The University of Missouri admissions system appears to be more resistant to political pressure than the University of Illinois, where a recent scandal sparked policy reform and caused trustees and top administrators to resign.

In some ways, it's not surprising that the University of Illinois' admissions system received so much outside pressure, because the competition to get in there has stiffened in recent years. Last year, the campus received a record 26,000-plus applications for 7,100 spots in the freshman class.

Contrast that to the University of Missouri-Columbia, which has no cap on enrollment and generally accepts about 85 percent of students who apply for the freshman class. Last year, about 16,400 students applied. On top of that, MU has fairly transparent admission standards for undergraduates. If applicants meet the requirements, they are in.

Ann Korschgen, MU's vice provost for enrollment, said she can't recall receiving phone calls or inquiries from legislators about specific students in several years.

"This isn't an issue for MU," she said. "We are trying to admit students rather than deny them."

The university's assertion that it does not receive much outside interference in admissions was substantiated by the results of an open records request. The Post-Dispatch asked the university for all correspondence in the past year and a half between board members or elected officials and top university officials regarding individual applicants.

The university said it found only two e-mail inquiries — one from a legislator and another from a university board member — regarding applicants they knew who landed on the wait list for the law school in Columbia.

State Rep. Brian Yates, R-Lee's Summit, and university curator Doug Russell, both said they were not trying to use their positions to influence the admissions process. But even if that was their intent, they were unsuccessful. In both cases, the students they inquired about were not admitted.

"This is not Illinois," said Lawrence Dessem, the dean of MU's School of Law. "I think this would confirm the fact that we have a good process. We are a state-assisted university and law school and our duties are to every citizen of the state."

But in neighboring Illinois, legislators and trustees successfully pushed University of Illinois officials to admit certain applicants. The Chicago Tribune reported earlier this year that 114 elected officials logged 481 admission inquiries in the past five years. In some cases, this political pressure led university leaders to overrule admissions officers who thought the students should be denied.

The revelations prompted Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn to form a commission to investigate the university's admissions policies. In the wake of the scandal, six university trustees resigned. And in recent weeks, university President B. Joseph White and campus Chancellor Richard Herman have announced they will step down.

The public scrutiny also led to new procedures. The school has eliminated the category for politically connected applicants, made available an appeals form for any applicant to contest an admissions decision, and will make a public record of any admissions inquiries by third parties.

COMPETITION AT MU

Some MU graduate programs are more competitive to get into, such as its law school, which receives 900 to 1,000 applications annually. Last year, the school accepted about 400 students for 150 spots. And about 100 other applicants landed on the wait list.

One of them was a good friend of curator Doug Russell's sons. Russell, president of a manufacturing company in Lebanon, Mo., is one of nine appointed members of the university's governing board.

Russell e-mailed MU Chancellor Brady Deaton about this applicant in February. He followed up in April when the student ended up on the wait list. Russell told Deaton that the man had been accepted to the university's law school in Kansas City but that his first choice was MU. He asked Deaton to forward his comments to the law school.

"I have known (name deleted) all of his life," Russell wrote. "He has always been a very organized and disciplined young man, and I am confident he will put the effort required to be successful."

This set off a flurry of e-mails among Deaton, Dessem and an admissions official.

Dessem e-mailed Deaton confirming that Russell's letter of recommendation was added to the applicant's file and noting the number of students on the wait list.

"As you know, this is a particularly unpredictable year for admissions," Dessem wrote. "...Russell should know, though, that (name redacted) is being given every consideration in the admissions process."

Russell said in a recent phone interview that he was just acting on the student's request.

"As a board member, he had asked if I would submit additional information," he said. "But there was no expectation that because I was inquiring that he would get off the wait list."

In the second case, Yates sent an e-mail to Kenneth Dean, assistant MU provost, about the wife of a cousin who had applied to the law school. Yates, a graduate of the law school, had taken classes from Dean. Yates told Dean that the woman was committed to attending MU if accepted and asked whom he could speak to on the admissions committee on her behalf. He copied the university's lobbyists — Steve Knorr and Marty Oetting — on the e-mail.

The relative landed on the wait list, prompting Yates to e-mail Dean again in July.

Yates was adamant in a phone interview that he was not trying to use his position as a legislator to curry favor for his relative. Rather, he said, he was making the recommendation as an alumni of the school.

In any case, Yates said Dean told him that his relative's chance of admission was slim, judging by movement off the wait list in previous years. So, Yates said, his relative decided to attend law school in Oregon.