Chance an eager kid for computer science! ;)

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
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<p>Hi guys,
I was wondering what my chance of getting accepted into computer science and getting merit scholarships at uiuc are. Thanks!!</p>

<p>Class of 2016
G.P.A.= 4.78(weighted)/ 3.98 (under-weighted)
Rank: 4/490 at decent suburban public school</p>

<p>ACT: 31 (Science:35, Math:32, Reading:31, English:27, Writing:10)
will be taking one in Sept. aiming for 33/34</p>

<p>AP: Chemistry (5), World History (5), Lang (5), Stats (5) - junior year
Taking AP Physics, AP U.S. History, AP Lit, AP Calc BC this year
Have taken all the honor and AP classes available to me</p>

<p>Extra-Curriculars:</p>

<p>UMSL S.T.A.R.S. Program - did research for 6 wks at WashU St.Louis
wrote 25 pg research report
won LMI Aerospace Award for Excellence in Research (only given to 20/80 ppl in the program)</p>

<p>Varsity Tennis (9-11, 12 mostly likely too)
Won 2 first place medals for Conference and Doubles Tournament at my spot (#5 singles and 3rd doubles, respectively) - junior yr
Named to All-Academic Team for Conference
Awarded Sportsmanship Award (given to one varsity player out of entire conference)
Taken Private Lessons during offseason</p>

<p>FBLA (10-12) - Participate in business competitions and do charity work
Won districts in one category (10)
Vice-Prez (11)
4th place at districts
Prez(12)</p>

<p>Chemistry Club (11)</p>

<p>Job at Kumon for 6 months - not a good experience lol</p>

<p>Electric Guitar for 4 yrs</p>

<p>Should I send in my research paper as a supplement still even though I no longer want to do biomedical engineering?</p>

<p>Thanks again</p>

2

<p>I’d judge that as an easy acceptance, but you have to remember that UIUC is primarily numbers-driven. For getting a merit scholarship, unless you’re a heavily sought after athlete, the ACT score may be a little low. </p>

<p>They also don’t include AP scores regarding admissions, but I’m not sure on scholarships.</p>

<p>**Definitely send in your research paper. It can only help you, and it shows that you have the initiative to take charge of your own education, which is a great asset. The fact that it’s biomedical engineering and not CS really doesn’t matter much.</p>

3

<p>I think you have a very good chance, also, and ditto on ACT. If you can, take it again, and study/practice Writing, English, Reading. Math is supposed to be easiest to bring up, but your score is good.</p>

4

<p>definitely in for Computer Science, not sure about the merit scholarship though, UIUC is pretty stingy with scholarships</p>

5

<p>Thanks for the feedback guys! So would a 33/34 put me in position for some scholarships? Because I’m out of state and would probably be paying 45k a yr :(</p>

6

<p>definitely in. you should have no problem getting scholarships with a near 4.0 and a 31. as long as you apply for a ton you should be set to win a good amount. obviously a higher ACT will give you better chances but it’s only as far as you wanna take it.</p>

7

<p>The best help I can give you is just to show you my stats and what I got.</p>

<p>-Ethnicity: Hispanic
-Weighted GPA: 4.2??
-Unweighted GPA: 4.0
-Class Rank: 3 of 370 (pathetic public HS)</p>

<p>SAT
-Math: 740
-Critical Reading: 740
-Writing: 660
-Essay: 9</p>

<p>SAT II
-Math II: 800
-Physics: 700
(although they don’t count SAT II’s for admission, it may have been included for scholarships. I’m not sure.)</p>

<p>ACT: 34</p>

<p>ECs (star for leadership):
*Pep Band (9-12)
*Marching Band (9-12)
*Drum Major (12)
-District Solo/Ensemble (9-12)
-State Solo/Ensemble (10-12)
*Soccer, high school and club (9-11)
-Tennis (10-12)
-FBLA (11-12)
-NHS (11-12)
-Forensics (9-10)
-Lake Restoration Project (9)
-Red Cross Bike Restoration Project (9-12)
-International Model and Talent Association (11)
-Barbizon Modeling and Acting (10-11)
(These two activities were possibly what made me pop, I wrote an essay about them)
-Tutoring (10-12)
*Assistant Soccer Coach (9-12)</p>

