The newspaper did not identify the applicant Friday except to say he was related to Tony Rezko, the Blagojevich fundraiser convicted of corruption last year. Blagojevich was impeached and removed from office in January.
The Tribune said its story was based on 1,800 pages of documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
A university spokesman, Thomas Hardy, confirmed to The Associated Press that the school keeps a list of "Category I" applicants of special interest to lawmakers and others. But he said questionable admissions were rare.
The Rezko relative was accepted after the school's president, University President Joseph White, wrote in an e-mail that Blagojevich "would like to see" him admitted, the Tribune said.
That was despite an e-mail from an admissions officer saying the applicant's qualifications were "actually pretty low. ... Let me know when the denial letter can go out."
White said Friday he passed along the note about Blagojevich's interest but didn't mean it to be interpreted as an order for the admissions office to admit the applicant.
"I'm putting out a communication today to the university community that makes it crystal clear that admissions are to be based on merit only and that our people are not to succumb to pressure to admit," White told The Associated Press.
The Tribune said its review indicated 77 percent of the 800 students placed on the list since 2005 were accepted for admittance to the flagship Urbana-Champaign campus.
