Crap Financial Aid

<p>I got all loans lol. Federal PLUS Loan, Federal Subsidized and Unsubsidized loans.... Eff College -.-.</p>

<p>Same here. Looks like I can kiss U of I goodbye.</p>

<p>Same here. OOS is ridiculous, more than some private schools i applied to.
Would any scholarships we got from the school show up on the award letter?</p>

<p>Yeah, I got the same…my EFC is less than half the total cost of attendance (I’m OOS), yet they’re giving me nothing except a couple federal loans.</p>

<p>Same here: All loans for OOS. We are not attending is school, if this is the final offer.</p>

<p>I got all, but about $4500 in grants and scholarships.</p>

<p>It should not be news that U of I is not generous with merit scholarships. The state financing is done with smoke and mirrors.</p>

<p>Everyone in this thread has completely missed the mark. The shocking part isn’t the non-existent grants/scholarships at UIUC. It’s the revised cost of attendance.</p>

<p>According to published sources, the official 2010-2011 out-of-state cost of attendance for UIUC was $41,132. According to the student aid letters that went out yesterday, the OOS COA for 2011-2012 is expected to be $47,500.</p>

<p>According to my trusty HP-12 financial calculator, that’s a nearly 16 percent increase over last year. Considering inflation has been running at about 2.5 percent annually — say, 3.5 to 4.5 if you want to plan for a really scary bout of inflation in 2011-2012 — that type of rate hike is just nonsensical.</p>

<p>Can living costs in the middle of an Illinois corn field really be going up at three or four times the rate of inflation? Doubtful. That’s why we’re voting with our feet.</p>

<p>All of you already got financial aid letters? Hmm… Well I just sent that letter they made me fill out Monday so it’ll probably be a bit before I find out. Though I wasn’t expecting much anyways. It is a state school and normally OOS don’t get anything anyways.</p>

<p>I thought they were quite generous with merit scholarships. More than any other school I applied to.</p>

<p>UIUC is VERY generous when it comes to merit scholarships. very few schools of its caliber give OOS students decent money, but UIUC gives out their Univ. Achievement Award which is worth 12k per yr. Each college gives out a decent number of these. Name another public that gives as much/more to OOS.</p>

<p>I think that by raising the cost of attendance for OOS students by double-digit increments, the folks in Springfield may believe they have plugged a budget shortfall. But at this time next year, they may well see that fewer OOS students will choose to participate in the scheme and the budget shortfalls will persist.</p>

<p>UIUC is a top-tier school but it’s not quite Berkeley, Stanford or MIT. If it upsets enough potential OOS students, the school will suffer a brain-drain and become more dependent on in-staters and foreigners. </p>

<p>Some of the in-staters are always the auto admits among the top 5 percent of this or that underperforming high school. The UI can’t fully cherry-pick among its in-state students due to legislated admissions guarantees and political pressure. Now, because of that same political pressure, it risks angering its potential OOS students, a pool it ordinarily CAN cherry-pick among.</p>

<p>If the OOS cost of attendance at UIUC starts to creep up to those at Yale, Penn, Stanford or MIT (which it now has), the latter schools will win and UIUC will become something like a Michigan, which has high OOS tuition and low OOS presence.</p>

<p>Yup same here. DEFINITELY not going now.</p>

<p>UIUC has the most expensive in-state tuition and feeeessss among the whole world, and IL state tax is roaring up to 5%. Professors have already reduced working hours or working days. Some courses are cancelled or merged. You would think that enough money is saved and collected from state government and students. But, why the tuition still keeps rising? Where did the money go? Can somebody representing the university shed some light here?</p>

<p>With an EFC of $18,000 and being instaters, we got nothing, all un-subsidized loans except less than $2000 subsidised loans. It turns out to be much more expensive to attend UIUC than OOS and private universities for us! Ridiculous.</p>

<p>Should the subsidized federal loan part eligible to a student be the same no matter which colleges?</p>

<p>mum - Are we talking about the same school? My S got into a good list of OOS Big Tens, accepted into honors programs at all of them. Is a James Scholar at UIUC. All others gave him substantial OOS merit money, UIUC gave us $47K…IN LOANS. No choice but to walk away, they’re not even close to the others.</p>

