In recent years, students have turned down the U. of I. to attend other Midwest institutions that offer competitive tuition — even for nonresidents — and better financial aid packages. The Urbana-Champaign campus has the highest in-state tuition and fees of any public Big Ten school other than Penn State University, according to the U. of I. Its tuition also is higher than that at peer institutions such as University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Maryland.