Spring Break
Talent pays off for out-of-state students
New program lowers out-of-state tuition rate for fall semester
Krystal Moya / Administration Editor
Issue date: 2/5/09 Section: News
To combat outside institutions from poaching Illinois talent and to encourage enrollment of high achieving out-of-state students, Eastern will enact the Enrollment Enhancement Tuition Program in the fall.
The program will lower out-of-state tuition rates for students of exceptional caliber to the in-state rate, with hopes to increase the enrollment of such students.
"Under the basic criteria we have planned for 2009, we have only two students this year that would fit into the program out of the five that applied," said Blair Lord, provost and vice president for academic affairs.
The two students recruited from out of state were in the top 10 percent of their high school class.
The students paid $654 in tuition per semester hour, while in-state students with the same academic standing paid $218 per semester hour.
"Currently, our out-of-state rate is set at three times our in-state rate- a pretty high rate," Lord said. "High- performance students from out of state who have many opportunities - being courted by other institutions - haven't chosen us in the long run, and we also lose our best to outside institutions with more favorable tuition."
Because of the rate difference, which is the highest for a public higher education institution in Illinois, the number of students currently attending from out-of-state would have to triple in size to cover the loss in tuition revenue from lowering the cost.
"But we only have two students, so we would need to recruit six to break even," Lord said. "It's really not that difficult of a task."
Lord said the idea came from a proposal from Southern Illinois University.
Southern investigated out-of-state tuition programs for both its Carbondale and Edwardsville campuses. Carbondale decided on a rate of 1.0 times the in-state rate with no extra admission criteria for adjacent states. Edwardsville created a guideline for "high achieving" students and set the rate at 1.2 times the in-state rate. Both were per credit hour.
"We found that for Eastern, a combination of these two programs worked best," Lord said.
Eastern's program sets the rate equal to in-state tuition, like that of Carbondale, but requires a certain academic standing, like Edwardsville.
"We are still working out the nuances of the anomalies, as I would call them," Lord said.
President Bill Perry briefly outlined the qualifications of a "high-achieving" student at the January Board of Trustees meeting as the top 10 percent of students in a high school class.
However, Lord explained that not all schools have the same academic standards and the qualifications would have to be adjusted for those who did not meet Eastern's standards.
Lord said he does not foresee any hiccups in the program beyond normal billing procedures and traditional recruiting dilemmas. He also stated that it should not affect in-state students' admission possibilities until the future.
"We are not lowering the cost below the in-state rate, so students shouldn't complain about the 'discount,'" he said. "And, it will not directly affect in-state students' chances of admission because of the low numbers we yield in enrollment from out of state."
"Now, if the program became wildly popular, then maybe some in-state students would be passed over for an out-of-state, increasing competition," he added.
Administrators chose not to begin the program in the spring because of low advertising. Instead, the program will begin for the fall 2009 semester.
"We want to take the summer to advertise and recruit," Lord said. "By then, we should see the impact."
Krystal Moya can be reached at 581-7942 or at ksmoya@eiu.edu.
The program will lower out-of-state tuition rates for students of exceptional caliber to the in-state rate, with hopes to increase the enrollment of such students.
"Under the basic criteria we have planned for 2009, we have only two students this year that would fit into the program out of the five that applied," said Blair Lord, provost and vice president for academic affairs.
The two students recruited from out of state were in the top 10 percent of their high school class.
The students paid $654 in tuition per semester hour, while in-state students with the same academic standing paid $218 per semester hour.
"Currently, our out-of-state rate is set at three times our in-state rate- a pretty high rate," Lord said. "High- performance students from out of state who have many opportunities - being courted by other institutions - haven't chosen us in the long run, and we also lose our best to outside institutions with more favorable tuition."
Because of the rate difference, which is the highest for a public higher education institution in Illinois, the number of students currently attending from out-of-state would have to triple in size to cover the loss in tuition revenue from lowering the cost.
"But we only have two students, so we would need to recruit six to break even," Lord said. "It's really not that difficult of a task."
Lord said the idea came from a proposal from Southern Illinois University.
Southern investigated out-of-state tuition programs for both its Carbondale and Edwardsville campuses. Carbondale decided on a rate of 1.0 times the in-state rate with no extra admission criteria for adjacent states. Edwardsville created a guideline for "high achieving" students and set the rate at 1.2 times the in-state rate. Both were per credit hour.
"We found that for Eastern, a combination of these two programs worked best," Lord said.
Eastern's program sets the rate equal to in-state tuition, like that of Carbondale, but requires a certain academic standing, like Edwardsville.
"We are still working out the nuances of the anomalies, as I would call them," Lord said.
President Bill Perry briefly outlined the qualifications of a "high-achieving" student at the January Board of Trustees meeting as the top 10 percent of students in a high school class.
However, Lord explained that not all schools have the same academic standards and the qualifications would have to be adjusted for those who did not meet Eastern's standards.
Lord said he does not foresee any hiccups in the program beyond normal billing procedures and traditional recruiting dilemmas. He also stated that it should not affect in-state students' admission possibilities until the future.
"We are not lowering the cost below the in-state rate, so students shouldn't complain about the 'discount,'" he said. "And, it will not directly affect in-state students' chances of admission because of the low numbers we yield in enrollment from out of state."
"Now, if the program became wildly popular, then maybe some in-state students would be passed over for an out-of-state, increasing competition," he added.
Administrators chose not to begin the program in the spring because of low advertising. Instead, the program will begin for the fall 2009 semester.
"We want to take the summer to advertise and recruit," Lord said. "By then, we should see the impact."
Krystal Moya can be reached at 581-7942 or at ksmoya@eiu.edu.
The Daily Eastern News encourages on-topic, civil discussion on its articles posted online. It is our policy not to screen comments before they are posted or edit them after they are posted. However, we reserve the right to remove comments that are off-topic, malicious, libelous or include excessive foul language. The DEN also reserves the right to turn off all comments on any story it deems necessary.
Comments violating copyright law will also be removed.
Users who repeatedly violate this policy will be banned from commenting.
If you have any questions on our comment policy or wish to report a comment that you feel violates these standards, please e-mail a link to the article to our Online Editor at DENNews.com@gmail.com.
Be the first to comment on this story