<p>There certainly were a lot of machinations behind the scenes in admissions back then, and maybe it wasn’t scrutinized as closely as now. A good example is University of Illinois/Urbana-Champaign, our state flagship. A top 50 public U. then & now, admissions as it turned out was rife with corruption, and only in the past 5 years or so has this ‘clout’ been uncovered to the public. We all kind of knew it went on, that certain kids got in that were dumb as a box of hammers.</p>
<p>Currently, UIUC is SO competitive that many of the best & brightest in the state cannot get admission, so they end up elsewhere. A story in yesterday’s Chicago Tribune reports that schools such as Mizzou court these high-achieving kids (and their paying parents) with in-state tuition after freshman year, making it affordable. In the meantime, Illinois as a state is flat broke & must lure more full pay OOS applicants, many of them international from the Pacific Rim, who have high stats and can handle the $45,000 out-the-door per year costs.</p>