<p>Awards
-Academic recognition every year
-Rotary-acknowledged each year
-Rotary student of the month senior year
-Leadership award at WCATY (wisconsin center for academically talented youth)
-John Philip Sousa award, Drum Major award, other music-related awards</p>

<p>APs, taking the four without scores this year
-Calc AB (5)
-Calc BC (5)
-Stats (5)
-US History (5)
-Physics (5)
-English Lang and Comp (5)
-Literature (4)
-Spanish (2 - didn’t take the class)</p>

<p>My application was more of a niche app, with the music and the acting experience outweighing a lack of science-related ECs, but here’s what I got:</p>

<p>-Admission to EE major
-James Scholar
-Chancellor’s Scholar
-$57k first two years, ~$42k second two years (from a two-year CHP scholarship)</p>

<p>So, like I said, I can’t say how much <em>you’re</em> likely to get from scholarships, but this is what I got with my stats. If you can get that ACT score up and write some sweet essays, I’d hazard to say you’re in line for what I got. The nice thing about Illinois though is that aside from a select few departmental scholarships, you don’t need to do any extra applications aside from working your butt off on the initial admissions application. All mine derived straight from the admissions app, including being admitted to the James Scholar program and the Campus Honors Program.</p>

<p>Hope that helps ^-^</p>

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<p>^do you think non-hispanic applicants can get similar $ amounts for same stats? may be a breakdown of your scholarship amounts will help understand different resources/scholarships available.</p>

9

<p>I would imagine so - my scholarships weren’t necessarily URM related.</p>

<p>1.) Campus Honors Tuition Waiver - $12,000
------OOS CHP student, two-year</p>

<p>2.) Engineering Premier Scholarship - $15,000
------“Extremely high performance in ACT and high school work,” four-year</p>

<p>3.) University Achievement Award - $12,000
------General OOS scholarship, four-year</p>

<p>4.) ECE Grainger Freshman Scholarship - $1,200
------Every ECE student gets this, first semester only</p>

<p>5.) Frederick Secor Memorial Scholarship - $5,000
------“This award can be considered the beginning of a distinguished engineering career,” one-time</p>

<p>6.) Federal Pell Grant - $5,500
------Low-income family, not tied to URM, one-time</p>

<p>7.) OSFA OOS Tuition Waiver - $5,280
------This wasn’t explained well, but I imagine it’s tied to FAFSA</p>

<p>8.) Mary Hulbright Scholarship (?) - $1,500
------I don’t remember the name on this (it was taken off due to being over the ECA), but I don’t think it had any specific terms. Wasn’t departmental if I remember right. One-time.</p>

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<p>^thanks. you did very well. congratulations.</p>

<p>but i think there are too many 34 act’s at uiuc for doling out such great $$ for all, especially oos. i been told that uiuc is stingy with fin aid.</p>

<p>i think not everyone gets chp $12k.</p>

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<p>Congratulations mockingjay451!
Hopefully I can get that act score up to a 33/34.
So far how has everyone’s experience at uiuc been (im guessing u guys are students), and did u pass up a top private school (such as an ivy or washu type) to attend uiuc?</p>

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<p>UIUC is typically very stingy with financial aid, yes. The CHP scholarship isn’t something to expect by any means, although I’m not sure what the criteria is for the scholarship once you get into CHP. ([Scholarship</a> Information | Campus Honors Program at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign](<a href=“Campus Honors Program – Campus Honors Program at UIUC”>Campus Honors Program – Campus Honors Program at UIUC))</p>

