I'm in! Now, a couple of questions:

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
1

<p>1.
I got admitted to the computer engineering major.
Now the thing is I would like to dual major -- in engineering, and..a humanity. Maybe psychology, cognitive science, creative writing, or something. </p>

<p>How feasible is this, from a RULES point of view? I mean that I know this is extremely hard work, but does UIUC ALLOW it? Are these only exceptions or is it fairly easy to be allowed to do this? and this can be done in four years' time??</p>

<p>2.
My general stats:
2230 SAT superscored
Topped my school; IB 38/45
Consistently in the top 5% of students.</p>

<p>The question:
Am I too good for UIUC? I really don't mean to be cocky, please understand my tone. I want to be surrounded by like-minded, smart, motivated people. I know I won't fit in MIT - I'll be an idiot. I know I won't fit in umm, say, <some really="" stupid="" school="">. I'd be too smart. I want to know if I'm just right.</some></p>

<p>I ask this because I'm very scared about any of my other admits, and UIUC is my safety; so pacify me or confirm my fears -- will I fit right in, or will I be a little too driven to make friends? </p>

<p>(I'm seriously not cocky, just very anxious.)</p>

2

<p>Wow, I feel exactly the same way. My brother goes to U of I, and I was admitted early so he keeps pushing me to go. But I can’t say the real reason I’m holding back is that I have the same reservations as you because that would be tantamount to saying he went to a stupid school. I’m the top of my class and I just want to fit in. He says there are a lot of smart people there (he’s in the engineering school) but I still don’t know.</p>

<p>So basically I’m interested in what others have to say! lol</p>

3

<p>U of I engineering is ranked 5 in the US News rankings. See below. It must be filled with some smart kids. Where are the schools that you are considering on this ranking? I know rankings are not everything but Illinois certainly has a great reputation for engineering and I would think it would challenge you.
2008 US News Engineering Rankings:</p>

<ol>
<li>Massachusetts Inst. of Technology 4.9</li>
<li>Stanford University (CA) 4.7</li>
<li>University of California–Berkeley * 4.7</li>
<li>California Institute of Technology 4.6</li>
<li>Georgia Institute of Technology * 4.5</li>
<li>U. of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign * 4.5</li>
<li>Cornell University (NY) 4.4</li>
<li>University of Michigan–Ann Arbor * 4.4</li>
<li>Carnegie Mellon University ¶ 4.2</li>
<li>Purdue Univ.–West Lafayette (IN)* 4.2</li>
<li>University of Texas–Austin * 4.2</li>
<li>Princeton University (NJ) 4.1</li>
<li>Univ. of Wisconsin–Madison * 4.0</li>
<li>Johns Hopkins University (MD) 3.9</li>
<li>Northwestern University (IL) 3.9</li>
<li>Virginia Tech * 3.9</li>
<li>Pennsylvania State U.–University Park * 3.8</li>
<li>Rice University (TX) 3.8</li>
<li>Texas A&M Univ.–College Station * 3.8</li>
<li>Columbia University (NY) 3.7</li>
<li>Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst. (NY) 3.7</li>
<li>Univ. of California–Los Angeles * 3.7</li>
<li>Univ. of Minnesota–Twin Cities * 3.7</li>
</ol>

4

<p>yeah, I’d say you’d be fine in the engineering school because chances are you’ll be surrounded with a greater number of like-minded people. Engineering and business are really strong at U of I, and it’s so large that you would have many opportunities to meet people who are about the same intelligence as you. I wouldn’t worry about it too much, though I definitely understand your concern.</p>

5

<p>but u gotta understand not the best in computer engineering. im going into it but uof i is so high cause of agriculature and civil and couple others that its number 1 in</p>

6

<p>You better have invented Shamwow if you think you’re ‘too smart’ for U of I.</p>

<p>If you want to go to rankings for CE, we’re still like… 3 or 5. It (ECE) is our largest engineering department, and arguably our most famous.</p>

7

<p>UIUC ranks in the top 10 for every aspect of engineering except biomedical. For most aspects its in the top 5. For engineering its a very highly ranked school. I went on a visit and remember that UIUC graduates from their CompE program created sites like paypal and youtube.</p>

8

<p>I think you really should not rely so heavily on rankings as the sole measure of quality. Especially the U.S. News Engineering rankings as I understand it they are based pretty much on the opinions of engineering deans about other programs, and not objective measures. So the reputation of a place is what drives rankings. And reputations are not always accurate reflections of the current state of a program, but could be based on past impressions and old data.</p>

9

<p>I dont think anyone can be too smart for UIUC’s comp sc. program. A lot of ‘too smart’ illinois students choose here over other better ranked universities because they get in-state tuition. And going by your score I think you will be an average smart student at Illinois.</p>

