UIUC has an excellent support network, in school and after graduation, and is going to be very affordable with the scholarship, congratulations on that. UIIUC is a 45,000 student campus in the middle of Illinois, housing is affordable and there is a relaxed but focused academic culture. People do pull all-nighters but it is not habitual as it is in other programs. The faculty are dedicated educators as well as practitioners and the program does not rely heavily on adjunct faculty to teach key classes. Despite the distance UIUC has strong connections to Chicago and is well respected in the profession in Chicago and the Midwest. The campus is scenic and the facilities are very good, clean well lighted and secure studios with huge windows, good model shop and close proximity to recreation centers, research library. The campus has a strong athletic program so if you are into football, soccer, gymnastics, basketball or other sports the campus offers world class competitions that are free or very inexpensive for students. Despite the smallish size of the local population there is a never ending parade of cultural events visiting lecturers and performers. Also the construction management program is excellent and teaches with a truly unique hands on approach by embedding with an active construction project on campus with virtually unlimited access for students to the project coordination meetings and guided tours of construction sites. There is at any given time at least a billion in construction going on at the campus each year and architecture and engineering students routinely get access to those sites. The program is big almost 2000 students in undergrad and graduate and is paired with a landscape architecture program and a well respected urban planning program. The university is divided into collages and the School of architecture is within the collage of Fine and applied arts. There are lots of opportunities to take classes outside of architecture to broaden you skills and opportunities. It took film editing and I know people who took dance computer science botany and other interesting advanced level classes. There is a structured masters in business and structural engineering double major program as well.

The program is good and i hope you visit the campus before the end of the semester to get an idea of UIUC at its best. Visiting in the summer is hard to get an idea of the campus culture as most of the students are not on campus.

Pratt is a very good school so I think both choices are good ones.

Over and OUT

Peter N