how do you assess Champaign Urbana as a college town? (Chicago: schools, university)

[edsg25]

It seems to me that you never really hear Champaign Urbana mentioned in the same breathe as those highly touted Big Ten college towns….places like Ann Arbor, Madison, Iowa City, Bloomington, etc.

how do you think Champaign Urbana matches up to other midwestern college towns, like the ones above?

[Maintainschaos]

I normally think of the two best small/medium college towns in the Midwest as Madison and Ann Arbor. In my experience, Chambana is normally regarded similar to the likes of Bloomington and Iowa City, which both don't belong up there with Ann Arbor and Madison.

[linicx]

When I think of U-C I think of loud, large venues, lousy parking, and tailgate parties.

[Aerio]

Having gone there for six years (BA and MA), I will be biased in my opinion of the city. Besides the University, there was never anything significant happening to warrant extra attention on the news.

I feel Champaign-Urbana was more interesting and better in opportunities than Dekalb. This is due to size of both town and campus. On the other hand, Ann Arbor does have the advantage of a nearby metropolitan area, as well as being bigger in general (slightly). Both Ann Arbor and C-U were big football rivals I recall.

I cannot say Champaign-Urbana compares to Madison, because the latter is also the capitol and therefore affords amenities and opportunities that C-U cannot. Additionally, it has natural features that make it slightly more interesting.

I have not visited other campuses or towns to state any worthwhile opinion otherwise.

[Rosario82]

Champaign-Urbana doesn't match the natural beauty of the Madison or Bloomington areas.

CU does have more diversity then all those other places, especially Madison. CU has lots of people from all over the globe, and the largest percentage of Asians anywhere between the coasts.

The music scene in CU has been and continues to be as good as or better than all of those places.

Ann Arbor is right next to a major metro area but then it's Detroit so not much of an advantage really. Personally I'd rather be 2 hours from Chicago than 30 minutes from Detroit.

Madison is a great place and I wouldn't argue with it being ranked first, although the winters there can be rough.

[NARFALICIOUS]

Originally Posted by edsg25

It seems to me that you never really hear Champaign Urbana mentioned in the same breathe as those highly touted Big Ten college towns….places like Ann Arbor, Madison, Iowa City, Bloomington, etc.

how do you think Champaign Urbana matches up to other midwestern college towns, like the ones above?

Walkable, parties a plenty, milder weather than Ann Arbor or Madison, in-state vs out of state of an Illinoisan
What else is there

[reppin_the_847]

Originally Posted by edsg25

It seems to me that you never really hear Champaign Urbana mentioned in the same breathe as those highly touted Big Ten college towns….places like Ann Arbor, Madison, Iowa City, Bloomington, etc.

how do you think Champaign Urbana matches up to other midwestern college towns, like the ones above?

Speaking of this, I always thought it was a shame that Illinois does not have two decent public Big 10 institutions that are attainable for a large number of students. Look at states such as Michigan or Indiana. Neither one of them have a metro area that comes close to Chicago's size (Michigan's Metro Detroit is the closest thing, but we all know it is still about half the size of Chicagoland), yet they have 2 solid public Big 10 options available to them. What does Illinois have? The extremely expensive, private, nearly impossible to get into Northwestern University & an extremely filled to capacity, ultra competitive, but somewhat affordable University of Illinois-Champaign. Michigan has University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (tough to get into, but good in-state value still) & Michigan State (definitely attainable for the rest of the state's students with potential). Indiana has the competitive Indiana University - Bloomington & the more engineering oriented (but attainable) Purdue in West Lafayette, IN.

I guess this is the reason that a lot of kids from Chicago's burbs opted for schools such as Iowa over the years.

[Maintainschaos]

Originally Posted by reppin_the_847

Speaking of this, I always thought it was a shame that Illinois does not have two decent public Big 10 institutions that are attainable for a large number of students. Look at states such as Michigan or Indiana. Neither one of them have a metro area that comes close to Chicago's size (Michigan's Metro Detroit is the closest thing, but we all know it is still about half the size of Chicagoland), yet they have 2 solid public Big 10 options available to them. What does Illinois have? The extremely expensive, private, nearly impossible to get into Northwestern University & an extremely filled to capacity, ultra competitive, but somewhat affordable University of Illinois-Champaign. Michigan has University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (tough to get into, but good in-state value still) & Michigan State (definitely attainable for the rest of the state's students with potential). Indiana has the competitive Indiana University - Bloomington & the more engineering oriented (but attainable) Purdue in West Lafayette, IN.

I guess this is the reason that a lot of kids from Chicago's burbs opted for schools such as Iowa over the years.

I think one could argue that Illinois also has NIU and Illinois State, but of course those don't play football in the Big10.

[titanspreds_04]

Originally Posted by Maintainschaos

I think one could argue that Illinois also has NIU and Illinois State, but of course those don't play football in the Big10.

NIU/ISU compares more to SIU or any of the other directional schools.


I dont even think of it as being in the same league as Northwestern or Illinois.

[Maintainschaos]

Originally Posted by titanspreds_04

NIU/ISU compares more to SIU or any of the other directional schools.


I dont even think of it as being in the same league as Northwestern or Illinois.

They definitely aren't (and certainly not in the same league of UChicago), but they offer decent-to-good education, serve tens of thousands of students both from and from outside Illinois, and have pretty big sports teams. ISU in particular doesn't fair too poorly in the national rankings, and--if memory serves me correctly--they aren't ranked too far away from Rutgers, which is a Big10 team/school.