10

<p>No person is too smart for Engineering at Illinois, the guys that created You Tube did it at U of I. They’re now teaming with Intel to build a $200 million supercomputer that will be the fastest in the world. They sell t-shirts here at U of I that I believe to be true, in the middle front, it says “Hacker” and on top says “ECE Illinois” and on the back which I believe to be true says “If you can hack it here, you can hack it anywhere”</p>

11

<p>There are TONS of smart people in the college of engineering. I mean really really smart. You are also not alone in the situation that U of I is your safety. The reason that I ended up in Illinois was because I got deferred, rejected, waitlisted…by schools like Princeton, MIT, Yale…</p>

<p>Most importantly there are just so many ways to challenge yourself here that you will never feel you are too smart.</p>

12

<p>I am a student here at U of I, Electrical Engineering major</p>

<p>U of I is #3 for Electrical, and #5 for computer, and considering that they are in the same department (ECE) you will have sme overlap, so just because its #5 (pretty darn good) doesnt mean its ‘bad’</p>

<p>[Rankings</a> | Engineering at Illinois | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign](<a href=“http://engineering.illinois.edu/about/rankings.php]Rankings”>http://engineering.illinois.edu/about/rankings.php)</p>

<p>Being an EE, I am in the EE building quite often, and there are plenty of geniusses in the student lounge throughout the day. At certain times, the place is over-full (and its pretty big for a lounge, tons of computers, etc)</p>

<p>So yes, there are plenty of people who are like those you described; you will be challenged</p>

<p>As someone stated above, UIUC’s ECE department is world famous; professors and alumni have created these (among other things):</p>

<p>The transistor
MRI
Quantum well laser
First movies with sound
LED
Plasma display
Integrated circuit</p>

<p>If you look at the rankings, we are in the top 10 for every discipline except Biomedical and Industrial, both of which are smaller departments here anyways, so we are in the top 10 for 11/13 programs, and top 5 for 7/13 programs, and #1 for 3 programs (civil, agricultural, materials)</p>

<p>PS- House is the shyt</p>

13

<p>I got 2 close friends, one got silver medal in IOI (Computer Olympiad) and is doing Computer Science. He got waitlisted at Columbia, Cornell, CMU because of his low verbal score (450). Another one went to IMO (Math olympiad) and is a math major. He got waitlisted at Williams because of his low verbal score as well. They both still find this place to be challenging and very demanding, and there are students who are better than them. I don`t think you are better than them right? I might be wrong.

Obviously, Stanford and MIT have better students. My friend at Stanford said in his CS class, 15 out of around 70-80 students went to IOI/IMO so he decided to change his major because it was almost impossible for him to get an A. Currently out of 80 students in my CS class here, 4-5 students went to IOI before (and only 10% of the class will be getting an A). Final say, getting a C here doesn`t require too much studying, but getting an A here is very hard since you have to compete with other top students.</p>

14

<p>

</p>

<p>So true… C doesn’t really require much effort, but who wants a C?</p>

15

<p>and if it is ‘easy’, your dual major will make up for it. </p>

<p>dual majors need a minimum of 30 credit hours of courses that are used solely for the 2nd degree</p>

<p>ex: you take all gen eds in psych and want to get a psych degree, you need 30 hours of psych degree requirements, cant use the ones you used for your gen ed</p>

<p>so if you have a lot of APs, you can do it all in 4 years, otherwise it will be more, depends on what the degree requirements are for the other degree</p>

16

<p>Thanks everyone for your responses. I am thrilled I’m going to a place that’s buzzing with activity, drive, and intelligence.</p>

<p>But now, for you to answer the second part of my question concerning the dual major:</p>

<p>bihari, will it definitely take over 4 years without substantial credits? I’ve not done any APs, I was in IB and have mostly 6’s in my final grades.</p>

<p>What are the usual dual major combinations that one can find at UIUC? Specially taken with engineering?</p>

<p>Are there ever any people who do both Engg and Humanities?</p>

<p>Really curious, thanks in advance.</p>

17

<p>Hmm… in my opinion, doing a dual major with ECE is pretty brutal. Ofcourse yet get to skip Cal1, Mechanics, Intro Chem with your IB score, but math and physics here are ALOT harder than IB HL. Wait till you get to the ECE core subjects and you will know how hard they are. That`s what I felt. But ofcourse, you can definately do it, if you are smart and work hard enough! I heard there was one girl who played on the Varsity Tennis Team and managed to graduate with a 3.9 ++ from ECE department.</p>

18

<p>Several years ago, I recruited a student who double majored in Engineering Physics and Philosophy. He had straight A’s on his transcript and made quite an impression with everyone he met. It can be done, and will certainly be a challenge.</p>

19

<p>I can’t answer any of these credit questions, but I can tell you that you will fit in well with the engineering students. All of my friends who are doing engineering next year are extremely intelligent (33 and above ACTs with weighted GPAs in the top 1-3% in our class of 600). I’m sure you’ll find U of I intellectually challenging, but still really enjoy the social environment.</p>

20

<p>Thanks everyone :slight_smile: You guys are really helpful.</p>