Ever since the first student walked through its doors in 1868, the University of Illinois has been a tremendous resource for the State of Illinois. Founded in response to the federal Land Grant Act of 1862, the University immediately met an important need to provide higher education opportunities for working class people. For more than 130 years, the University has educated hundreds of thousands of sons and daughters of Illinois, the nation and the world. The U of I Alumni Association is the second largest in the country, drawing its membership from about 485,000 living alumni.
The University of Illinois continually seeks to expand its critical role in the economic, educational and technological health of the state. University operations have a direct yearly impact of $4.6 billion on the state's economy, a payback more than seven times greater than the state's annual tax investment. More than 68,000 jobs are directly tied to the University, including nearly 9,000 manufacturing and construction jobs and nearly 20,000 jobs tied to spending by staff, students and visitors. The average University graduate pays the state of Illinois nearly $98,000 more than a high school graduate does in sales and income tax revenues over a lifetime. Standard & Poor's latest survey of corporate officers showed that more U of I students go on to lead major corporations than from any other university in the state.
Campus locations are in Chicago, Springfield and Urbana-Champaign, with additional branches of the Chicago-based College of Medicine at Peoria, Rockford and Urbana.
To learn more of each campus, click on the campus of your choice and it will take you to an outside link.
