<p>I don’t think that either UIUC or IIT look at extracurriculars too much from transfer students. More importantly, they look for performance in college level courses and focus on a major. Starting and operating your own business is more than extracurricular, however, and would probably be a plus in your application.</p>
<p>Yes, IIT only has those two courses officially available as we do not have an astronomy major. However, we are developing a relationship with the Adler Planetarium with one graduate student doing her Ph.D. there in astrophysics and we have had an undergraduate work as a summer intern on one of their research projects (VERITAS). we also have an instructor who is an astrophysicist and has supervised undergraduate research in that area.</p>