I'm not putting down CMU - sure it's a fine school, but anyone who thinks that campus is even close to SIU is nuts! 🤐
I'm proud to say my son got both his under and graduate degrees at SIU. He's been out for several years now. Met his wife there. Lives/works in Lexington, KY. Doing great. Just got his first White Paper published two weeks ago and found out last week that the book he wrote a chapter for will be published in the next few months. A SIU professor is the author. He's an investigator and a Captain in the Army Reserves.
Those of you who know me know the story of my son being involved in an auto accident while at SIU. He missed a year. Almost every level of people at SIU kept regularly in touch (INCLUDING RITA CHANG who was bashed on previous sites). Chancellor, Department Head, Assc and Asst Professors, insurance department, etc. were constantly in touch. They promised to put whatever resources were needed to get him his education. Transportation, walkers, tutors, etc. would be made available if necessary. Fortunately they were not. But how many schools would treat any student as if they were their own. SIU DID!!! SIU was a very good decision.
I'm not sayin' -- I'm just sayin'!
Also, forgot to add one of the biggest selling points as a parent for sending the kid to Mesa; ALL athletes get in-state tuition (if not on a larger scholarship) upon signing their letter of intent. Housing and fees are still at out of state rates, but even living on campus, it's a bargain. Additionally, if/when the athlete doesn't compete any longer (the son left swimming after two years), as long as they maintain a 2.5 GPA or above, they keep that rate. He'll leave college with $0 debt and I'll have money left in his 529. Didn't SIU used to have a "legacy" program for offspring of an alum to get in-state tuition?? Does SIU offer in-state tuition to neighboring states?
SIU does have a legacy program. Instate tuition and a discount on top of that. My son is a JR in HS. SIU has a program that he is somewhat interested in, but it will still be cheaper for him to attend UC,UK, WKU, Murray or U of L... He is a Dawg fan, so I will let him make up his own mind when it is time for his decision.
It is also great to hear about the way CU Mesa deals with athletes. Next time I make the scenic drive, I will stop and check out the school. If her diving career stalls at GCU, she just might consider moving her game up to Colorado. As Jim M once said, "the west is the best".
CMU has a really good diving program! The kid's sophomore roommate was a diver from Michigan.
facilities don't suck, either... https://www.coloradomesa.edu/rec-center/facilities/natatorium.html
I'm proud to say my son got both his under and graduate degrees at SIU. He's been out for several years now. Met his wife there. Lives/works in Lexington, KY. Doing great. Just got his first White Paper published two weeks ago and found out last week that the book he wrote a chapter for will be published in the next few months. A SIU professor is the author. He's an investigator and a Captain in the Army Reserves.
Those of you who know me know the story of my son being involved in an auto accident while at SIU. He missed a year. Almost every level of people at SIU kept regularly in touch (INCLUDING RITA CHANG who was bashed on previous sites). Chancellor, Department Head, Assc and Asst Professors, insurance department, etc. were constantly in touch. They promised to put whatever resources were needed to get him his education. Transportation, walkers, tutors, etc. would be made available if necessary. Fortunately they were not. But how many schools would treat any student as if they were their own. SIU DID!!! SIU was a very good decision.
I've had experience with several schools. At least back when I went to The Southern Illinois University, my department and the campus in general were so much warmer and friendlier than other places - was a great experience. My kids are SIU alums and they felt exactly the same way.
Yea the campus is better, it also has 100+ years of tree growth to help. Get close to it and the last 40-70 years of poor building choices really undercut all the beauty arguments. Not so much that it doesn’t beat out a real new vanilla one like Colorado Mesa which was a community college until 8 years ago, but I wouldn’t call it top tier.
and rip on grand junctions beauty all you want, I’d take being 1.5 hours from Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park or right on top of Colorado National Monument over being close to giant city any day of the week. Or driving distance from the Rocky Mountains or Moab and it’s two parks.
SIUs campus is one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful that I have seen and I have been to many college campuses. The city of Carbondale (not the region) is run down. Students come to Carbondale to visit campus and might be turned off by its image. The city needs to keep making improvements. The university needs to market itself to Chicagoland students as a cheap school (lower tuition) that is in a warmer climate, in a beautiful region, and still in state, but also a train ride away from home that you can get a great education at. Academic facilities are aging for some departments, but you can make up for that by lowering tuition. We have EXCELLENT faulty and I wouldn’t trade my experience there for anything. I worry about the ability for SIU to attract students with the current image of Carbondale. As a recent grad, students don’t tend to fall in love with the area until they attend the school; I went there because it was cheap and has a good engineering program. I had no idea how beautiful the area was and how much of a family atmosphere the school was until after I started classes there.
