Comparing COA in FA letter to earlier estimates

Colleges & Universities University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
1

Hello,

We recently received our son’s financial aid information through his online account and was surprised at how much higher it was than earlier estimates that we received in brochures that came via mail.

Earlier estimate for COA was a range of $30706 - $35710. In the FA letter, COA is $35880, including tuition of $17040 and fees of $3832 (!).

I realize that the brochure was an estimate and our COA is just slightly higher than the top value. But it was my understanding that the higher end of the range was for engineering/business. My son plans to major in physics and was admitted to LAS. I was under the assumption that he would be on the lower end of the range. Was this a bad assumption on my part?

I was just surprised at how much higher than the $30706 estimate his actual COA is and was wondering if this is an unexpected jump or is physics/LAS higher on the tuition scale that I had estimated.

SL

2

Yeah, you have to delve through the registrar’s webpage to find that programs like LAS Physics, LAS CS+, LAS Chemical Engineering, ACES Agricultural Engineering and DGS Pre-Engineering all pay the higher Engineering tuition rates. And the $4K in required fees is really stupid, too. Almost every other school includes similar mandatory fees in the main tuition/fees figure so that it’s not as easy to overlook them when comparing costs. The cost calculator at least does a little better job than the admissions webpages.

https://registrar.illinois.edu/ug-base-rates-1718

3

Thank you for the information; I had not found that. When my son chose physics, I was pleased that he would be able to dodge the engineering tuition rate while still getting a STEM degree. How wrong I was.

Fortunately, this was a mild surprise rather than a major shock. We received an email that his FA letter was available, and I decided to check it out just to update my spreadsheet for completeness when I found this surprise.
Had UIUC still been on his list of contenders, or, even worse, he had actually chosen it, this would have been a real shock!

SL

4

It definitely should be more clear on the admissions web pages. I didn’t get the right total cost numbers originally, either, an issue I didn’t encounter at any other school my son considered. Physics does look like a real bargain for a top 10 program at the in-state base LAS tuition rates before those extra mandatory fees! My son ended up applying to Engineering Physics so it didn’t matter. On the plus side, LAS Physics majors do get the perks of the Engineering department, including facilities, research and job placement, which may come in handy even for summer internships and co-op programs.

5

Are you talking about a general brochure touting financial aid, that said something like, “COA typically ranges from $30,706 - $35,710?” These types of mailings are broad generalizations.

Realize it doesn’t matter as he’s not going there, but did the NPC show the same lower price?

6

Yes, bad assumption. Also, re fees, what is rather inconspicuous is that student health insurance is included in the fees total, which is something a student can waive if proof of qualifying alternate insurance coverage is available. Now UIUC insurance is a good buy, when compared with other schools, but the premium is going up about 25% next year, but if it works to waive it, that’s a big chunk off the fees column. Chicago Trib. just ran a story on rejected waiver applications, but there’s undoubtedly lots of families that can use their own insurance while their children are at school.

7

@LuckyCharms913

Yes, I am talking about the $30706-$35710 range that came in a brochure telling us that we could use it as an estimate. It isn’t that far off from the actual numbers. My error was in not understanding that we would be closer to the $35710 than to the $30706.

We used the NPC for most of the schools to which he applied, but I don’t recall using it for UIUC. As I recall, it was a late addition to his list of schools. We just figured that we should include our state’s flagship school with a highly-rated physics program. We were never really expecting it to be a major contender. Even at the low end of the range, UIUC was already above the midway point for costs. At the higher end, they are more expensive than all of his other schools (he applied to 11) except Purdue and Indiana.

I visited the NPC just now, and it comes up with $35880, so I definitely had the power to not be surprised had I used it.

Hey, I just got promoted to Junior Member. Do I get discounts at the bar?

SL

8

Yes, bar discounts, but sadly none on Illinois state colleges:-(

It really is too bad about the state financial disaster that led to Illinois’ stupid high in-state tuition. For Physics, schools like Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio State, Michigan State and Purdue may offer enough out-of-state aid for top students that make their very solid programs price competitive to Illinois in-state tuition.

