<p>^^^SIU is not a flagship land-grant institution; for the kind of school it is, $23K is not a bargain. UIUC, at $31K, is expensive for in-state at most midwest universities.</p>
<p>And yes, GT alum, it is common for public universities in many midwest states to offer merit awards to in-state students.</p>
<p>Erin’s Dad is right, publics in Ohio are around $25,000 in-state cost of attendance. There are some states that are less, but…other places, like University of California are closer to $30,000/year for in-staters (or more). There are a few states that are cheaper, mostly in the south or remote places, like North Dakota.</p>
<p>One of the biggest problems with Illinois is they have thirteen million people in the state while their flagships is 31,000 students. With massive numbers of affluent and high achieving students in suburban Chicago, UIUC is able to charge a lot for instate tuition and still be very tough to get into, and this enables their other publics to overcharge. Indiana University and Purdue (altho Purdue just ended theirs) are brimming with students from Illinois, as their OOS COA with the highest automatic scholarships is cheaper than UIUC instate. Indiana has half the population of Illinois, but two quality universities that are each as large as Illinois’ flagship. Your son’s stats at IU would give him a four thousand dollar automatic scholarship and an instate COA of about $17,000.</p>
<p>bthomp1, Instate COA 17,000 for indiana residents or Illinois?
We Live in Illinois. Eventually we will move out of here, but not yet.</p>
<p>This from IU website
Total COA in state $21,290 OOS $39,950</p>
<p>SIU is certainly not IU by a long shot</p>
<p>bthomp1, Sorry my bad, I see what you were saying, that if we did happen to live in Indiana that’s what it would be.</p>
<p>Any way bottom line, I think SIU should pay us to go there.</p>
<p>I understand your frustration OP…been there done that. We were shocked to find that even the tippy top GPA/scores/ECs resulted in very little at our flagship. Fast forward two years…OOS has been outstanding for my kiddos. My only advice to you would be vent, exhale, regroup and move forward. From experience, I know that there are so many here on CC that are willing to help. Best of luck to you!</p>
<p>seekingknowledge, Thanks for the encouragement, this is my first time dealing with college so we are a little frustrated, but I know we will do fine. We are just so tired of the Illinois screw machine. Believe it or not we are actually looking forward to my son going out of state and eventually moving out of this corupt mess. The frustration comes from the fact that all the state colleges are missmanaging funds and when I see top administration salaries inflated it makes me sick to see what they are doing to the families in this country, and there seems to be nothing that we can do about this greed.</p>
<p>When I see a state university that has been land granted and was established in 1893, and there are not alot of quality facilities I can only believe that the administration is raking the money for themselves.
Most of this countries University Buildings have been paid for 10 times over.</p>
<p>Then all we see is government officials from local, state and federal branches using thier propoganda, telling us all, we need more for education, teachers are not the problem they are the solution, and we need all of our citizens to go to college, more education ,more education, more education. It only tells me that there is something in it for them. I don’t know about other states, but in Illinois they are not going to stop bleeding us untill they have it all. </p>
<p>“Sure more education” i’m sure everybody on here has read the stories about the graduate school student that graduated from law school and so fourth and is over 200,000 in debt and can’t find work for what they were studying.</p>
<p>The United States Government is sick, they all have a disease, its called GREED!</p>
<p>I’m sorry everyone but it seems the only place lately that I can find anyone with any sense is right here on CC.</p>
<p>GOD Bless you all. GOD Bless our kids. And I can only pray that GOD blesses our Future.</p>
<p>Good Luck 1stcolldad. We are from Illinois also. Its very frustrating what these schools charge. I have twins. One will be attending ISU and the other going out of state to Univ of Iowa. Both my kids were accepted to SIU, I liked the school when we toured. But I read all kinds of negative online. My kids have similar stats to yours and we were offered nothing. I was surprised since SIU enrollment has been dropping, and they have the worst freshman retention rates in the state. SIU also prides themselves on having the cheapest in state tuition rates. My feeling was I’d rather send my kid to ISU for a few thousand more to a school with a higher graduation rate and retention rate. Good Luck with wherever you decide!</p>
<p>Thanks Chicago1992, I thought University of Iowa was very expensive? Did I miss out on something?</p>
<p>1st college, I live in NY and the COA for state unis instate is about 18. The uni people keep banging the state legislature for more “flexibility” in tuition.</p>
<p>1stcollege - We are in IL and did not consider any of the publics and one is just down the road. Did you look at Bradley?</p>
