The University of Illinois campus in Champaign is busier this year thanks in large part to a record number of freshman—7,593 freshman students are hitting the books, one of the five biggest freshman classes in the country.
A student body of nearly 45,000 students also makes the U of I the seventh largest public university in the nation.
The university says the campus has grown about 1 percent every year for decades.
The U of I also boasts a top 10 ranking among all top public universities regarding ACT scores for the percentage of students who score between a 26 and 32 on the test.