<p>UIowa is the most Chicago oriented of all out of state public universities. More Chicago area HS grads go to Iowa by both numbers and percent. And the Chicago area is totally "in" to Iowa, considering it almost a local university. What explains that special relationship with the Chicago area and the university that exceeds all the rest?</p>
<p>The University of Iowa and Chicago are both very libera…that might explain a little of it. Really I don’t know anything else that connects the two.</p>
<p>It’s cost (until recently), availability & familiarity.</p>
<p>The out-the-door OOS cost at Iowa right now is up in the $39,000 range, which is quite a jump from even five years ago. But the Iowa Scholars Award to high achievers cuts about 4-5K off that. Still a little pricey to my way of thinking.</p>
<p>Since UIUC, Wisconsin & Michigan ratcheted up their admissions criteria, Iowa and Mizzou have reaped the benefits bigtime. When I attended in the '70’s, there were less than 10% Illinoians. It has to be over a third now. And that has fed on itself in the Chicago suburbs, where clique-y high school seniors feel they have to ‘know’ a lot of people where they go to college, kind of a sad thing really. Champaign used to be that school, now it’s Iowa City, where it’s an easy admit. Don’t be fooled, however. Too much partying, and it’s just as easy to fall behind and fail.</p>
<p>Back when my son and I were in the thick of the college search and on the Iowa campus for various visits I was amazed at the number of Chicago suburbanites and I asked them the same question. To a person, the answer was COST. They could send their kid to Iowa for less than the University of Illinois, after scholarships. A bit of a head-scratcher to me, for as jnm123 observes, the National Scholars is really the only low-hanging fruit available to OOS.</p>
<p>Beyond that, I know from a conversation with Iowa’s admissions director that Iowa strategically targets certain OOS areas for their recruiting, and one supposes that Chicagoland is one of them. </p>
<p>Additionally, we all know the herd instinct that takes hold in high schools, which becomes stronger and stronger over time, which results in high number of kids choosing certain colleges while ignoring others.</p>
<p>Although I grew up in Chicago and attended UIUC, we now live on the west coast. Our D, who is a junior at Iowa, (very literally) hangs out with more kids from my Chicago HS that I did in college!</p>
<p>I went to the OTHER university in Iowa and we, too, had lots of Chicago kids. At the time, it was cheaper to pay OOS tuition in Iowa than to attend Illinois state schools.</p>