<p>Isn’t Michigan’s in-state price lower than Illinois’ in-state price? That may help Michigan attract a greater percentage of in-state high school seniors than Illinois does. Illinois’ in-state price is high enough that some out-of-state schools in the region are competitive to it with their out-of-state prices (e.g. Minnesota, Iowa State).</p>
<p>UIUC Fall Enrollment, 2012 (all undergraduate classes):</p>
<p>Illinois 24683
California 366
New Jersey 207
Missouri 140
Ohio 127
New York 125
Texas 109
Massachusetts 94
Florida 81
Virginia 81
Wisconsin 69
Maryland 67
Michigan 63
Pennsylvania 59
Minnesota 58
Indiana 56
Georgia 45
Colorado 41
Tennessee 37
Connecticut 31
Washington 31
Kentucky 25
North Carolina 25
Arizona 22
Iowa 20
Kansas 20
Oregon 16
Oklahoma 12
Nebraska 11
Arkansas 10
Alabama 9
Nevada 9
Louisiana 8
New Hampshire 8
New Mexico 7
West Virginia 7
Military 7
Delaware 6
Hawaii 6
Alaska 5
Maine 5
Mississippi 5
South Carolina 5
South Dakota 5
Utah 4
District of Columbia 3
Other U.S. 3
Idaho 2
Rhode Island 2
Vermont 1
Wyoming 1
Montana 0
North Dakota 0</p>
<p>Foreign countries: 4456
Unknown: 606</p>
<p>Total: 31901</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.dmi.illinois.edu/stuenr/abstracts/FA12_ten.htm[/url]”>http://www.dmi.illinois.edu/stuenr/abstracts/FA12_ten.htm</a></p>
<p>^ same source, undergraduate enrollment from China is 2139. Next three largest countries are South Korea, 872; India, 408; Taiwan, 115.</p>
<p>The students also have NU, U of C and ND as nearby excellent private universities, but I don’t know if that makes up for all the difference. Is there an Michigan private like one of these? I don’t think so. (Yes, I realize ND is almost in Michigan).</p>
<p>I don’t know Bclintock–</p>
<p>Back in the day, I was a “top student,” lived in Illinois, and thought the place was depressing. Most of us left. I only knew two kids from our APs who went to UIUC. </p>
<p>Now, more kids go to UIUC, to be honest.</p>
<p>But, I think the school is really aesthetically challenged, just to start with.</p>
<p>What surprises me, really, is that UIC is in such a great location in Chicago, and Urban campuses are very, very popular with this generation, and they have not figured out how to turn that school into the gem it ought to be, imho.</p>
<p>*mom2collegekids - I recognize you are a big Alabama booster - and I have indeed mentioned Alabama to smart kids in this area whom I knew could potentially benefit from the scholarship offerings. But I’m a little confused as to why it’s so important to you to show that Alabama is a really big / popular choice for Chicagoland hs seniors, when bclinton’s data suggests that it’s not all that dominant of an alternative.
*</p>
<p>PG…while it’s not a dominant alternative when compared with IL border states or those within 300 miles, it is significant when compared to other publics that aren’t within that distance. </p>
<p>300 miles is kind of a gauge that is often used because students often attend colleges within a 300 mile radius. Those who choose to travel further than that are often choosing privates. </p>
<p>I agree that when compared to attendance at nearby Big 10 schools, the number of IL students attending Alabama may not seem significant…but it is when compared to schools that fall outside of that 300 mile radius. </p>
<p>When a state’s flagship has some kind of negative (high cost or Top 8% rule or whatever), then residents who find those hurdles to be too great will find somewhere else to matriculate…even if that means traveling a good distance. </p>
<p>Aside from UIUC, I think that the rest of the IL publics charge high instate tuition prices. It’s one thing to pay those costs for a highly ranked instate UIUC, it’s another to pay $13k+ for tuition at one of the lesser publics in the state. At that point, a student with good stats who can’t commute might easily find a less expensive alternative.</p>
<p>One of the problems with UIC, from what I’m told, is overcrowding, especially in popular majors. It was near the top of DD’s list last year, until she talked to some alums from her HS who were there and were experiencing severe scheduling problems. DD wound up not even applying.</p>
<p>Note that this is anecdotal - and FWIW.</p>
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<p>Except that Arizona is even farther from Illinois, and UArizona and ASU each enroll far more Illinoisans than does Bama.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>True…</p>
<p>I wasn’t claiming that Bama was receiving the most once outside the 300 mile radius. My point was that the number is significant. And the fact that the number has doubled between 2010 and 2012 indicates a strong upward trend. It has become an alternative choice for those who are willing to go further away.</p>
