Congrats on attending UIUC, I really loved the school and got a lot out of going there. Is Wolfram still on Neil St? I loved that amongst the car dealerships and Meijers was this mecca of mathematics and technology.
In terms of things to do:
- I highly recommend you join the Engineering Freshman Committee and the EOH group, I was the chair of that group and we were given $2000 to do whatever we want (we built a lightbulb unscrewing robot to compete at EOH). It was definitely one of the best experiences of my life ($2k in college seemed like an infinite pool of money).
- Start poking around Beckman Center, I did lots of interesting research there and it still puts out some really cool stuff that freshman can get involved with.
- If you can get a car and need to impress a date, Curtis Orchard is really pretty right now.
- I loved the 318/319 courses and wish I had taken it earlier, when I was there Garland and Hart were there and I wish I had a chance to take more classes in that track.
Best of luck!