Help us decide! UIUC [34k/yr] vs Rutgers [40k/yr]

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S25 is grateful to have been accepted to many of his Target and Safety schools. (Currently waitlisted at a Reach school.) He has narrowed down the list to University of Illinois Urbana Champaign (UIUC) or Rutgers.

The TL;DR version:

UIUC gave him his second choice major of Recreation, Sport, and Tourism (Sport Management) at the School of Applied Health Sciences and no honors college, no merit scholarships, cheaper overall due to instate.

Rutgers accepted him in the Business School for Management, accepted in Honors College, received decent merit scholarship, higher cost overall due to out of state.

Financial Details:

UIUC - COA about $34k/year instate with no merit scholarships or financial aid (don’t qualify). The tuition portion won’t change year to year due to price lock for 4 years.

Rutgers - COA about $41k/year out of state which includes a good merit scholarship. Rutgers tuition will likely increase year over year as there is no price lock.

Both schools are within maximum parent contribution per year, but the difference is not insignificant. UIUC would give us more financial breathing room than Rutgers, but neither will bankrupt us.

Major / Division Details:

UIUC - admitted to second choice major of Recreation, Sport, and Tourism (RST; with his concentration in Sport Management) at the School of Applied Health Sciences. Not offered honors. Rejected to Gies / Business which would have been his first choice and would have attended UIUC if accepted to Gies. Heard that intraschool transfer to Gies is nearly impossible. AHS is very small compared to the rest of UIUC, with most students majoring in Kinesiology, not RST. And within RST, only a fraction is sport management.

Rutgers - admitted to Business School for Management (first choice). Admitted to Honors College. He was also admitted to SAS for Sport Management but will likely minor (unless feeling super ambitious and will dual degree).

Both are regular Fall 2025 start.

Other Considerations:

We are always saying to love the school that loves you back. And in this case, it’s Rutgers. It’s the exact program he wants with additional support from the Honors College. However, the tuition difference is nothing to sneeze at.

And we visited both schools during their respective Admitted Student days, with the Rutgers campus being a bit more difficult to navigate and the uncertainty about where he will end up with dorms (HC dorms no longer guaranteed in new HC program starting this upcoming year). Rutgers is also a plane ride; whereas UIUC is a drive (albeit a longer one at 3.5 hours each way). So UIUC gets points for convenience.

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This is a difficult choice IMO.

Your S can get a business minor at Gies: Business Minor | Gies College of Business | University of Illinois

I think the only Gies minor that is off limits to non-Gies students is the business analytics minor (but double check that.) Or maybe he would consider a math minor or something more quantitative like that.

One thing that I LOVE about UIUC is that their career fairs are open to all students regardless which school they are in…so your S can still go to the Gies career fairs for example. See here:

Note that ALL career fairs facilitated by career services offices at Illinois are open to ALL Illinois students. That includes the Fall and Spring career fairs hosted by Gies, Grainger, and the I-School, as well as the ACES + LAS Career Fair in fall and the Illini Career Fair in Spring.

I know less about the Rutgers and the honors college experience so will defer to others about that. With that said, Rutgers does offer a broader choice of majors since he’s in the biz school. Generally I’m not a huge fan of sports mgmt type majors because some do see that as less rigorous and it’s so competitive to get into those kind of jobs (which often don’t pay much, especially to start.) Your S will be competing with those with a wide variety of majors including not only business/finance, but math, statistics, analytics, etc.

Good luck.

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Does the $40,000 a year net cost include your student taking the federally funded Direct Loan? For freshman year, that’s $5500…and if not already included could be used at Rutgers (or UIUC).

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It sounds to me as if what Rutgers is offering could be worth the cost increment (which as you say is nothing to sneeze at, but then again it isn’t a 1.5x or 2.5x increment between schools as we so often see with these sort of decisions)… but it depends how that cost difference impacts your family.

Can you tell us a little bit more about his interest in sport management, and athletics in general? I would be curious about his UIUC major, and what percentage of students in that major are varsity athletes. Nothing against athletes - some are obviously serious students as well. But some schools have certain majors that are tailored to the strengths and interests of recruited athletes while being less demanding overall, to accommodate their athletic commitments. Might that be the case here, and if so, 1) what would his experience be in the major, not being a D1 athlete, and 2) would the reputation of an “easy degree for jocks” follow him? (And I think that reputation can cling to this type of major even if it isn’t the case at the particular school.)

Rutgers Business is excellent. Rutgers Honors is excellent. There would be no question that he had earned a degree in a rigorous program.

If he goes to Rutgers and isn’t in love with it, he might have better luck transferring into Gies from there than from a non-business major at UIUC.

I think I would sigh heavily and spend the money, but I fully understand that our larger economic context right now isn’t one in which a lot of people are comfortable going out on financial limbs, so I don’t envy you the decision. Congrats to your son on the great Rutgers offer, though!

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If your student was in Gies, I’d say UIUC, but considering the second major, I might say Rutgers.

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You never want to strain yourself financially to the point of family discomfort or retirement impact - but I think strain is worth it for business vs. Sport Management or a degree from recreation, etc.

Career outcomes in Sports Management are difficult - low pay, random rural cities - if you’re lucky enough to get a job. I don’t think a business minor would compensate for this.

So unless you can’t afford it, I’d choose Rutgers.

And honestly, if you decide you can’t afford Rutgers, I’d find another in state option where you could major in business before I’d accept the UIUC program. I just think, even for kids who want to work in the sports industry, it puts you in a very difficult position career wise.

Best of luck.

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I don’t understand how you go from Sport management to Business in interest.

