Illini Tower UIUC
To help you sort through your housing options, here’s a rundown on dorms and off-campus housing for the 2022 school year at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
The University of Illinois boasts an enrollment of over 56,000 undergraduate, graduate, and professional students at its flagship campus in Urbana-Champaign.
The incoming freshman Class was the largest in the University’s history, with 8,303 students, and represented the continued growth of the UIUC campus, given its academic strengths in engineering, business, social sciences, and communications.
UIUC draws students from all over the State of Illinois and the country to nearby towns of Urbana and Champaign. The split nature of the campus across two different towns creates an added complexity for incoming students trying to find housing on or off campus.
Here’s a rundown of the different on- and off-campus housing options available year at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign operates two different styles of on-campus housing for undergraduate and graduate students: residence halls and university apartments.
University Housing’s residence halls are home to first-year, transfer, upper-division, and graduate students.
Residence halls resemble traditional dorms where students share common areas like kitchens and lounge spaces. Still, depending on the unit type, they may share a bathroom with either their unit or other residents on the floor.
University apartments are similar to traditional apartments, where students have a kitchen and living room within their unit for themselves and/or their roommates. Some university apartments are limited to graduate students.
Here’s a list of the residence halls and apartments available for the upcoming 2022-2023 school year.
UIUC on-campus residence halls:
University-managed apartments for undergraduates and graduate students:
Although UIUC offers more than a dozen on-campus residence halls, the pricing for bedroom options within the dorms is pretty straightforward.
Students generally can expect to pay more for small, more private units – like a single unit – versus larger units shared with roommates, like a 4-bedroom quad.
Since the University of Illinois requires students living on-campus to have a meal plan with the University, all housing rates include one of the six meal plan options included in the housing rate.
Meal plans can vary considerably based on the number of class meals and dining dollars students allocate each week.
For more information about meal plan options, visit the University Dining website here.
The housing ranges listed below are based on a standard 12 Classic Meals + 15 Dining Dollars meal plan plus the room rate for the 2022-2023 school year:
The University of Illinois Urbana Champaign encourages all students to consider living on campus as space allows.
To tout the benefits of on-campus living, UIUC has an Illinois Residential Experience program that shows all the benefits of living on-campus, especially during the early college years when students are still transitioning to college life.
This program is based on research showing that students who live in UIUC university housing are more likely to graduate in four years and are more engaged with their college experience.
Additional educational, recreational, and social activities are offered to students living in the residence halls that aren’t available to students living off-campus, such as Inclusive Housing communities and residence hall academic advising programs.
The University of Illinois Urbana Champaign requires all incoming first-year students to live on-campus in what the university deems a “certified facility.”
Illini Tower is one of only a very select number of housing options for UIUC students that are part of the University’s 81-year tradition of private housing options that are certified to be part of the University’s options for its students.
These include all university residence halls, greek housing, and some private certified housing.
For most incoming first-year students, this amounts to an on-campus housing requirement to live in the residence halls for their freshman year.
Beyond the first-year requirements, UIUC students can live off-campus in one of the student housing communities or privately managed apartments or homes around Urbana-Champaign. Off-campus housing is popular among upperclassmen as university housing is limited – many dorms are specifically designated for first-year students – and the off-campus communities offer more amenities and privacy relative to on-campus housing.
Students who opt to live off-campus have a more incredible selection of housing, including both purpose-built student housing and traditional apartment complexes.
Purpose-built student housing communities offer individual lease agreements that align with the academic calendar, usually running mid-August through the end of July.
An individual lease agreement means students are only responsible for their rent – not the rent for any roommates they may have. Individual lease agreements almost always require a guarantor – usually a parent or guardian – who provides some financial guarantee that the rent will be paid since most students do not have the credit or income to qualify on their own.
Traditional apartment complexes offer a joint-and-several lease agreement, where all roommates are on the same lease and are, therefore, jointly responsible for the monthly rent. These complexes are usually at a slightly lower cost than student housing. Still, students are financially liable for their roommates’ rent payments, and the lease terms do not always align with the university school schedule.
Off-campus communities may also have added amenities – such as pools, pet parks, indoor and outdoor study spaces, onsite management, package delivery, fitness centers, and coworking spaces – that the University of Illinois on-campus housing does not offer.
Illini Tower offers UIUC undergraduate students one of the best locations for an off-campus student housing community in Urbana-Champaign.
Located at 409 E Chalmers St, Champaign, IL 61820, Illini Tower is just three blocks from the Main Quad and is a short walk or bike from most of the academic buildings on campus.
UIUC has designated Illini Tower as one of a few private certified housing options for first-year students. New UIUC students can live at Illini Tower to meet the first-year on-campus housing requirement even though the University does not manage Illini Tower.
Illini Tower offers studio, two, three, and four-bedroom apartments, with single and double-occupancy options within each floor plan.
The community has on-site dining similar to a university dining hall, a study lounge, onsite management, and free wireless internet for all residents.
For information about pricing and availability, contact the Illini Tower team today at (217) 888-2060.
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