Everyone knows not to capitalize the t in Caltech, right?

"Do not use UIUC. The nickname of the University of Illinois is Illinois. This is what is on their school pennants and other swag."

That advice has limitations. "UIUC" is routinely written within the UI system itself -- abbreviating the modern official name, and of course distinguishing that campus from UI's others even if they're also younger. Much as traditional pennants, songs, etc. at Berkeley say "California," or informally "Cal," long after UC expanded beyond the original campus (when "University of California" meant only Berkeley). Even people who display "California" pennants understand the value of writing "UCB" today.

Secondly (and this might be less familiar to you) the issue is bigger online, with UIUC's outsized contributions to computing history, even influencing tools we use in this dialog. History from ILLIAC, PLATO, and web-browser development to the 1968 movie "2001" (where the now-iconic HAL computer recalls its own genesis at HAL Laboratories "in Urbana, Illinois," a nod to some real history). Related history shaped the internet itself as it evolved. In the 1980s, as "the net" became accessible from universities and increasingly the public, UIUC was among institutions with online presence disproportionate to its own user population. In those days certain long-established nodes or hosts were network landmarks, through which other networks connected; names of some of those high-profile nodes made certain acronyms particularly common online, such as BBN, MIT, UCB, UIUC.

There was briefly in Palo Alto a band named Ten in The Swear Jar -- sometimes abbreviated to XITSJ -- the leader of which later changed its or his name to Xiu-Xiu (but not XIUXIU). Before that they were called The Indestructible Beat of Palo Alto or IBOPA.
The bandleader's name is or was Jamie Stewart. I do not know if he is related to the more famous James Stewart but his uncle John Stewart was a member of The Kingston Trio, had a hit for The Monkees and I believe worked for Bobby Kennedy. Jamie is a genius.
Jamie Stewart had an affiliation with KZSU the Stanford radio station but even after knowing him for 25 years I have no idea if he is or is not a Stanford alumnus*.
My point is: be yourself -- that probably helps on college essays and apps as much as in the general case.
-- my two cents worth
P.S. Do applicants check a box to signify they got coaching? And, how much do you charge?

*I do not believe Jamie Stewart of Xiu-Xiu has collaborated with Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, but he did collaborate with Eugene S. Robinson of Oxbow who looks like a thug but did indeed go to Stanford.

P.P.S. I recommend going to college even if you plan a career in the arts. Try to graduate by age 25 but don't feel you have to graduate with your class. Don't worry about career until about age 30.

and1: aren't the posters correct in pointing out that UIUC is Urbana campus which is famous for computing, and not Champaign which no one calls it? I bought my best friend from Dartmouth Dr. Brian Moore a picture of Walt Frazier when Doc (who majored in drama for his a.b., then got a masters in education from Harvard, before his m.d. from UMass) took a job at Southern Illinois, only to find that he was in Springfield where they indeed rooted for The Illini and not Carbondale where they remember Clyde -- who himself IMHO uses big words gratuitously. Actually I just looked it up: in my day -- I'm a Gunn '82 -- the name changed officially to Illinois University of Urbana Champaigne even tho--according to Wiki -- the common use for the region per se was the reverse, Champaign Urbana.

I was also taught that language evolves and the best dictionaries are descriptive not prescriptive. My pet peeve is when people with big dogs believe that leash laws do not apply to them.

There was briefly in Palo Alto a band named Ten in The Swear Jar -- sometimes abbreviated to XITSJ -- the leader of which later changed its or his name to Xiu-Xiu (but not XIUXIU). Before that they were called The Indestructible Beat of Palo Alto or IBOPA.
The bandleader's name is or was Jamie Stewart. I do not know if he is related to the more famous James Stewart but his uncle John Stewart was a member of The Kingston Trio, had a hit for The Monkees and I believe worked for Bobby Kennedy. Jamie is a genius.
Jamie Stewart had an affiliation with KZSU the Stanford radio station but even after knowing him for 25 years I have no idea if he is or is not a Stanford alumnus*.
My point is: be yourself -- that probably helps on college essays and apps as much as in the general case.
-- my two cents worth
P.S. Do applicants check a box to signify they got coaching? And, how much do you charge?

*I do not believe Jamie Stewart of Xiu-Xiu has collaborated with Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, but he did collaborate with Eugene S. Robinson of Oxbow who looks like a thug but did indeed go to Stanford.

P.P.S. I recommend going to college even if you plan a career in the arts. Try to graduate by age 25 but don't feel you have to graduate with your class. Don't worry about career until about age 30.

and1: aren't the posters correct in pointing out that UIUC is Urbana campus which is famous for computing, and not Champaign which no one calls it? I bought my best friend from Dartmouth Dr. Brian Moore a picture of Walt Frazier when Doc (who majored in drama for his a.b., then got a masters in education from Harvard, before his m.d. from UMass) took a job at Southern Illinois, only to find that he was in Springfield where they indeed rooted for The Illini and not Carbondale where they remember Clyde -- who himself IMHO uses big words gratuitously. Actually I just looked it up: in my day -- I'm a Gunn '82 -- the name changed officially to Illinois University of Urbana Champaigne even tho--according to Wiki -- the common use for the region per se was the reverse, Champaign Urbana.

I was also taught that language evolves and the best dictionaries are descriptive not prescriptive. My pet peeve is when people with big dogs believe that leash laws do not apply to them.

I'm saying that the people who write "UIUC" might be shibboleth for computer-orientation; for hacker or geek.

Mark: That's fair enough.

Actually, when I attended the University of Michigan in the 1970s, it was abbreviated "U-M" or "UM" in writing, pronounced "U of M". Of course, this was in Michigan, and not, say, Minnesota, Mississippi, or Montana. (I do agree that I never heard "UMich"!) Here in the Bay Area, if one says "U of M", it is generally taken to mean the University of Michigan, due to its size, the wide geographical distribution of its graduates, and its prominence in engineering and computer science disciplines.

I must respectfully disagree about the use/nonuse of the semicolon. It is very useful in linking two related independent clauses, although a dash can sometimes perform the same function. Of course, unless you're rock-solid in your writing skills, its misuse could give you away. (I don't really care what the New York Times does; I am a strong proponent of the Oxford comma, and not even the Economist seems to use it anymore, even though its nonuse does occasionally cause ambiguities in interpreting a list of items.)

My own pet writing (and speaking) peeve is the decline in the use of the word "fewer" when modifying countable items. One might say "there is less traffic on the road at night" ("traffic" being a collective noun), but one should say "there are fewer cars" and not "there are less cars".