<p>Unweighted GPA: 3.99
SAT: 2160, 770 M, 710 CR, 680 W
SATII: 780 Math II
ACT: 32 (bad day, retaking September)
Rank: 2/180
APs: World History (4), none others (see below)</p>
<p>Senior Year Classes: Differential Eqs/Cal III, Cal-based Physics, British Lit, Govt/Econ, Ethics, Programming.</p>
<p>I attend a collegiate high school so all of my courses are taken at a community college, meaning its like I take dual-credit for all courses.</p>
<p>ECs: ~60 hours service learning
- Habitat for Humanity
- Lucy Mashua's Voice for the Voiceless
- Library volunteer
- Mentor to incoming Juniors at my collegiate high school
- Phi Theta Kappa member</p>
<p>couple others but whatever</p>
<p>Ethnicity: 1/2 Mexican 1/2 Algerian, both parents immigrants whatever</p>
<p>Out-of-state (Texas)</p>
<p>Also, what's the Financial Aid look like for an OOS but academically competent student like me?</p>
<p>My son is a second year Engineering Physics students and his stats were not as strong as yours. He was admitted in the first “wave” of notifications in December of his senior year.</p>
<p>I don’t think you will have a problem with those stats.</p>
<p>We are also from TX – very limited financial aid is available for either OOS or in-state students. U of I does not guarantee they will meet 100% of demonstrated aid, and the OOS tuition add-on, plus the engineering add-on makes U of I nearly $40K per year just for the payment to the school (assuming dorm housing). Books and transportation will be extra</p>
<p>Having said all that…does your son like Illinois? Does he find engineering hard? Did he join a fraternity or does studying keep him too busy for that…or is the Greek system just not his thing?</p>
<p>He really likes the school. The math is demanding. He is not a fraternity person. He is ROTC, so that takes a good portion of his free time. He really likes all the different clubs that Illinois has – Underwater Hockey and Ultimate Frisbee being the top two</p>
<p>40K a year is definitely waaay more than I’m willing to go for. Are you guys trying to get in-state tuition? And what’s your economic-class? I’m fairly straight in the middle, and I have alot of dependents in my house.</p>
<p>40K is a lot, however it is one of the top engineering schools in the country. Ranked # 1 for civil engineering. Unfortunately no chance for in-state status.</p>
<p>Getting in-state status through Illinois would require a physical move to the state and proof of residency (i.e. voter registration or the like). It is actually spelled out in detail somewhere on the financial aid webpages. It is not an easy task and for most people, not realistic.</p>
<p>I see. The reason I asked it my sister was able to get in-state tuition (though she goes to Florida, not Illinois). Also, does anyone have an idea of how hard it is to be admitted to the honors program?</p>
<p>The James Scholar Honors program auto admits any incoming student with high enough credentials on their ACT/SAT but I am not sure what the cutoff is. If you don’t get in to start, it is pretty pedestrian to get in after one semester so long as your GPA is above the cutoff, which is like 3.3 for most engineering, 3.5 for ECE. That sounds somewhat low, but it is not the easiest thing in the world to keep your GPA above that in engineering, especially not that 3.5 for ECE.</p>
<p>There are two main honors programs. The premier is the Campus Honors program which generally has about 125 freshman per year (and they invite about 230 to get that number). For that you really need to be in the upper 1 to 2% in class rank/test score of all applicants admitted to the university. Out of states admitted to it usually get a merit award amounting to forgiveness of the out of state portion of tuition.</p>
<p>Each college then has its James Scholars honors program which is designed to capture about the top 15% of those in the college. Each college has its own standard for who qualifies as a freshman and for engineering it is usually a 33 ACT or above (lower for other colleges). There are no merit awards connected to that honors program. The engineering college does have merit awards for many highly qualified applicants but the amounts are often in the $1,000 to $4,000 range per year although some OOS may qualify for higher.</p>