<p>BTW…a good number aren’t even getting significant scholarship money. They’re just coming out of choice.</p>
<p>Mom2K</p>
<p>Doesn’t Alabama have a significantly larger OOS population these days?</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>Yes. This fall frosh class was 55% OOS and the acceptance rate has fallen to the 40s…which is lowish for many state schools.</p>
<p>*Arizona State 182</p>
<p>U of Arizona 159*</p>
<p>The above are the 2010 numbers…don’t know if they’ve changed much since they reduced scholarship values in recent years. If they haven’t changed much then they are comparable to Bama’s number of 160 frosh in 2012.</p>
<p>UIUC is a very desirable school…no doubt about it. However, fewer IL students may feel the need to attend there, especially if they’d have to take on significant debt to do so. And, certainly who’d want to take on significant debt to attend one of the lower IL publics?</p>
<p>When did the OOS population begin to grow so much at Bama? Was there an effort to have this happen?</p>
<p>Is it a population issue like in Iowa where they can’t fill all their seats with the number of Iowa HS grads? Or is it a different kind of strategy?</p>
<p>Do the people in Alabama think this is a “good” thing?</p>
<p>Illinois kids–esp in the wealthier suburbs of Chicago are much like NJ where going AWAY (OOS) to school is a mark of prestige and often has carried over for generations. But most of them will return after school. After all, who does not want to live in Lake Forest, Winnetka or Hinsdale after a few years living in the city? Rinse and repeat.</p>
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<p>No idea when it started, but Alabama is trying to attract OOS students.</p>
<p>[Out-of-State</a> Scholarships - Undergraduate Scholarships - The University of Alabama](<a href=“http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out_of_state.html]Out-of-State”>http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out_of_state.html)</p>
<p>Alabama is trying to “buy” a better-credentialed student body with generous merit aid to top OOS students. They’re by no means the only school doing this; essentially, that’s what merit aid is all about, it’s not a magnanimous gesture on the part of the school. They’re just exceptionally aggressive about it, especially for a public university.</p>
<p>As the parent of an Illinois HS senior I can confirm the OOS “merit arm’s race” is well known here in Illinois. While every school/school district is different, our NW suburban school sends out a flyer to parents on the costs of college. The in-state publics are all listed as well as popular private colleges and OOS publics. Those institutions with “automatic merit” are highlighted and the criteria listed. The data specifically shows that if you have a good student, you might well be “better off” sending your kids out of state. Details about Indiana, Iowa, Iowa State, Miami (Ohio) and Missouri were specifically listed and references various sources for further investigation. This year, Miami upped its top automatic scholarship signficiantly from $10k to half to full tuition based upon academic rigor for students with a 32 ACT.</p>
<p>I can also confirm what MC2K has indicated - that Alabama’s popularity is growing signficantly in Chicago. As word about the beautiful campus, giagantic building program and automatic scholarships spreads, more people become interested. (And football success doesn’t hurt.) For example, at DD’s school, the number of applicants has grown from 0 over the past three years to 7 just this year - and most plan to attend.</p>
<p>And its not just Bama - South Carolina, LSU and Mississippi are also active in offering generous scholarships to OOS students making their schools less expensive than UIUC.</p>
<p>At UIC, if you are a biology or psych major, the pressure to get into classes never eases. For most majors, once you are out of the intro courses, you should have no problem getting into your required classes. There is also a shortage of classrooms accommodating 200-300 students, an ideal size for upper level classes for those majors. The classic large lecture courses, i.e. general chemistry, biology, etc, use the large lecture halls, and so, they get stuck using 100 person classrooms.</p>
<p>It’s also becoming increasingly hard to get into classes at Michigan, as enrollments are increasing and seats in classes are not.</p>
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<p>Words fail …</p>
<p>Given the popularity of biology, it is no surprise that courses that biology majors take are often among the largest ones on a given campus. Even a small LAC like Truman State has biology class sizes up to 75, probably higher than the threshold where one may consider the class size to be small enough to get the benefits of a small class size.</p>