<p>U of I is my top choice school and I was just curious to see what people on this site would say...</p>
<p>First off, I'm an Asian-American female living in Illinois. (Suburbs of Chicago)</p>
<p>Here are my credentials:
GPA: 3.38
ACT: 26 (Retaking in September)
SAT: 1850 (M - 670 CR- 500 W - 680)
-I realize my GPA and scores are pretty average/leaning towards low for a school like U of I...
-I attend a REALLY competitive school, I know for sure I am in the top 50% of my class, and I believe it's really like the top 30 something percent...not that it really matters since I'm not in the top 25%.
-My freshmen year grades were really bad, and my grades have improved each semester of my high school career. 2nd Semester Junior Year I had a 3.85.</p>
<p>Senior courses to be taken: AP Spanish, AP English, AP Micro/Macro, Calculus, Advertising, Horticulture
*I took two APs my junior year but that was about it for Honors/AP...however I am a year ahead in Math.</p>
<p>Extracurriculars:
- Held a job last summer, and currently have one now (going to continue working throughout senior year)
- 75+ Volunteer Hours (Hope to reach 100 by the time I apply)
I volunteer at the local children's museum where I work in the marketing department on advertisements/flyers etc for the museum
AND
At a place where I help put together birthday packages for needy children in the area.
- Kid to Kid --> it was a program for my psychology class where I got to serve as a teaching aid in a 5th grade classroom every week. (junior year)
- Lacrosse team (sophomore year)
- Speech team (sophomore year)
- Star Raiders/Drug free club (sophomore, junior, and senior year)
- Art club (sophomore, junior, and senior year)
- Religious classes (freshmen year)</p>
<p>At this point I'm wondering if applying undecided is the way to go...
From what I've heard, the school I should apply to is LAS.
I'm thinking of majoring in Advertising/Marketing...something along those lines.</p>
<p>Any advice, input, thoughts etc would be appreciated.
Also, if you can think of schools that would be good matches for me that would be great too.</p>
<p>she's in b/c of her extracurriculars. GPA is on the low side, and the real determining measure will be how many seniors in her school are also applying to U of I. B/c she will be competing with all of those people, who more than likely, have better stats than she does b/c people don't usually apply to U of I with a low 3's GPA.</p>
<p>^i've personally never heard of somone having such outstanding extracurriculars that they were a shoe-in for admission, not at this university at least.</p>
<p>If the ACT score went up i'd say your chances would be looking much much better...say 28ish?</p>
<p>Take the ACT again and beat the shiit out of it. Then, do really well 1st semester senior year. I think you fare an average chance of getting in. Just write some decent essays; they eat that crap up.</p>
<p>"Then, do really well 1st semester senior year"</p>
<p>you should be applying as soon as the gates open.... I'm wondering if waiting for the ACT to go up 2 points is worth the extra few months on the app process. Anybody else have an opinion on this?</p>
<p>Is there any possible way to send in my application as soon as they accept 'em, and then have my new ACT score sent in later, or do the ACT scores have to reach earlier? This is something I was really confused about...</p>
<p>And I also know for a fact that U of I does not require letters of rec. Since they don't "require" it, is it a good idea to send one in for a case like me, or should I just not have one sent?</p>
<p>Thanks for your input everyone.
