To: All Faculty & All Academic Professionals & All Civil Service Staff &
           All Undergrad Students & All Grad Students <everybody@illinois.edu> 
    From: "Chancellor Richard Herman" <chancellor@illinois.edu>

Reply-To: chancellor@illinois.edu
 Subject: MASSMAIL - Admissions

Dear Campus Community 

I am writing you to respond to today's story in the Chicago Tribune 
regarding admissions policies at Illinois. 

Let me state at the outset that I have full confidence in our Office of 
Undergraduate Admissions and its professional and dedicated staff led by 
Associate Provost Keith Marshall and Director Stacey Kostell. The 
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has an admissions process based 
on integrity and fairness, one that produces an incoming class that ranks 
among the best academically in the nation. Our graduates go on to do great 
work in the world and, in turn, they reward us through their support and 
loyalty as Illinois alumni.  

It is no secret that competition for admission at Illinois is stiff. 
Thousands of people contact University administrators and others with ties 
to the university every year in regard to the admissions process - 2,300 
calls alone are received by the admissions office on the first decision 
day. This year, the university received 26,000 applications for only about 
7,000 seats in the incoming class. For the Class of 2013, the average ACT 
score was 28 and the average high school class rank was in the 88th 
percentile. We are proud of this tradition of academic quality.

As a land grant university we remain committed to be inclusive and 
accessible in our pursuit of academic excellence. We seek to represent as 
closely as we can the full demographic of the state. With that in mind, we 
will continue to look at academic qualifications and other pertinent 
information included in each application while asking whether we believe 
the student will succeed at our university. 

Admissions is not a science. However, we welcome the challenge the Tribune 
story presents to make every possible effort to ensure the integrity our 
admissions process. 

But given our high retention rate and the many successes of our graduates, 
we believe we mostly get it right.

Richard Herman
Chancellor
This mailing approved by:
The Office of the Chancellor

-- 
This message sent via MASSMAIL.  < http://www.cites.illinois.edu/services/massmail/ >