<p>ugh man post the article please, you have to be a member</p>
<p>He is right. You have to be a member to view it. Please post the article.</p>
<p>There are some free articles from other media outlets that have the story.</p>
<p>
<p>By Jodi S. Cohen and Lori Olszewski Tribune staff reporters Published May 10, 2006</p>
<p>University of Illinois' goal to raise its academic reputation also has raised the anxiety level in high schools, where some students say they fear they might have a tougher time getting into the state's flagship campus.</p>
<p>To address those worries, U. of I. at Urbana-Champaign Chancellor Richard Herman on Tuesday met with Chicago-area high school counselors to explain why he wants to attract more out-of-state, minority and international students--and how that could help their students.</p>
<p>"Let me be clear about one thing: We are trying to create the best education for the students you send to us," Herman told the counselors. "This is why we are trying as hard as we can to attract the best students we can and those who give us as broad an experience as possible."</p>
<p>Among other goals, the University of Illinois' wide-ranging strategic plan calls for increasing the percentage of undergraduates who come from outside of Illinois to 15 percent, from 10 percent. The university has the smallest percentage of non-resident students of any Big 10 university, with seven of the public universities drawing more than 25 percent of their students from other states.</p>
<p>Herman also said he wants more students from the top 10 percent of their high school classes, a category in which Illinois ranks significantly lower than other public universities such as the University of Wisconsin, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Michigan.</p>
<p>Tom Higgins, a junior at private Morgan Park Academy on Chicago's South Side, questions the reasoning behind making a state university into a more elite institution.</p>
<p>"It is a state school and one expects that to be more open than private schools," said Higgins, who is considering applying to the U. of I. "Isn't the idea behind public education that education is supposed to be available to everyone?"</p>
<p>Herman said he's heard those concerns but won't let them affect his goal to make U. of I. the nation's premier public university, a plan that includes raising the academic selectivity and diversity of the student body.</p>
<p>Freshman class to shrink</p>
<p>The five-year plan also includes gradually decreasing the size of the freshman class from about 7,500 this year to 6,500 by 2011, which admissions officials said was more a return to normal than a drastic change. The university had an especially large freshman class this year, 7,563. In 2002, there were 6,366 students in the class.</p>
<p>As class size has risen in recent years, however, the academic quality of the student body has declined. About 55 percent of freshmen in 2001 graduated in the top 10 percent of their high school classes compared with 47 percent of this year's freshman class. Officials hope to increase that to 75 percent in coming years.</p>
<p>Several guidance counselors who attended Tuesday's meeting said that families are most upset about the university's goal to increase the number of non-resident students.</p>
<p>But Herman said that change would also help the bottom line. Those students pay about $15,000 more a year in tuition than Illinois students.</p>
<p>"Multiply that by 100 and what do you get? How many extra teaching assistants? How many more faculty can we hire? How many more classrooms can we refurbish?" he asked. "That is not a reason for doing it, but it is a benefit."</p>
<p>That didn't appease the counselors, who said it already is difficult for students to get into the university. Several mentioned the strategies that some students resort to, such as declaring less popular majors to improve their chances.</p>
<p>Amy Thompson, president of the Illinois School Counselor Association and a counselor at York Community High School in Elmhurst, said she worries about the students who are academically qualified but not in the top 10 percent.</p>
<p>"The top 15 percent of our kids don't have as many options," she said. "I always feel for the students caught in the middle ... they have to pay out-of-state tuition to go to a Big 10 school."</p>
<p>At Lincoln-Way East High School in Frankfort, which sends about 60 students to U. of I. each year, counselor Jim Martin said Illinois students shouldn't be passed over in favor of out-of-state teens.</p>
<p>"Look at our kids first," said Martin. "We pay our taxes. We represent Illinois. ... I understand diversity, but if you are going to cut away from us, that hurts us.</p>
<p>"The kids who haven't gotten in, they have said, `Why are they becoming the elite?'"</p>
<p>Several counselors pointed out that other neighboring Midwest states have more than one flagship campus, which gives their students more in-state options for college, along with the cheaper tuition that state schools offer to their residents. For example, Indiana has both Purdue and Indiana Universities and Michigan has both the University of Michigan and Michigan State.</p>
<p>Illinois has 12 public university campuses, but none has the reputation of U. of. I., leaving many students vying to get into a single school, counselors said.</p>
<p>Fewer in-state alternatives</p>
<p>Herman acknowledged that concern. "Part of our issue is how to balance the fact that there are fewer in-state alternatives," he said. "We recognize that fact and the question is how to preserve some balance with our ... goals."</p>
<p>Other counselors said they worry about students who can't afford the cost of a private university but don't want to attend the state's other public universities.</p>
<p>"For many students, it's really important that they stay in Illinois from a cost viewpoint. This definitely will have an impact citywide in Chicago," said Marina Medina, director of counseling at Northside College Prep.</p>
<p>One west suburban parent said the new policies are unfair to students like his son, who was rejected by U. of I.'s business school despite a 30 on the ACT and a 4.0 grade-point average.</p>
<p>Nick Spaeth plans to instead attend Marquette University with a partial scholarship.</p>
<p>"The part that was surprising was when we started hearing talk about their vision to attract so many out-of-state students," said Dan Spaeth of Elmhurst. "That is hard to swallow when you live in Illinois and it's your premier institution and you do well as a student and can't get in."