Can anybody think of schools I have a better or equal shot at?</p>
<p>I don't think u have to apply as soon as possible. That's the dumbest thing I've heard. </p>
<p>They give u until I believe Nov. 15th for priority deadline and I filled out all my apps for Illinois and all my other colleges a couple weeks before that, to make sure that I made the deadline. </p>
<p>And I had 50-50 chance really of making it to U of I, and I still made it, so I don't buy into that at all.</p>
<p>But then again, you've got a little worse stats than I did, especially the GPA, ACT's were the same....I would make sure you WRITE A GOOD ESSAY. LIKE IT'S BEEN SAID, THEY EAT IT UP. THEY MUST'VE ATE UP MINE CAUSE I THINK I WROTE A REAL GOOD ONE. </p>
<p>You don't have to start applying in September....</p>
<p>Like I said, Nov. 15th is priority deadline I believe, so don't wait till the week before, but start fillin stuff out and writing your essay maybe a month before the 15th, so in October. </p>
<p>Honestly, people make a big deal about applyin as soon as possible. You're in trouble if you apply in December/Jan, but not October..</p>
<p>actually, if you apply decently early you probably do have a better chance. I'm pretty srue there was an even earlier priority application deadline at like Sep. 15th. other than the Nov. 15th one. Maybe I was seeing things. but anyways if she applies at say mid september or so she would probably get reviewed earlier and have a decision made on her by then because if you wait too long the admissions people will probably have to be more strict because they will have less space to play around with. for me personally, I believe that if I had applied to business in Sep. and not waited to retake the ACT and boost my score 4 points to a 32, I would have probably been admitted and not deferred. The reason why I know this is b/c a kid I know who had a 27 ACT, no E.C.'s, and a so-so course load got admitted in Sep.</p>
<p>"I don't think u have to apply as soon as possible. That's the dumbest thing I've heard."</p>
<p>you're the dumbest thing ive ever heard.</p>
<p>heres what happened in my experience of the application process: i applied in early september, and got in, i think, in late september. I didn't have that strong of an application. I visited in April and had a meeting with the dean of my college, who does the admissions and actually decided whether or not to let me in. I mentioned that I applied in september and he said "oh! yeah, we really like to see that." Keep in mind that applications are looked at on a rolling admissions system. It's not like Nov 15th is the early decision deadline and after Nov 15th they step up the admissions difficulty... </p>
<p>it pretty much just sounds like you're speculating and calling BS on everybody else. nice.</p>
<p>speculating lol? I was a part of the process. How can I be speculating on anything? I'm jus tellin from my own personal experience. </p>
<p>Geez, who got you in a fuss? And I personally don't think it matters too badly. It's something people make a big deal about, a very big deal about. </p>
<p>Lemme guess, you were the type who did all of your essays during the summer? Also not necessary.</p>
<p>bearsfolife - the U of I personally doesn't give too much of a **** about your extra-curriculars if your grades and, most especially, test scores are below average or on the lower end of the admissions spectrum. They are a huge school, and they have little time or inclination to ponder your essay or whether your extra-currics balance out your grade power, if it's low. </p>
<p>barren_field: there are several colleges at UIUC, ACES (agricultural consumer and environmental sciences), engineering, nursing, aviation, LAS, education, fine and applied arts, ALS and communications, if I remember them all. In the long length of time I've been hearing about the U of I, of the main colleges, I've always heard that LAS was somewhere in the middle. Not quite the easiest, but not too hard to get into, mostly because of the volume of people who apply to that portion of the University. Unfortunately, I can't remember what was the easiest, it may have been... err... aviation? Engineering is one of the hardest though, I do remember that. </p>
<p>I applied there in October/November with a 3.68 GPA (out of 4.0), 31 ACT, a 21-something SAT, and your run of the mill essay and extra-currics,and was accepted. It's a rolling admit, so retake your ACT and apply AS SOON as the application is available, and you should have good chances. I'm definitely not the top of my class (but probably in the top 40%? 50%? I got an average of one C quarter grade a year, A and B yearlies) and out of the 60 people in my class, one person was not accepted, and it was due to disciplinary problems on his record.</p>
<p>ya, I think UIUC just does a "accept as soon as they apply kind of thing." I applied like two days after early admission deadline and got accepted like a month later. You really don't have to worry about not getting into uiuc unless your credentials are really horrible or you are waiting till like january.</p>
<p>Haha you guys have no idea, I am so passionate about going to this place I will probably apply within the first week or two of the application being available. </p>
<p>BTW Can somebody answer my letter of rec question? Does UIUC like them or not? Should someone like me submit one?</p>
<p>And Blink182, if you don't mind my asking, what were your grades/scores like?</p>
<p>Correct, there's no letter of reccomendation required or, in fact, encouraged. They don't have the time and really, it will probably just annoy whoever is going through your app that you disregarded their instructions. </p>
<p>The only thing you have to do anything extra for is if you're applying for the honours program, in which case there is a section where you have 50 words (last year it was to write about an incident or expericence where you "learned something", over the summer? I can't remember, really). If you want to get slightly creative anywhere, that would be the place to do it - a poem or you know, whatever, but an essay there would do just as well.</p>
<p>Correct, there's no letter of reccomendation required or, in fact, encouraged. They don't have the time and really, it will probably just annoy whoever is going through your app that you disregarded their instructions. </p>
<hr>
<p>^Yeh that's what I always hear, just wanted to clarify. All righty so no letter of rec for Illinois then. As for other schools, I guess you only submit one if it's an "admission requirement", correct?</p>
<p>I always thought letters of rec can't make much of a difference, because everybody will go to their favorite teachers who will just say "Billy is such a great kid, he's got a strong work ethic, he's attentive" blah blah... Haha I could be wrong.</p>
<p>Do you guys think it makes any difference if you apply undecided or if you choose a major? (besides like the tough ones like Engineering, business etc.)
For the School of Communications, don't you have to apply to LAS and then transfer later? Is Comm. hard to get into?</p>