UIUC 2015 Forum

[tooswolle]

At least you got a response. I wrote my negotiation letter a week an a half ago and nothing yet. Not even a response, if they can up my aid I'll be there this fall.

word. I wrote one about a month ago, and they said they wouldn't be giving out anything at that time. My numbers aren't as competitive as others, but I'll ask again in a few weeks.

That is very strange that she replied to mine immediately and ignored others? If my stats were truly worth a reconsideration, shouldn't I have been offered more than the $5,000 to begin with? I think they low balled me.

Maybe I think they may just be busy "engineering" our class. That would be my guess or maybe she wants to meet me at the open house to see if I'm worth it? Lol At this point more money would be nice the COA scares the hell out of me!

[illini22]

Some of you might care about this. Note that this rankings are actual numbers, not as a percentage of class, hence the bigger the school, the more people they are likely to have.

http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNL ... to_Partner

[tooswolle]

Some of you might care about this. Note that this rankings are actual numbers, not as a percentage of class, hence the bigger the school, the more people they are likely to have.

http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNL ... to_Partner

Nice to see UIUC represented fairly well. I remember they did alright in big law placement. Seems to me it's one of the strong mid west schools and I'm glad I got accepted. Anyone have clerkship data?

[in2win]

holy cow still no movement on my app since second hold. who knows what that means

[givemea170]

Accepted to Indiana today for 5K a year scholarship, same as Illinois.

Do you think that'll give me any leverage to bump the 5K a year up for Illinois since Indiana is ranked slightly ahead of Illinois?

[mattviphky]

Accepted to Indiana today for 5K a year scholarship, same as Illinois.

Do you think that'll give me any leverage to bump the 5K a year up for Illinois since Indiana is ranked slightly ahead of Illinois?

Jesus. What happened this cycle?

[illini22]

Accepted to Indiana today for 5K a year scholarship, same as Illinois.

Do you think that'll give me any leverage to bump the 5K a year up for Illinois since Indiana is ranked slightly ahead of Illinois?

1) Indiana's placement is way worst, Illinois admissions people know that, hence they know very few people would take it over Illinois regardless of ranking.

2) They are both ranked the same, 23, and we have traditionally been ranked 10 spots ahead (indiana came from 35 to 23 in one year). Indiana looks ahead simply because it goes first alphabetically...

3) Highly doubt they would care about your "equal" offer. It has too be very compelling (full ride from a bit lower ranked school in your market, much more money from a "peer" school, or into a top 14 school" I negotiated my year with a full ride from a school in the 40-50, 7k better scholarship from a school ranked 2-3 places better, and a top 14 acceptance, got nothing...

[illini22]

Some of you might care about this. Note that this rankings are actual numbers, not as a percentage of class, hence the bigger the school, the more people they are likely to have.

http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNL ... to_Partner

Nice to see UIUC represented fairly well. I remember they did alright in big law placement. Seems to me it's one of the strong mid west schools and I'm glad I got accepted. Anyone have clerkship data?

Clerkship data is pretty is about 4-5% every year, which is about average with most schools. Outside of HYS, the clerkship data is usually pretty low (some outlier schools do exist). But I think even schools like NYU have a 4-5% clerkship rate.

[givemea170]

Accepted to Indiana today for 5K a year scholarship, same as Illinois.

Do you think that'll give me any leverage to bump the 5K a year up for Illinois since Indiana is ranked slightly ahead of Illinois?

1) Indiana's placement is way worst, Illinois admissions people know that, hence they know very few people would take it over Illinois regardless of ranking.

2) They are both ranked the same, 23, and we have traditionally been ranked 10 spots ahead (indiana came from 35 to 23 in one year). Indiana looks ahead simply because it goes first alphabetically...

3) Highly doubt they would care about your "equal" offer. It has too be very compelling (full ride from a bit lower ranked school in your market, much more money from a "peer" school, or into a top 14 school" I negotiated my year with a full ride from a school in the 40-50, 7k better scholarship from a school ranked 2-3 places better, and a top 14 acceptance, got nothing...

Fair enough. I was just curious. There is a 0% chance I will be in Bloomington. I may include it in the list of offers I'm considering. Probably wouldn't hurt the chances of another offer. Whether your negotiation is successful may depend on your initial offer as well, so your examples may not matter. But you never know.

[mattviphky]

I still can't get over the way they are handling money this cycle. I think everyone expected to be offered the big bucks; I wonder how many applications they received from people hoping to just get a negotiation chip?

[givemea170]

I still can't get over the way they are handling money this cycle. I think everyone expected to be offered the big bucks; I wonder how many applications they received from people hoping to just get a negotiation chip?

My GPA is holding me back $$$ wise from everywhere I'm pretty sure. Makes me look lazy.

[stvnk]

Anyone going to the LA open house on Wednesday?

[mattviphky]

I still can't get over the way they are handling money this cycle. I think everyone expected to be offered the big bucks; I wonder how many applications they received from people hoping to just get a negotiation chip?

