@bigmind the other public universities in Illinois are not going to close. Really.
Are you suggesting that the others will close and ONLY UIUC will remain? Come on…you can’t possibly believe that.
If you can afford to attend UIUC, fine. If not, you need to look for a less expensive option.
@thumper1 UIUC has the highest chance of staying open because only 12% of their funding comes from the state, the rest are endowments. Now I’m not saying every public college in Illinois will close,but they could and that’s not a risk I’m willing to take. I would rather pay an extra thousand more for security.
@mom2twogirls I understand accounting rankings don’t really matter but this is my state flagship and it’s pretty much my cheapest options. The other schools I’ve applied to are out of state and private. Those of which I haven’t received my financial aid package yet
If you don’t accept the other loans, how will you pay for UIUC? It looks like roughly you’ll need $13k beyond what the school will give you. If you take only the $5500 loan, you’ll still need $7500. Great if you have this, but it’s a lot to earn between now and September (even half of that). It’s not very realistic to think you are going to make $4000 more during the fall to pay for the spring.
I hope you can, but I think you are going to need to take the loans in order to just pay the billed costs and use the work study or other job money for day to day expenses. You’ll have to be very thrifty. I’d prefer my kids not take out loans either, but it’s the only way to go to school. We’re just only taking what is absolutely necessary.
@twoinanddone I will work over the summer and try to find small local scholarships
Those small local,scholarships will perhaps help you this year…but not next. Most are NOt renewable.
Also, any small, local scholarships you receive MUST be reported to UIUC. These scholarships will reduce your financial need…and it is possible they could reduce any need based aid UIUC has given you. You need to find out UIUC’s policy on this!
@thumper1 I already did and they said they will reduce loans first.
It’s probably too late for most small private scholarships for the coming school year. But good for you if you manage it.
agreed. Would be very surprised if the state shut down universities … that’s usually a form of saber rattling.
There is the Midwest Student Exchange Program, where students from IN, IL, MI, WI, MN, MO, NE, KS, and maybe one or two others can get in-state or nearly in-state rates from participating universities.
Ferris State and Lake Superior State (both in MI) appear to have tuitions in the 11000-12000 range for OOS students, and their room and board rates aren’t super aggressive either. I’m sure there are others in WI, MO, and IN that have competitive tuitions and may have some merit aid on top.
It’s painfully common, though, to see someone post “I’ve decided on one school, please make it affordable.” I can’t do that, unfortunately.
edit: Ferris and LSSU are two that we looked at. Both seem to have pretty straightforward merit scholarship info as well, and your total cost of attendance might be about half of UIUC. Purdue is in-state for us, but was frighteningly close to Rose Hulman by the time things were done. A popular state flagship is often a comparatively poor financial deal for the in-state students.
Ok, I’m going to give this to you straight, as a current UIUC student. Because it appears you have not received any first year scholarships, if you are not wanting to take out loans, go to a 2 year CC, work part time, then transfer in.
This school is absolutely amazing BUT if you are going to stress about how to pay for school while you’re in school, it will take away from academics. Right now, it looks as though the only amount you need covered is what a dorm will cost, which is OUTRAGEOUS. If you transfer in when you aren’t required to live on campus, you will be able to find a cheaper place to live (I live in a 2 bedroom $450/month apartment with all utilities + internet included).
The only reason I am attending this university is because I received a scholarship based on my parents income which covered my whole tuition and I still work 25 hours a week.
And lastly, for the people saying the state will not shut down the universities… No, the state will not shut them down. The universities themselves will make the choice to shut down. Do a little research. Eastern Illinois has already temporarily terminated a lot of faculty and they are not the only one. As OP stated, UIUC is rising above because of their endowments but it is still costing millions of dollars.
If you have any questions, please feel free to message me. I can send you a screenshot of my student account which will give you a better idea of the costs you will pay as a freshman. Please also remember the award letter is an estimate of how much it will cost.
I agree, couldn’t you commute to CC the first two years, then finish the last 2 years at UIUC? You could save up money from working to pay for last two years off campus housing costs, and take the student loan. Having onky $15k in debt would be better than more than twice that.
PA has a similar situation, we finally got last year’s budget passed after 9 months. A lot of students in our state can’t afford to live on campus either and many commute.
