Hello, I would like to know if the current economic problems in Illinois affect UIUC and in what ways they affect it. Is it something that affects all colleges and should it be taken into account the making a decision to attend.
Business as usual for now. At least for Physics, the budget issue from the last few years didn’t affect rankings. Still top 10 overall and second behind only Berkely for state schools. There is a tuition guarantee, so costs are mostly locked in for 4 years, at least for in state students. Not sure about non- residents. You’d think the financial crisis will be an issue eventually, though, but that could be a few years or 20 years. Fortunately the funding system and endowment is different than many other state schools in Illinois who will suffer long before UIUC and hopefully get the attention of legislators and voters if there is another long term political standoff.
So in the short term these issues shouldn’t affect UIUC
In the engineering department
I wouldn’t think so. At least not for 3 years when my son graduates;)
My son got accepted in Physics and he loved his campus visit. UIUC is one of his top choices but this is having a large effect in his decision.
The main effect of the Illinois budget issue over the last decade or so has been increased enrollment to offset tuition freezes and reduced money from the state. We were told that most engineering classes were just about capped at this point. There certainly hasn’t been much of an effect on capital improvements. The engineering quad is mostly newer buildings with a brand new Electrical Engineering building. My son is in a new dorm, this being the 2nd year it has been open along with the two newer adjacent dorms. ISR is getting a new cafeteria. Unless there is another multi-year budget standoff, I don’t foresee any issue for at least a few years. But eventually when the state goes bankrupt, it can’t be a good thing for the state schools in Illinois in general. We were told that because of the endowment and how the U of I campuses are funded, the other state schools (Northern/Southern/Eastern/Western/ISU/etc) would essentially be closed down before there was a serious impact to UIUC/UIC/Springfield. Not sure how accurate that is, but it is the state flagship school. On the other hand, I would definitely not let my kids attend any of the other Illinois public universities other than UIC perhaps. They were all really hurting until the new budget was finally passed last year.
OP asked if state budget issues are particular to IL, or all states-good question, and an important point to remember. IL does have its budget issues, and agreed with other posters that you need to vet how it impacts a given school…other states have this problem, too. And you need to look at state finances and a school from the viewpoint of resident or OOS student. For example, Iowa’s Regents System universities have a constant problem with how much funding is coming from the statehouse…and the Regents Board is looking at its OOS students as the ultimate ATM machine to plug the gap. It’s a consideration not even on the radar of a lot of IL students, for whom Iowa schools are next on the list after Illinois schools. Last year, Iowa pulled two tuition increases, with one coming in June, after spring semester ended and everyone was home for the summer. Not cool.
Ask a potential IL school, and the college/program within that school how state funding impacts its budget and services. UIUC, CoE and Gies, for example, are self-funded, no state money. Now, state funding can impact the rest of the university, which could impact an engineering or business student regarding student services, and classes outside of their colleges, despite ongoing capital projects and maintenance. Administration also stresses that while UIUC definitely needs its funding from Springfield, it does have resources that other state schools don’t have. During the budget stalemate, future semesters were in jeopardy at certain schools, enrollment crashed, and existing students were on the hook for unpaid state grants, for example. Nothing nearly that dramatic was an issue at UIUC. And UIUC did not seek a tuition increase for the incoming class-UIUC is very sensitive to keeping tuition increases as small as possible. My students are a few years apart, but at most, if the younger one ends up at UIUC, there will be one tuition increase between them. I’ll take that deal! If they end up with the same tuition for their entry year cohorts, I’ll be delighted.
I was asking because as an international student I have to pay a higher price, so I wanted to make sure it didn’t have a significant effect on the school, as well I understand that there were graduate student protests recently, does that affect undergrad teaching?
Also note that the guaranteed tuition appears to apply to international students-see the Registrar’s page, not the admissions landing pages for detailed tuition info. That could be more info for you to think about. As for the recent grad student strike, I think it was about 12 days long, a contract has been agreed upon, so they are set until next time, and during the strike, not all students were impacted re missed classes. I have a business school student, and professors moved classes to avoid buildings with picket lines. My student didn’t miss any classes, and anything rescheduled/relocated was into a compact geographical radius-which offset any inconvenience from the changes and the strike.