Yes, UMinn is not quite the bargain it once was. But it’s hard to talk entirely in generalities, and when they offer $15K to an IL kid with stats that would (probably) not get merit at UIUC, it makes it pretty darn attractive in a lot of areas (sports, proximity to a city and all it has to offer, transportation, personal growth from living away from home, etc.) The increased merit offers from UMinn I think signals a realization that they screwed the pooch with their tuition increases. It will be interesting to see what the next few years look like.
University of Minnesota has been on a mission for several years like 5 to boost the image and standing in the Big Ten. They were always one of the best values. But they were always one of the less expensive colleges in the big ten. They also wanted to raise their stature nationally. They recruited many high stat kids at free to bargain prices to raise the stature in engineering which today is tied at 25 undergraduate.
Now they want the pay back and raise their tuition to be somewhere in the middle of the Big Ten. Help revenue for the college and increase their exposure. But will families send their kids there if not a bargain?
They even increased their exposure in Football. They hired one of my favorite coaches and put the money behind it. Now they have a very good team, a bowl game and this gives huge exposure for their college. This is all very much on purpose. Illinois to be fair also is doing this but it’s just taking sometime.
Like Alabama and South Carolina Universities, lots of these kids are coming from Illinois
We produce some really smart in demand kids. Minnesota also has a pact with Wisconsin.
So UIUC has several issues that hopefully they will overcome. They had a history of a goal of taking up to 20-25 % kids from Asia to get full pay families since the state funding was so poor. Even have an office in China to accomplish this. All the while decreasing accepting high stat kids from Illinois or throwing a $500 scholarship at some student with a 4.0 GPA and 34/35 Act. Those kids were getting full to half scholarships out of state easily. Counter that with almost free tuition the last few years from just Alabama alone. The word gets out. Kids like the warm weather, sports, academia of Alabama and for almost free 4 years education. Now those kids are getting internships and jobs at Amazon, Google etc. The underclassmen want that also now.
I work in the western suburbs but live by Wrigley in Chicago. I have never heard so many families talk about Alabama that would “never, ever” consider it 4 years ago. These are pretty high stat kids.
49 %of freshman go out of state… That is very telling. Economics is as important as school rank etc for many families these days
Out last governor didn’t even know UIUC was one of the best engineering colleges in the world. Which I can find that article… Lol.
Anyway, the new governor seems to get it. I hope things do change.
My kid was accepted to engineering at UIUC. Went to the number 1 rated school that year in Illinois. Is at Michigan as a junior in engineering. Having 2 kids in college they gave enough money to make Michigan very close to what Illinois was charging. When they raise their tuition, they automatically raise the amount given to compensate… Study abroad money was plentiful etc.
Hope things change for UIUC, it is a world class university. Know many successful graduates from there.
@bigmacbeth Right- when the 10-15% tuition increases for incoming students had drastically outpaced the $10K National scholarship for non-residents, they increased the maximum to $15K. But this has not even kept pace with the increases or made it competitive with resident tuition at most midwest state flagships. It’s due for an increase to $20K at some point, since tuition has increased over $3K per year on average for the last few years. If you do earn the top award of $15K, it’s much closer to UIUC resident tuition and still a good value for non-residents. Unless they are in a super competitive major at UIUC like CS, MechE, Accounting or something like that, those elite students could also qualify for at least a modest merit award there too, making it even less expensive.
For non-residents who receive the lower National scholarship amounts or none at all, it’s not even close anymore:-( I really like UMN-TC, but given the increases, it may not be an option for #3 in a few years like it was for #2 when they accepted their offer 2 years ago.
Obviously if you get a big merit award or a nice need-based offer from a particular school it could well be similar to or even cheaper than UIUC and then may well be a better choice. In general though, at least for almost all B1G schools and other similarly ranked state flagships, resident tuition at UIUC is going to be less than non-resident tuition at those schools even with average merit for high achieving students, at least in my experience and calculations over 4 years of total cost.
Students who are accomplished enough to go to UIUC are the same ones who want to go out of state. I see a lot of teens in my business and there continues to be this perception that good students go out of state. Ironically, many end up going to out of state schools that are not as highly regarded as UIUC. And as many have stated, we live in a state where the cost of the flagship school makes it hard to embrace.
I am sorry but what am I missing here. ILLINOIS is extremely expensive for instate families. Someone mentioned Big ten
https://www.admissions.purdue.edu/costsandfinaid/tuitionfees.php
https://admissions.umich.edu/costs-aid/costs
https://admissions.msu.edu/cost-aid/default.aspx
https://admissions.uiowa.edu/finances/estimated-costs-attendance
I will stop there but I can go on. Add in financial aid and scholarships that these schools actually give to their instate families and these numbers become much, much lower.
That is the problem with Illinois. I live in Chicago and know the politics. Hopefully the new governor will be able to help in a few years. He is very tech savvy.
To have an instate school charge like $37,000/year for engineering is insane and inexcusable
https://admissions.illinois.edu/invest/tuition
If they charged normal instate pricing you would see a quick turnaround of students staying instate. In Michigan kids “want” to go to their state schools.
