UIUC reputation in Illinois

Colleges & Universities University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
21

@illinoisx3. I would separate the State of Michigan out-of that list. Since I grew up there till like now, we know a lot of families there, it seems like students there apply to Michigan, Michigan State, then maybe Wayne State or Grand Valley. Or Western or Oakland… All in Michigan.

In other words, people from the State of Michigan really want to go to their state schools. They are a good value. The cost of instate to go to University of Michigan is a great deal. Same I guess can be said about California schools. Georgia schools etc also.

Illinois is really not a great value at like $38,000 for instate tuition.

Please don’t get me wrong. It’s a great school. Just a bad price.

48% of instate Freshman go out of state for college in Illinois. That pretty much sums it up. It’s really too bad.

22

@Knowsstuff While you’re correct about the cost, the students who are attending schools out of state aren’t usually coming from the UIUC pool, since their application numbers have held steady for years. It’s the students who used to go to SIU, NIU, and the directional colleges who are now leaving the state or attending UIC.

UIUC could have attracted them, but I don’t think that would do much but decrease their acceptance rates. The mid 50% stats of UIUC students are no worse than most of the Big-10. What UIUC has not really been able to do, though, is to attract OOS students and OOS dollars. I think that it has one of the lowest percent of OOS students of any flagship which does not limit admissions of OOS students.

23

https://will.illinois.edu/news/story/when-illinois-students-leave-the-state-for-college-who-reaps-the-rewards

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-illinois-students-brain-drain-20180405-story.html

@MWolf. I don’t know about that totally. Lots of these kids were accepted to UIUC not chose to go elsewhere for merit. Higher Stat kids also. The second article explains how it is starting to impact UIUC.

Again,its a great school. I hope the state can make it a great value for education.

24

@Knowsstuff I didn’t phrase that as well as I could have. I meant to say that for those lucky enough to live in states such as California, Michigan or Virginia (and a few others), they have state flagship universities that also happen to be among the top colleges overall in the nation, so both excellent academically and relatively inexpensive for residents, too. Many other states are more like Illinois, where the state flagship (like UIUC) may still be a dream for many kids who won’t be admitted or be able to afford a private college or a higher-rated out-of-state flagship elsewhere. Granted, being admitted to a Michigan or Berkeley or Virginia or North Carolina or Georgia Tech is no guarantee, even for very good students.

My son is dual degree Engineering (Physics) and LAS (Math) at UIUC and is currently paying base rate tuition that is about 30k per year including tuition, room and fees before his modest merit scholarships. Plus, it’s capped. Still more than most other states’ resident tuition, but also significantly less than most non-resident rates at schools with similarly ranked programs. The same was true for my daughter, but she opted to go to UMN-TC as she liked her major in the college of Biological Sciences better there. It’s more expensive than UIUC even with the very good non-resident merit awards she earned, plus their annual increases are over 5%, but she likes the school and the campus better. But to each their own, right?

The high cost for residents at UIUC is stupid compared to resident tuition at similarly rated schools like Purdue and Wisconsin. Depending where our youngest is interested to attend, there’s a chance we’d simply move out of this crappy state;-)

This is how stupid Illinois resident tuition is: https://research.collegeboard.org/trends/college-pricing/figures-tables/published-state-tuition-and-fees-public-four-year-institutions-state

25

We prepaid Illinois tuition when the kids were little so, for us, UIUC would be super inexpensive. I think we paid $30k for all four year tuition. Still couldn’t justify it since it was absolutely the opposite of what S19 wanted.

26

@homerdog. That was a hard decision for us. We ended up doing a 529 instead just for the “incase they don’t want to go there”. But what a deal if they decided to…

27

If it’s College Illinois prepaid, going outside the state isn’t such a bad thing. You can possibly pay out of it quicker up front and not worry about the state turning it into a ponzi scheme like its pensions, since the legislature buried the bailout bill this year:-(

28

@illinoisx3 I don’t think you can do that. We can get money out only each semester and it’s sent directly to S19’s school. That money did grow, though, pretty well over time. It’s obviously worth the most if the student goes to UIUC but it still went up from $30k to something like $75K in total.

@Knowsstuff yeah. We saved in a 529 as well because (1) College Illinois is just tuition, not room and board and (2) we knew private schools were expensive and they might be on the radar.

