Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to the University of Illinois. I am from Illinois, and I liked it just fine. Wasn't a Greek or an athlete, studied political science and generally enjoyed it.

+1. The college experience was excellent at University of Illinois. After my undergrad there, I got into a top 10 econ grad school program. Chicago is a huge hiring base for alumni (obviously), and DC is the 2nd largest base of alumni.

+1. Illinois is a top ten public (tied with Wisconsin at the moment). The advantage comes in getting hired in Chicago. I wouldn't go to Illinois with dreams of Wall Street, but it is a path to getting a well-paying gig in a major city.

So what's going on with the state budget and the University? Was the spring semester cut short due to lack of funding?

No cuts planned for the flagship Illinois yet. They're working on a 5 year funding plan, but the state is totally backwards.

Original U of I poster here.

UIUC is doing okay. They have actually been absorbing students from other schools with less certain futures. A relative teaches at one of the schools with the more dire futures and that person is pretty stressed about the prospects of there even being a spring semester at this point. But UIUC has assets that other institutions do not have - successful athletics program that actually brings in money (even if not as super special as in years past), solid alumni donor base, research funding that other institutions don't have, etc.

If I still lived in IL, I would consider it a solid public university option. I would not necessarily advise a career in the IL public sector, but I think that the system will right itself eventually. Unfortunately for my relative and other educators at institutions that are less secure, that will not come without some people losing their jobs, which sucks.

The only state university that I know in this much trouble is Chicago State. And it could be in real trouble.

University of Illinois is doing fine and will continue to do fine. If your kid is an engineering or comp sci major, U of I is one of the best schools in the country.

UA and ASU shouldn't be on this list.

Minnesota.

St. Paul/Minneapolis is a great place. The school is really good in a whole host of things, and the people in the upper northwest are lovely.

Anonymous wrote:Notre Dame will give him a little of both worlds.

Not exactly a state university.

There are real differences in undergraduate culture between similarly ranked/prestigious/selective schools, even at the top end.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you want a big state school with a lot of international and east coast/west coast students, then Michigan is the way to go. Plus, it has a great academic and athletic reputation. It tends to be the go to school for many ivy league rejects but that's not really a bad thing (they tend to still be pretty smart). And, Ann Arbor is a great city that doesn't feel like you're buried in the Midwest because it draws people from all over.

This is exactly why DD preferred Wisconsin to Michigan. She got a real Ivy-wannabe vibe from Michigan. So that can be a turnoff for East Coast kids who are looking for a different kind of school culture.

+1 I don't understand why you would go out of state if you are just going to surround yourself with the exact environment you had from back home...

All top schools are a little like this. My DC didn't want small liberal arts schools because they felt just like HS. Did some visits and ran into multiple people she knew from home. Michigan, and many state flagships, have something for everyone.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you want a big state school with a lot of international and east coast/west coast students, then Michigan is the way to go. Plus, it has a great academic and athletic reputation. It tends to be the go to school for many ivy league rejects but that's not really a bad thing (they tend to still be pretty smart). And, Ann Arbor is a great city that doesn't feel like you're buried in the Midwest because it draws people from all over.

This is exactly why DD preferred Wisconsin to Michigan. She got a real Ivy-wannabe vibe from Michigan. So that can be a turnoff for East Coast kids who are looking for a different kind of school culture.

+1 I don't understand why you would go out of state if you are just going to surround yourself with the exact environment you had from back home...

Notre Dame will give him a little of both worlds.

Anonymous wrote:If you want a big state school with a lot of international and east coast/west coast students, then Michigan is the way to go. Plus, it has a great academic and athletic reputation. It tends to be the go to school for many ivy league rejects but that's not really a bad thing (they tend to still be pretty smart). And, Ann Arbor is a great city that doesn't feel like you're buried in the Midwest because it draws people from all over.

This is exactly why DD preferred Wisconsin to Michigan. She got a real Ivy-wannabe vibe from Michigan. So that can be a turnoff for East Coast kids who are looking for a different kind of school culture.

