@IL2023 It stinks for your daughter. It will be interesting to see if her disappointment abates with time. Hopefully her experience at U of I and her post-graduation outcome will compensate for the lack of merit money she expected.
Both of my kids experienced a “big disappointment” during their time at Illinois, but honestly, in both instances, it proved to be non-fatal and character-building. I actually think they’re better people for it.
@IL2023 Wow. So sorry for upsetting you. It definitely was not my intention. Not sure how to respond…especially to your second paragraph. I guess I misread/misunderstood your previous posts. Good day to you.
I agree- In the context of the subject of this thread, I think there should be enough transparency and objectivity that @kmmord should have the information to see in general terms where these increased number of merit awards that did not have a need component went. I think anyone has a right to be slightly disappointed if their in-state child received zero merit scholarship money at all from UIUC despite having the stats to earn the objective presidential elite free ride plus stipend award at Alabama. Otherwise, why wouldn’t taxpayers and tuition payers assume it’s like the admissions scandal of 10 years ago, with big donors and those with political clout or university connections or other hooks receiving at least some “merit-based” awards?
Personally, I’d be happy with a 4 more years of tuition freeze to make resident tuition in line with other top B1G schools, but it would also be nice to see the merit situation more competitive with other state flagships. UIUC has solid funding and endowments to make these happen.
@Illinoisx3-Nailed it. Why even have the exercise of compiling the IL State Scholar list, which states it represents roughly the top 10% of students in the state, but there’s not commensurate merit aid at the flagship, as in most peer midwest states (normalcy)? Students, parents, and taxpayers are justifiably frustrated. And people just don’t get it re the tuition freeze combined with the truth-in-tuition law-thank goodness the Board has for this long, lest the problem could be even worse-it’s a vicious cycle. The margin between OOS and the through-the-looking glass reality in Illinois re tuition is shifting (my Michigan friends just don’t get what the heck is going on here, and I completely don’t get Michigan license plates on campus on move-in day!), but best outcome is probably just to even out the course.
So back to the OP: take what you hear re merit with a huge rock of salt, and yes, you’re still in Illinois (good luck and please stay!).
Illinois has a perception and marketing problem even in their own state. My son went to NCP the #1 school 4 years ago
3.9 with 34 Act and his senior class had a 31 Act avg. At their school junior year parent /student college night to learn about colleges his counselor stated to not worry about UIUC since everyone gets accepted there. He was sorta joking but over 80 % do get accepted. So it was perceived as a backup school. Not a top tier school. Hmmm. Why? So I asked his counselor why? Background of this selective enrollment high school. Need a 99.6%, or higher to get in. Being white is a minority. Kids from private schools on the Northside to not so great schools elsewhere. One kid we know traveled by train and 3 busses 2 hours each way to go there (full ride at UIC). Absolutely great kids and families. BTW - very smart kids…
His school, Northside College Prep was going out of their way to try to match kids to schools with merit. 25 kids to Northwestern, 25 to University of Chicago. 14 to Michigan, 2 MIT. Of course other great colleges also. Many on merit. He told us and other families to not just apply to top tier schools but also 20 - 50 since that is where the money is.
When we called UIUC on why my 3.9, 34 Act with 35 math/science got nothing we got a big dose of reality… They said their were 500 kids with 35 /36 and some of those are just getting $500 merit. For one of the most expensive instate engineering schools.
So families with kids that do get accepted directly into UIUC engineering are running to that new engineering academic power house… Alabama and the like. So many families I speak with tell me for free to almost free tuition for same high Stat kids to be in honors with like-minded students is a no brainer. These kids are from the Western Suburbs like Naperville. The kids love that school. Alabama is rolling out the red-carpet for these kids. That’s the way they feel and describe it. Kids are graduating with jobs at Amazon, Google etc. The school has made some serious connections. All with football money it seems… Plus warm weather.
We choose Michigan since they did give some grants to make it a no brainer for us.
Outside of engineering they lost many top professors due to uncertainty… Articles in Chicago Tribune a few years ago…
UIUC is a great school, no question about that. They just need to get inline to keep their instate students.
While nearly 1/2 of Illinois HS seniors leave the state, I’m not sure it’s due to UIUC and inadequate merit…it’s seems it’s more due to the fact that after UIUC, the other in-state public options are less attractive for strong students than in-state privates or OOS schools.
74% of UIUC’s freshman class are from in-state. https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/802663 That’s a higher in-state proportion than U Mich (53%), IU (56%), and Wisconsin (50%), by a large margin.
It seems what some are really saying is either increase the proportion of in-staters (not going to happen in a bankrupt state) or replace some proportion of current UIUC in-state students with even stronger in-state students by attracting them with more merit (again budget issues).
