<p>Does UIUC really expect my parents to take our 42k in parent plus loans? This is ridiculous! As a student whose ranked 3/403 with a 3.98 uw gpa and a 31 act I expected to get at least a small scholarship to make up for the oos portion of the tuition. The sad part is that I still really want to go there for computer science. I don't know what to do! Help!</p>
<p>My son stats are a bit higher than yours and he was offered the same award letter than yours (all loans). We are not even thinking about accepting, assuming $200,000 in loans for an undergraduate education is out of the question.
ramzfan13, I know that you must be disappointed, but you can get a good education, just about anyplace. Go to a university that values you and has offered you some merit aid. Being a good student will open up opportunities for you that you might not have at UIUC where most students have the same stats that you have.
Good luck with your decision</p>
<p>I applied early from out of state and got accepted a while back. Majoring in Computer Science and I literally didn’t get 1 penny from Illinois. They offered me everything in loans and who expects my parents to take out almost $200k in loans when I worked for 4 years trying to get accepted. I don’t know if I want to go to my state school which I would have got into with half the effort.</p>
<p>My son got accepted two years ago to U of I (we are instate), U Mich, Wisconsin Madison, Purdue, and Notre Dame. All the Publics, except Purdue, offered nothing but loans, Notre Dame offered 21K in price reduction off the sticker price, which brought the Tuition down to a more reasonable amount, but since it’s not known for engineering, it was a no go. Purdue offered a 10K scholarship, but instate U of I was cheaper and a top notch Engineering School.</p>
<p>Even the instate tuition, housing and fees are crushing, but I see no alternative as a parent to working two jobs to pay the bills. I don’t want my son to start out life in debt, so we’re making sacrifices elsewhere. Problem is I have two daughters in high school yet to go. I’ll just cross that bridge when I come to it…somehow.</p>
<p>The point is it’s not just U of I. They’re all high…sky high.</p>
<p>This post should provide more insight into the situation of students in cs and whether or not they personally believed it was worth it.</p>
<p>[So</a>, how are you all paying for this? : UIUC](<a href=“http://www.reddit.com/r/UIUC/comments/r43w4/so_how_are_you_all_paying_for_this/]So”>Reddit - Dive into anything)</p>
<p>What I got from this is that I should go for it! lol</p>
<p>The fact of the matter is that you’re considered an average student in the Engineering school. Scholarships will come when you are at the top of the applicant pool, not when you’re somewhere near the middle. It sucks, but maybe the right option for you is going somewhere else if it makes more sense financially.</p>
<p>This is neither a brag or advertisement.
But I am just so glad I applied to maybe a not so “prestigious” university.
I managed to get the price from 45k to literally 8k a year. I guess I am swimming big fish in a small pond. I just did not expect I will probably be going to my 3rd choice school.</p>
<p>I live within the state of Illinois and was admitted to UIC as a vocal performance major within the College of Fine Arts. Total in state tuition is around $30,000 for UIC.</p>
<p>I was offered nada, nothing, zilch in financial aid, merit scholarships, and etc! However, Illinois noted that my parents could gladly take out a 28,000 yearly Plus Loan (are they nuts)!</p>
<p>I understand that the Illinois state budget is a disaster but I was expecting something, anything!</p>
<p>Needless to say, I am pursuing my second and third choices (private schools that offered me a generous financial aid package).</p>
<p>UIUC is a very good school in a state with severe financial problems. S is a freshman in college of business and loves it. That being said, there are several thousand students who scored 32 or higher on their ACT with 4.0 gpa in high school so expecting merit aid is not realistic.</p>
<p>Nobody from out of state should be “expecting” anything from UIUC.</p>
<p>We already pay 10% income tax in this state. I can promise you none of us want to fund your education. Go instate.</p>
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<p>It’s a 5% flat tax, poet, and your remarks were quite harsh. The financial aid is what it is, but everyone is welcome at U of I.</p>
<p>Sorry Balthezar… I reacted to… with my grades, I expected to get…</p>
<p>Why?</p>
<p>There are a lot of top stat students in the state of illinois who are not even admitted so that there will be room for out of state students. They are admitted, as in states like Michigan and elsewhere, to defray the cost. </p>
