Getting To Know: Illinois Tech
One school that I did not get to visit on my October Chicago Tour was the Illinois Institute of Technology, branded as Illinois Tech. However, I had the opportunity to attend a virtual counselor’s briefing that encouraged me to do research on my own and watched a program about Illinois Tech on The College Tour. Please check out my Illinois Tech Pinterest page as well as the photos I will drop in this story. I want to thank colleagues and friends: Stephanie Kwo Friedl, Jeana Kawamura, Samantha Dotson, Hanna Stotland, April Paris-Joseph, and Kate Ryan for sharing their photos with me.
There’s much to like about Illinois Tech.
The academics, the career development programs, and college city life in Chicago are the best reasons to choose Illinois Tech.
However, about two thirds of an incoming class will need 4 ½ to five years to graduate. That’s a must for the Bachelor of Architecture (BArch), designed to lead to professional licensure as well as dual bachelor’s programs and the accelerated bachelor’s-masters programs. There’s also an accelerated path to a law degree at Illinois Tech’s Chicago-Kent College of Law. Freshman retention was most recently 87 percent. However, it has been better than 90 percent in the past, according to institutional research data.
For those who care about rankings, Illinois Tech, with just over 3,100 undergrads, has the second-smallest undergraduate student body (after Caltech) among US News’ Top 100 National Research Universities
Illinois Tech is not exceptionally selective for the rigorous academics that it offers.
Sixty-one percent of the students who applied to enter in Fall 2023 were accepted, although only 14 percent deposited. The average weighted GPA exceeded 4.0. While only 41 percent of enrolled students submitted test scores, the middle 50 percent scored between 1230 and 1390. My perception from these numbers is that admission to Illinois Tech will be easier than admission to the main campuses of the University of Illinois or Purdue for a similar STEM major. The numbers are about the same as those for Iowa State or the University of Iowa.
Illinois Tech has made tremendous strides towards affordability for a private school, especially for students who already live in Chicago.
The average merit scholarship for 2022 arrivals was nearly $30,000. Merit awards might not always reduce the price below the costs to go to Home State U in most states. However, it might cost less to attend Illinois Tech than the flagship schools in neighboring states. The average student loan debt for 2022 graduates was just under $32,000. That’s $1,000 over the maximum that students can borrow over five years from the Federal Student Loan Program. However, nearly half of the graduates did not need to take out loans to cover educational costs and the majority needed five years to graduate.
Illinois Tech has nearly 30,000 alumni in the Chicago area registered in LinkedIn.com. It also has a respectable size community over nearly 4,500 alumni in California. Those who want to work in Chicago or the immediate suburbs will find jobs as long as they do the networking to find them.
Illinois Tech’s history dates back to 1893, but its campus first developed during World War II.
Two technical schools, the Armour Institute of Technology and the Lewis Institute of Technology merged to form Illinois Institute of Technology in 1940. Laid out as a grid much like a city, the Illinois Tech campus is one of the more historically significant achievements in college campus planning. Illinois Tech actually has about triple the acreage of the residential campuses of DePaul and Loyola-Chicago. I dropped a daytime aerial view below.
Led by acclaimed architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Illinois Tech’s original buildings, completed during the early 1940’s. set design standards of boxy buildings of steel with floor-to-ceiling glass walls and flexible living, work and study spaces that are often copied today. Less Is More is a philosophy behind Mies’ buildings. You can also find that statement on a t-shirt sold in the Illinois Tech bookstore.
Mies’ designs, which emanated from the Bauhaus school of architecture were followed as the campus grew over the next three decades. They were extended to Carr Memorial Chapel aka The God Box.” Even neighboring privately-owned mid-rise and high-rise apartment buildings near campus, Lake Meadows and Prairie Shores, appear to follow Mies’ original standards. So, has the most recent addition to the campus, the Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation and Tech Entrepreneurship. Bauhaus buildings can have curved sides as well as flat ones. I dropped some exterior and interior photos below.
I had to take three virtual tours to understand this campus.
One tour conducted by the Mies Society of the Illinois Tech Alumni Association, told me the most in terms of the history as well as the efforts and expense required to renovate and update these buildings for 21st century students. I appreciate the historical significance of the Mies buildings and the thoughts behind their construction. However, I also felt that Illinois Tech’s main campus, aka the Mies Campus, more closely resembled a corporate office park than any school I have personally visited, with the possible exception of SUNY flagships and the University of Maryland-Baltimore County.. Illinois Tech even has a technology park adjacent to the campus that adds to the office park look and feel.
