right direction as to where to look when it comes to finding a place to live. I am interested in a furnished apartment off campus, but relatively near it. I would also like 2 Graduate female roommates. Thank you all for your help!

[linicx]

This University reserves off-site housing in Urbana for post grad Doctoral candidates; contact U Housing. The best time to find housing is between June 1 - August 1, and after the first semester ends in December. It is a challenge to find housing that you like at other times.

In the UIUC area "off-site" can mean a distance of two blocks to twenty miles from the main campus in Champaign. I would arrive in late May and plan to spend 7-10 days in a motel. You will fly 12 -18 hours to Chicago. From there students take train or train/bus combination to Champaign. There is always a limo; It is about 160 miles. There may a bus then that takes students between the two places on a regular schedule. If you have not flown to the US before, be prepared for "Jet lag".

The time difference is easy to remember. At 12 noon in Chicago it is 6 p.m. in London. You will also probably need a UK to US converter exchange for your laptop, cell phone, tablet, as the power grids are different. Also in Illlinois there is a time change. The normal time zone is Central Standard Time or CST. It changes to Daylight Savings Time (DST) for the winter and then reverts to CST for the remainder of the year.

[Bart0415]

I was in the same situation as you thirty years ago: I arrived in Urbana from Europe for graduate studies in the fall 1981.

The graduate school had sent me housing information and I selected to live in a grad student dormitory named "Daniels Hall". It was either that or "Sherman Hall".
Residence Hall Options | University Housing at Illinois

There was also a University owned apt. complex for married grad. students called "Orchard Downs".I lived in Daniels Hall for two years and afterwards I moved with roommates to a two-bedroom apartment right next to campus (Stoughton street). A year later I moved on my own to a studio apartment on Sixth and Clark also near campus. Coming from overseas, personally I would recommend staying at one of these dorms for a year until you get your bearings around town.

On my first trip I had booked a short flight from O'Hare to the Champaign airport on an airline called "Britt Airways" now defunct. I am sure there are other airlines that have picked up the route. An airport van picked me up at the Champaign airport and drove me (and another fellow grad student) directly to Daniels Hall.

On subsequent trips back to Europe I would take either the Greyhound bus or the Amtrak train to downtown Chicago and from there a taxi or the subway to O'Hare. There was also an airport shuttle bus departing in front of the Palmer House hotel. But for your first-time trip I would recommend booking the short flight instead.

[Ace Rothstein]

If you drive down and exit at Market St, watch out for the potholes. There are some monsters right off of 57.

[zhugeliang1]

Daniels Hall is the WORST. Avoid! There actually was a sex offender selling questionable photos involving children living on the second floor above me until cops busted him. I loved Goodwin Green apartments right across the street! That is for graduate students and faculty.

[transitfan]

Originally Posted by Bart0415

I was in the same situation as you thirty years ago: I arrived in Urbana from Europe for graduate studies in the fall 1981.

The graduate school had sent me housing information and I selected to live in a grad student dormitory named "Daniels Hall". It was either that or "Sherman Hall".
Residence Hall Options | University Housing at Illinois

There was also a University owned apt. complex for married grad. students called "Orchard Downs".I lived in Daniels Hall for two years and afterwards I moved with roommates to a two-bedroom apartment right next to campus (Stoughton street). A year later I moved on my own to a studio apartment on Sixth and Clark also near campus. Coming from overseas, personally I would recommend staying at one of these dorms for a year until you get your bearings around town.

On my first trip I had booked a short flight from O'Hare to the Champaign airport on an airline called "Britt Airways" now defunct. I am sure there are other airlines that have picked up the route. An airport van picked me up at the Champaign airport and drove me (and another fellow grad student) directly to Daniels Hall.

On subsequent trips back to Europe I would take either the Greyhound bus or the Amtrak train to downtown Chicago and from there a taxi or the subway to O'Hare. There was also an airport shuttle bus departing in front of the Palmer House hotel. But for your first-time trip I would recommend booking the short flight instead.

Unfortunately, it seems that the only air travel option nowadays is American Eagle from O' Hare. They use Embraer E-145 regional jets. I've never been one one, but I've heard that they are somewhat small and cramped. It is a relatively short flight, though.

I flew on Britt Air in 1987 from C/U to O' Hare. Plane was a Fokker F-27, which was a larger propeller plane. I had arrived in C/U on TWA, which had taken over Ozark the year before. They were still using Ozark's DC-9s. Unfortunately, airline deregulation has not been good to Champaign/Urbana The last few times I visited, I flew into Chicago and rented a car and drove down. It's a two-hour drive, but there is rarely any traffic on I-57. Now that American (who acquired TWA in the early 2000s) has merged with US Ariways, I keep hoping they might use the latter airlines Embraer E-190s, which seat 100 passengers, and are much more comfortable, from what I've heard. We shall see.