Welcome to the University of Illinois and I’m delighted that you have chosen our Urbana-Champaign campus as the next step in your educational journey.

This is truly an extraordinary place — a global leader in education and research with a nearly 150-year legacy of achievement that has helped drive progress for our state and our nation. You will study under world-class faculty, alongside top students from every continent and in academic programs that include many ranked among America’s best. 

All of the tools are here to lay the foundation that will define your future. Now, it’s up to you to seize the opportunity, and I hope you are guided by a lesson many of you might have learned as preschoolers, in a book by Dr. Seuss titled “Oh, The Places You’ll Go!”

You have brains in your head.

You have feet in your shoes.

You can steer yourself

any direction you choose.

You’re on your own.  And you know what you know.

And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

Oh the places you could go and the things you could see. Nothing is guaranteed. In the end, it’s all up to you.  

The weeks, months and years ahead will be a time of discovery that will transform your lives, honing the skills that will unlock the doors to your dreams. 

Take it all in, make the most of it and be sure to have a little fun along the way.

Robert A. Easter