For UIUC you got a pretty good package because I didn’t think they gave much aid, but for your family situation with 0 EFC over $11000 in loans is not feasible, especially since your mom already has Plus loans.
And you won’t be able to earn $6000 in summer.
Tuition $12,036
Fees $3,590
Room & Board $11,010
These were 2015-16 direct costs (billed by UIUC) $26,636 (is the 2016-17 estimate much different?)
Aid you got is:
$4665 Pell grant
$4720 Map grant
$6854 UTG
$5000 merit scholarship
Total $21,239
So remaining cost is about $5397
That could be covered by the $5,500 loan.
If you work summers and with the work study earnings during the semester you should be anle to afford it.Your mom would not have to take out Parent Plus loan. And you won’t need the university loan.
Wow, nothing like padding the COA, that’s $9000 over direct billed costs. It’s helpful to know how much books and transportation and personal expenses could add to the costs but when you are trying to figure out if you can afford it that’s not helpful.
You can rent books or buy used, personal expenses other than meal plan and transportation costs can be covered by work study earnings and summer earnings.
I did not see the merit scholarship in your package at first, you might not get that if you transfer in. So I take back my previous post, if the costs are covered by aid, stafford loan and work earnings then you can make it work.
@bigmind Why don’t you wait to see your other offers. Sometimes private schools are more generous than public ones with respect to financial aid. Are the out of state options part of a consortium or do they give aid based on minimum stats?
Where else did you apply? What are your basic stats?
UIUC sounds too expensive if your parents can’t contribute. Did they give you a figure of what they can pay?
Is Accounting part of the business school? (just looked up 2016-17 rates)
Then the tuition is $17,040
Fees $3,662
Room and Board $11,308
Total $32,010
$640 of fees is health insurance, might be able to waive that if you have adequate coverage
So you would need to come up with $10,000 a year
@bigmind - don’t count on the MAP Grant being funded - Illinois has not been able to fund that grant at all this year because of the budget issue so who knows if they will be able to next year. Hopefully they get a budget worked out, but if I were you, I would take that money out of the equation. Count it as icing on the cake if they are able to fund it, but don’t count on it helping your bottom line.
Looks like this getting more and more unaffordable by the minute.
@noname16 I did receive a scholarship, I was given the presidential program scholarship worth 20,000 over four years. Plus I would only be taking out 8,500 in loans my first year, which in my opinion is minimal considering most other uiuc students take out way more.
Yes, I saw that but you can still receive that as a transfer students. By first year scholarships, I mean you did not receive any that have a requirement of “incoming freshman”.
I agree that the MAP grant should be off the table. UIUC was, I believe, the only public institution to cover the gap for those students who needed MAP this year. They stated that they couldn’t keep doing it for long, and there is no realistic expectation that the budget fiasco will be sorted out by fall.
Regarding the Illinois public university situation, the OP is correct in that UIUC is the only public school that is remaining fairly stable without state funding. Carbondale is reducing its staff by over 200 and taking 400 classes off the table for next fall, the directionals have all reduced staffing in the hundreds and some of those reductions were not layoffs – it’s a mess! I attended UIUC and now live within an hour of campus. When my daughter chose engineering as her major of interest, it seemed like a natural fit. At this point, though, there are better and more stable options out there for her, so she won’t even be applying to an Illinois public school.
Sorry to ramble, but I wanted to support the OP’s position that UIUC is currently the only relatively stable in-state public. Doesn’t make it affordable, though, especially given the 2016-2017 rates. I agree with others that two years of CC and then transferring makes much more sense. Good luck!
For UIUC, that’s a pretty good package - they’re not known for their generous aid. However, it’s only good for you if you can come up with the remaining money without going too much in debt. $8500 for your first year is a lot, and I suspect it’s only going to go up as the federal loan limits go up. What are your other options? What is your local community college? We’re in suburban Chicago and our CC is quite good and I would not hesitate to send my kids there (my daughter who is attending an OOS university has taken several classes there in the summers).
There are a couple things I’d look into if I were you. Admission to the business school at UIUC isn’t all that easy. You might want to look into how difficult it is to transfer into the business school (and specifically accounting) from an Illinois community college. If you want to be a CPA, you also want to look into whether you will need additional semesters (or a masters) to meet the requirements, as that will factor into your education costs.