Illinois is a case apart from all others. 
States like Pennsylvania or New Hampshire are extremely bad also.
think it’s simple supply and demand… If an Illinois resident with good academics can go to Indiana [IU] for $20k/year for a business degree why stay in Illinois at $35k? For engineering, many of my peers children look at places like Georgia Tech - highly ranked programs, very good job prospects [if you survive], and a reasonably acceptable cost vs other OOS options for what you get. D waiting for decision from GT before making her final choice…same cost as Wisconsin OOS…
working the cost vs value equation for all options…
UIUC Engineering school is top ranked especially CS is top 4 in the nation above GTech, UT and U Mich. So there is more demand from both instate and OOS. I heard that UIUC increased their OOS tuition to keep instate tuition at current level.
@ACT2017 - Right- Illinois is certainly no bargain, but consider that the only Big Ten school consistently ranked higher is Michigan, where non-resident tuition/fees/room/board was roughly $56K for 2016-2017! For specific majors, it’s certainly possible to find other Big Ten schools that offer enough aid for Illinois residents to make them less expensive than UIUC for a similarly ranked program.
UIUC resident tuition+fees are roughly $16-17K for 2017-2018, depending on major. Room&board is roughly $12k. The total is around $29K, not including miscellaneous expenses, and fixed constant for all 4 years for Illinois residents by state law.
Nebraska has the least expensive non-resident tuition in the big 10 at around $23K. Room&Board $11K. Total around $34K, with possible increases of $1500 or so each year based ~4% annual increases. You’d need over $5K merit per year to make it comparable to resident tuition at UIUC. Many non-residents qualify for in-state tuition through scholarships or the MSEP, making it an amazing bargain at under $20K total per year. On the downside, most programs are not rated on par with those at UIUC, if that is important.
Minnesota is a relative bargain for engineering and is generally considered a top-25 engineering school, even higher in some fields like Business, Math or Economics. High achieving out-of-state students receive a $10K per year National Scholarship. That makes the total cost for all 4 years only a bit higher than UIUC when you consider Minnesota is significantly increasing non-resident tuition, while Illinois residents are locked in for costs for all 4 years.
For many engineering and sciences majors, Purdue is usually right after UIUC/Michigan in various rankings, and costs about $38K total for non-residents. You’d need $10K merit per year to make it comparable to UIUC for Illinois residents. Top non-resident students qualify for the Presidential Scholarship. At the full $10K merit amount, that makes Purdue roughly similar to UIUC for total cost over 4 years (due to UIUC having fixed rates and assuming 4% annual increases at Purdue).
(My numbers are estimates based on web information, but should be close to within 5% or so since some schools haven’t published 2017-2018 costs)
Whoops, I didn’t see that Purdue has an extra cost for some majors, plus I didn’t run the totals correctly. From the Purdue webpage, Engineering and CS cost $30,854 for non-residents (costs frozen through 2017-2018) plus room&board at $10,030 for a total of $40,884. Assuming 4% annual increases after that, the total is at least $174K over 4 years, if I did the math right.
Illinois Engineering/CS costs $17,040 tuition/fees for residents, plus $11,308 for room&board, according to the UIUC website, for a total of $28348 for 2017-2018. This cost is locked in for residents, so the 4 year total is close to $114K.
That means a non-resident would need about $15K of aid each year to make the costs roughly equivalent, assuming 0 aid at UIUC. That would be within the maximum award of $16K per year for the Trustee merit scholarship granted to 100 students a year. I probably made some other errors, but hopefully that’s close enough for an estimate, as Purdue and UIUC engineering/CS programs are both generally ranked in the top-10 or close.
@illinoisx3 My S17 has been admitted to UIUC for Chemical Engineering for Fall 2017. Resident tuition and fees according to his financial aid award letter and also the UIUC tuition calculator website is $20,872. Where are you seeing $17,040 for Engineering/CS? Maybe they have some outdated info online?
