For engineering majors the in-state tuition is $17,040 and fees are $3,590. Of course that includes the health insurance fee which I believe can be waived but still, $20k for tuition and fees is just absurd. State flagships are supposed to be cheap alternatives to private schools and OOS flagships. I’m extremely jealous of students who live in states likes Wisconsin or Ohio. They only have to pay around 11k for tuition and fees at their flagships(University of Wisconsin and OSU respectively) which is around half that of UIUC.
Anyway, sorry if this comes off as a rant. I’m actually attending a CC this fall, looking for schools to transfer to next year and of course I have to consider UIUC since it’s my state’s flagship. The FAFSA for next year isn’t out yet but my EFC should be around $4,900 which gets me several hundred in Pell money, probably $4,800 for the MAP grant, and a $7,500 Stafford loan. I also have $3,600 saved up. The COA is $35k so that still leaves me with around $19k. My parents can’t take out a PLUS loan because of bad credit/bankruptcy so what else can I do? How are other students able to afford this school? If anyone with a similar EFC explained their aid package and how much they got from the institutional grant that would be extremely helpful. Also, would living off campus save a considerable amount of money?
The COA is indeed quite high here. I was lucky enough to get a great financial aid package, otherwise I might have had to reconsider. My entire tuition is covered by grants and scholarships, to the amount of ~$20,000. Rent on my apartment and living expenses are left to me, which I’m using student in the amount of approximately ~$12,000/year to cover.
I’m a CC transfer student as well. However, I have an EFC of 0.
I probably won’t get a generous aid package as you did, since my EFC is higher. I guess I’ll have to look into the directional schools like SIU and NIU, since Illinois State and UIC(U of I in Chicago) are quite expensive as well. Thanks for the post anyway.
Dont complain to cc, complain to your state representative. They’re the ones who can actually change the instate tuition. I’m also pretty angry at the instate tuition costs because UIUC is one of the best schools for my major, and its instate.
UIC isn’t that much cheaper than UIUC. It appears to be so because most commute. Tuition and fees for college of engineering are $8552 per semester, so $17104 per year.
NIU looks to be about $7200 per semester for tuition and fees, so $14,400 per year. There looks to be no engineering differential.
Illinois schools - even SIU and NIU are very expensive and don’t give very much merit aid. I’d recommend you look at some other schools out of state and also at several private schools that offer aid.
Sorry, two more OOS alternatives are Iowa State and the University of Alabama. Both have automatic scholarships based on ACT and/or GPA, class rank. Check those out.