sredne

I have RCN and I really enjoy it. I've heard their TV service is garbage but I haven't had any problems with RCN and I only pay $50/mo for 50/10 speeds.

I grew up in the suburbs also, and hated it. As a kid, you have no freedom until the age of 16 where you have the POSSIBILITY of owning a car/borrowing your parent's car. We had bikes, but the nearest anything was 1-1.5 miles away, and there were very little sidewalks or safe places to bike. Nothing was convenient without a car.

I went to school in a small/medium city (Champaign/Urbana) and loved it. It was the perfect mix of having a city and space for a small suburban life. I lived in a house that was off campus, and was within walking distance to downtown and busing distance to the bars/main campus. It was peaceful and crazy when I wanted it to be.

I now live in Chicago and while I love the convenience of everything(huge advocate of all things public transit), I miss being able to easily just disconnect from urban life.

My next move will probably be somewhere warmer, but it'll probably be in a small/medium sized city for sure.

Recent UIUC Alum.

I'm not sure if this will sway your decision, but a lot of lower level CS classes there have "proficiency exams". These exams allow you to test out of certain classes, so if you don't want to take the intro to CS you can just get the credit by passing the test. This could cut your time at school from 4 years to 3 and possibly even 2 if you're smart about it.