Kansas and Nebraska are bargains for Illinois residents looking for a good Physics program. You are essentially guaranteed scholarships that provide the very affordable in-state tuition there. Of course, states like Nebraska are actually financially solvent, while Illinois is teetering toward bankruptcy every month this state budget stalemate continues.

9

@illinoisx3

Our son applied to six B1G schools (and five others), with only Indiana and Purdue being slightly higher than Illinois. Minnesota is slightly below, but are planning significant tuition hikes over the next few years. MSU offered his largest scholarship, but I was amazed at how high their starting point is and the net cost was still high. Of course, our sorting is based on the level of merit scholarships that our son received; other students may receive more or less than he did.

One of our frustrations was how agonizingly close our son was to NM, but just missed the cutoff for Illinois. Some schools that give you almost nothing for rocking the ACT will throw $$$ at you for doing well on the PSAT, a practice test for the SAT. It would have meant another $10K at Minnesota, R&B at MSU, full ride at Kentucky. And the worst part was that he would have made NM if we lived in most of the states where his potential schools are located.

The one exception on our radar, which you mentioned, is Nebraska. They are willing to give merit aid very close to what they give for NM to students with high stats. In-state tuition isn’t quite automatic. The $14500 award that gets you in-state levels requires a 29 ACT/3.0 GPA. But a 24 ACT/3.0 GPA gets you $13000, which isn’t too far behind for very reasonable stats.
Last year, they started a new award, called Husker Heritage, which can add $5000-$7000.
With a small honors college textbook scholarship, our son will be receiving pretty close to full tuition.

I’m glad that you think that Nebraska has a good physics program. We beat ourselves up quite a bit over whether Nebraska was “good enough” for our son or whether we were selling him to the highest bidder. In the end, we got a very good feeling about the university, the honors college and the physics department and think that it will be a good school for our son at a very good price.

Plus, one of the driving factors for applying to large publics was our son’s desire to be in a large marching band, and the game-day experience of Husker football is among the best in the land, even when the team isn’t where Husker fans want them to be!

As for financial stability, articles like this give me pause:
http://www.dailynebraskan.com/news/nebraska-budget-cut-most-likely-to-cause-tuition-increases-cut/article_a0cba7d8-ddf7-11e6-ad50-7b618ef5adfe.html

“NU President Hank Bounds told the Nebraska Legislature Appropriations Committee that in order to counterbalance proposed cuts in the 2017-19 state funding budget, the university would have to increase tuition significantly over the next few years.”

So, there are no safe harbors. But it’s starting at a low enough number that we can weather a few rate hikes and not break the bank!

SL

10

I don’t know if there are credible undergraduate Physics rankings, so it’s hard to say for sure. I can’t imagine the quality of education is all that different among major R1 state flagships, but perhaps prestige is a factor for grad school or job placement? For grad schools, which presumably share at least some professors, research and higher level classes with undergrad programs, both Kansas and Nebraska appear to be top-100 based on USNews, NRC and QS. Perhaps not in the same tier as some of the others, but still pretty good, and also a very good value. I know Kansas also has a very highly regarded honors program.

My son still has Minnesota on his list. The 4-year total cost is somewhat cheaper than Illinois with the scholarships, even considering their likely tuition increases. That made it a nice value for a top-25 ish program, but I think he may be leaning to Illinois since it’s closer, he has more friends going there and the cost isn’t significantly more.

I think every state is cutting university budgets, but at least Nebraska is one of the most solvent states in the country overall. Maybe balanced budgets are how they do it. A concept completely foreign to Illinois legislators!

And yeah, not much for the Illini Marching Band to cheer about in the last decade or two. Nebraska seems like a good contender for both band and Physics, and certainly Ohio State, too.

11

One of the things that assuaged our concerns was that numerous professors and advisors said pretty much what you said about quality of education. When we asked what was different or special about their program, they admitted that there wasn’t a lot of difference between undergraduate physics at B1G schools. A student would be taking pretty much the same courses, often from the same textbooks.