<p>UIUC has never been known to be generous in giving grants and other aid; about 54% of all students get no aid and amounts given to others are often loan heavy and even then do not meet need based on EFC; average is about 70% of need based on EFC. There are also currently two key problems that are affecting the situation:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>State funding. The university’s fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30 and budgets for amounts to be spent during the year are determined before the year begins and rely on estimated funding including that promised to be provided by the state before the fiscal year begins. For this year, the state promised about $700 million which was itself a decrease from the year before. The state has thus far actually provided about half that amount and there is no assurtance the difference will be made up; what will be provided for next fiscal year is unknown but the university now has to assume it will not be good. As to total cost of attendance, the amount is yet not determined. In January there was approval for next year of a 3.26% increase in fees and room and board. Any tuition increase should be announced later this month. Since tuition is locked in for four years you get a more substantail increase based on what they expect to be increases needed over four years not just one. Moreover, estimates you are seeing include increases in estimates for travel costs (and today’'s fuel costs) and personal expense.</p></li>
<li><p>Federal Funding. For those not aware of it, federal funding for subsidized loans and grants has been going down and they expect the next budget will have another decrease in Pell grant funding (democrats and republicans are apart on the amount but seem to agree a decrease will occur). The university has to consider existing and probable future decreases in determining aid.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>realtime- which big ten schools? IMO, UIUC is the 3rd best in the Big Ten (behind Mich and NU, a little better than Wisco and IU). if you got scholarship from UM (ignoring NU bc they’re private), I’d agree with you. but if not, I’d have to say that UIUC may appear to be shorting good applicants simply because they have better ones. UIUC IS generous for a larger % of the top applicants than its peers.</p>

<p>Quote: Since tuition is locked in for four years you get a more substantail increase based on what they expect to be increases needed over four years not just one. </p>

<p>drusba, isn’t it a good excuse to increas more?</p>

<p>Drusba, OK, my bad. My initial calculation wasn’t built on the UIUC Undergrad Tuition Guarantee Program and it seemed like a nearly 16 percent one-year increase. </p>

<p>But actually, things look just as terrible with the tuition lock-in benefit. The published OOS cost of attendance at UIUC for 2010-2011 is $41,120 (college-data.com). Using a conservative CPI inflation projection (compounded), I planned on the following costs: </p>

<p>Year 1: $42,365</p>

<p>Year 2: $43,637</p>

<p>Year 3: $44,946</p>

<p>Year 4: $46,294</p>

<p>Year 5: $47,683 (hoping there won’t be a Year 5)</p>

<p>But here, in effect, is what UIUC is promising me with the tuition lock-in benefit.</p>

<p>Year 1: $47,500</p>

<p>Year 2: $47,500</p>

<p>Year 3: $47,500</p>

<p>Year 4: $47,500</p>

<p>Year 5: $47,500</p>

<p>Where exactly is the benefit (except to the State of Illinois)?</p>

<p>Here’s my suggestion. Every faculty member should contact President Hogan and say, “Hey, we appreciate the benefit you’re extending to students by allowing them to lock in their four- or five-year projected tuitions. We would like to extend the same option to the university. If you begin paying us our 2016 salaries immediately, we promise not to ask you for a pay increase for five years.” The university would be crazy not to accept, right?</p>

<p>For tution, tt is simply a matter of math after evaluation. Assume they estimate with inflation and other factors that they need to increase tuition for the incoming class at a rate of 3% per year. Since they are doing it for four years since the rate won’t change each year, that means taking whatever tuition is now and adding 3% a year compounded annually. In other words, if tution were $10,000 a year now and they determine they need a 3% annual increase for your class, that means you would get a 3% increase to $10,300 next year and then an increase that is 3% of that number the next year, meaning to $10,609, etc. for the four years. You then take the total you get by adding the four years and divide by four with the result that 3% would actually translate into your paying about $10,770 each year with the tutition locked in at the first year rate. That looks like an 7.7% increase but it is actually a 3% increase per year for four years.</p>

<p>Moreover, your total estimated annual cost for next year includes a lot of things other than tuition that change annually. The estimate includes room and board and fees which are going up 3.26%. It includes book costs which they also factor in an increase. Likewise for personal expenses and travel costs (and travel cost estimates are getting a larger boost due to current fuel costs). </p>

<p>I agree it is expensive for OOS and I am one who believes students are usually better off going to their own state university and saving the extra money. It would be magnaminous for professors to do what is suggested but the reality is many good professors are like sports athletes, they go where the pay and benefits are best.</p>