My GPA is holding me back $$$ wise from everywhere I'm pretty sure. Makes me look lazy.

Still....IUB was changing everything last year, I wonder if they'll eventually start doling out the big bucks. Nah, you'll be ok. WUSTL will probably make it rain pretty soon. I checked lsn, and there was someone with a 171/3.3 that got 15k from UIUC (wTF!). Hopefully they are planning to negotiate with people later in the cycle. I think with the scandal people treated UIUC like IUB, and applied there as a chip thinking that they would get mad money, so now UIUC is playing it safe.

[tmon]

Registered for the open house this week!

[tooswolle]

Anyone going to the LA open house on Wednesday?

Right here! Hopefully I won't be late I'll be commuting up to LA down the 405 and I won't be on the road till 5ish cuz I'll get off work and then go home to suit up haha!

[wolverine10]

Trying to leverage a full ride from my home market for more than 25%. Well see how it goes

[LST]

I have yet to send in my seat deposit but will almost assuredly be attending UIUC this fall. I am currently looking into housing options and was wondering if any current students could throw some advice my way about navigating Champagne. Are there certain locations that are within walking distance to the law school? What is reasonable for rent for a one bedroom (I'm coming from Ann Arbor where rent is ridiculously high; might as well be living in Chicago for what I'm paying right now)? Is it necessary to have a car in Champagne? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I realize this is about 2 pages back, but thought I would weigh in as a current undergrad and likely law student this fall.

This will only address living within walking distance (<20 min) as it is by no means necessary to have a car in order to live comfortably in Urbana-Champaign, plus OP specifically wanted to know about CU life sans car.

Champaign

If you are not looking for a party environment, do not live anywhere within the area bounded by Green Street to the North, 1st Street to the West, Wright Street to the East and Gregory Drive to the South. Almost all of the fraternities (keeping in mind that we have the largest Greek system in the US by number of chapters) and undergrad bars are located within this area. The majority of reported crime in the campus area also occurs within this vicinity.

Living North of Green Street (but South of Springfield Ave.) is manageable but would not be the most desirable place for someone looking to stay away from undergrads.

The area North of Springfield Avenue but South of University Avenue is a great, cheap place (many quality 1 bedroom and studios in this area range from $350 - $500) to live. The area surrounds the Northern part of the engineering campus and is relatively quiet because most undergrads don't like living 4 blocks North of all the action going on by Green Street and seem to have a very skewed concept of what constitutes "far." Another plus for this area is the close proximity to County Market, which is the only decent grocery store within the campus area.

Urbana

Urbana is also a great place to live that is well within walking distance to the Law School. Crossing Lincoln Avenue to the East is like going from night to day. Urbana is very quiet area with several brick streets, ample green space, has a much lower crime rate than Champaign and a lot of older dwellings. Living in Urbana tends to be more expensive than Champaign for several of the qualities mentioned in the previous sentence.

My comments for the area North of Springfield Avenue but South of University Avenue in Urbana are roughly the same as my Champaign comments, however, it would take a little longer to get to the Law School from there and its not as close to County Market, but it's not that far either.

Urbana-Champaign Transportation for those W/O a Car

Both cities are very bike friendly, with lots of bike lanes, bike paths, bike shops, etc. The area also has one of the best public transit systems for twin cities of their size. CUMTD, which runs the transit system, is largely subsidized by the University and supplies ample bus routes that run regularly to all sorts of locations on and off campus. There are a few bus stops around the Law Building, and several more within a block (especially around the Activities and Recreation Center, the ARC). And, when all else fails, walking is generally not a problem.

Other

I did not address living South of the Law School because there is almost nothing, aside from the University's livestock and farm land, and definitely no places to live within walking distance.

Urbana has a Tenant Bill of Rights and provides a lot more protection for those renting than Champaign does.

The University is also one of the last Big Ten schools that still has a Tenant Union for students, they are really helpful and offer a lot of assistance to grad students unfamiliar with the campus who are looking for housing (http://www.tenantunion.uiuc.edu/).

Of the larger landlords, the only one with a really good reputation (= no complaints to the Tenant Union in 40+ years) is Roland Realty, however, living in their apartments or houses tends to be very expensive.

Campus Property Management and the University Group are cheap but have sub-par reputations for a reason.

There are a lot of great smaller landlords, they just require more research to discover.

Hope this helps OP and anyone else unfamiliar with the area.

[diegoforlan10]

I have yet to send in my seat deposit but will almost assuredly be attending UIUC this fall. I am currently looking into housing options and was wondering if any current students could throw some advice my way about navigating Champagne. Are there certain locations that are within walking distance to the law school? What is reasonable for rent for a one bedroom (I'm coming from Ann Arbor where rent is ridiculously high; might as well be living in Chicago for what I'm paying right now)? Is it necessary to have a car in Champagne? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I realize this is about 2 pages back, but thought I would weigh in as a current undergrad and likely law student this fall.

