UIUC & Purdue University -- Research Notes

uiuc_purdue.md · 640 words · 3 min read

UIUC & Purdue University -- Research Notes

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)

Admissions Overview

• Overall acceptance rate: 42% (Class of 2028, from 73,742 applicants)
• Trending down: from 63% in 2020 to 42% in 2024; record applicants for Fall 2025
• Early Action: offered (Nov 1 deadline), no separate published EA rate
• No ED offered
• Testing policy: test-optional; 41% submitted SAT, 14% submitted ACT

Academic Profile

• SAT middle 50%: 1390-1520
• ACT middle 50%: 30-34
• Average unweighted GPA: 3.71 (middle 50%: 3.65-4.0)
• Top 10% of HS class: 59%
• Freshman class size: ~8,500

CS/Engineering Selectivity

• CS acceptance rate: ~6.7% (top-5 nationally ranked program)
• CS+X programs: ~18.5% acceptance rate
• Engineering overall: 20-30% acceptance rate
• This makes UIUC CS comparable to Ivy-level selectivity while the overall university is moderately selective

Yield

• Yield rate: 27.4% (Class of 2024, lowest in recent years)

Demographics (College Scorecard)

Net Cost by Income (College Scorecard)

Illinois Commitment program covers tuition for qualifying in-state families.

Athletics

• Division: NCAA Division I (Big Ten)
• Total athletes: 650 (354 men, 296 women)
• Sports: 21 varsity (10 men's, 11 women's)
• Athlete pct: ~1.8% of undergrads

Simulation Notes

• Category: flagship_public
• The dramatically lower CS acceptance rate (~7%) vs overall (~42%) is a key characteristic. For the simulation, using the overall rate is appropriate since we model university-level admissions, but the notable field flags this.
• Strong in-state bias (71% of freshmen are Illinois residents)
• Very generous financial aid for low-income students ($3,883 net cost for <$30K)

Purdue University

Admissions Overview

• Overall acceptance rate: 49% (Class of 2028, from 78,745 applicants)
• Fall 2025 projected: ~43% on ~87K applicants
• Early Action rate: ~54% vs Regular Decision ~46%
• No ED offered
• Testing policy: test-required (97% submit scores)

Academic Profile

• SAT middle 50%: 1210-1470
• ACT middle 50%: 27-34
• Average unweighted GPA: 3.76 (average SAT 1337 for Fall 2024)
• Top 10% of HS class: ~50%
• Freshman class size: ~11,000

Engineering Selectivity

• Engineering acceptance rate: 34.7% (SAT 1380-1520, GPA 3.89-4.00)
• Much more selective than university overall for engineering and CS

Yield

• Yield rate: 29.1% (Fall 2024, highest since Common App adoption; historically 25-27%)
• Unexpectedly high yield led to overcrowding, triggering more restrictive future admissions

Demographics (College Scorecard)

Net Cost by Income (College Scorecard)

Purdue froze tuition in 2012-13 and has maintained it since.

Athletics

• Division: NCAA Division I (Big Ten)
• Total athletes: 633 (374 men, 259 women)
• Sports: 18 varsity programs
• Athlete pct: ~1.4% of undergrads

Simulation Notes

• Category: flagship_public
• Test-required (unlike most peers) -- 97% submit standardized test scores
• Engineering is significantly more selective (35%) than overall (49%)
• Tuition freeze since 2012-13 makes Purdue very cost-competitive; net price for lowest income bracket is only $4,927
• In-state admission rate 71% vs out-of-state 39% -- strong in-state preference
• Large class size (11K) makes it one of the biggest freshman classes nationally

Sources

• UIUC Admissions: admissions.illinois.edu
• Purdue Admissions: admissions.purdue.edu
• College Scorecard API: api.data.gov/ed/collegescorecard
• CollegeFactual, CollegeSimply, CollegeTuitionCompare
• Purdue Newsroom (2024 Q3 enrollment records)
• UIUC Daily Illini (record applicant numbers)