<p>First, necessary information:
GPA 3.929
Rank 45/560
ACT 35 (No one really takes the SAT here in the Midwest)
Above average extracurricular
Applied for engineering (CS or CE) at both
Out of question for need-based scholarships</p>
<p>So I’ve narrowed the search down to two schools: University of Kansas (KU) and UIUC. KU has
already offered full-ride, but UIUC has yet to accept me, let alone notify me of any scholarships.
Ideally I would like to get total college costs under $10k per year.</p>
<li><p>The UIUC honors program offers in-state tuition to out-of-state students (“Out-of-state
students admitted to the CHP may receive a scholarship in the form of a partial tuition waiver,
covering most of the difference between out-of-state and in-state tuition at UIUC. However, only
approximately 15 out-of-state scholarships are available each year.”), but only 15 receive the
waiver each year. Does anyone with experience know whether or not I am likely to receive one of
these?</p></li>
<li><p>I’ve heard UIUC doesn’t give out much in the way of merit-based scholarships. Is this the
consensus here? Does anyone with experience know UIUC’s average merit-based scholarship package?
I live in Kansas City, if that has any bearing.</p></li>
<li><p>I would really like to go to graduate school at Stanford (I have several relatives who did
this, absolutely loved it, and have enjoyed success since). USNews claims Stanford’s engineering
school accepts 35.5% of applicants. Does anyone know why this number seems so high? And how much
of an edge will a UIUC degree give me over a KU degree come time to apply for graduate school? Is
it worth the potential $40k+ price difference over 4 years?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks for any help you guys can provide. This site is such a great resource, so for all those
who help out, it’s greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>My friend happened to get in with pretty much the same stats. GPA was about the same, but his ACT was a 33. He was also from Missouri, and is majoring in EE.</p>
<p>I'm not so much worried about getting in as I am about getting any sort of merit-based scholarship or waiver. Do you know if your friend is paying the $30k per year to attend UIUC, or was he offered any scholarships?</p>
<p>My friend was accepted to Rolla on a full ride, but decided to go to UIUC. This was because he ended up finding out that they were going to take all of his AP credit (a lot), and thus he already came in as a sophomore. The fact that he had freshman year out of way was really the deciding factor. I'm not sure of his financial status, but his parents aren't poor, both have MBA's and engineering degrees, so I wouldn't imagine him to get much.</p>
<p>The UIUC campus honors program enrolls about 125 and admits about 240 (to get that 125). Your class rank, top 8%, is low -- most campus honors students are in top 2% to 3%. Your test score is high, possibly still giving you some chance. That would get you only the OOS tuition waiver, meaning you would still be looking at about $18,000 total for in-state tuition and fees, room & board, and books.</p>
<p>Your high ACT score makes it likely you will qualify for the College of Engineering's James Scholars program but that one does not get you any money. The college and its departments do have a number of other scholarships available but those usually run only about $500 to $4,000 a year (and for those who actually get scholarships, your average is somewhere between those two numbers).</p>
<p>In other words, you should not expect much in a merit scholarship from UIUC and what you have heard that UIUC does not give out much in merit awards, at least any high ones, is true.</p>
<p>A UIUC grad would probably have an edge for admission to Stanford over a Kansas grad with like major, GPA, and GRE score, but either one is going to need high GPA and GRE to even be considered by Stanford, which is possbily more likely for you to get at Kansas. </p>
<p>Stanford's admission rate is low for engineering grad school. You are dealing with a much smaller pool of applicants for grad schools (all around) than you had for those applying to college out of high school. Moroeover, not that many get the high scores needed to even consider applying to Stanford -- colleges like UIUC produce a lot of 3.2 or lower GPA engineering graduates, who cannot get into Stanford Grad school, who had 4.0 GPA's in high school and 35 ACT's. </p>
<p>It seems to me real hard to turn down a full ride to Kansas to pay for UIUC just on the hope you will do well enough there to go to Stanford for grad school</p>