West Virginia University is a bargain as far as out of state tuition goes, and has a good math program and excellent engineering school -- government and top private sector companies routinely recruit from the engineering school. And you can't beat the big State U D1 experience.

There is a wide variation in the tuition for state schools.

I know it gets laughed at around here, but Alabama is supposed to be popular for OOS students, mostly because the tuition is relatively low and they bend over backwards to give financial aid to OOS students. Florida State is also dirt cheap, out of state (around $20k/year) comparable to Penn State in-state. If you have competitive stats, you can probably go to these schools for little, or nothing.

Here is a the classic list of "public ivies" that most informed people would not dispute:

College of William & Mary (Williamsburg, Virginia)
University of California (Berkeley)
University of Michigan (Ann Arbor)
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of Texas at Austin
University of Virginia (Charlottesville)

You can probably add Georgia Tech (for STEM) to that list, as well as UCLA.

There are other publics that are considered "good" schools, but aren't quite in this league, on a national level -- though they are often well-regarded in their region.

Anonymous wrote:Another vote for UIUC

And another.

Another vote for UIUC

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Michigan and Wisconsin offer a fantastic overall experience. Great academics, locations, school spirit, diverse social opportunities, sports, arts, music, restaurants, and research opportunities. Both schools have a high percentage of out of state students which makes the student body more interesting.

Wisco only very recently voted to remove the cap on OOS. One should not compare Wisco's OOS population to Michigan.

Firstly, Michigan's is a LOT bigger and has been around for a lot longer.

Secondly, a lot of Wisco's OOS population is from states like MN where MN students get in-state rates at Wisco. When I was visiting madison for three days this summer, I ran into more Minnesotans than Wisconsinites (not a bad thing - minnesotans @ wisco are tall, lithe, blonde, attractive, smart, and liberal - awesome) - but I don't find that a great measure of 'national draw'.

Michigan has way more national and international draw and recognition than Wisco. It isn't close.

A fairer asssesment would be to see what % of students are regional students. So only county east coast, West, South, Montain West, and Intl students.

I was curious so I looked up the numbers for Wisconsin 2016 Freshmen
3,603 from Wisconsin
2,161 OOS. Of these 637 were from Minnesota. The next largest number of students were from Illinois, California, New York, Maryland, Massachusetts. (All 50 states)
626 International students.

The law changed in 2015. before the OOS cap was at 27.5% of enrollment.

https://www.wisconsin.edu/news/archive/regents-approve-lifting-cap-on-out-of-state-students-at-uw-madison-day-2-news-summary/

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to the University of Illinois. I am from Illinois, and I liked it just fine. Wasn't a Greek or an athlete, studied political science and generally enjoyed it.

+1. The college experience was excellent at University of Illinois. After my undergrad there, I got into a top 10 econ grad school program. Chicago is a huge hiring base for alumni (obviously), and DC is the 2nd largest base of alumni.

+1. Illinois is a top ten public (tied with Wisconsin at the moment). The advantage comes in getting hired in Chicago. I wouldn't go to Illinois with dreams of Wall Street, but it is a path to getting a well-paying gig in a major city.

So what's going on with the state budget and the University? Was the spring semester cut short due to lack of funding?

No cuts planned for the flagship Illinois yet. They're working on a 5 year funding plan, but the state is totally backwards.

Original U of I poster here.

UIUC is doing okay. They have actually been absorbing students from other schools with less certain futures. A relative teaches at one of the schools with the more dire futures and that person is pretty stressed about the prospects of there even being a spring semester at this point. But UIUC has assets that other institutions do not have - successful athletics program that actually brings in money (even if not as super special as in years past), solid alumni donor base, research funding that other institutions don't have, etc.

If I still lived in IL, I would consider it a solid public university option. I would not necessarily advise a career in the IL public sector, but I think that the system will right itself eventually. Unfortunately for my relative and other educators at institutions that are less secure, that will not come without some people losing their jobs, which sucks.