<p>@ramzfan13, with your stats, you’re almost certain to get the University Achievement Award, but I’m not sure otherwise. Definitely get your ACT up though if you want stronger consideration =)</p>

<p>I’m moving in as a freshman this Thursday actually, but I’ll be sure to PM you or update the thread as the days go by. I passed up UC-Berkeley as an EE admit, and took myself off the MIT waitlist, because UCB barely covered half of my need, and MIT wasn’t likely to give me so sweet a deal.</p>

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<p>Itsme123, all OOS students who are admitted to the campus honors program receive the tuition waiver (in other words, they will only pay what an in-state student pays). As an in-state student in CHP, I only received a measley $500 for the first year.</p>

<p>To the OP, as a few others have said here, you are basically a shoe-in. If you want a tip as to how to bring up your ACT score, see if you can go work with your English teacher or with another student who is good in English. Once you learn a few tricks, the English portion of the ACT is incredibly easy. I know I’m saying this as someone who used to be a copy editor and who has won awards for writing, but trust me - you just need to learn a few grammar rules. For the reading section, you need to practice. Go buy one of those ACT prep books, and go through several of the practice tests. Make sure to time yourself. This will help for the math portion too.</p>

<p>Good luck getting some of those scholarships. Because I originally didn’t apply to the engineering school (I thought I wanted to study biochemistry, but now I’m in chemical engineering), I did not receive any aid beyond the CHP award. With my ACT score and stats, I probably would have received at least one scholarship, but I guess it doesn’t matter now. Anyway, good luck to you.</p>

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<p>I like how I said I used to be a copy editor, and I made a mistake. I blame my phone. :slight_smile: It should be “shoo-in.”</p>

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<p>mockingjay451 - i hope the move in goes well, i heard its pretty hectic!</p>

<p>what is the criteria for CHP? strong ACT and g.p.a. or does it also include extracurriculars?</p>

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<p>All of the above, and more. The selection criteria is primarily based on the ACT, GPA, involvement in extracurricular activities, and evidence of leadership. Your regular application to the university is used as the application to CHP. If the admission committee thinks that you may be a good candidate for the program, someone will contact one of the advisors you listed next to your extracurricular activities to learn more about you. My best advice to you if you want to get into the program (a little over 100 students are chosen from each freshman class) is to write great essays. I got to read a few essays to help the committee pick this year’s class, and I have to say that some of the essays were not that great… Write about something that you honestly care about and let that show in your words. The creative essays or the ones that let me get to know the writer a little better were the ones that stuck in my mind. I’ll admit that the essay prompts for UIUC are generally not that inspiring or original, but work with them. For example, if you choose to write about a sport you play (I read a lot of those), don’t say, “I like basketball because I get to be a team player, and even though it’s a lot of work, it made me a better person” or something to that effect. It’s boring. Generic. Instead, actually describe a particular game or an instance that it made you a better person. Let the reader get to know you a little better. That’s more memorable.</p>

<p>For more information, go to honors.Illinois.edit and look for the faq page.</p>

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<p>Would u mind reading over one of my essays I wrote for UIUC? i would really appreciate it since you have a good idea of what they expect</p>

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<p>finley,
so students read the essays? to what extent your evaluation affects the outcome or you simply assisting a committee?</p>

<p>isn’t oos chp is very hard, only about 5 or so a year. are the criteria any different for oos or they don’t get that many oos. i suppose “mockingjay” is a good example, but i think there must be many 34 act and high gpa applicants from oos.</p>

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<p>Raise the ACT score and you’re probably going to get a nice big sum of merit scholarship money. It’ll also be easier to get into the honors programs (James Scholar requires top 1 percentile, so 34 or so, but in your case as top 1% in your class that would probably work for you. Chancellor’s Scholar is a bit more selective, and I’m not sure how exactly they factor ACT score into it, but I would recommend shooting a little bit higher.)</p>

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<p>I thought for the James Scholar u needed both 34 and top 1% of class</p>