Details

• United States of America
• BaWiSo-23
• Undergraduate
• SoSe 2026
• Time spent at the partner university: 4 months

1. Preparation

Join the Stammtisch while you're still in Vienna to meet people from UIUC or that have been there previously so you already have someone you know and can reach out to. I also highly recommend to check out EBN's buddy program in advance of your stay. If you know your plans for after your studies also book the return flight, otherwise (what I did) you can just book a one-way ticket and book the return once you know your plans after finals week - which in my case still wasn't more expensive than having booked both ways initially. From Chicago you can either take the Peoria Charter or Amtrak down to Champaign.

2. Accommodation

I have a friend from WU who's been to UIUC one semester earlier than me and we already decided that I'll later sublease his room. It was located near Green St, the quad and basically all important uni buildings where I had classes in, so my walk was usually only about 10 minutes to class. The area is considered safe, as it is in Campustown. Spring term exchange students generally have it easier finding accommodation because the academic year starts with fall term where many students sign a lease for a full year because they get a monthly discount or they don't have another choice given by their landlord, resulting in having to find someone for subleasing in spring. So if you're going in fall be aware of that and find a subtenant ASAP.

3. Academic life at host university

The classes in the US are much more focused on interacting with students, professors are very considerate and everything is quite student friendly. You can still change your class registrations until even two weeks in, so I encourage you to find and try out interesting sounding classes and if you don't like them you can still drop them. Unlike at WU I've never had a problem with getting registered for classes either and everything I wanted to take I was able to do. I recommend you to sign up for the max of 18 hours/36 ECTS to get the full experience.

5. Every day life in the host country

Public transport within Urbana-Champaign is decent. UIUC offers quite much for their students, e.g. the recreational center where you have a gym, pool, and courts for basketball, volleyball, etc. If you're here for the fall term you'll be in the football season, if you're here in spring it's basketball season which is smaller but still impressive and huge compared to European standards. It's a true American college experience as the whole city is basically only the university which is cool to see and experience but can get monotonous after the first months.

6. Testimonial

The exchange was an interesting experience as I got to experience and build a day-to-day life in the American college way. Additionally, staying in the US for four months opens up new travel opportunities that would be far more costly from Austria which I surely took advantage of.