engineering/DGS/ then what?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
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<p>My understanding for freshman application into UIUC is that the applicant specifies a college. It is my further understanding that if you specify ENGINEERING, but your numbers are not good enough for that college, but good enough for the university, you would be denied into engineering, btu accepted into something called DGS, Division of General Studies.</p>

<p>My questions are - assuming the foregoing is true, and if it is not, please correct me - in what college is DGS?</p>

<p>How long wd a student stay in DGS - his whole career at UIUC, 4 yrs, or is it like some kind of purgatory, where you get out of DGS when some kind of criteria are satisfied (what wd those criteria be, novenas? :) ) ?</p>

<p>in other words, what classes -from what college? -would a student put into dgs be allowed to take (and for how long)?</p>

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<p>See [About</a> the Division of General Studies, University of Illinois](<a href=“http://www.dgs.illinois.edu/about/index.html]About”>http://www.dgs.illinois.edu/about/index.html). At UIUC, you apply to specific programs offered by individual colleges, or to DGS, if you are undecided at the time of your application. In the case of not being accepted to your program of choice, while in DGS, you can still take the courses that students admitted directly to a given program take, and can then apply for transfer at a later time. Details of the transfer process can be found at [Intercollege</a> Transfer To Another College, The Division of General Studies, University of Illinois](<a href=“http://www.dgs.illinois.edu/declare/index.html]Intercollege”>http://www.dgs.illinois.edu/declare/index.html).</p>

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<p>Thanks, balthezar , for the rundown and the links. Very informative. It seems that DGS is , for me, ‘the missing link’ in my understanding of the UIUC admissions process. On teh one hand, one hears of the stat that something like 70 pct of collge frehsmen are undecided (I heard that from a HS counselor at a meeting with him yesterday), but I also saw that UIUC requires the applicant to pick a college, which of course implies someone who is already decided.</p>

<p>DGS might be the place where those undecideds would go at first at UIUC. (curiously, per the UIUC website, DGS enrollment is around 24 pct of the frosh student body; so it looks like UIUC students are not following the statistical trend I mentioned above of 70 pct undec…) I was at a college fair tonight, and i asked UW -madison about their admissions process - whether students were required to decide on and pick a college at application time. If I understood her, she said, no, at UW - MAdison, you apply to the university , then apply later to a particular college, when yo decide. I suspect she also meant that someone CAN if they want apply to a particular college, say, engineering, at app time. So would this be about the same as UIUC process? I was under the impression that UIUC 's admission process into one college was fixed at app time. You had your one shot at engineering, whether you KNEW you wanted to do that at that time or not.</p>

<p>The tricky part in this mess is how to get into engineering later. UIUC’s website seems to indicate that you simply have to fulfill eligibility requirements and makes no mention of numbers of slots. Again, this is consistent with what I heard teh UW mad rep say tonight. not a competition for limited slots, but a matter of satisfying eligibility requirements. Do they, at this time, take into consideration the HS resume at this time, I wonder? I’ll have to get more info from the dean.</p>

<p><a href=“Majors & Minors | The Grainger College of Engineering | UIUC”>http://engineering.illinois.edu/prospective-students/transfer-students&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Speaking of the dean, when we visited UIUC engineering dept in the summer, the ENG dean held a a q and a , and this subject was broached. And if I understood him correctly, he contrasted UIUC’s method of getting Engineering students with Purdue’s. He said that Purdue lets more of them in at the outset, and then they ‘duke it out’ for the slots later (his words); whereas, UIUC is more selective at the outset, letting less in at the outset. The implication I got was a variation of the adage (said about HArvard) , ‘the hardest thing about Harvard is getting in’. From what I hear, however, the ENG pgm at UIUC is just as hard once in. In fact, from these pages I heard of the ‘weed out’ courses.</p>

<p>So I am trying to put all this together…</p>

<p>-the kid knowing / deciding WHAT the heck he wants and WHEN
-application (the HS resume that is evaluated)
-weed out classes
-DGS
-transferring/applying into ENG at a later time</p>

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<p>You can apply as undecided, you don’t have to declare a program.</p>

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<p>See: [U&lt;/a&gt; of I Admissions: Programs by College](<a href=“http://admissions.illinois.edu/academics/majors_college.html]U”>Academics, Undergraduate Admissions, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)</p>

<p>Having said that, you seem to be indicating that your son is leaning towards engineering. In DGS, in order to transfer into engineering at a later time, he’ll need to take the same courses that students directly admitted to an engineering program need to take; those being Chem, Physics, Calculus, and Gen Eds, so why not apply to an engineering program initially, and then transfer out, if he finds it’s not his forte? His transfer prospects will remain the same, and if he decides to stay in engineering, well, then he’s set.</p>

