University of Illinois

Last stop on our college tours is the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign!

Also one of the top engineering schools in the country, this university is alma mater to both Amanda's parents as well, and is where they met!  While we do hold a special place for it in our hearts for Illinois, it is a fantastic university in it's own right without that added feature!  We did the campus info session and tour here as well, plus a special session for engineering students where we toured that part of campus and met with an assistant dean for a Q&A session - he also talked with Amanda about their programs for women since she was the only girl who stayed for the q&a!  He also took us the the international studies office for engineering so we could find out more about that.  Again, we got a lot of great information!

Amanda on the Quad

The Undergrad Library - built underground so that it wouldn't cast shade on the oldest experimental crop field in the US - the Morrow Plots seen below behind the entrance into the library...

Altgeld Hall - home to the math department and a great carillon!

Sonya with the Alma Mater

The Engineering Quad - my how it is changed since Curt went there!  That beautiful creek used to be known as the Boneyard and was just disgusting, now look what they have done.  The building at back above is the Mechanical Engineering building...

Amanda gazes over the Engineering Quad and contemplates all her choices....  She can't go wrong with any one of them!

After finishing up on campus, we took a short drive to find this house - the first one Curt and Sonya ever bought and the house we lived in when Amanda was born while Curt was in grad school here.  That's all there is - 3 bedrooms, one bathroom, a living room and a kitchen with the garage as a bonus.  Amanda's room was the small window by the front door.  There used to be a great big tree in the front yard...  Oh, the memories!!