I am going to apply as a transfer student in the college of engineering (computer engineering) at UIUC, and was wondering if there were any field trips during the first few weeks to get to know everyone; like the one held at University of Minnesota for new freshmen: http://www.cbs.umn.edu/explore/departments/btl/academics/nol
I’m not sure if calling it a “field trip” is entirely accurate, but UIUC does have some ‘welcome’ events. The Summer Orientation sessions are a day long event that involves presentations from different departments, meeting with your own academic department, and typically meeting people that will be in your department. The Welcome Days is during the first weekend of the semester and involves lots of activities to meet new people. Quad Day is their giant student organization fair where all of the (1000+) student organizations set up on the quad so people can check out what different clubs are available and meet tons of people.
I haven’t heard of anything similar to the field trip you linked to.