Believe it or not, I too appreciate your thoughtful posts. We can agree to disagree. Unless you live in Illinois you can not fully appreciate what is happening here. It is unprecedented. You are basing your “facts” on a few articles and I am basing my beliefs on insider information, daily experiences and connections in and around Springfield. Agreed there are no links, however, that doesn’t mean it is untrue. We have both taken more extreme positions…you with an idealistic view and me with my cynical view. In reality the truth, as in most debates, lies somewhere in the middle. Decisions for admission ARE decided on great stats, but decisions for admission ARE also decided based on money and politics. U of I officials have admitted such and thus the new drive for focusing on in state students.
U of I has the highest percentage of Chinese students of any US university. These students do in fact have very high stats especially in math and science, thus most of these students choose STEM fields. That in and of itself lowers the admission rate for Illinois students in STEM majors.
U of I is a fantastic school, and I hope the OP can get in on appeal. If not there are other great schools that should give him significant merit money based on his stats that should bring the out of state costs to in state levels or lower. U of I has to survive and to survive they need money. Until a budget is passed they are not getting paid their full allotment by the state. That is a fact.
You are correct in that I am not an insider to U of I admissions but then again I assume none of us on this thread are. Therefore every answer to the OP is a best guess by anonymous internet posters, you an me included
Good Luck to you OP and best wishes to all of my anonymous friends.