University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)

green street - the center of campus nightlifes. when you get bored, check out the bars in downtown champaign. outside u-c: chicago (great city!), amish country (app. 1hr south of u-c)

The UIUC offers exchange students the possibility to choose one of their housing facilities, i.e. dorms. I lived in Sherman Hall - a grad hall - which I can highly recommend. In comparision to many undergrad halls, you can be really quiet in your room and the others are more mature than nasty (American) 18-year old freshmen. The location of all dorms is excellent, on campus of course - it took me only 5 minutes to most of my classes. However, dorms are definitely more costly than most appartments, but for one exchange semester it should be worth it!

Everybody speaks English, so if you go to the US, the language will be more or less familiar. In the first weeks I had difficulties understanding some American students (who actulally don't speak real English), but after a while I even started to think in English. The crucial thing for me was housing: If you live together with students from other countries (like in a dorm), your language skills will definitely improve much more!

Fly into Chicago and take a bus from O'Hare to Urbana-Champaign. You have two options (both depart from the bus teriminal behind the Hilton at the airport): Lincolnlandexpress and Bluebird. If you arrive late, stay in the "Illini Union" (center of the university) for the first night: It's quite cheap (ca. 28$) and comfortable!

If you have an American bank account, never ever use the overdraft! The banks charge enormous amounts for it, even if it's just a day!