<p>I applied pretty late in the game (sent out Dec. 15)... anyway, I originally applied for Bioengineering, but they sent me a letter telling me that the bioengineering department was full (kind way of saying I don't qualify perhaps?), so they gave me a list of other engineering majors to choose from--saying that I would be accepted to any other... They are asking me to consider Materials engineering with a biomaterials concentration... Hmm?</p>
<p>What shall I do? How is materials engineering at UIUC? Danka.</p>
<p>I believe UIUC has the #1 ranked undergraduate materials engineering program. Bioengineering is super-selective because it's in its infancy stages and the 75th percentile old SAT score is a 1600. So a lot of times, people will be rejected from bioengineering but accepted to their choice of an alternate engineering major. If you're really interested in the major, I would suggest doing EE and then going to grad school in bioengineering.</p>
<p>So if I am not qualified for certain Engineering...and would be likely to be admitted in other engineering.. maybe like robotFOOD;
does UIUC always send letters to the applicants?</p>
<p>General rule applicable to your choice of major: if they do not accept you into it, you get no second choice (and no letter offering you a second choice)-- they may make such an offer to a small number of applicants but don't count on it.</p>
<p>Special rule applicable to bioengineering: it is still a new program and they are offering admission to only about 50 applicants (to end up with 25 to 30 enrolled). Because class rank and test scores required are higher than other engineering majors, and because they are getting many more with those top scores than they can accept for bio, they adopted a special rule for it to give those high applicants a second choice. However, it does not mean everyone who applies to bio and rejected will be offered a second choice.</p>
<p>I think in some cases, top applicants may be offered admission to an alternate major. My friend applied to ECE and was offered admission to any alternate major (before the bioengineering days), so he chose CS. He graduated with close to a 3.95 GPA.</p>