Particularly valuable was a phone call that we had with a physics prof. from Minnesota. We were expecting “Go, go Gophers,” but it was anything but that. First, he said that he thought that the college admissions process had gotten totally out of hand in terms of the competitiveness and the pressure on students. I think that most of us would agree with that. He also agreed that most B1G programs would be very similar. The best advice that he gave my son was to not sweat the decision. He said that students look for the one, true school and live in fear that they may select the wrong one. Most of the schools are very good at what they do and there are any number of them where our son would be happy. You get there, find a few friends, learn the crazy traditions that only your school does so well, and you’ll most likely love the school. If he was looking for a college, he would focus on fit and cost. So that is what we did.

We weren’t sure how to vet a physics department, but we did our best. The physics/astronomy building at Nebraska is fairly new, and we heard that is helping to get higher profile professors. The department is growing and, according to one professor, was recognized as one of the top “up and coming” departments. The list of schools where the profs had received their PhDs included U of Chicago, Northwestern, MIT, UCLA, Cambridge, so their backgrounds were solid and varied.

I did have some concern about Nebraska losing AAU status, but they seem to have moved forward with little impact from this.

We actually ruled out Ohio State because of marching band. Our son wants a good band and doesn’t mind a competitive tryout, but doesn’t want to be able to be challenged for his spot on the field on a weekly basis. They are cutthroat!

12

I didn’t know that about OSU band. Brutal.

Loomis Laboratory at Illinois definitely isn’t new, but I understand the adjacent lab buildings have some very impressive new spaces that are state of the art, supposedly with equipment available to undergrads only available in a few other universities. Parents didn’t get to tour it, but the students did. The people running the Illinois undergraduate physics program were also very impressive. I had the impression it was a lot like a smaller college inside a very big one.

Minnesota totally gutted the Physics building on the main quad and it’s supposed to re-open this fall. Probably also a nice perk for incoming students and for recruiting faculty.

13

We liked a lot of things about Minnesota, including the physics building. It would be cool to have a new, modern physics facility inside of a classic, old, columned exterior. This was in his top three, along with Nebraska and Purdue.
He liked the name of the college: College of Science and Engineering. He hates college names like LAS, or Arts and Sciences (“What are ‘those people’ (Arts) doing in my college?”). Our campus visit started with a CSE-specific meeting where they showed videos about the physics of superheroes, and of a device that would disassemble an Oreo using heat and spray the molten filling into a person’s mouth. They really knew their audience and it was a big hit with all the geeks in the crowd (myself included).

We ruled out Purdue due to cost since his scholarship there was pretty small and it was among the most expensive of all the schools to which he applied.

We were trying to get a feel for his thoughts on Nebraska vs. Minnesota. He is not the type to fall in love with a school and we weren’t getting much feedback. We were convinced that he would be no closer to a decision today than he was two months ago. He’s very adaptable, and doesn’t seem to care about things like dorm room layout and who has the biggest indoor climbing wall.

So, we helped him to choose Nebraska. Costing about half as much was definitely a factor, but we also realize that choosing a poor fit solely for cost is not a wise decision in the long run. While Nebraska isn’t a small school, we felt that he would fit in better with 25K students than 50K. We also like the location. We can see him going into downtown Lincoln with friends; we cannot see him going to downtown Minneapolis. And virtually everyone we talked to there just seemed really nice. Staff and students. When we asked him if he was ready to pull the trigger, he watched some YouTube videos of the marching band and decided that he could see himself playing that fight song.
They have a tradition of playing the opposing team’s fight song, so I will still get to hear him play “On Wisconsin,” even though we eliminated my alma mater very early due to cost.

14

Nebraska was looking like a strong contender for S17, who will be majoring in Chemical Engineering and wants to perform in the marching band. We had a great visit there. With their scholarships, the net cost would be one of our lowest options. Unfortunately, the 7 AM daily marching band practice was a deal breaker for him. Most schools we looked at have early evening practice, which suits him better. Son has decided on Illinois (in-state) and will be auditioning for the Marching Illini tomorrow. I know it’s a great school, especially for engineering, and I’m glad he will only be 1 hour from home, but the high in-state tuition with no scholarship is painful.