An undergraduate planning education is both excellent preparation for a professional career in planning, and for advanced education in a range of other professional disciplines such as law or public administration. A career in planning requires knowledge of planning philosophy, analytical methods, problem formulation and resolution, law and local government, and the aesthetic, cultural, social, economic, ecological, and physical characteristics of human settlement. This preparation provides a comprehensive and coherent education in the humanities, modern analytical methods, the social and natural sciences, and the problem solving orientation of the professions.
Planning thus constitutes an excellent liberal arts education.
Other students go on to graduate school and obtain the Master of Urban Planning, either at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign or elsewhere. All undergraduate students combine planning courses that develop professional skills with courses from elsewhere in the University to gain a broad undergraduate education. Students continuing in the Department can reduce the time to earn the MUP degree from four semesters to three.