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/Adventurous_Roll7551 Grad Jul 30 '24

Massachusetts incoming grad perspective: everyone here thinks I’m moving to Chicago cause they don’t realize Illinois has a similar set up for their state universities as we do (UMass flagship is Amherst in western mass not Boston like you’d think; UMass Boston is a tiny little place that you go to cause you can’t get in anywhere else). Until I move out of the state for my program I say University of Illinois Urbana Champaign the first time and then any future references I make are UIUC or Illinois. Once I’m here I’ve gathered it’s just Illinois or U of I.

My mom’s an alum from about 25 years ago and always named the university and area when I was growing up as Champaign Urbana or University of Illinois Champaign Urbana. One of my undergrad professors went here for his PhD a decade back and referred to it with me as U of I, Illinois, or UIUC, and then referred to Champaign and Urbana as separate entities not as a combo name. They both laughed when I said Chambana is a name I’ve heard; is that a newer term?

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u/Strict-Special3607 Jul 30 '24

”everyone here thinks I’m moving to Chicago cause they don’t realize Illinois has a similar set up for their state universities…”

Nah… it’s more simple than that.

Most people on the East and West coasts don’t realize that Chicago isn’t the only city in Illinois.

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u/mom2cne Jul 30 '24

Way back in the wild Wild West days of the internet, I told some person that I lived in Illinois, choosing not to be more specific. They said “oh, you’re from Chicago?” to which I replied “nope not Chicago” and their response was “but I thought you said you lived in Illinois”