The University of Illinois will be putting a new tuition policy in place starting with the 2019 incoming class. The policy will allow qualified in-state students whose family’s income is less than $61,000 a full tution scholarship for four years.
To institute a new policy such as this could be a difficult choice for some colleges, but for U of I it seemed almost necessary for them to help students.
“Illinois realized that low to middle class families were having the biggest issue paying. Also, some students were not applying just based on the cost,” Brain Hodges, office of admissions administrator, said.
Besides pricing, there are other issues that this policy could address.
“Another reason for implementing this policy is because a lot of talent is moving out of the states,” Ben Nugent, physics teacher, said.
The tuition will cover everything but room and board, fees related to specific courses, summer and winter courses, studying abroad, and books. However, students are still eligible to earn outside scholarships to pay for fees that aren’t included in the tuition program, according to the University of Illinois website.
“This is going to give students who may not have considered applying because they can’t afford it, an option to put this school on their list,” Jennifer Giorgetti, counselor, said.
When deciding on a college, a student is only 17 or 18 years old. For some, it could be a very difficult choice to make if there is a pricing issue. With this policy in place, it is possible that more students will be taking advantage of this opportunity.
“Every scholarship will be taken, I’m positive of that,” Nugent, said.
The policy institutes a greater opportunity for counselors to help students reach their goal of being accepted to U of I. Even though counselors cannot suggest a certain school to students out of the blue, it could allow more students to make University of Illinois a conversation topic between themselves and their counselor, according to counselor Elaina Kalantzis