my chances

<p>I'm an out of state student and a little unsure about my chances at UIUC...Could you guys help me out?</p>

<p>Stats:
HS GPA: about 3.55 W( where I plan for it to be after junior year) and I've shown a steady progression throughout high school
SAT: math- 720, Reading- 710, Writing-720- i'm gonna take them again
my HS doesn't have class rank (stupid...), but I go to a pretty competitive school</p>

<p>Extracurriculars/ awards:
lots of volunteer work (animal shelter and others), worked as bagger at grocery store, art club member (hopefully president next year), various awards for district art competitions, various national poetry awards, National Student Leadership Conference this summer, "Who's Who amongst American High School Students" (or something like that), California Scholarship Federation member, recieved an Academic Letter, thinking about taking a class this summer at the local community college</p>

<p>Other:
Should get pretty good recomendations from teacher and counselor, assume my essays will be pretty good- I'm a good writer (not to sound egotistical...)
AP/Honors classes: AP European History, Honors Chemistry, AP U.S history, AP English Language, AP Studio Art- plan on taking more senior year</p>

<p>So, any thoughts on my chances would be much appreciated!</p>

<p>SAT is very good; hard to tell where your GPA puts you, but you look like you have a good chance based on courses taken. Be aware: (a) in state, out-of-state, makes no difference as all are evaluated on same basis (you don't need higher grades/scores than in-state); (b) application has a counselor's form to fill out but otherwise recommendations are basically pointless as they are generally ignored; "Who's Who" means absolutely nothing to UIUC or any college; (c) what college within UIUC you are applying to makes a difference as middle 50% range for engineering is highest among all colleges, followed by College of Business, and then LAS; (d) apply early (October) rather than late, it creates some advantage.</p>

<p>I'm looking to major in journalism...</p>

<p>The communications college is small and selective, but it is growing. Head on over to <a href="http://www.comm.uiuc.edu/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.comm.uiuc.edu/&lt;/a> for specific details. </p>

<p>Until now, communications was only open to juniors and seniors, now freshman are able to apply in fall 2006. I think a journalism major used to fall into the LAS college until they applied for entry to the Comm college in the semester in which they earned 60 credits. However, with all the changes, they might be allowing you to declare pre-journalism as your major within the Comm college instead of LAS. I bet either way the requirements will be close to what the LAS college requires now, as the curriculum will probably be the same, but I can't be sure. </p>

<p>Call and ask admissions about your questions, that's (among other things) what they get paid for (217-333-0302)!</p>