There are 1,010 seniors in the class of 2023, and a little over 500 still haven’t filled out their FASFA or Alternative application.  

If you are planning on going to university, filling out your application for FASFA or the Alternative could help you with paying for your classes. 

Some of the two most popular schools according to our survey of 100 Morton East students were Loyola and The University of Illinois in Chicago. Loyola University is a private non-profit university that offers undergraduate, adult, and professional education programs to students. The average cost after aid is $36,000 per year. The graduation rate is 74% and the acceptance rate is 77%. Registered nursing is one of the most popular programs taken at Loyola. The University of Illinois Chicago is a public four-year university. The average cost after aid is $3,000. While the graduation rate is lower than Loyola’s at 60%, the acceptance rate is higher at 79%. Psychology is one of the more common areas of study at UIC. After speaking with Mrs. Legel, at the college and career center, this is what we found out.  

“I see a lot of students apply and go to UIC and Dominican, and Dominican is a private school like Loyola and DePaul, but one of their big missions is to help Hispanic students go to college.  So, for a demographic, Dominican is a private school, that can sometimes be cheaper than some of our public schools,” said Mrs. Legel from the College and Career Center.  

When speaking with Morton East Seniors, many had already applied to universities and got accepted to the ones they applied to. 

“I’m planning on majoring in nursing; so far, I applied to 6 universities, and I got accepted to all of them, but my top two choices are Dominican University or Elmhurst University,” Morton East senior Brenda Napoles said.  

At a two-year university, Hispanic students have a lower graduation rate at 28%, while at a four-year university, the graduation rate is higher for Hispanics at 54%. As a primarily Hispanic high school, we recommend that students to go to universities that will support Hispanics in their collegian careers.