University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Champaign, Illinois · Founded 1867
Create a free account and we'll score this university against your grades, budget, intended major and location — and explain the reasoning.
Get your matchTesting policy
Test-optional
Illinois is test-optional: SAT and ACT scores are considered only if you choose to report them, and you self-report your academic record instead of sending transcripts when you apply. 42.6% of enrolled first-year students sent an SAT score and 14.1% an ACT. Submission rates differ a lot by college - 84% of students admitted to Grainger Engineering sent scores, against about 35-40% in several other colleges. In its own Common Data Set, rigor and GPA are rated Very Important and test scores only Considered; class rank is not considered. Transfer applicants do not need scores. Source: admissions.illinois.edu - How Admission Works and Class Profile; University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Common Data Set 2025-26, C7, C8A and C9 (verified September 2026).
About
A public research university with a land-grant mission and about 38,500 undergraduates. Most come from the state - more than four in five domestic undergraduates are from Illinois - and you apply to a specific major. Engineering is the defining strength: it accounts for more than a fifth of all bachelor's degrees, and computer engineering and computer science are among the biggest majors, alongside psychology, business and the life sciences.
History
The university began in 1867 as the Illinois Industrial University, one of the public universities created under the land-grant law, and John Milton Gregory, who came that year to organize it, set out to build a 'West Point for the working world' on the prairie. It became the University of Illinois in 1885, partly because the word 'industrial' made people think of a reformatory. Its agricultural and engineering experiment stations, founded in 1888 and 1904, put research at the heart of the place early on.
What stands out
- More than four in five domestic undergraduates are from Illinois, and students come from 47 states and 124 countries
- More than 150 majors across 11 academic communities, and over 1,000 student organizations
- You apply to a specific major, and your fit with that major is part of the review
- Test-optional: standardized test scores are considered only if you choose to send them
- Early Action and a regular deadline - there is no binding Early Decision
- 95 percent of first-year students come back for a second year
Popular majors
Campus life
Nearly every first-year student - 99 percent - lives in university housing, and 37 percent of undergraduates do overall. 15 percent of undergraduate men join a fraternity and 21 percent of undergraduate women join a sorority. Students are the Illini, the Marching Illini have performed since 1907, and there are more than 1,000 student organizations.