@Itsabeautifulday - The UIUC website isn’t as clear as it could be, so it’s possible the numbers vary depending which URL you use? I used this one: http://www.registrar.illinois.edu/ug-rates-engineering-1718 . I grabbed the housing cost from this URL: https://admissions.illinois.edu/Invest/tuition . Apologies if I omitted something, made an error or if their various URLs have conflicting numbers. I just grabbed quick numbers for comparisons. Your award letter should have the most accurate numbers, and it likely includes some fees and miscellaneous expenses not included on the registrar URL above. I suspect the other schools also have extra fees not included in the numbers I found, so they should also be considered as rough estimates also. Someone a little more ambitious might be able to make a similar comparison and make a better apples-to-apples comparison with out-the-door total numbers;-)
I just found the “Calculate Your Cost” button after scrolling all the way down on the admissions URL. It does add $3800 in fees per year, plus books and “other” expenses. That definitely makes UIUC less attractive, assuming of course that the other schools don’t have similar added expenses above the numbers I found on their sites. Sorry about the confusion!
my daughter’s financial award letter [just loans] quoted $35,880 total cost of attendance for chem engineering at UIUC. If Rauner does not get a budget passed and we go into another panic mode, I think all bets are off… if UIUC goes private I don’t think the tuition will stay frozen… Agree that CD eng is pretty competitive between UIUC and GT, but if your in any other field there are options.
I hadn’t heard about efforts for privatization recently, though I recall a proposal a few years ago. I can’t imagine that would make it through all the necessary governmental and court challenges, but who knows. I did see this recent proposal for separate funding, though: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-university-of-illinois-budget-bill-20161110-story.html
@illinoisx3 - Ah, I see the difference now. The $17,040 quoted for engineering etc… is without the fees which are $3,832, bringing the total to $20,872. Thanks for the links. Here is the link to the UIUC cost calculator which lets you plug in various factors: https://cost.illinois.edu/Home/Cost/
S17 has been admitted to several OOS schools including Nebraska which I agree is quite a bargain in the Big 10 with the scholarships they offered him. He is leaning toward UIUC though because of its engineering reputation and ranking. He did not receive any scholarships from UIUC so it is almost our most expensive option.
Editing to add: I took too long to post so I see that you found the cost calculator too.
@Itsabeautifulday - Keep in mind that the UIUC school of engineering merit scholarships are announced around the end of February from what I’ve been told, so there’s still a chance for some of our kids who didn’t receive any merit scholarships with their admissions notice.
If I have the numbers right this time, the total for UIUC over 4 years is now about $130K, assuming 4% annual increases just for the fees (excluding books and other expenses). Best I can tell, Purdue includes the required fees in the numbers I had, so still roughly $174K (also excluding books and misc expenses). Thus, you’d need at least $10K per year in merit to make the costs similar. Minnesota is harder to calculate, since their non-resident tuition is supposed to have large increases, as much as 10% or more each year. That would make it in the same ballpark as Purdue for non-residents.
My S is considering UIUC and UMN-TC, along with Michigan and a few private elites. I don’t know if UIUC will be the least expensive of his options, as it depends on what scholarships he might receive.
I would offer the suggestion to really drill down and try to project costs for your student, and not use top-level cost calculators, or even one’s financial aid and cost of attendance statements. In comparing UIUC to OOS Big Ten schools, I took certain costs out of the comparison, such as books-the schools seem to throw out whatever number they want to. I limited comparison to tuition, fees, and room and board. I also am tired of the broken record that OOS are cheaper than UIUC. First off, Illinois tuition is locked in when you enter. Not the case at other target OOS Big Ten schools that the UIUC applicant is likely to consider. I researched the OOS tuition and fee increases at the schools my student considered for the last five years, and looked at tuition structure-for example, at the University of Iowa, for the business school, there’s a significant bump in tuition into the 3rd and 4th year of study. And…scholarship awards while renewable, don’t typically go up to cover tuition increases, so that scholarship is worth less from day 1 on campus. I do agree that UIUC’s fees are up there…so tuition and fees for the most expensive programs, e.g., biz, engineering, sciences, are over 20K/yr. However, waive the mandatory insurance, and that’s well over $600 off the fees right there (assuming your child has other coverage, which might not be the case if your child goes out of state and your policy doesn’t reach that far…). BTW, fee increases, haven’t gone up anywhere near 4% year…excepting health insurance coverage. Finally, do approach leadership for your college’s finances, they aren’t all equal within the university-business and engineering are better insulated from state finance problems than others. Good luck shopping.
