The place that you put a "really big deposit" is Winfield Village, in Savoy. I believe there is a bus system that goes from there to the vet school. And you can have pets, but I think they are trying to limit it to 2 now. The waitlist is often a year but you can call and put yourself on the waitlist now and hope for the best.... sometimes if you want a townhouse and not a 1 bedroom (if there are 2 of you) then those are available more often. You are putting down a down payment, essentially - it is a co-op. Then you pay a very low rent, and you get your down payment back when you "sell out" to another person. One of our clinicians lives there, too.
The university housing is generally not recommended because they don't allow pets. I don't know anyone that lives there.
You can live in on-campus apartments but since you are around undergrads a lot, it's noisy and not very clean. If you find some roommates, you can rent houses in the Urbana area.... those are generally pretty nice, and a lot of people bike. Go to Google Maps, look up Florida and Lincoln Ave., and then go north east of that intersection. That's where a lot of students live. You can generally search the rental agencies websites... just google "champaign urbana house rental".
peppermint - by any chance are you in Singapore?
Anyway, I hope that helps... there will be a message board up shortly that the current 1st year students post on to help the incoming class find housing, get books, etc.
