<p>Can anyone provide any insight into the distribution of scholarships? Are there many? Unfortunately, scholarship assistance may be a deciding factor in whether our son can attend UIUC :( .</p>
<p>What I have heard is, financial aid at UIUC is very limited particularly for oos students.</p>
<p>Badgermom12, wait and see what kind of aid there is this year. Its availability changes year to year. I realize that it’s difficult to wait until you know the bottom line of attending all your son’s admitted schools but I’ve been through this 3 times already, and there are those catch 22s that you have to deal with. For example, to get the best housing consideration at certain schools, you have to “accept” their offer, and put down a housing deposit that may, or may not be refundable before you know what the aid package will look like. I don’t think it’s fair, but it is the way it is. In the grand scheme of things, I just fork over the deposits to keep my options open, then, if the aid I want isn’t there I “unaccept” ;).</p>
<p>UIUC has little merit aid for in-state students, so I wouldn’t count on much for OOS. Financial aid packages vary, but are not going to be generous, the state has no money. If you are from Wisconsin, I would go to UWMadison- same or better academics, better price, better campus and overall atmosphere.</p>
<p>Not sure a blanket statement that School X has “same or better academics” than another school really holds water. As with most things in life, “it depends.” For example, engineering at Illinois is consistently rated in numerous surveys in the top 5 or top 10 undergraduate engineering schools in the country. UW Madison, not so much. That’s not to say that UW Madison isn’t a good or even great school. But just as an example to suggest that UWM is better than Illinois in that area would be a stretch.</p>
<p>We are from WI. As a state school, UIUC is quite expensive, even for in state, though the tuition does not rise from year to year once you enroll, fixed at freshman level. </p>
<p>For OOS freshman students, there is the ‘university achievement scholarship,’ $12K/yr renewable. Then there is the possibility of additional departmental scholarships. My D13 received enough between the 2 types of scholarships to reduce costs below cost of UW-Madison, though she did not ultimately enroll at UIUC. You should call and ask what proportion of OOS kids get that scholarship. I thought the number was fairly high, though can’t lay my hands on that data at the moment. You can call your S’s dept too to see what they have. I recall seeing that engineering had a detailed list of all their scholarships and number awarded. Perhaps other depts do also. D was not in engineering though, so don’t know anything more about that. D had very good stats, but not a superstar in awards or anything, just a regular smart kid.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone… Celesteroberts…that’s the kind of info I was looking for. My ds has been accepted into Aerospace Engineering at UIUC. (UIUC is very highly ranked for that field…he has also been accepted to WI and MN.) If he can get UIUC’s rate down to about the money he would spend at WI, then I know he wouldn’t hesitate to choose UIUC. He is a good student… 4.0/valedictorian. I will have him check into the programs you mentioned. Thanks so much.</p>