“UI admissions move aimed at increasing in-state enrollees”
[article from News-Gazette](http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2015-02-18/ui-admissions-move-aimed-increasing-state-enrollees.html)
And they are expecting this to help with their yield?
If yield goes up, with over 2k more acceptances, they will enroll way more students than ever before and likely run close to housing problems.
A real reporter would have dug for more details here. This reads more like a PR piece from the school.
Clearly they are bracing for even lower yield, accepting that many more students (or there is some big enrollment expansion planned that no one was discussing before).
Hmmm, lower yield after canceling EA and forcing kids to add schools to their lists; I wonder who would have ever predicted that?
The state is proposing a 30% decrease in state funds for higher education. That represents a 6% overall revenue decrease for U of I. One or two more students per class, at least at the lower level classes may be what they’re shooting for to make up for the drop in state funding.
Yeah, there are some departments where they could use a lot more than 1 or 2. Unfortunately, the departments with the most demand are pretty full to capacity.
Even if yield just stays the same, they will be pushing 8,000 new students. Unless they finish the new Ike dorm a year early, or kick out upperclassmen, they are going to have to get real creative with sleeping arrangements if that happens.
I was told yesterday by one of the dorm managers, that they expect a significant decrease in international students do to their late notice of admission. Who knows if that will be the case, but if they lose those, that would also be lost revenue. Also, although the Governors State of the State Address was yesterday, with a Democratic House and Senate, don’t necessarily expect much to change so quickly.
Wow, that would surprise me. They only accept a third or so of international applicants. Seems they could easily compensate for fewer apps by just increasing the acceptance rate.
Yes but remember they also want to increase their yield of in-state students, although unless from something like Business or Engineering, in-state students can go to a better or comparable school and pay less tuition than at UIUC.The rate lock-in is also nice, however, COE students have to pay $5,000 higher tuition anyway, making it one of if not the, most expensive in-state public institution.
Here’s a similar article from the Daily Illini - http://www.dailyillini.com/news/article_1f51c62e-b7bb-11e4-beaa-4f206974fc8d.html
We are OOS and from my son’s school typically 25 to 50% of students are admitted - its one of the top public schools in MA with solid academics. This year only my son got in out of 13 applicants - many of whom are very strong students (I know - I teach them).
hmmm…what do you attribute to this significant drop? Do you think the historical yield from your school has something to do with it? And I’m curious, how do these ‘other students’ feel?
Is the entire Senior class only 26 students? You say that typically 25-50% of students are admitted, however, if only 13 applied, that’s certainly not a big class, unless you’re saying of those who apply generally 25-50% get in. Illinois is trying to increase their enrollment of in state students, hence they probably accepted less from OOS. Also, if they use the track record of the students who are enrolled there, or historical information insofar as whether those students attend or not, that could be why they accepted less.
Oh no @srparent15 - my mistake! 25 to 50% of those who apply. The graduating class has > 450 students. You may be right on the enrollment statistics which aren’t that high. Till we hear from more people seems like OOS students faced a particularly tough competition this year.
@88jm19 I am not looking forward to meeting those who were rejected when school reopens Mon. and have them realize that my son (whom they all like a lot) was the only one who got it. So many factors go into admission decision making that it is no surprise that the decision blackbox looks like it has a nice sprinkling of ‘luck’ all over it.
We visited UIUC and were very impressed with the opportunities there. How was U Mich? I am assuming that’s where you visited…We are still waiting for that one. My son is a competitive applicant but who knows.
@takanuva - My son looked at Michigan, however, he ultimately did not apply because their Computer Science program is on the North campus and that is not where he wanted to be. Also, Michigan was pretty spread out so he didn’t like that either. In the midwest, Wisconsin is becoming harder to get into than Michigan and UIUC, but for Computer Science, UIUC I believe is more highly regarded than Michigan. Most people from our high school go to UIUC for Engineering related majors than they do to Michigan and it’s not due to the cost. So far I know of about 10 kids that have gotten into Engineering programs at UIUC from our high school (all boys - but there must be some females). Apparently, they like our students. Last year something like 125 out of 160 students that applied were accepted. The size was in the 400’s.