<p>Expecting. I think I react negatively to this thinking every time I see it.</p>
<p>However, everyone is of course welcome at the UofI, as long as they have the stats and can afford the tuition. Everyone.</p>
<p>Balthezar, I think Illinois schools are expensive for in-state, and outrageous for oos students. UIUC is a great engineering school though so your son is probably best there as he is instate. For your daughters, depending on what they are interested in, have them look a little farther from home. Many of the flagships schools in other states (Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Alabama, etc.) might give them good scholarships, something that UIUC (and my flagship UW-Madison) are not known for. I hate to see college graduates drowning in debt too…makes starting “life” so much harder.</p>
<p>i don’t see that much complaining about tuition/fin aid on Michigan board, though the tuition is about the same, and i think u of i is comparable in quality, and perhaps better in engineering. </p>
<p>at least at u of i tuition is fixed over the four years. many institutions do not do that!</p>
<p>This is the only thread on the front page of the UIUC page so there isn’t too much complaining here either, its just that they really don’t give out money!</p>
<p>@poetgrl - I understand. “Expect” is very presumptuous, and over the top. So I do see where you’re coming from, but I firmly believe that your presumption that high stat instate students are rejected to similar out of state students solely to reap that OOS tuition is not correct unless I’m missing your link to justification for your saying that.</p>
<p>@kjcphmom - I agree that Illinois schools are expensive, period. Mostly, this is due to the extreme lack of funding from the state. The state universities in Illinois have always submitted budgets to the state, which were sometimes approved, and other times decreased, but they were floored at the state’s most recent practice of approving a budget amount and then just not providing the agreed-upon funds. That crippled them for three years, until they finally adjusted their internal budgets to that new reality. They are forced to seek higher tuitions, and because their endowments are insufficient to support more generous financial aid, they must limit those funds they do have to the most needy or academically talented. I had the same results for my son with UW-Madison as well as U-Mich, so Illinois is not alone.</p>
<p>As for my daughters, I am looking near and far for the best schools that are a good fit for them, and that we can afford. I’ll find a way to meet their academic achievements. That’s my job as a parent. There isn’t a fallback, so hi-ho, hi-ho, it’s off to work, I go.</p>
<p>Balthezar–</p>
<p>due to where I live, I can count quite a few local kids with stats as high as OPs who were not admitted to UofI. It’s north of the city.</p>
<p>i would also very gladly pay higher taxes if I believed it would go to defray the costs of students like your son, who live in-state. But, until we have a national education system, or until Illinois gets its budget in order, I really want whatever money we have going to instate kids, given the number of worthy and impoverished kids we have in the city and elsewhere.</p>
<p>good luck to your son</p>
<p>Look down south for your girls, if they can stand it, or out west. There are good money offers in states trying to import some bright kids.</p>
<p>Can any out of state student tell me how they financed their education? I’m approximately 10k short after student loans and parent’s contribution. Did you guys choose to get private loans?</p>
<p>ramzfan–</p>
<p>I apologize for being so harsh earlier. </p>
<p>Please go to the financial aid board, where you will get very good advice from parents who know all about financial aid and how to figure these things out for yourself.</p>
<p>Good luck to you.</p>
<p>U of I is a state school and unlike some public schools, they really don’t give much money. My daughter had a 34 ACT and got nothing…her friend had a perfect ACT 36 and got nothing. They graduated 6 and 7 out of 700 kids respectively. We sent her to a private school instead. Her friend went to another private school that offered a scholarship. I do have 2 kids at U of I now. They do freeze the tuition for 4 years which is a significant savings over time. One is a senior and we are paying tuition prices from 4 years ago. Also, once they get in apartments, you can pay that by the month instead of all at once at the beginning of the semester. Groceries are more reasonable too.</p>