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Comment by alecbenzer | Hacker News Reader

The building? Yeah, it's on Neil. I found it kind of funny too - it's just of tucked away in between a McDonald's and a Walmart (I also find it amusing how you can see a six story building from so far away - I'm from around New York)

Honestly I have mixed feelings about the school. There's stuff to like but I feel out of place a lot of the time. I've been a combination of blue and busy lately, but I should probably check out Beckman and NCSA and some other stuff.

No car and no dates as of late. :P

318 (I think it's 418 now, with Hart this semester) seems cool.

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Yeah if you're from Manhattan it's going to be an adjustment - I'm in Manhattan now and haven't been back since I graduated (my mom moved to NC). Here's a few things I wish I had done differently:

1. Don't skimp on where you live (live in a good place in a great location like right above Murphy's). The rent seems like a lot when you're a student, but in hindsight it's the best deal you'll ever get. Don't live far away from north campus to save money.

2. The ACM at UIUC is pretty amazing, they have a secret lab underneath DCL where they have every thing you could ever want to build a robot, hack on Arduino (I think I salvaged a HP oscilloscope).

3. If you're looking for some more money - there are a lot of companies out by Assembly Hall (motorola etc). Good jobs/pay, really painful to get to.

College is definitely an adjustment but I found my groups I enjoyed hacking with, going to Brothers' with, going to Murphy's with and got a lot out of the experience.

I'm from right outside New York in New Jersey, so I'm used to suburban areas, I'm just also used to being near a big city.

1. Being OOS, money is slightly more of an issue to me, so saving money to live somewhat further way seems like exactly something I may need to end up doing, but I'll see if the difference really matters.

2. I should really start hanging out in the acm office more...might fix (mitigate) some of the problems I have with the school.

3. Well, like I mentioned, I'm at wolfram right now, with pretty decent pay, so I think I'm sticking with that for a while.

Be sure to explore the steam tunnels...

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