I’m not sure how that would improve things. Changing the mix of in-staters is unlikely to change the number of students leaving the state, because many of the displaced students probably aren’t going to choose one of the directionals. And yes, I know NIU has good accounting, and ISU good education, and UIC good sciences…but right now students of all levels are speaking with their actions by leaving the state.
I’m formally nicki20 so I have many more posts than what’s under my new name. We are in the same situation with Illinois as illinoisx3 has described. Accepted and down to choosing between Illinois And Minnesota. Cost difference is about $1000 if you compare tuition and room and board. D20 likes Minnesota more. Don’t expect any money out of Illinois. We are slightly different because we aren’t Engineering or Business since that appears to be more difficult to get in. I have mentioned before downstate Illinois people want to go to Illinois. Living downstate 4 years everything is orange Even living in the northwest suburbs I know people who went to U of I there siblings went there and their kids are going or have went there. My perspective especially with Engineering I see it as a top 3 engineering school in the Midwest. No need to sell people on that. It seems to me getting the under $61,000 a year crowd is pulling the merit money away from the people like the OP.
In regards to the Illinois State Scholars. What’s the point? It means nothing. Not even sure the kids on the list are top 10%. At least being an AP scholar saves you some money
Consider if 80% of those 500 kids accepted an offer with a $2500 one-time award, that’s only $1M. That’s a pittance for UIUC, and a small fraction of even the scholarship money ONE TEAM earns in athletic awards.
There is much debate on merit vs. need aid, but this seems to be an initiative of the university according to various articles, sound bites and admissions officers. This is a pretty good summary.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-illinois-students-brain-drain-20180405-story.html
I think it would be fair to say that with one of the highest resident tuition rates in the country plus solid funding and endowments, there should be more than enough money to offer more merit awards with more transparency and objectivity to the top in-state students like other comparable universities, much as is done with athletes and low and middle income need-based aid. Now if their goals have changed, then it’s just some people here complaining;-)
That’s a great point. Good AP test results by law translate to lots of credits at state schools like UIUC. My son entered with a ton and could have graduated a year early but opted for dual degree. Many other schools may give you some credits, but some also still require you to take the full number of credits for the degree so you can’t graduate early.
With decent stats, you could still get good departmental awards. My daughter did in ACES with I think 32/3.9/4.3 and the announcements should come this month based on past experience. With some merit and with tuition/room/board locked over 4 years, the total cost might skew a little different when you manually add up actual costs for insurance, meal plans, residence halls, etc. Both UMN-TC and UIUC have been great for my kids so it’s not a bad choice to have!
Anyway, someone student or parent with a student in the class of '24 should probably start a thread for people to post their stats and merit awards, if any, for future reference. That information helps a lot since there is no public data.
My kids received scholarships through their respective colleges- Business and Engineering. I have one currently in business honors- that is a $5k/ year scholarship but I realize a very small pool of students get in. One of my graduates received about $7k in scholarships his senior year. One scholie was $5k through the business school ( pre Gies) - the other 2 were through campus organizations he was involved with- in each case he applied end of junior year. Posting this as an example that students can continue to look for scholarships during their 4 years.
I understand that doesn’t help those that absolutely need the $ but just something to keep in mind.
I have a couple friends with current engineering students who both received some type of merit this year as freshman though I have no details to share but both students are obviously excellent students.
I realize my family is in a very fortunate position that we don’t qualify for need based aid and when applying to schools their lists were mostly private schools and maybe 1 OOS public. So, to me, UIUC looks like a bargain for the quality of education they have received.
Some excellent points have been raised though in this thread on how UIUC could improve merit for its residents.
Are there any scholarships for international students?
I would guess very little. They rely on international students to subsidize Illinois residents now. There may be reports in the archives here, though. Also: https://osfa.illinois.edu/types-of-aid/other-aid/international-students/
Lots of $5,000 grants aren’t likely to help very many lowish income families. A few $20k grants might. Universities aren’t in the business of providing pats on the back to high school students. It’s their job to do well.
If education costs in IL are getting to be more than families can handle then it’s the state, not any particular college, that needs to take action. NYS committed to keeping tuition increases limited to a reasonable rate and implemented a variety of grant programs (some based on need, some based on career choice). Maybe IL could do something like that.
There is a separate pool of need-based aid and grants, including the ones I linked at the start of this thread, like the new program for free tuition to families making under $61K. In some cases, these can stack with other need and merit awards.
