Engineering: Do I even have a chance?

<p>Engineering (really interested in computer, but just want to get into the engineering school. Will applying to a certain major give me an advantage?)</p>

<p>ACT: 30 (27 English, 29 Reading, 29 Science, 36 Math)
GPA: 3.83
Activities: Vice President, Student Chief Engineer, Scouting/Strategy Head for FIRST Robotics team. Won five medals in my two seasons. Lots of community service mentoring in FIRST Lego League program and other city events, also play saxophone and last year my sax quartet was top 12 in state.</p>

<p>Essays: Great
- I live in Michigan, so I guess that gives me a disadvantage. I go to a competitive college prep public high school (top ten in state) and am Caucasian and female.</p>

<p>AP Classes:
11th: Calculus AB, Calculus BC, Chemistry
12th: Physics C Mechanics, Physics C Electricity & Magnetism, Psychology, and Statistics</p>

<p>Just want to know if I even have a chance. Any advice would be great too.</p>

<p>Being out-of-state is not a disadvantage; you will be evaluated on same basis as in-state. ACT is within the middle 50% range although lower end of it. GPA looks good but you don't give class rank which is what UIUC relies on (and estimates if high school does not rank). Middle 50% range class rank was top 10% to top 3% this year. Women are treated as URM's for engineering and thus you will have a favorable factor there. ECs look good. In other words, you should apply because you have a chance -- perhaps a slight reach but looks close to a match depending on rank. Apply by Nov 1 priority date. You will get a response by mid-Dec. Those who apply by priority date have a slight advantage over those who apply later. Note, you must send all materials (test scores, transcript, app) by Nov 1 to qualify for having applied by that date so don't wait until last minute. There can be some advantage to applying to certain majors. Civil and industrial engineering have somewhat lower middle 50% ranges than others. Bioengineering has a much higher middle 50% ranger than others.</p>

<p>Good chance.. I think the hardest engineering major to get in is Bioengineering, their average SAT is like 1400-1500 I believe...then CS .. CS average SAT is 1390/1600from their department fact book which is higher than engineering average</p>

<p>Bioengineering is only hard to get into because it is so small. It is a new program within the last 4 years, so that is understandable.</p>

<p>To my knowledge though, other than a few programs, you get admitted by the College of Engineering as a whole, not the individual department like in graduate school. Maybe that is way off base, but I am pretty sure that is how it worked back when I applied.</p>

<p>To the best of my knowledge, College of Engineering admits students into the specific program within the college and not into the College in general. Each program within the college has limits on the number of students.</p>