<p>Hey all, I just found out about University of Illinois's engineering program through US news and reports. My number 1 choice is U-Mich @ ann arbor but it seems like Illinois is also good, not to mention is is way cheaper for an Out of State person like me (I live in California)</p>
<p>First off before I list my stats: I don't really have much EC's or Community Service
W GPA : 4.6
UW: ~3.75
Rank: Top 2% out of class of ~950
SAT: 1980 (retaking one more time), also taking ACT
SAT IIs: Math 2 -700 (retaking), US History - 690 (not retaking)
APs: (passed tests all but chem and physics) Euro, US, Lang, Calc BC, Chem, Physics, Art History,
APs/Class Schedule for Senior Year: AP Gov (both of them), AP Econ (Both of them), AP French, AP Prob and Stats, AP Bio, AP Lit
Others: I am independently studying multi-variable calculus through MIT's free class podcasts and released tests/homework
Also, I hope to sign up for linear algebra at my community college 2nd semester</p>
<p>EC's: Not that much, but the usual CSF, NHS, Art and Architecture Club
Service: Not that much, but Key Club, School-wide recycling club, and serving food to homeless</p>
<p>Both your GPA and SAT, which the U of I weighs heavily on, are right on the border. You’d probably fare better on the ACT. Class rank looks good. Lots of APs witch is always good. Your chances aren’t great, but decent.</p>
<p>What kind of GPA (W and UW) are they looking at for Engineering students OOS?</p>
<p>They put that the SAT score range for Engineering was 1920 - 2160</p>
<p>OoS doesn’t make a difference in what kind of GPA or SAT they look for. They hold both to the same standards. For engineering, the middle 50% of admitted freshman had an SAT between 1920 and 2160. Doing the math, that puts you in about the 37% percentile for admitted freshman engineers assuming a normal distribution. That isn’t as bad as it sounds though since that means you would be higher than 37% of admitted freshmen in engineering.</p>
<p>The middle 50% of incoming engineers ranked between the 91st and 98th percentile in their class, which puts you right around the 75th percentile in that regard. That is pretty good. </p>
<p>I would say you have a pretty good chance of getting in based on those stats.</p>
<p>Just as an FYI, UIUC couldn’t care less about SAT II scores. They won’t even look at them.</p>
<p><a href=“http://admissions.illinois.edu/apply/requirements_freshman.html[/url]”>http://admissions.illinois.edu/apply/requirements_freshman.html</a></p>
<p>Ok, I thought OOS does matter for public schools since they have to fill a quota to admit this number of in state kids while not admitting many OOS</p>
<p>They can still make that quota by admitting a ton to the liberal arts department or other schools. I may be wrong, but I believe that the school is pretty much autonomous as far as the percentage of admits that must be in-state, and the government would only get involved in the event that the school is blatantly doing a disservice to the state.</p>
<p>Even if that isn’t true, the fact that the OoS percentages for pretty much every department except for engineering and business are so high would likely allow engineering and business to pick and choose however they want. As far as I know, though, in engineering, OoS and Illinois residents are held to the same standards.</p>
<p>It is the flagship program, and they like to keep it well-stocked.</p>
<p>I know the state legislature only allows U of I to have a certain percentage of out of state students…I think it is something like 15%. They tried to increase it a few years ago but it was denied. So even though they are “held to the same standard”, somehow it has to be more difficult for out of state students to get in simply because of the smaller number of out of state students that they admit, right?</p>
<p>Not in engineering. The percentage of OoS students in engineering is much higher than any other department. The fact that very very few OoS students apply to other programs allows engineering to have a little more freedom.</p>
<p>I am sure drusba will chime in at some point, but she usually point out that the acceptance rate for OoS is pretty much equal to the acceptance rate for in-state students.</p>
<p>hmm, that is reassuring if illionois OOS for engineering is about same as in state</p>
<p>“Just as an FYI, UIUC couldn’t care less about SAT II scores. They won’t even look at them.” Why is that? Do they say that?</p>
<p>And what type of merit aid is offered to highly ranked OOS engineering applicants?</p>
<p>They say that. I assume it is likely because of the fact that the SAT is not a test that is commonly administered in the Midwest. Since most Illinois kids only have an ACT score, it would not be fair to have the SAT II help or hurt the kids from farther away, whichever the case may be.</p>
<p>I don’t honestly know about what OoS does to your chances of getting merit aid. UIUC is pretty well known to be stingy about giving out money, and it is only getting worse in this economy. I wouldn’t hold your breath too long.</p>