That’s kinda overstating it. According to the Tribune article, what, 1,700 kids from Illinois are attending Alabama? In those four years, there were 600,000 students or so who graduated, and of those, some 420,000 attend colleges. So Alabama is getting 0.5% of all Illinois graduates.
I don’t think that more than one or two students from my kid’s graduating class of 930 are attending U Alabama, if that. Nobody got any merit scholarships from Alabama, in any case.
For merit money, they tended to go in-state to UIC, UIS, Illinois State, Depaul, or OOS to places like Iowa, Dayton, Miami Ohio, St Louis University, etc.
The other high school in our area (a good catholic high school) also sent a lot of students to “lower ranked” colleges in the rest of the Midwest, and they also like both Dayton and St Louis University. However, they also sent 2 to Alabama (unlike my kid’s school, they post where each student is matriculating - my kid’s school only announces which kids got what scholarship, so if a kid didn’t get a school-provided scholarship, we only know where they matriculated if we knew them).
If money is the main concern, for Illinois students, UIC is a better choice for an Illinois student than Alabama. The in-state cost of UIC is lower than the Alabama cost with the highest level of merit aid. Enrollment at UIC is also growing, and quickly.
On one hand, UIC campus is absolutely hideous, by any aesthetic measure, and it is still mostly a commuter campus. On the other hand - Chicago. I mean Tuscaloosa versus Chicago.
The only case in which Alabama is likely the best financial choice is for National Merit Finalists. Alabama has the absolutely best deal out there for NMSFs - it provides a full ride and then some.
But, no, there is no mass migration of students from Illinois to Alabama. They prefer the Midwest, the coasts, and likely Florida or Texas.
UIUC is nice, it’s just that some people don’t like it. If you are from Missouri, you may find it flat. The way it’s described, you’d think that it was a depressed industrial town or something. It is isn’t. It is a typical Midwestern University - a lot of typical mid 19th century stone and brick buildings, newer red brick buildings, a nice quad, a nice arboretum, a pleasant, but unremarkable two small cities, a campus town with too many chain stores and too many undergraduates, and the weather of central Illinois. It’s surrounded by miles and miles of corn and soy and woodlots.
There are some nice places around, like Allerton Park, and culturally, a lot happens. Many of the acts stop at UIUC between Chicago an St Louis, both Krannart center and the Assembly hall get Big names all the time. They have the venues and the audience, and they are on the way between Chicago and St Louis. We saw (and could afford) shows like BB King and Aerosmith, Phil Collins and Elton John. We missed Cher and many more. We didn’t see, but my undergrads saw, the Goo Goo Dolls, Hootie and the Blowfish, Smashing Pumpkins, and others. For the Country music lovers they had Garth Brooks, Shania Twain, the Dixie Chicks, and others.
There was and still is an active local music scene, an independent radio station, and a bunch of other cool things where the undergrads didn’t go. We were part of the Salsa scene and there were a bunch of venues and DJs and even a Salsa band (all grad students, their percussionist and manager is now a very well known neuroscience professor, and most of the salsa teachers and organizers and regulars are faculty across the world).
I also recommend having a baby there - as poor grad students (food stamps, man) we had free prenatal lessons, a free doula, a private room with a shower , even a fancy meal before we left.
As a TA I taught in state of the art teaching labs, and as a grad student had the fastest internet available, not to mention graphic browsers before anybody (we got Netscape for free), as well as the fact the UIUC was a major internet hub. We had access to one of the best libraries in the country, back when nothing was online, and access to a library was critical for a grad student.
So is it kind of boring sometime, and is there was no topography and does the weather sucked much of the time? Yes. Is it a “dump”? Most definitely not.
@tsbna44 just really, REALLY doesn’t like UIUC.
