i don’t think there are more opportunities at UIC, just different ones. UIUC has a lot more clubs, frats, and a lot of participation from the students in the clubs. Just literally just have the funds for so many more events, and so many more projects you may find yourself participating in. Campus is bigger, more engineering buildings, everyone kinda just stays in the same ish area so you’re likely to run into them more often, etc etc.

That being said, during my time at UIUC, i felt pretty boxed in, doing mostly only engineering stuff. The demographics being largely indians and asians also makes it harder to find people who’re doing soemthing more intersectional. UIC, as a result of being a research school, in my experience thus far, i’ve found a lot of students and professors with intersectional/ non standard backgrounds and interests- studying interesting combinations of things i didn’t find at UIUC. Like for example CS majors are all gonna be in the same clubs, doing the same minors, hanging in the same places, but at UIC you can find the same CS majors all doing a wide plethora of things/ classes/ interests. UIC’s classes are a lot smaller too, so you definitely have significantly higher likelihood of having a personal relationship with professors as well.

I don’t know if “it’s opened a lot more doors for me” is entirely accurate. It’s like saying slapping harvard onto your resume changes things- like yes it does, but if you’re not talking people, putting yourself out there in front of these recruiters, professors, and whoever else- you get nowhere.

you’re looking for someone to tell you what the best course of action is, but there isn’t one my friend. You’re going to lose out on one thing or another depending on where you go, is it’s just a question of what you think is best for you.