I don’t think you are missing anything. I don’t recall anyone claiming Illinois is inexpensive compared to other state flagship resident tuition. I believe Illinois is second most expensive only to PSU in the B1G and only behind a couple more nationwide. What I have been discussing is when you compare in-state total cost of attendance at UIUC apples and oranges over 4 years vs. OOS TCA at similarly ranked state flagship schools for a particular major. Then, it all comes down to what merit and financial aid you receive as to whether the cost at UIUC is low enough to offset any perceived difference in reputation compared to choosing an OOS school.
Appreciate all the thoughtful comments on this thread. My S1 decided to go to UMN-TC instead of UIUC as a relatively high stat kid 34/4.45 with great rigor & ECs because he got a better offer from UMN and it was less $ than instate in IL(he did not appply at UIUC CS to start). When I inquired at UIUC if they had any program in place to match out of state offers, I was told he was lucky to get into UIUC. Hmmm. None of his friends, similar stats and ECs, even considered UIUC. That was a head scratcher for me, as I work in Tech and have heard of U of IL reputation for many years in ENG and CS(we hired a team in Urbana many moons ago to support our Unix distros:). S1 will graduate in 3.5years from UMN-TC with CS degree end of 2020. Internships very available and prospects look great, loves it there, & he tolerates cold well.
S2 is applying now at a mix of OOS CS schools. His scores were similar to S1, he was rejected by UIUC for CS. We did visit campus and he flat out disliked it, called it “impersonal”, so not a lot of concern on his side about not getting in. I did talk to a counselor about CS there and was reminded it was most competitive major on campus, and there was no hope in appeals process for CS. A classmate of his of similar stats and ECs did get into CS program there. They are now weighing UIUC vs Wash U for CS. My S2 redirected focus towards Rose Hulman(accepted CS) with a bunch of applications into Purdue(waitlisted in CS), UMN-TC, Iowa St, Ohio St, Wisconsin, plus lottery ticket reach schools as well. I was more interested in understanding acceptance criteria at UIUC for in-state than my Son was, as I agree that UIUC was not very competitive with wanting to keep my two in-state boys in my experience. Lots of other options out there for IL students. Wish the State of IL took a more “holistic” view of the situation they are creating with student exports. Interest appears elsewhere.
Well UIUC for CS is one of the best schools in the country. BTW - most big schools will not match offers. Save that strategy for smaller Lacs. Truthfully thought. UIUC seems to want to get more competitive also. It’s not a slam dunk as it used to be
I wonder if these discussions are happening on other state flagship threads? It’s weird that I always had a hard time finding the ranking of UG programs. Why is CS at UIUC so easily anointed one of the best? Marc Andreessen graduated a long time ago.
http://csrankings.org/#/index?all
Cause it’s rank one of the best.
Because of this: http://csrankings.org/#/index?all
The quality of a program is not determined by the number of celebrities who have graduates from the program.
UIUC produces top-notch CS graduates and top notch research. You will likely never know the names of the people whose creative genius made the tech that you use possible. You will likely only hear about those few whose business sense is their best characteristic (rarely you get somebody who is good at both, like James Clark, who also shares profits with the actual inventors, as well).
So because you haven’t read about recent graduates from an engineering school in Forbes or People magazine doesn’t mean that the school isn’t producing brilliant and successful engineers.
BTW, although I’m not a big believer in their rankings. USNews also ranks UIUC at the top of CS and engineering undergraduate programs.
Other flagships with top CS programs are Michigan, Washington, Wisconsin, Berkeley, UT Austin, and UMD. Purdue isn’t really a flagship, nor is GTech.
Other rankings like Times, QS and Shanghai factor in peer reputation, publications and other academic factors. You just need to read how they weight and see which one aligns best with what you want to compare.
Purdue is in the sense that it is the state land grant research university. Oddly enough so are Michigan State and Iowa State, though many would consider Michigan and Iowa the flagship for the state in general. One could argue Purdue and Indiana might each be flagships in different areas? Purdue in Engineering, Indiana in Business etc.
Not sure if this is the forum to ask but my S was admitted to UIUC CS and I have following questions. One of the biggest advertising point for the school is internships, co op or summer jobs. Is it hard, competitive to get one? Is it still true as advertised? How about after freshmen year? Are those available mostly for top students and harder for average students? I would like to get actual comments from current student or student’s parents. Thank you for your input.
@dspak77 My son had a robotics/coding internship at John Deere after his freshman year. He was a top student, but in Physics not CS. I’m not sure if they are plentiful or competitive. My guess is it’s a lot like any job, connections and interview skills can help a lot. Since then he has been involved in a computational physics research project on campus.
The engineering department certainly has recruiting help and fairs for students as well. For example https://ecs.engineering.illinois.edu/recruitgraingerengineeringstudents/career-fairs/
It’s good, but http://csrankings.org/#/index?all doesn’t rank CS BS programs.
That site is garbage, unless the number of papers written per faculty member is important to you.
OK then run any site you would like. It’s usually in the top 5 in CS… That’s just what came up.
@illinoisx3 Thanks and agreed with your comments.