University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Top Questions

There are a lot of traditions on campus that I look forward to all year. The biggest and most-well known tradition is Unofficial St. Patrick's Day, or Unofficial. This exists because St. Patrick's Day, a popular drinking day across the country, usually takes place during Spring Break. Therefore, kids don't get to celebrate the holiday at college, which is preferred. Consequently, Unofficial was created for this purpose. Last year, it was funny that St. Patty's Day took place while we were at school, but we had Unofficial anyways. Unofficial is usually celebrated by drinking immediately when you get up to the wee hours of the morning. There are parties everywhere in apartments, fraternities, and the main street, Green Street. So even if you're not into drinking, a walk down Green Street during Unofficial can turn out to be very entertaining. I also love attending sporting events, particularly football and basketball, which are rich with campus tradition. About 5 years ago, one of the best traditions in college sports was outlawed at the university. That tradition is the dance of Chief Illiniwek at football and basketball games that was in place for 81 years. I witnessed his second to last dance ever, a very memorable moment in my life. Even though the Chief is gone, we still honor him at halftime during football and basketball games by playing the song he used to dance to and following along with it.

There are a lot of traditions on campus that I look forward to all year. The biggest and most-well known tradition is Unofficial St. Patrick's Day, or Unofficial. This exists because St. Patrick's Day, a popular drinking day across the country, usually takes place during Spring Break. Therefore, kids don't get to celebrate the holiday at college, which is preferred. Consequently, Unofficial was created for this purpose. Last year, it was funny that St. Patty's Day took place while we were at school, but we had Unofficial anyways. Unofficial is usually celebrated by drinking immediately when you get up to the wee hours of the morning. There are parties everywhere in apartments, fraternities, and the main street, Green Street. So even if you're not into drinking, a walk down Green Street during Unofficial can turn out to be very entertaining. I also love attending sporting events, particularly football and basketball, which are rich with campus tradition. About 5 years ago, one of the best traditions in college sports was outlawed at the university. That tradition is the dance of Chief Illiniwek at football and basketball games that was in place for 81 years. I witnessed his second to last dance ever, a very memorable moment in my life. Even though the Chief is gone, we still honor him at halftime during football and basketball games by playing the song he used to dance to and following along with it.

I-Help at the beginning of Homecoming week focuses on a mass blitz of various local charities. It is a great way for new students to get involved in service and meet other like minded students.

My school is best known for the ranking of the colleges, the diversity, and for being a big ten, ivy league school. Many students choose to attend the University of Illinois for graduate school because of what the colleges has to offer far as jobs, help, and other connections. The diversity on the campus allows students to experience the ideas of different cultures and to branch out and meet others as well. My school also had an amazing football and volleyball season, and is currently havng an outstanding seasn for the women's and men's basketball team.

There are sooooooo many traditions that happen at Illinois that I could write a novel! But just to name a few, I would have to start with Homecoming. There are a variety of traditions that occur during the week of Homecoming such as dressing up the Alma Mater, everyone wearing orange and blue on the Wednesday of Homecoming week, the parade on the Friday night before the game, all of the alumni coming back, Greek life welcoming back their alumni with traditions, the list goes on and on. Other traditions include Quad Day which is when all of the registered student organizations (clubs...we have over 1200 of them) line the Quad and students can go to the booths and sign up for the email lists, get information and talk to executive members of each organization. Other traditions include the annual wheelchair basketball for charity game in which our men's and women's basketball teams will sit in wheelchairs and play our men's and women's wheelchair basketball team which is an epic and fun game to watch! There are so many traditions that I would have to speak to you in order to talk about all of them!

The University of Illinois is best known for its Big Ten Membership(Go ILLINI!), the campus pride atomosphere, its prestige, and its research-driven curriculums. U of I students work hard, and play harder. The campus is brimming with very smart students who know how to have a good time, and who are making the most out of their college careers. U of I is known as one of the top sientific research universities in the nation, and also as a campus that encourages cultural diversity, as the campus encourages and works well with study abroad programs.

I think one of my favorite annual campus traditions is football season. And yes, many schools have football teams and have the fall-football atmosphere and excitement. But at Illinois, football season has always struck me as being a unique celebration on this campus. Illinois is a Big Ten school and therefore has a Division I football team, which means that the hype around the games is bigger and more exhilarating. In addition to that, Illinois has a HUGE alumni base (400,000+!!), and many alumni enjoy journeying back to their alma mater to see old friends, grab a tailgate spot, and settle in for an action-packed football game. It's a special tradition to have so many people who love Illinois in one place, and it really begins to feel like a big family come fall semester!

One of my favorite campus traditions is the marching band. The University of Illinois marching band is the oldest band that actually marched while playing their instruments. Every year the performances they put out are more impressive than the next. As a sophomore I played trumpet in the Marching Illini. On the inside the band has even more traditions than those watching from the outside. It took nearly an entire season for me to get used to the chants and jokes the band had within itself- not to mention playing the music itself!

My favorite campus tradition is probably football games. I am in a fraternity so we have what is called block. This is when a fraternity and sorority pair up and rent out part of a bar for the mornings before all the football games. Every game day we get up extra early and head to a bar. Block is a great way to meet a lot of people and get your school spirit going. After socializing for a while we'll head over to the stadium for the game. It's a great feeling walking into the stadium and seeing everyone dressed in orange ready to cheer on the Illini. The student section has specific cheers planned out for different parts of the game like kickoffs, first down, and touchdowns, which can be pretty entertaining. There's just something about fall weather and football that make the campus atmosphere that much more exciting.

It is best known for engineering and business. I can definitely testify to this because a majority of my friends are engineering students. I am not an engineering students, but you can find me hanging out with one most of the time.