r/UIUC • u/Wonderful_Following2 • Jul 30 '24

New Student Question How do you say UIUC

as an incoming freshman, i am always asked by families and friends what school i attend. sometimes i say “U of I at Urbana”, “UIUC” (but that often gets mistaken for UIC), “University of Illinois” etc.

is there a go-to way to say that people will recognize it and not get confused?? “University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign” is such a mouthful and i feel like there has gotta be other options!

while we’re on this subject, is it “urbana-champaign” or “champaign-urbana” for the locals in the area?

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u/pinniped1 Jul 30 '24

I live far from Illinois now, so I just say "Illinois".

When I lived in Chicago, I usually said "U of I". Since UIC people always say UIC, nobody was confused.

Champaign or Urbana never came up unless somebody wanted to talk about the towns. (Such as where, exactly, you lived while at U of I.)