29

I agree that a lot of the issue in Illinois is cost. Back when I went there it was a much more affordable option for in-state students. Here in Wisconsin the majority of kids stay in-state, either at Madison or one of the many smaller UW branches. MANY of the top kids in my daughters class did not plan to go to Madison. They applied “just in case” but hoped to go somewhere out of state. But once the acceptances and financial aid packages came in, it just made sense for many to stay in state. My dd goes out of state and had a lot of her classmates commented to her that they wanted to but just couldn’t afford it or justify the extra cost. Wisconsin also gives a smallish merit scholarship to the top 1% in each class if they attend a Wisconsin school. My daughter’s class had just under 400 students so they had 3 scholarships. The Val accepted it and went to an instate private where it could be used, the Sal went to Madison, the next 2 denied the scholarship as they were going out of state and then the 5th student accepted the scholarship and also went to Madison.

Illinois seems quite a bit more expensive for in-state schools so it just might not be the logical choice for many kids if they can afford out of state tuition or qualify for merit aid elsewhere.

30

I lived in downstate Illinois(Decatur) for four years. From south of the south suburbs UIUC is where kids want to go. Just my opinion many of those kids can’t get in simply because in general and my opinion the high schools aren’t as good. As for list of where kids go instead it could me argued academically the only school that would be better is Michigan.

From a geographic standpoint in regards to UW-Madison the two biggest populated cities are Milwaukee and Madison the southern part of the state. In Illinois 80% of the population is in top quarter of the state.

31

The new management with Union Bank for the Bright Start Illinois 529 is much improved over the questionable previous management. It now has better low-fee funds from Vanguard and others. Not sure if it is any more insulated from the state’s fiscal mis-management, but I plan to be out of ours within a few years. Illinois sure didn’t help its college reputation with how it ran some of its college savings plans!

32

My D20 was considering engineering, and attended a summer program at UIUC. She really enjoyed it but took UIUC off the list. She did not like the campus at all. In fact, she changed her target major…but I don’t think I can blame UIUC for that. :smile:

Can you imagine if they other bordering state flagships offered reciprocity (like Wisc and Minn) with IL? I can only imagine a much bigger outflow.

33

Im not sure if I have much to add here, but I think it really depends on the major. UIUC is incredibly strong in certain areas, and just alright in others. I love UIUC, but I’ll admit I was a bit tentative about coming here because I did my High School in a relatively wealthy suburb where like 40% of the graduating class went to UIUC, and a lot of people wanted a “fresh start” from HS, and UIUC wasn’t seen as the place to go for that. I will say that the college is huge and that worry is unfounded, considering how rarely I see people from HS.

34

I think a lot of it is just that OOS schools seem much more exciting than in-state ones. I went to HS in NJ 30 years ago (I actually went to UIUC for undergrad) and everyone in the top third or so of my HS class was looking to go OOS. Going to a NJ state school would have been considered a failure.

I live in Colorado now and have a junior and a senior, and they both want to go OOS. But I know people who live in other states whose kids are really interested in CU and CSU. With the exception of a few states, a lot of people feel that a good student ending up at an in-state public school is “settling” or whatever.

35

Unfortunately, the perceived “reputation” of UIUC is alot of suburbanites who are just throwing out pretext over the real reason that they are anti-UIUC: their kids didn’t get in, and it’s that simple. Disclaimer, I have 2 at UIUC, Gies and MCB, and they are from a zip code and school district where you have to be really shiny. Preparing for rejection from Illinois did, and I think continues, to turn off alot of Illinois applicants and even would-be applicants. And that is truly unfortunate for our state and our students.

So many families are so down on Illinois, both the state and the University of Illinois system; yes, Illinois has significant financial issues, but people seem to only see green grass on the other side of all fences. Going oos doesn’t mean you escape Illinois’ problems and your kid is going to school in Lake Wobegon with no other worries. People are generally completely clueless as to the finances of other states. Yes, there are good values out there, but it isn’t an apples to apples comparison.

People can’t stop with the mantra of “out of state” is less money. With a few exceptions, with a 1:1 comparison, it just isn’t true. First, UIUC isn’t 36K/year. Billed charges for top-division tuition incl. engineering, business, and sciences is about 31-32K. It could be alot less depending on the major-if your student has a base tuition major, that’s 5K right there. Fees: shave off the better part of $1100 if you have qualifying insurance and can opt-out of the otherwise mandatory university insurance. And housing/dining plan. And people completely overlook the Illinois truth-in-tuition law-the tuition lock. Over the 7 years that my students will be in undergrad, their tuition will not rise. At all. That’s huge. That seemingly fantastic OOS scholarship, on the other hand, drops in value before your kid ever gets to campus in August, let alone the next 3 years of tuition increases. Ever take a look at finances of neighboring states, especially, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota? It can be downright grim from the perspective of a non-resident. Iowa pulls just honestly crappy stunts such as pulling back scholarships, dual tuition increases within one year, including one a couple of years back, just after students went home for the summer, and scholarships that are worth less compared to recent prior cycles…and not for the same caliber school.