<p>Yes we did look at Bradley, But even though it is most likely a better school than SIU, it is almost twice the cost about 34,000.</p>
<p>we have a pretty good idea where he will end up, but thank you for your thought.</p>
<p>OP, I live in Illinois also, I feel exactly the same about Illinois Universities. U of I president salary 629,000, with all his perks calculates to 2,000,000.00. and just for good measure they boosted tuition in 2010 9.5%. Maybe he should get a raise for that to!</p>
<p>at least SIU is a little cheaper, But it’s a dungeon, it should be.</p>
<p>Meet the Pattersons by Newt Gingrich, August 28, 2006. “The price of a public four-year college education increased by more then 500% from 1981 to 2003. Five hundred percent! All other consumer prices rose by 140% in that same time period. … The fact is, we now have a system in which colleges and universities aren’t accountable for the high prices they charge, and so they have little incentive to keep costs down.”</p>
<p>Here is the full article by Newt Gingrich: [Meet</a> the Pattersons - HUMAN EVENTS](<a href=“http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=16729]Meet”>http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=16729)</p>
<p>I didn’t do the analysis needed to determine whether the OP’s son was likely to get money for SI. There are schools with very few merit awards. Even if a student is in the top 10% in stats, it won’t get him a scholarship if the number of merit awards available are only enough for the top 5% to get any. There are a lot of schools like that and the situation is not getting better. </p>
<p>What you need to do find out if a student has a decent chance of getting merit money, is to see what percent of students are given merit awards of what average amount. When you have those stats, you see where your student is compared to those students. In most schools, I’ve found you do have to be in the upper 5% to get more than token award, maybe more for the larger schools.</p>
<p>(Thanks Chicago1992, I thought University of Iowa was very expensive? Did I miss out on something?)</p>
<p>I think it is about 36,000. I’m waiting on paperwork etc. I toured a bunch of schools and when we went to ISU my daughter, twin one (I will call her)loved it. It was a great fit for her. Same with Iowa for twin 2. As far as fasfa goes, I get nothing. So I am hoping with the Stafford, parents plus and what I have saved, I can send them to the school they want to go to.
As far as SIU, If my kids wanted to go there, they could, it’s up to them, but they found the right fit for them. But I did kinda sort of think SIU would have offered up something to try to lure twins with good (not great) ACT’s and GPA’s. With their low enrollment problems, retention, etc. But no, nothing. Just an estimated COA at $44,000 for the two.
Btw, ISU is offering nothing either, lol!</p>
<p>I guess the idea is to save all the scholarship money for out of state student to try to lure them in and get more money per student. That would be a typical trick by a corrupt state like Illinois. </p>
<p>But I bet all the state pull the same crap. after all its all about money anyway, Opps did I say about money, I ment it’s about education, Yeah right</p>
<p>Ist Dad, I think you are absolutely right. I think that Illinois is not alone. The schools want more kids, they dont care about residency. They will meet the minimum the state legislature (gee, do their kids get in flagship u like UIUC). </p>
<p>State schools should only be allowed to give out merit aid on the basis of stated requirements.</p>
<p>We need more transparency. They dont always care about taxpayers. They care about themselves, and then maybe students. I suspect that they think as long as they meet all state requirements they have no need to be fair with IS v. OOS.</p>
<p>I do think it is an eye opener to realize that the state colleges are so expensive. Worse yet, many of the great midwestern publics are actively courting and accepting more and more OSS students who will pay more money. Then the states moan about the brain drain when smart in-state kids go “out of state” because suddenly they become geographically desireable to the out of state college and are given tuition discounts in the form of merit scolarships. It’s a vicious cycle and on the surface might be zero sum thinking. It would be interesting to have statistics on how many out of region kids stay in the midwest and how many midwest kids who leave ever return. I’m surpised to hear that some of the directional unis are playing this game.</p>
<p>I suspect with the directionals the thinking is that a large percentage of kids are not “shopping” around and will simply apply, be admitted and attend at the posted price.</p>
<p>*State schools should only be allowed to give out merit aid on the basis of stated requirements.
*</p>
<p>What does that mean?</p>
<p>BTW…many/most merit scholarships are not paid for with taxpayer money. Usually, they’re paid for with donor money.</p>
<p>It’s not a good idea to have too many laws controlling universities. Universities are not “one size fits all.” Colleges need some flexibility to make decisions which help the schools with rankings and such.</p>