Illinois State University places a premium on creating a learning environment where students will benefit from "the small-school feeling they get from this large university, and the incredible opportunities they encounter," The Yale Daily News's The Insider's Guide to Colleges reports.

The University is located in Bloomington-Normal, twin cities with a population exceeding 110,000. Bloomington-Normal, roughly half way between Chicago and St. Louis, is home to State Farm Insurance Companies, Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing of America, Inc., and to M*A*S*H's Lt. Col. Henry Blake a.k.a. McLean Stevenson, who put the Twin Cities on the map with his frequent references on the top-rated sitcom to "back home in Bloomington." It also was home to two famous Adlai Stevensons-one was vice president of the United States and the other was governor of Illinois, twice was the Democratic Party's nominee for president, and was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Illinois State University is one of the 100 best values in public colleges in the United States, according to Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, based on a formula blending academic quality and cost factors.

Founded in 1857, Illinois State is a coeducational, residential university that emphasizes undergraduate study. Its 34 academic departments in six colleges offer 63 undergraduate programs in more than 160 fields of study. The Graduate School coordinates 38 master's, two specialist, and seven doctoral programs.

Illinois State is a campus of almost 21,000 students-18,000 undergraduates and 2,600 graduate students-who are enrolled in half dozen colleges: Applied Science and Technology, Arts and Sciences, Business, Education, Fine Arts, and the Mennonite College of Nursing.

The 850-acre campus features 61 major buildings, most of which are less than 30 years old. A 73,000-square-foot College of Business building is under construction. The University employs about 1,100 faculty members. The resources at Milner Library include more than 1.5 million books, 5,000 magazine and journal subscriptions, and 25,000 multimedia items.

Illinois State seeks a highly motivated, academically well-prepared, and diverse student body (www.IllinoisState.edu/admissions). The University offers a nationally recognized, widely respected Honors Program, which has been described as one of only two state university Honors Programs in Illinois that provide students with "an Ivy League education." Additionally, it was recently featured in the New York Times.

The University's 2003-2010 strategic plan- Educating Illinois: An Action Plan for Distinctiveness and Excellence-is guided by five key values:

• Individualized attention
• Public opportunity
• Active pursuit of learning
• Diversity
• Creative response to change

Among Illinois State's 150,000 alumni are:

• Donald McHenry, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations during the Carter administration.
• Reg Weaver, president of the Washington, D.C.-based National Education Association, which has 2.7 million members and represents elementary and secondary school teachers, higher education faculty, and other educators.
• Sean Hayes, who portrays "Jack McFarland" on the NBC television series, Will & Grace.
• Laurie Metcalf, who played "Jackie" on the hit television series, Roseanne.
• Dan Roan, sports anchor for WGN-TV's News at Nine in Chicago.
• C. Robert O'Dell was a lead scientist in the development of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

Here are some recent "headlines" from Illinois State University:

• Illinois State is in the midst of an $88-million fund-raising campaign, Redefining "normal," which has the goal of raising $30 million for the University's endowment, $27 million for enhancing the campus experience, $12 million for promoting five areas of excellence, and $19 million for the Annual Fund. By the end of 2003, $75.9 million had been raised.
• As a result of Redefining "normal," Illinois State has four new endowed chairs:
  • Tom and Janet Andes Chair in General Education;
  • Kara Peters Chair in Special Education Assistive Technology;
  • Edmondson-Miller Chair in Insurance and Risk Management;
  • K. Patricia Cross Chair in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, which is thought to be the only university-wide endowed chair in that field nationwide.
• Biological Sciences major Rebecca Anderson, an Illinois State Presidential Scholar with a perfect 4.0 grade-point average, is studying for a year at St. Peter's College, University of Oxford in England. Anderson is the first Illinois State student to earn such an honor.
• Physics major Robert Wagner was one of two recipients of the American Physical Society's 2001 Leroy Apker Award, which is presented annually to nation's top two physics students as determined by the society. Wagner, who also received a Barry Goldwater Scholarship in 2001, published nine articles as an undergraduate in physics journals. His work in the University's intense laser physics theory unit was selected as one of the five best undergraduate research projects in the United States by the American Physical Society in 1999 and 2001.
• The U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command awarded two Illinois State professors $1 million in 2003 to study Parkinson's disease to probe basic neurodegenerative processes and their consequences, potentially leading to earlier and improved diagnosis and treatment.
• Charles Orser, distinguished professor of Anthropology, was featured in September, 2003, on an episode of "Moments in Time" on the Discovery Channel.
• Illinois State joined the Washington, D.C.-based American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) in 2003 in a national initiative, the American Democracy Project, to increase the number of undergraduate students who will be engaged in civic actions.
• Illinois State University has been named one of 12 "Founding Institutions" selected to participate in a national project known as the "Foundations of Excellence(tm) in the First College Year". The project, jointly sponsored by the Policy Center on the First Year of College and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), will develop a model of excellence for the first college year. Funding for the two-year project has been provided by Lumina Foundation for Education and The Atlantic Philanthropies.

For more information about Illinois State, visit the University's web site at www.IllinoisState.edu