University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Top Questions

I wish that I would have known about what was needed in the dorm room. My room is really small and I ended up bringing way too many things that are stored and never used. I suppose I figured I would need a lot of things like I have at home. But I quickly realized that I don't use most of the things I brought. I wish I had known what I would've needed before moving in because I could've packed lighter, traveled easier, and had some extra space in my room.

I wish I had known how easy it was to adapt to living on a large campus. One part of my decision process was trying to determine if I would thrive better on a small campus or a large campus especially coming from a smaller school. It took less than a week to figure out my way around campus and to adjust to the large classes. I would havce been able to make my decision a lot faster.

I wish I had known more about the opportunities for scholarships. I also wish I knew more about housing options. Otherwise, this university was very easy to adjust to without too much research.

There is nothing really wrong with the school. I wish I would have learned more personal things like how to handle my spending money.

I wish I had known about the process of signing up for registered student organizations. I went to "Quad Day", where representatives of all the registered student organizations set up tables/booths on the main quad and sell themselves to students. I thought I was signing up to attend the first meeting of the organizations and then deciding later if I officially wanted to join or not. I was actually signing up to be a member of that organization on the spot. If I had known, I wouldn't have been a member of seven organizations my freshman year.

Going to college for the first time, I was unaware of all of the job opportunities of each major available. I probably would have chosen differently to start out with had I known my options. I also wish I had known about the translation and international business certification programs before I came so I could have planned out my four years to fulfill both programs, my major and a minor in linguistics. I don't know if I'll be able to fit it all in now.

Before coming to this school, I wish I had known how many activities would become available to me. The sheer number of opportunities to improve your personal and social life are astounding. I would have spent some time researching what activities were available, so that I could find some which strongly interested me. Instead, I have slowly found out about these opportunities through integration into the college environment and missed the chance to participate in certain things.

I wish I had known how huge the greek system is. I had an idea that it was a large part of the social life but I really had no idea how influential it is on the whole campus lifestyle. I wish i had researched what sorority recruitment was or how it worked. If I had known about it I may have given it a chance and been able to get more involved that way.

I wish I would have better prepared myself, academically, for this instiution.

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