Actually, many are, at least the second tier of private schools and state flagships outside the top dozen or two elite colleges that will attract top students regardless. Universities are educational institutions and want to have the best students, just like companies offer recruiting incentives to the best employees. Short term, schools like to boast about higher average GPA, test scores, acceptance rates and other stats. Long term, top students go on to become business and industry leaders, prominent scientists, politicians, professionals and faculty, they donate buildings or endowments, earn research or government funding, win nobel prizes, etc.
One could also argue universities (especially land grant/research state schools) shouldn’t be in the business of offering pats on the back to high school athletes, yet this pool of scholarship money is far greater than academic merit at many Div 1 schools and has no academic or need based component.
True, but the problem is, Illinois state is near bankruptcy. Just getting back previous funding levels has been a challenge. UIUC has had a 5+ year tuition freeze and locks in tuition and housing/meal costs for the 4-year term already, though.
NYS is not immune to the merit wars. Stony Brook comes to mind as one that offered competitive merit aid to non-residents in recent years.
My daughter received her scholarship letter today from Gies. She received $80,000 total/$20,000 per years x 4. We didn’t even complete FAFSA, so this is strictly merit based.
Congratulations – that’s fantastic! Are you in-state?
My daughter was accepted as a James Scholar for CS (Grainger), but we’re out-of-state. Price tag is a bit steep for OOS (although not as bad as the UCs), so I’m keeping my fingers crossed for some scholarship money should she decide to attend UIUC.
Yes, we are in-state. She also received the Matthews Scholarship with is $8,000 total/$2,000 year.
I am an Illinois grad and my D considered Illinois last year as an OOS Engineering student. She did not like it enough to pay the full price OOS tuition so she went elsewhere. We are currently Wisconsin residents and IMO Wisconsin does a MUCH better job of attracting in-state kids than Illinois does. Much of the attractiveness is the more affordable in-state tuition. In addition, Wisconsin offers the “Wisconsin Excellence Scholarship” to top students who stay in state. It’s $2250 per year to the top 1% (I think) of students in each high school (determined by GPA). It’s not a lot of money, but it does help. It used to cover a more significant portion of tuition costs but the amount has not increased along with the cost of tuition. If a student doesn’t go in-state it gets passed down to the next student. My D’s class was just shy of 400 kids so 3 scholarships were available. Two of the top 5 declined so Wisconsin kept 3 of the top 5 kids in her class. I would say it’s rare for kids in our area to choose another large state flagship over Wisconsin. My D considered Michigan and no one could understand why. The only exception is Minnesota since they offer reciprocity to Wisconsin kids. A few years ago Alabama was recruiting heavily and offering large amounts of money but it seems less kids are going there now from here.
HS students aren’t leaving Illinois because of UIUC. They are leaving because NIU, SIUC, NE Illinois, and Western Illinois are failing. Most are not potential UIUC students going to UW Madison or Purdue, or even UMN or Iowa, they are students who would have attended the smaller public universities in Illinois, and are attending their counterparts in other Midwestern states.
BTW, UIC is booming. They cannot keep up with the demand, and their CoE is adding new buildings, hiring new faculty like crazy, etc. However, UIC isn’t a good option for students from downstate - it is farther away than many OOS colleges, and, if you don’t already live there, Chicago is expensive, and there are still too few dorms.
Other public colleges which are doing well are Illinois State (Bloomington-Normal), while Eastern Illinois (a very rural university) has turned their trend around, and their enrollment has grown for the past two years, and has done so substantially.
UIUC has always has a very strong bias in application - despite having a 60% acceptance rate, the stats of their students are similar to UMN’s even though UMN has a 45% acceptance rate. Illinois has always had, in the past, a very large set of good public universities aside from its flagship. SIU and NIU are research universities, and most of the rest are either comprehensive universities or very good master and undergrad universities. As most of those deteriorated, their students went elsewhere. While UIC absorbed many of the Chicagoland students who would have attended NIU or SIU, downstate students or students who would have attended WIU, NEIU, etc, find other colleges out of state.
There aren’t a slue of new kids with 4.0 GPAs and 1510 SATs who suddenly find UIUC to be too pricey. The huge increase in tuition at UIUC happened between 1999 and 2007, and hasn’t increased much since. Tuition at UMN isn’t much lower than at UIUC, BTW, and tuition at UW is higher. Even with merit money, places like UMN or UW still will cost the same as UIUC in-state.
On the other hand, a high stats student who cannot afford UIUC or schools like UMN with merit, can get much better aid at Alabama or Kent State than they can at SIU or NIU, and these schools are overall better.
^^^this… UIC is building a huge addition to their campus but it will be years till its built with new housing etc and new technology…
But saying all this. Many do go OOS for better merit and overall price. UIUC at least for engineering is really expensive. $36,000 instate is very expensive.
Is merit consideration over, or is it still possible that I could get some $$$?