It is absurd that siue enrolls more students than SIU. Their campus is borderline ugly, their academics are equal or worse, and the town is boring. It has to be marketing and consistent leadership. You can say the population is larger there, but it’s only 1.5-2 hours from Carbondale. We’ve had bad leadership, and every time we get a good leader recently they die of a freak cancer or have been chased off; it is really a shame and some hard luck. John Dunn is a great person, but we need someone like him that will be permanent.
Most students don’t really place “campus beauty” real high on the list. E is in a bigger population center and closer to a major city, that’s going to make a bigger difference than SIU having pretty trees
It is absurd that siue enrolls more students than SIU. Their campus is borderline ugly, their academics are equal or worse, and the town is boring. It has to be marketing and consistent leadership. You can say the population is larger there, but it’s only 1.5-2 hours from Carbondale. We’ve had bad leadership, and every time we get a good leader recently they die of a freak cancer or have been chased off; it is really a shame and some hard luck. John Dunn is a great person, but we need someone like him that will be permanent.
Completely agree. Not impressed with the new enrollment manager at this point. I still believe with some intelligent admin (haven't seen it in a long while), SIU will come back. Will never be 25K again and that's fine. There are so many positives - I'm optimistic.
I'm starting to think Jerry Kill should be the Chancellor for the next decade. He knows how to get stuff done. Not sure an academic leader has the ballz to do it.
2 hours from St. Louis is not far. We would go there often when I was in school. How are pretty trees, lakes, natural beauty not high on the list? Warmer climate than up north, faculty that engages with students and don’t treat them as secondary to their research, a national forest within an hour, camping, boating, cliff diving, breweries, wineries, family atmosphere, plenty of scholarships that actually makes us cheaper than surrounding schools, but because it’s higher before scholarships people write it off (including people on this board). SIU does a bad job of selling all this. These are all important to younger generations, but no one knows about it. The dorms in their current state are nicer than half the colleges I’ve visited, including ISU! (SIU Towers could use a paint job). Carbondale needs to improve its curb appeal and bring back the fun and safe image. SIU needs to prioritize improving academic facilities and marketing. Jerry Kill is doing an insanely good job with athletics.
Yea the campus is better, it also has 100+ years of tree growth to help. Get close to it and the last 40-70 years of poor building choices really undercut all the beauty arguments. Not so much that it doesn’t beat out a real new vanilla one like Colorado Mesa which was a community college until 8 years ago, but I wouldn’t call it top tier.
and rip on grand junctions beauty all you want, I’d take being 1.5 hours from Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park or right on top of Colorado National Monument over being close to giant city any day of the week. Or driving distance from the Rocky Mountains or Moab and it’s two parks.
The landscape is a huge part of a college campus. How about a 40 acre lake, a 10 acre woods to walk through on the way to class, etcetera. How many campuses are there where you can take a short walk from your dorm and go canoeing?
Contrary to a previous comment, campus beauty is a BIG selling point with students. SIU may not be William and Mary or UVA, but it is one of the nicer campuses in the Midwest. SIU does a poor job selling this beautiful campus.
Have you visited U of I or NIU lately? Take a real close look and you will see some very rundown fugly facilities here and there. The Ed building at Illinois is right up there with Quigley for 50's ugly! Lots of ugly old buildings on that huge campus.That's going to happen on a big campus, which is/should be in a constant state of renewal. After WW2, higher ed boomed and lots of ugly concrete buildings went up to meed the need.
(not to mention quonset huts - think SIU still has one behind Neckers - not sure if Illinois still has their quonset huts)
Faraday Hall at NIU is looking crappy these days, not to mention the Art building that was hideous from day 1. Those towers out in the cow pasture are just as ugly as those at ISU or SIU.
IIT, Northeastern, and UIC are beyond ugly - radioactive due to excessive concrete!
and yet most of those schools are doing better than us so that should be a sign that campus beauty isn’t really moving the needle all that much for the modern student or even if it does other factors are being ranked more highly. I would say cost, program quality, social scene, quality of nearby population center, and probably athletic program name recognition are all going to rank higher
NIU enrollment dropped from 22000 10 years ago to 14,000 last year - same number of students it had in the 60s. It's 70 miles from Chicago.
EIU, WIU, NEIU, SIUE have all had large enrollment drops. ISU had a small enrollment drop.
This not just an SIU problem.
IIT is a small, private tech school.
U of I and UIC are the only state schools that haven't dropped enrollment.
Campus beauty is a factor - most students could care less about athletics. SIU does a poor job of advertising selling itself.
Athletics matter in terms of brand recognition not so much students caring about actively going to the games and such. A team going to the final four is going to bring in a lot more people than having pretty trees
