The previous posters are correct, but for the wrong reasons. UIUC is not a public school Ivy- its engineering program actually blows the Ivy Leagues out of the water according to US News and World Reports and has a lot of program directors at Stanford and MIT very nervous about their own rankings.
UIUC is also strong in the hard sciences, math, and actuarial science. Its accounting program is currently beating Wharton's (and the other Ivies).
I don't know what the earlier poster was talking about when he mentioned grade inflation. Engineering and Math courses typically curve to a C+/B- average. If you graduate with a 3.5 GPA from UIUC in Math or Engineering, that's a pretty impressive accomplishment.