<p>I'm being paranoid - my son will be applying to Mechanical Engineering with solid scores. An admission counselor told us if he were not admitted to M.E. it would not hurt his overall chances of being admitted to the university. I'm still really nervous because he would definately be admitted to LAS. </p>
<p>So, is it true that his chances would be the same for overall admittance if he applies to M.E.? I guess I should believe what the counselor told us, but...</p>
<p>Two years ago that would have been untrue as you were condsidered for admission only by the particular college to which you apply. Rule now is as follows: On the application after you choose major/college to which you are applying, you are also asked if you want to be considered for a second choice, generally LAS undecided (or general curriculum, not sure what they are calling undecided now). Make sure the answer you give on the app is yes. Then, if engineering rejects, you will be considered for admission to LAS.</p>
<p>However, you should not assume that means certain admission. Having the stats (class rank/test score) needed does not guarantee admission to any major/college at UIUC (as annually some rejected top 10%'ers with 34 ACTs have professed in news reports that usually come out in April or May). In other words, regardless of who you are and how good your resume, you should apply to at least one "safety" university other than UIUC.</p>
<p>Yes, we are hoping for UIUC but have already applied to several other schools just in case. I have also heard of kids being offered a different discipline in Engineering than the one they applied to; do they just try to find the right fit if there is room? We already have a son who is a Sophomore in Computer Science Engineering and is doing fantastic. I will be so relieved (hopefully) when this whole process is over!</p>
<p>Engineering sometimes offers admission into another program to an applicant rejected for one program. However, that is a matter of discretion and you should not assume that will occur for any particular applicant. The engineering college has particularly been doing it with high applicants who apply for and are rejected for bioengineering, a fairly new program with limited seats and for which the average rank/ACT score for those admitted has been in the top 3%/34 range</p>