The University of Illinois Urbana - Champaign

Date: Nov 16 2005
Major: Political Science (This Major's Salary over time)
I'm a PoliSci major and am pretty disappointed with my PS classes. They are ridiculously easy and require very little thought. LAS classes here are generally blow-off courses.

The people here are pretty friendly, although "parties" are any public gathering with large amounts of alcohol. I've heard that the quad isn't safe late at night, but I haven't noticed anything that would lead me to believe that the campus was unsafe. Stay away from drunkards and you should be fine.

Engineers and other science guys here are really smart. I'm generally not too impressed by LAS people here.

Although some intro classes are really large (a couple hundred students, for example) my teachers have encouraged their classes to see them in office hours. I thought that was a nice touch. The professor for my Japanese Culture class (350+ students) knows my name and comments when I'm absent.

If you're really into Liberal Arts and Sciences, I would recommend that you look elsewhere.

On the other hand, if you're in LAS and have no alternative schools, being a James Scholar or Chancellor Scholar is a solid plan. The requirements aren't too high (1450 SAT, I think, for James Scholar) and make it vastly easier to get the classes you're interested in.