<p>I don’t particularly like the term weed-out courses. Engineering is a demanding curriculum, and every student is different. The initial courses teach the knowledge required to understand and master the upper-level courses. No course is constructed with any artificial hurdles to weed-out anybody. Having said that, I understand that many students find the Calc 2 course to be the most difficult. The next hurdle seems to be the initial ‘applied’ science courses dealing with Statics and Dynamics. The point is that it’s the students that “weed” themselves out once they’ve experienced what it takes to obtain an engineering degree, not the courses themselves.</p>

<p>Illinois, Purdue and UW-Madison are top-notch engineering institutions, and a degree from any of them is held in high regard by recruiters and graduate schools alike.</p>

<p>Having provided my opinions above, I’m hoping Drusba will comment on your specific transfer questions. He’s the resident expert.</p>

<p>I’m also hoping that Boneh3ad will comment on your “Weed-out” question, since he’s a recent UIUC Mech Engineering grad, and is currently pursuing a PhD. in Aerospace at another institution.</p>

<p>Good luck, and make sure your son submits his application by the November 1st priority deadline for his best shot at getting in.</p>

<p>As for UW-Madison and Purdue, they admit to the university, and then use the student’s first year GPA and courses to determine whether he’ll be admitted to his program of choice sophomore year. Some programs are more competitive than others. At Illinois, and what I think is a benefit, you can apply directly to a program of choice, and not have to recompete during your sophomore year, if you’re admitted.</p>

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<p>By appearances, he is kinda non committal, and ‘keeping his options open’. He’s very good in math, physics, and computers and he likes that kind of thing; like(d) legos. His HS AP physics teacher said he s/ major in physics. THen I discovered that these kinds of activities and skill sets seem to share an affinity with engineering , and that engineering seems to have pretty good job prospects, too (one of his stated goals of college, to be prepared for a (good) job). Is he leaning or am I nudging, or a little of both? I am at minimum at this stage of the process to get these options out before him so that HE can try to better decide. </p>

<p>I am trying to think about and tease out the nuances of applying.</p>

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<p>This is indeed a good idea – if the applicant can get into the college of ENG. this judgement is out of the applicant’s hands.</p>

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<p>But if you apply directly to the college of ENG and do not get in at freshman application time, is it a show stopper , fatal to choosing to go to Illinois if engineering is in your plans? Or - assuming your numbers are good enough for DGS (my son’s are for sure right now even w/o the latest ACT test) - does the applicant get <em>automatically</em> assigned to DGS, and is therefore still at UIUC and can have another chance at getting in to ENG after taking the required courses?</p>

<p>On the last sentence, I need to find out some more info on the display seen at the DGS site+ for the numbers that went into which college. THey said that 68 ‘declared’ ENG as a major. I wonder if that really meant ‘successfully applied to’ the college ENG; and , if so, how many others applied for those X slots?</p>

<p>I might be asking the same question again, but , hey, I’m not the smart one. :)</p>

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<a href=“http://www.dgs.illinois.edu/Files/DGS_College_Profile.pdf[/url]”>http://www.dgs.illinois.edu/Files/DGS_College_Profile.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>If he applies to a program within the College of Engineering and does not get in, he is automatically considered for DGS admission by default. The act of applying to engineering first is not held against him. His grades and courses taken would be looked at the same for transfer to engineering as if he initially applied to DGS. They don’t say “Oh, we rejected this applicant before, so we’ll consider his transfer application differently than the transfer applications of other students requesting transfer.” </p>

<p>As for your question about DGS transfer numbers, you’re better off calling DGS and asking them for clarification.</p>

<p>Also, did his ACT retake occur in September? If so, those scores should reach UIUC in time for the Nov 1st Priority deadline. An October ACT test date would not.</p>

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<p>Yes, he retook in Sept. Waiting for this Monday for the results.</p>

<p>But from what I am gathering the big , maybe the biggest, benefit of getting accepted into ENG at freshman app time is that you definitely would have a ‘home’ in the engineering college coming in… and I was going to add – and you would not have to be completely sweating out whether you cd get in the next yr due to whatever reasons or conditions.</p>

<p>A question comes to mind: what is the minimum gpa that an engineering student needs to maintain to STAY in the college of engineering?</p>

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<p>Probation and drop rules are as follows:</p>

<p><a href=“https://wiki.engr.illinois.edu/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=30803898[/url]”>https://wiki.engr.illinois.edu/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=30803898&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;