Places to Be, Things to See

Places to Be, Things to See College visits can be super exciting and confusing. You get to experience for the first time the next four (or so) years of your vastly different life and in a sense choose your path. The confusing part is, how do you know what to look for? Gif from Giphy Here are a few things at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign that I think are great to check out before you make the big decision: Undergraduate Library (UGL) Education is first. No matter where you decide to go I believe that having the proper tools to be able to succeed is important. The Undergraduate Library is not only a super interesting place to see (it is both undergrad and underground!), but we do have the third-largest academic library in the world, right after Harvard and the Library of Congress! The People This might be equally as important to consider as education. Making sure you get a feel for the people who will be living on campus and going to school with you will give you a sense of if you feel the school fits your personality. One good place to go for this is the Main Quad. In this open area, you will see a ton of students either making their way to class, advertising for their club, playing a game of some sort, traditional or non-traditional, or simply laying out to relax. Another place to go is an athletic game if one is going on. The student section in the games are filled with passionate people having a good time. Academic Buildings The classroom environment is something that can really impact the way one learns. Going into the buildings that have the classes for your major is always a good idea, but check out some of the other buildings, too. You might be in a different building than you thought for electives or general education classes. Some of the more interesting ones  are the Krannart Center for the Performing Arts, the Bardeen Quad (the Engineering Quad), and the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology. The more interesting the classroom, the more fun the learning experience! The Engineering Quad! (Picture from Illinois Admissionss Flickr) Chisom Class of 2020 I'm a Kinesiology major in the College of Applied Health Sciences. I'm a first-generation American; my twin and I were born in Oak Park, Illinois. The rest of my siblings were born in Nigeria. I'm a pole vaulter and sprinter on the Illini track team.