As for there are sooooo many people from my high school there…well, guess what, you probably won’t see them, and so what big deal if you do? I’m not going to UIUC because I might see so-and-so from high school and I can’t stand her? Ummmm, that student isn’t ready to go away to school anywhere…

As to Nicki20’s comment that kids from downstate want to go to UIUC but can’t get in…I’d say the opposite: much easier to get in if you’re from downstate and/or an underrepresented area or school. Very frustrating for students and families from the suburbs.

36

@IL2023 Some valid points. I happen to have an older kid at another B1G school that actually IS much less than $30K. And, it’s not in a cow-town. And the state is not in fiscal hell like IL. I’m interested in your comments about UIowa, since D20 is likely to attend for a few grand more than UIUC, which can’t compare in her major. I have not heard of the issues with scholarships, so I will need to investigate this area…thanks for the tip. If she doesn’t go to IA, she will end up at UMinn for even less $.

37

UMN-TC is no bargain like it was 5 years ago. I have one child there now and even with very good merit awards at UMN-TC, it would have been considerably less with in-state tuition at UIUC once I compared the actual total cost of attendance over 4 years and not just estimates. As @IL2023 mentioned, you also have to compound tuition and room/board that have been increasing 5.5% each year for the last few years at UMN-TC, but these are locked in at UIUC for all four years at the first year’s rate.

Plus, if you qualify for the top National non-resident scholarship at UMN-TC, there’s a reasonable chance you will qualify for at least a modest merit award at UIUC, like my kids did. You also have to be careful to account for differences in fees that may or may not be included in the estimated numbers like the surcharges at both schools for engineering or health insurance and typical housing/meal plan costs, rather than the minimum ones available that they usually put into estimates.

Obviously, this will vary a lot with merit awards specific to individual students and with any need-based aid, all comparisons will vary even more. Comparing apples to apples, though, the only B1G school that I found where non-resident tuition was straight up going to be less than resident tuition at UIUC for most students was Nebraska. They have very low non-resident tuition to start and are also very generous with non-resident merit awards of $13K (nearly automatic for Illinois residents via MSEP with 24 ACT and competitive GPA) to $15K per year (29 ACT). Of course, Nebraska is not quite in the same academic tier as UIUC for many majors.

Purdue can be close in net total cost depending on merit awards and maybe less with top merit awards for comparably rated majors like Engineering/Science. Ohio State can also be pretty competitive with the right merit awards, but again, if you get the top merit awards at those schools you are also competitive for merit at UIUC that may tip the balance back for costs. In many majors, competitive tier programs like Penn State, Michigan, Wisconsin or Maryland are almost always going to be a lot more expensive for non-residents compared to in-state tuition at UIUC when you compare total 4-year costs. Obviously the numbers may work out differently for any specific major and merit/need awards given to an individual applicant, these were just general comparisons based on current rates.

Cost isn’t everything, of course. UMN-TC was still affordable for us with their merit awards. Even though it was more than UIUC, my child liked the major better there and is having a great time, doing great in classes and loves the campus, other than the cold, perhaps.

38

A couple of thoughts. First, I think many good students in every state have a grass is greener on the other side mentality. With perhaps the exception of Michigan I think UIUC is the equivalent of any B1G school. My D did not apply to OSU for that reason.

Second, concerns Purdue. They only award around 1000 merit scholarships a year. They do not necessarily award them just based on stats but also areas they are looking to attract people to. The advantage (especially for those who are full pay for all of these schools) is that they are at least $10k cheaper than most and haven’t raised tuition, room or board since 2012. It’s kind of like an automatic scholarship. Instate for Purdue is an exceptional value for Indiana STEM majors.

39

@lvvcsf Honestly, Purdue is an exceptional STEM value for non-resident tuition, also. I’m hoping they don’t crank it up in the next few years like Minnesota did, as #3 seems to be leaning toward engineering and it’s great to have affordable options at top tier schools. UMN-TC may have priced themselves out of the market with recent increases. Wisconsin is also a great STEM value, but only if you are a resident or have reciprocity.

40

Purdue is on year 8 of a freeze for not only tuition but room and board. Agree that it’s a great value even for OOS.