<p>Hi, I am not sure if this should be in the Parents section or in the Transfers.
Anyway, my son is a sophomore at UIUC, Urbana-Champaign. He started out in the School of Engineering but absolutely hated it & did very poorly freshman year despite fairly good SAT scores(780 Math) & decent grades in High School. He transferred out at the beginning of sophomore year & is currently in the Liberal Arts School taking courses as per the Business curriculum until he fulfills the 60 credit minimum. His sophomore year GPA so far is 3.6 in his business classes. The dilemna is whether he should apply to Business school now, with only one semester of grades or wait until next semester but that means he will not know/get in until second semester of junior year. I am trying to get a feel for what his chances are. Will being rejected now work against him if he applies again? Has anybody been in a similar situation in UIUC? The application process involves 2 essays - personal statement & reasons for wanting to transfer into business etc. Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.</p>
<p>Looks like a new poster here with a valid transfer question. Unfortunately, since this board is so darn active she/he was bumped to the second page. I know nothing about this, but I'm sure someone else does..!</p>
<p>2 suggestions. First, post on the UIUC board here. Second, email the Dean of the Business School. You'd be amazed--they love to hear questions like this.</p>
<p>Thanks for the suggestions. I did post this on the UIUC Board earlier today when I did not get any replies on this Board but no luck yet.Any others have an opinion about emailing the Dean? Should I identify my son? I always thought parents getting involved works against the student but maybe not? My son has already spoken to a Business school advisor who woild not comment on his chances but said that applying twice should not hurt.
I am sure there are others out there who have been through something similar. Please do share your experiences/advice. Thanks.</p>
<p>Along-sorry to hear about your son's difficult first year. Actually the only thing that needs to be done is for HIM to speak with the Chair of the department. Perhaps if he should also talk to his advisor who approved his 3rd semester course schedule for additional advice.</p>
<p>Unfortunately your son got caught up in the frosh engineering meat grinder. I don't believe any major is more difficult than engineering. If your son had stuck it out I suspect his gpa would have begun to start rising. I hope he dicided to change major because he realized he would be happier in majoring in business and not because of the gpa issue.</p>
<p>Finally something that all hs students and parents should know. Some large universities had what is called enrollment controls. That means that a student will NOT be able to automatically enroll in his major of choice. Usually the students will be admitted to the major after frosh year with a certain minimum gpa. And the min gpa can vary year to year. At my undergrad university the min gpa for comp engineering/sci was 3.2 in 2000/2001. It has since declined to 2.9 because of a fall off of students desiring to go into that major. Some majors have no minimum gpa because they are less popular. And with enrollment controls, once admitted the student need not worry about gpa.</p>
<p>Good luck to your son. With a whopping 3.6 I am sure he will not have any problem!</p>
<p>Thanks for the words of encouragement. Yes, thankfully he loves the classes he is taking now & hated engineering, if that was not the case I do not think he would have done as badly because he is an intelligent kid. But that is what makes it harder if he does not get into business school. I am not sure if they will look past his average GPA to his GPA in just business related classes. He basically has to reapply & since he does not have a defined path that he wants to pursue in business, it is hard to answer questions about his goals & how business school will enable him to achieve them. Again, if anyone has any advice, it is very welcome.</p>
<p>along - I don't have any helpful knowledge re the intra-school transfer process. But a few thoughts.</p>
<p>What would be the downside of staying in LAS one more year and trying for the transfer as a Junior? Might help on the GPA as well as on the essays about goals.</p>
<p>Is he already thinking ahead to wanting an MBA? Because many (most?) MBA candidates come from other undergraduate majors than business. (I am a Stanford MBA).</p>
<p>Has he considered staying in LAS and doing, say, an Economics major?</p>
<p>As he approaches the essays, I am thinking that "not having a defined path" is common. I entered business school many years after college, but still didn't have a definite idea of what part of the business world I was headed for. I'm not sure what his precise essay prompts are, but I'm thinking there must be a way to attack them without a clear idea of his career path. If you want to PM me with the prompts, I might be able to help more (I also often review essays/transfer essays and would be glad to do that as well). Some thoughts about why Engineering turned out to be wrong for him and why business now appeals may be all he needs to create a good set of answers.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the suggestions. My son did email the Dean of Admissions last week but has not heard back. That really bothers me, I have to stop myself from picking up the phone & calling myself. He is still not sure if applying now is the right thing to do. Jmmon, hope you received my long PM, I apologise for the lengthy response! He is working on his essays between studying for midterms but I am afraid that since he is still unsure of applying, they will be half hearted attempts.
I think the real reason we are so keen on him applying now is that if he does get in, it will alleviate a lot of anxiety, especially if getting refused will not hurt his chances when he reapplies. But that is a big IF & I am stll trying to get some responses on this board regarding that. Please do help, does anybody know if it is easier/GPAguidelines are not so strict if the transfer application is inter-college? The recommended GPA for business school is 3.0, his cumulutive is well below that, about 2.5 I think, though his Business GPA is 3.5. Any input??</p>