I think Rutgers is the clear choice here. Have him sign a contract with you that he will pay back the difference at some point. That’s a nice negotiation for a business kid. He can take his business degree and go into sport’s if he wants to. But his job prospect and financial prospect are better being a direct admit business student. Plus if he gets an internship or two he might be able to make that money difference back while he’s in college.

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One thing that helped us when assessing budget was the realization that we would not be paying for food for our student for 9 months a year, nor for their ECs, which for many families can be substantial during the high school years. So perhaps when taking that into account, Rutgers won’t be as big of a hit on the family budget as anticipated, even though it is more expensive.

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I put a big premium on attending a college where the student can take their intended course of study (in this case, business).

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Thank you to everyone that has replied. I think we are generally all on the same page in thinking. Definitely leaning towards Rutgers/Business here despite the increase in cost and less convenience.

@Mwfan1921 thank you for sharing the insight about the career fairs at UIUC. I did not know they were open to everyone and that is helpful to know in case S25 decides to attend UIUC. However, I do believe you are correct that internships and jobs will be competitive, especially if S25 is not in the b-school and in a less “competitive” major.

@thumper1 the costs I’ve listed do not include the $5500 in student loans. I’m hesitant to have him take that loan, but we are looking into possibly doing a federal work study.

@aquapt S25 does eventually want to go into professional sports, specifically the “front office” as his ultimate career goal. He loves sports, was an athlete throughout childhood and part of HS, but had to quit due to several factors mid-HS career. However, he understands a general business administration/management degree is much more flexible and competitive than a sports management degree, which is why the sports one is a second choice. He is good at math and like sports analytics as well. I definitely get the “sigh heavily” comment and I’m definitely leaning towards this if ultimately S25 agrees.

@Mystics yes, I am leaning there as well.

@tsbna44 the career outcomes of a sport management degree do make me nervous. UIUC boasts 96% employed or grad school within 6 months of graduation for the College of Applied Health Sciences, but they did not give us a breakdown between the different majors.

@Knowsstuff the original intent is to take his business degree and use it in the sports world. And maybe that still should be the plan. He was just considering the alternate major path since it’s kind of the path of least resistance: a top flagship university what is an easy drive away. But I definitely agree that he’ll have more opportunities from RBS.

@MMRose that is a good point about costs for food and ECs. Thank you for sharing.

@happy1 yes, don’t disagree with that philosophy at all. Especially here since business would open more doors than a very niche major would.

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One thing you can do is find like schools that have sports management programs and see their outcomes.

Here is the Syracuse Outcome page - they show 276 of 324 reporting but like UIUC don’t break out the majors. Still, you can see some organizations they are placing and potentially even look someone up on linkedin and ask them about their experience.

I also put Va Tech which is sports media and analytics. If the database clears it, that’s the major. And U Miami which shows organizations but lists no salaries..

Or ask UIUC for a student ambassador to speak with int he program. And definitely for career outcomes for their grads.

If your student still wants UIUC. these might at least provide you more talking points or data points to ensure they know what they are getting into. The Miami grad I know started in minor league baseball and now is an Assistant SID for a lower tier Division One School - and appears to make in the 40s, per a public data base.

That’s just one example - I do know the young man worked very hard to get to where he is.

Good luck.

Student Outcomes – Career Services Syracuse University

Undergraduate Student Outcomes Data – Career and Professional Development | Virginia Tech

Career Outcomes | Toppel Career Center | University of Miami

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Since S is truly interested in sports see if he can combine the degree with something like a business minor/statistics-- it may work. If he isn’t feeling Rutgers, I’d have your S take a deep dive into the coursework in the UIUC Sports major and perhaps see if he can contact a student in the program.

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Another thing to consider is if your child goes to Rutgers and is unhappy with Rutgers or major, transferring back to applied health at uicu would most likely be easy, assuming child keeps grades up. Going the other way would have high costs. Transferring out of uiuc to OOS business school next year, including to Rutgers, would not include honors and the merit scholarship. So, the back up option is safer starting at Rutgers. This assumes your child would be happy with the vibe at Rutgers and starting at Rutgers , based on what they know today.

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Others covered the main points, but I just wanted to note that in my circles, Rutgers Honors College has a very good reputation. It is apparently evolving, though, so I can’t speak to the details. But I do think a good Honors program can really help the transition to a large public university.

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Hi, I know you mentioned you are OOS for Rutgers, so I assumed you did not attend the Honors College Admitted student day yesterday?
My son was sold on the presented opportunity and how much focus they put into the honors college.
Rutgers was never the top choice for him, until they admit him to Honors college, even with that, he still keep GMU (Schar School of Government and Policy) as his first, since they not only offer him honors, but awarded 3 separate scholarship, to make it comparable to RU in-state with scholarship.
we visited GMU admitted student day this last weekend and drove back just in time for RU Honors day. He is going to commit today, and it is going to be RU Honors.

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We did not attend the HC specific Admitted Students day, but we did visit during the general Rutgers Admitted Students day a couple weekends ago and saw the Honors College. TBH, it was kind of hectic and we couldn’t really hear the guides with multiple tours happening at the same time, trying to avoid the rain, and really didn’t see much. We thought about visiting again during Rutgers Day next weekend, but was afraid it would be similar and hectic. S25 is a very chill kind of student/person and the running around like crazy was a bit antithetical to his general preferences.

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It has been pointed out before the typical Admitted Students event might not be the right sort of pitch for some students. For them, though, the good news is their real college experience will not be like that, or at least only rarely.

Of course if you really liked your Admitted Students experience, then maybe that is not so good news . . . .