@takanuva U Mich was very nice, if you ignored the weather. 
Since this is a UIUC thread I’ll keep it brief. The facilities at U Mich were beautiful - parts of it reminded me of “north of Green”, the BIF and the Ike. Frankly it felt like it had more, not necessarily better “newer construction”. (That said the dorm we visited was not as nice as FAR to my surprise.) Overall it just feels much larger and more spread out within Ann Arbor, the town.
As for the students, they were what I expected…in a lot of ways similar to UIUC. Fortunately, my S felt like he could fit in well there. (I must admit I went in thinking he might feel a little intimidated.)
Anyway, we have 2 more 'admitted student 'campus visits before making a decision - IU (never been there before) and back to UIUC. Time will tell.
Go to IU if directly admitted to Kelley or for the fraternity life, otherwise not for engineering. I don’t know a single person who has ever chosen IU over UIUC, Michigan, Northwestern Purdue, Wisconsin or even Iowa State for Engineering.
@srparent15 I know your son is in CS. What about yours @88jm19?
The CS building at UIUC was nice, my son said the class CS 225 (Data Structures) he attended, which was a large class (he estimated 80 or so students), was real comfy (and easy).
We stayed at the Illini Union, kinda in the middle of the campus and loved the vibe. There were many study areas, a food court and a game room (with pool, bowling and a bunch other game stations). The students seemed academic and chill - I know that is important for my son.
We will be visiting UMD next where my son got into the Honors which allows him (if chosen) to major in CS with Cybersecurity specialization while being part of a living learning community that explores all aspects of Cybersecurity. I have to say that one is very intriguing. I’m not sure how I would feel about UMD without the Honors but they do things differently with the Honors program.
@srparent15 Your post made me smile. My S is interested in business.
- He was accepted to engineering for U Mich, but applied for pre-admit Ross. (that’s how they do it there. He chose engineering, not LSA, because he is very strong in science and math. Now we wait…U Mich won’t release their decisions for a couple of weeks.) 2. Yes, he was accepted into Kelley, but we are still in the fact gathering phase and waiting to see if he gets accepted to their ACE program. (fraternity life is not appealing to him…I think.) 3. UIUC’s CoB is an appealing “known” for him. He’s been accepted, but owes it to himself to consider everything before committing to a school.
@takanuva if my S were to pursue engineering, he would study industrial and operational engineering.
@88jm19 - All of those choices sound top notch and it sounds like he can’t go wrong. I know some kids at our high school are planning to go to Michigan and people definitely love it there.
@takanuva - Yes, he is going into CS. He took the equivalent of CS 225 when he was a sophomore in high school (through a University) so I am hoping that credit will transfer and it’s one less course he has to take. I heard there is one CS class that has about 800 students in it, but if it’s the “entry” level one then I’m hopeful he can get out of that too. That is partly why we’re meeting with the advisor next week. No idea which requirements he will have met already in high school and which he will have to re-take. He will not like that. As far as living, he just wants to be by other Computer Science kids and a quiet place. We will have to check out the Union on our visit, although I think he’s been there. Is your son looking at Cornell at all? They have a very impressive program as well, but it wasn’t the right fit for my son and I don’t think he could have gotten in.
One thing I wish UIUC had is a Computer Science Learning Community. That sounds like it would be very appealing and maybe down the line they will, but to know you can take courses in your dorm and live with like-minded people must be reassuring and comforting for some students.
@srparent15 - That ACM looked very much like a CS Learning community (wouldn’t surprise me if most of the students lived there most of the time as well) - heard they are organizing the first ever Hack Illinois (or did last year?). My son has take a couple college courses, one at CMU and one at Harvard (the famous CS 50 which was an absolute blast!!!). When I asked Lenny Pitt about credit from past college courses, he said they have a whole database of college courses from all over the place cross-listed with their own for equivalency and are happy to provide credit/allow for placement tests. If an equivalent is not found and the student wants credit, then it wounds up on his desk.
Yes, Cornell is in the mix and we will see what happens. As far as getting in goes for CS, it’s a coin tossed way, way, way up. Save for his one safety school, we took each outcome as a big fat maybe. Every acceptance is a miracle.