This year, fewer students traveled to the University for their freshman year of college — even students from Illinois.

Since 2006, the number of incoming in-state freshman that enrolled at the University has decreased from 6,385 to 4,927 this year.

Charles Tucker, vice provost for Undergraduate Education and Innovation, said in an email that the University regularly admits between 69 and 70 percent of Illinois students who apply to the campus. For the 2014-2015 school year, 71 percent of students admitted to the University were from Illinois, compared with 73.1 percent last year.

“We recruit aggressively within the state, and this year we had more freshman applications from Illinois (17,331) than in either of the two previous years,” Tucker said.

He also said the University enrolled more in-state transfer students than last year.

Last year, 35,822 of students applied to attend the University. Of those applicants, 21,150, or 59.0 percent, were admitted and 6,937, or 32.8 percent, of those students chose to enroll. This shows an increase in applicants from last year, which was 33,201 students; however, 7,331, or 35.4 percent, of admitted students enrolled to the University last year.

Tucker said the most common reason that admitted students turn down the University is net cost.

“For some students we cannot offer enough financial aid to offset our tuition,” Tucker said. “Financial aid is a major priority for campus fundraising, and we have steadily increased the scholarships we award each year.”

The Board of Trustees recently approved an increase in financial aid from $68 million to $84 million. University spokesman Tom Hardy said in a previous interview that the University typically increases the level of financial aid on a yearly basis along with the rate of tuition, which largely funds financial aid.

According to Tucker, the University works hard to keep cost from being a factor that deters qualified students from coming to the University. The Board of Trustees is doing so by working to keep tuition growth to around the cost of living.

As for the increasing number of international students from China, Tucker said the University office in Shanghai, which opened in December of last year, is not a reason why 62.1 percent of international students are from China. Instead, he said the office is focused on building connections with alumni, corporations and other universities.

“The large number of applications we receive from international students reflects of the strong reputation of our university worldwide, so we do not spend much on international recruiting,” Tucker said.

Aixin Li, senior in Media, traveled from Shenyang, China to attend the University. She said she applied to a lot of universities but chose the University of Illinois because of its high ranking — a reason mentioned by Tucker as a top reason international students chose to attend the University.

“I did my research and I realized this college is really diverse,” Li said. “I felt I would be comfortable living and studying here.”

Li said another reason she came to the University is because she believes it pushes opportunities for its students, allows her to meet students from different cultural backgrounds and promotes a safe environment.

“U of I really wants to be acceptive of internationals and a lot apply, so more and more are applying,” Li said.

Tucker reiterated Li’s desire to attend a university that promoted an inclusive campus by saying that one way the University helps students understand and work collaboratively is by building a diverse class of bright, talented students.

“Part of the Illinois experience is getting to know people who are different from you,” Tucker said. “Having a student body that is diverse in many dimensions — gender, race, ethnicity, country of origin — improves the educational experience for everyone.”

Taylor can be reached at [email protected].