The University of Illinois Urbana - Champaign

Date: Dec 30 2003
Major: English (This Major's Salary over time)
Illinois was definately a mixed experience for me. Many of my HS classmates were at the same school, but I still found it very difficult to make friends at such a large school. Looking back, I realize that the greek system could have helped me out a lot, but I wasn't open minded enough to go for it. I did eventually make friends, and good friends, too, but I did spend many lonely nights at U of I.

As an English major, I feel as though my education was neglected. Yes, i read a lot of books and learned from them, but I didn't learn much from the professors or teachers or classmates. In fact, I doubt that a single professor remembers my name. Part of this is my own darned fault for not grasping the education that was offered me, but part of it is also the fact that the school care very little about its LAS students. I think that the sort of people who do best here are the Engineers, the CS majors, and the Bio-Chem folks. They get the most respect, support, opportunities, and Nobel Prize winners. Everyone from my so-called friends to my professors to the keynote speaker at graduation ragged on us English majors as useless parasites without much of a future. This is untrue, of course, but the attitude created a poisonous atmosphere.

I think that if I had been more mature and secure I could have had a great experience at U of I. If I was to give advise to the freshman it would be this: be aggressive, academically and socially. Seek out your opportunitues and make people take you seriously. And if the school isn't right for you, do what i didn't do: leave.