University Of Illinois Compare And Contrast

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON VERSUS UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS.
BY: JACOB FULLER

University of Illinois vs. University of Wisconsin-Madison. Overall, between University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Illinois there are many differences and similarities, but some make one college stick out more. One reason is location. If I would have to travel down for Christmas, University of Illinois would be way closer to St. Louis than the University of Wisconsin-Madison. So the difference is huge from going from Champaign to St. Louis and going from Madison to St. Louis. Travel from St. Louis to Madison is 360.4 miles, or 5 hours and 2 minutes, but going from St. Louis to Champaign it
is 181.1 miles, or 2 hours and 37 minutes, so that is a big difference right there. Again the difference between the miles would save a whole lot of money and gas. Also Illinois is in the middle of everything. I have relatives all over the United States and Illinois is in the middle of it all. But that's not it, the location also plays a role in climate. The July high for Madison is 82 degrees and in January it is a low of 10. The weather for Champaign in July is a high of 87, and the low for January is 17. So there is a little bit of difference but Champaign’s weather is better. Not only that but the University of Illinois is in a more rural area than University of Wisconsin. For me living in a rural, or countryside, is better than than living it the city. You don’t have all of the city chaos in the country. Also there are no sirens or cars to keep you up all night. I just like the country feel of a small town and that is what Champaign has to offer. Another reason to decide between them would be cost and aid. University of Wisconsin-Madison’s out-of-state tuition and fees round up to about $32,738, while University of Illinois’ tuition and fees round up to $31,988. This is not including room & board fee. Though it might not seem like a big difference, you are paying 1,000 dollars less. A wise guy once said that money doesn’t grow on trees and you know what? He is right. That extra $1,000 does matter. I would buy something that is cheaper than something else. Money is hard to earn so every penny counts. Also the financial aid for University of Illinois is $20,264 for a freshman. And that is pretty good for a teen like me. A difference is undergraduate enrollment.
University of Illinois enrolls 33,368 undergraduates while University of Wisconsin-Madison only enrolls 31,662 undergraduates. And being a kid heading into high school, that would be a huge thing to look for in colleges, because most kids would want to graduate from a good school that does a good job. With University of Illinois enrolling 33,368, twice as many as Wisconsin, that would mean if would have more of a chance to make it into Illinois than Wisconsin. A fourth thing to decide between colleges is majors. Even though University of Wisconsin has more to choose from and my favorite major, zoology, University of Illinois has still a lot to choose from and majors that I still like. For instance there is statistics, spanish, mathematics, and more to choose from. Picking majors is a big part of choosing a college. Speaking of majors, class sizes matter too. At University of Wisconsin-Madison, most classes have between 10-19 students. While at University of Illinois, most classes have between 10-29. The difference might not be big but I like it when in some classes there is few students and some when there are a
lot. Also there is a difference in job placement rates. University of Illinois’ employee job placement is 97% compared to Wisconsin’s 90%. That 7% is really important. That means the majority of students that graduate usually get a full time job after they leave college. Overall, I would totally choose University of Illinois over University of Wisconsin-Madison. And this is just the beginning. There are many small topics that I could talk about but I don’t want to go to deep into it.