My son, TN resident, got his “Award” Letter. He was accepted into the Engineering Honors college, 35 act, great grades, and demonstrated leadership. Our expected contribution was 26,000 (one other in college), so they offered us the remainder in student loans. He was a bit crushed as most other schools have offered a 50% or greater award. I tried calling today to see if it was a mistake, and was told the phones were overloaded and to try later in the week. From reading this thread it sounds like he will be attending school elsewhere. We will see if he gets anything at the end of the month. His safe schools have come in at 10K and 13K per year, Privates are coming in at the projected 50% off.
According to the Wall Street Journal, students from top colleges in engineering recieve a very modest income bump by attending the top schools, something they did not expect to find. The Conclusion was Math is Math.
Count us among the Illinois residents who looked OOS only because UIUC, which is only an hour away, is just too darned expensive! We found much more affordable options elsewhere, and they’re in states without a budget crisis.
The job market has been pretty solid for 5+ years, I imagine any reasonably rated and accredited program is doing well in salary measures. The question is what happens if the job market slows, not only in terms of salary, but especially in terms of finding one of those fewer jobs. Also, if grad school is a possibility, all else equal, I’d rather be applying from a top undergraduate program (with abundant undergrad research opportunities, large alumni networks and national prestige among research professors) than a middle-of-the-pack program.
That said, with the possible exception of a few specific majors, I can’t imagine doing full-pay at Illinois if you are a non-resident. Same with Michigan and Penn State. Just too pricey compared to schools that are nearly as highly rated, like Minnesota or Purdue. Unless the cost is not an issue, of course.
^the problem is that many people simply cannot afford the cost of UIUC or Penn State, even in-state. It’s not “choosing a top program in case the market slows”. It’s about having the stats to get in but not the money, and thus leaving the state.
@MYOS1634 - No doubt. In-state tuition is almost criminal here, mostly thanks to decades of financial mismanagement at the state government level in Illinois. I think the resident cost of attendance is second only to Penn State in the Big Ten.
The other problem is about options for residents if your EFC is above the total cost of attendance and therefore you do not get any significant need-based aid. This is the situation we face, as do many other families.
For CS and many engineering and business majors, it’s difficult to find a similarly rated top-10 program that is likely to offer enough aid to be less expensive than in-state costs at UIUC. Merit aid at Ivy Leagues, Stanford, MIT, Northwestern and many other schools doesn’t exist at all. At programs like Michigan, Texas, Washington, Berkeley or Georgia Tech, it’s no easier to qualify for merit scholarships as a non-resident than to qualify for merit at UIUC as a resident. It’s just as difficult to earn a merit award at similarly rated private schools like CMI, Cal Tech, Duke, JHU, etc. Certainly there are exceptions, and some students will earn better packages at similarly rated schools, making them an obvious choice and leaving Illinois with one less highly qualified student:-(
Schools mentioned like Purdue and Minnesota may offer enough merit to be similar or even slightly lower in cost to resident tuition at UIUC. Merit is also a little more generous at private schools like Rice or USC. Outside the top 25, Iowa State is a solid value option for engineering. Iowa State, UIC, IIT, RPI, Case and others are often less expensive options chosen by Chicago area families I know, though also not as highly ranked as UIUC for programs like engineering.
For non-residents like the OP, it’s far more difficult to justify and there are more options likely to be less expensive. Without merit, Illinois is not going to be attracting top non-resident students anytime soon, with the possibly exception of a few majors like CS, Computer/Bio/Mechanical/Civil enineering or accounting.
I’m not saying UIUC is a bargain for in-state residents. It’s not. At least for some majors, it’s still hard to find anything significantly cheaper in the top-10, or even top-25 for most students. If that’s important, of course, for many students there are more important factors that are more difficult to compare.
Responding to the OP and to the perspective of the OOS student, for UIUC or other OOS schools with a desirable or top-rated college/area of study, it does come back to supply and demand…it’s what the out of state market will bear. At some target schools for the would-be UIUC student, the OOS offers aren’t as good as they used to be, or there are limits on what the OOS schools think they have to offer as the cost for UIUC is soooo high in comparison. With the bar that high for residents, OOS can’t really expect merit awards to bring the cost below what a resident is paying, and the vibe currently is to increase the percentage of resident students. Unfortunately, Illinois residents just don’t have the great deals that residents in other states enjoy…I was parked behind a car from Michigan on move-in day down at UIUC, and I wondered what the heck they were doing there, with such great in-state options available. No complaining here-at my student’s first campus admissions visit and event, the opening remarks from admissions staff included don’t expect money!