okay, that's the original article!!!</p>
<p>I hope it's ok to post on this now. You probably aren't going to get a stronger opinion than mine, but I am totally in favor of what UIUC is doing. I admit I have very little compassion for those 1,000 incoming freshmen who will be excluded from UIUC in years to come. The simple truth is that UIUC is just returning to levels it was at and wants to be as good as other big 10 universities, which it is reputed to be. Many would argue that those bottom 1000 students don't belong there in the first place because they wouldn't have made it in previous years and are just an anomaly of rising yield rates and a system's inability to cope. As an Illinois resident, I can attest that a) UIUC is not "the nation's premier public university" LOL. I'm pretty sure they meant state's premier public. b) The students who are "declaring less popular majors to improve their chances" do not belong at a top 50 university because they are not only academically underqualified for the school, but morally underqualified for engaging in such a deceitful scheme. No student in Illinois has to pay out-of-state tuition at a big 10 school for a decent education. The University of Illinois at Chicago is arguably on par with all OOS big ten publics (save Michigan and Wisconsin). I think counselors and students alike have to just suck it up and realize that the top 10% of a high school class is an attainable goal for just about anybody if they put in enough work, and if you don't have the discipline or the drive, too bad.</p>
<p>think counselors and students alike have to just suck it up and realize that the top 10% of a high school class is an attainable goal for just about anybody if they put in enough work, and if you don't have the discipline or the drive, too bad.----How could you say that. What about the number of students who are LD who have to work extra just to attain that goal.</p>
<p>When is this in effect? Will they try to raise their OOS from 10 percent to 15 percent starting this coming fall? I hope so. What are your thoughts?</p>
<p>Isn't the goal of a public university to educate the students of the state? </p>
<p>Illinois is a pretty good school to begin with, I think along with Texas/Washington/Ga Tech/some others, it makes up another group of fine public schools. However, I do agree this strategy will help their US News ranking. That is all that matters, anyway.</p>
<p>Illinois is screwing over its students for "prestige." Pathetic...</p>
<p>wow, heavenWood, i cannot disagree with you more.</p>
<p>Oh come on, "Screwng over?"</p>
<p>for prestige, or for $$$$'s?</p>
<p>I'm sorry, but as a state university, the UIUC has a responsibility to put Illinois students first. If there is space left for out-of-state students, fine, but putting them over Illinois residents? If I lived in the land of Lincoln, I'd be furious!</p>
<p>I think there are good educational reasons to have a broad mix of students at any university. Certainly the state students should get priority but not all the funding comes from the state. Federal money helps pay for the research and buildings and financial aid.</p>
<p>It's simply for money purposes. It's a smart idea from their standpoint because more money will be going into their pockets, and they can use that not only to help themselves, but to help the college by getting better teachers, better resources, improving things, etc..</p>
<p>It's bad for us Illinois residents, even though I got accepted, I would be mad if I was say a freshman or sophomore in high school.</p>
<p>Haha, bearsfolife, I love your handle bro. It's not "bad for us illinois residents". It may hurt those 1000 who have to go to UIC instead (and it's almost of the same caliber anyway, you can get an awesome education there), but at the same time it's going to benefit those 6000 who matriculate much more if they have a smaller, more intellectual, more diverse class to interact with. I agree with those of you who have stated that UIUC has the obligation to educate Illinois residents, but don't you see that's what they're trying to do here? By your reasoning, they should just let everyone in because it's their "obligation". See, if we follow your reasoning to its logical end, we have to accept everyone, but then everyone gets a bad education. Clearly there is a fine balance in educating many and educating well, and the UIUC administration (which has far more expertise than any of you) happens to think that ideal balance is back around 6,000 per class, not 7,000. Again, most every student has the capability to be in the top 10% of their high school class (yes, even LD students, who just have to work that much harder, and if they still can't achieve that after their best effort, they'd probably be miserable at a school as demanding as UIUC anyway), so there's no excuse in saying you got shafted by the system. You just didn't try hard enough. Face the consequences.</p>
<p>They've been doing that for years for Engineering and Business, two of the most selective and arguably the best colleges in UIUC. Here are the % non-residents admitted for the last 5 years:</p>
<p>% non-residents
incoming
Freshman........2005.....2004.....2003.....2002.....2001</p>
<p>Engineering ... 18.8%...23.0%...24.7%...22.8%...26.2%
Business ....... 15.7%...17.7%...17.4%...10.9%...11.3%</p>
<p>It's about time they bring up the admission standards for the other colleges.</p>