Housing options on and off campus are more plentiful than you might expect.
Just over 40 percent of the undergraduate student body lives on campus. George J. Kacek Hall, one of the Mies’ designed buildings was renovated and re-opened after the pandemic. Greek social life engages 10 percent of the students. Fraternities and sororities are on Greek Quad, an on-campus housing complex. Popular off-campus housing options include Lake Meadows and Prairie Shores which will cost over $850/person/month plus utilities. Illinois Tech sold its former administration building, which opened in 1893, about seven years ago. This building will be converted into micro-apartments as well as one-bedroom units.
Illinois Tech students also live in Bridgeport on Chicago’s South Side.
Bridgeport is the ancestral home of the Daleys, the First Family of Chicago politics. Richard J. Daley was mayor from 1955 until his death in 1976. Richard M. Daley was mayor from 1989 to 2011. His brother, John P. Daley is the 11th Ward Democratic Committeeman who represents Bridgeport today and also sits on the Cook County Board of Commissioners. Another brother, William M. Daley, served as U.S. Secretary of Commerce under former President Bill Clinton and White House Chief of Staff under former President Barack Obama.
Three other Chicago mayors came from Bridgeport: Michael Bilandic (who succeeded Richard J. Daley upon his death), Edward Kelly and Martin Kennelly. The campus plan for Illinois Tech was first implemented under Kelly and continued under Kennelly and Richard J. Daley. Illinois Tech would not be what it is or where it is without the support of these mayors.
Prospective students can apply to programs in undergraduate schools in Architecture, Business, Computing, Engineering and Science & Letters.
Applicants are evaluated for fit to major and Illinois Tech has a user-friendly guide to help applicants determine their fit. Illinois Tech also runs high school summer programs to help. Also, unlike other technologically focused schools, they can apply undecided through the Discover+ program. Discover+ students spend the first year, possibly the second, taking general education courses as well as prerequisites for their possible majors. This will work fine for students who are interested in anything outside of architecture or engineering. The major coursework and the career development process, branded Elevate, starts earlier for those programs than it does for the others.
Every student, regardless of major, must have at least two hands-on experiences before they graduate.
This can include paid work, either internships or co-ops, competitions, independent or faculty-supervised research, study abroad, and more. The career services are quite comprehensive given the small size of the student body. One interesting note: students may receive “administrative credit” for internships, but not academic credit. However, those who intern during their last semester must produce an academic paper or project in conjunction with the work experience.
I also needed to listen to students who helped me understand this community.
I recommend going to the page for ScarletHawkTV and listen to some longer viewpoints. These are more of the “how to” variety that will help prospective students to better understand campus life and find their way around Chicago. The hosts do an excellent job of narrating different aspects of this school, which you don’t get on programs like The College Tour.
It’s tough to fault a school that gives its students a fairer chance to succeed than they might get at larger universities.
Illinois Tech helps its students to find rewarding careers, and offers generous merit aid, while also being in a great college town. I personally find Chicago to be an easier college town to navigate than Boston or New York because each mass transit line is one color and the street layout is easier for me to understand.
However, the Liiinois Tech community that appears to bond more around the academics and smaller friend groups than a school such as Purdue that also bonds around sports, Greek life, and major campus events. The more motivated that one is towards their academics, while trying to be sociable, the more likely they will succeed here. There seems to be plenty of help available for those who seek it, and there appears to be academic pride about succeeding here.
But beauty is in the eye of the beholder when it comes to college campuses. I’m not sure how well the look and feel of the Mies campus connects with today’s college students. A prospective architect might love it for the historical ties to Mies van der Rohe. But I’m not sure that students in other majors will feel the same way.
I recommend two visits, one to learn if Illinois Tech gets on your list, the other to come on accepted students’ day. Incoming students will share a community and Chicago with some very bright and curious people. However, they will also share a campus that looks nothing like any other school they considered.
Report Card: Illinois Tech
- 5-year Graduation Rate: B
- Freshman Retention: B+
- Costs: A
- Community: A
- Curriculum: A
- Comforts: B+
- Connections: A (Chicago metro area)/B (California)/C (Elsewhere)
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