This will only address living within walking distance (<20 min) as it is by no means necessary to have a car in order to live comfortably in Urbana-Champaign, plus OP specifically wanted to know about CU life sans car.

Champaign

If you are not looking for a party environment, do not live anywhere within the area bounded by Green Street to the North, 1st Street to the West, Wright Street to the East and Gregory Drive to the South. Almost all of the fraternities (keeping in mind that we have the largest Greek system in the US by number of chapters) and undergrad bars are located within this area. The majority of reported crime in the campus area also occurs within this vicinity.

Living North of Green Street (but South of Springfield Ave.) is manageable but would not be the most desirable place for someone looking to stay away from undergrads.

The area North of Springfield Avenue but South of University Avenue is a great, cheap place (many quality 1 bedroom and studios in this area range from $350 - $500) to live. The area surrounds the Northern part of the engineering campus and is relatively quiet because most undergrads don't like living 4 blocks North of all the action going on by Green Street and seem to have a very skewed concept of what constitutes "far." Another plus for this area is the close proximity to County Market, which is the only decent grocery store within the campus area.

Urbana

Urbana is also a great place to live that is well within walking distance to the Law School. Crossing Lincoln Avenue to the East is like going from night to day. Urbana is very quiet area with several brick streets, ample green space, has a much lower crime rate than Champaign and a lot of older dwellings. Living in Urbana tends to be more expensive than Champaign for several of the qualities mentioned in the previous sentence.

My comments for the area North of Springfield Avenue but South of University Avenue in Urbana are roughly the same as my Champaign comments, however, it would take a little longer to get to the Law School from there and its not as close to County Market, but it's not that far either.

Urbana-Champaign Transportation for those W/O a Car

Both cities are very bike friendly, with lots of bike lanes, bike paths, bike shops, etc. The area also has one of the best public transit systems for twin cities of their size. CUMTD, which runs the transit system, is largely subsidized by the University and supplies ample bus routes that run regularly to all sorts of locations on and off campus. There is no bus stop at the Law Building, but there are many within a block (especially around the Activities and Recreation Center, the ARC). And, when all else fails, walking is generally not a problem.

Other

I did not address living South of the Law School because there is almost nothing, aside from the University's livestock and farm land, and definitely no places to live within walking distance.

Urbana has a Tenant Bill of Rights and provides a lot more protection for those renting than Champaign does.

The University is also one of the last Big Ten schools that still has a Tenant Union for students, they are really helpful and offer a lot of assistance to grad students unfamiliar with the campus who are looking for housing (http://www.tenantunion.uiuc.edu/).

Of the larger landlords, the only one with a really good reputation (= no complaints to the Tenant Union in 40+ years) is Roland Realty, however, living in their apartments or houses tends to be very expensive.

Campus Property Management and the University Group are cheap but have sub-par reputations for a reason.

There are a lot of great smaller landlords, they just require more research to discover.

Hope this helps OP and anyone else unfamiliar with the area.

This is extremely useful information. Would you hate doing a quick revamp of this information for those of us who plan on having a car with us and wouldn't mind living farther away from school?

[givemea170]

I might not be able to get up for a visit or an open house. That shouldn't be a problem, right? I've seen the law school, just never really toured any of it.

[mattviphky]

I might not be able to get up for a visit or an open house. That shouldn't be a problem, right? I've seen the law school, just never really toured any of it.

i guess that's up to you, but you're not missing a whole lot. It's a functional building, but it doesn't really pop or anything...pretty typical. I'm just telling you this in case you'er anxious about going to a school you haven't toured. So I'm just letting you know that there is nothing to worry about building-wise; it's just good.

[givemea170]

I might not be able to get up for a visit or an open house. That shouldn't be a problem, right? I've seen the law school, just never really toured any of it.

i guess that's up to you, but you're not missing a whole lot. It's a functional building, but it doesn't really pop or anything...pretty typical. I'm just telling you this in case you'er anxious about going to a school you haven't toured. So I'm just letting you know that there is nothing to worry about building-wise; it's just good.

Thanks, I also wanted to make sure they wouldn't mind I never really took an official tour. I'm more worried about living arrangements, I kind of assume any school I'm considering has a decent building/layout.

[mrjohnsterman]

Anyone going to tomorrow's Chicago reception at Jenner & Block?

[mattviphky]

not that it matters, but 35th. Hopefully this will help UIUC be abit more generous.

[tooswolle]

not that it matters, but 35th. Hopefully this will help UIUC be abit more generous.

I agree but given the scandal we fared well. I'm more afraid of avoiding a huge decline like Villanova. However it seems the school is taking the proper precautions to get it back up in the rankings. Regardless the rankings are just a number it's placement from the other articles I've read is well and the class is small so those things are good.

[smhaaty]

Ouch, dropped 12 spots.