<p>My son was accepted into the Engineering program so I'm happy about that. His intended roommate applied (October) to LAS with an ACT 29 and A's and B's in honors classes; he has been wait listed. The thing I don't understand is that kids from their high school have been accepted with much lower stats. At least two kids have gotten into LAS with ACT scores of 27, mainly academic program with maybe one or two honors courses. Both of the wait listed kids parents went there as well. Why would kids with lower stats get in? J</p>
<p>Possible reasons for his not being admitted (don't know if any apply to him): </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Lower class rank than others.</p></li>
<li><p>Bad essays.</p></li>
<li><p>Over application to choice of major. UIUC determines how many it wants to enroll in the various majors, then determines how many it should admit to likely get that number to enroll. Applications to majors can vary in number and it can be harder to get admitted to one major as compared to another. </p></li>
<li><p>High school course load and grades in college prep courses. For example. did he take only the required two years of language and others four? Did he take at least three years of lab science or just the required two? Did he take only the required 3 years in math and the others four? Other variations like that.</p></li>
<li><p>Any disciplinary events.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Legacy really does not matter. (Because so many who apply to UIUC can claim it, if it were given any real weight, too many without legacy would end up being rejected.)</p>
<p>Thanks so much for the input. The only possibility out of that list that I can see would be the class rank but that is where I have the question. Our high school does not rank so it is up to U. of I. to "assign" a rank. That said, I know he is in all honors and took 1 AP course last year; grades were A's and a couple of B's. Why would those stats plus a 29 ACT not put him ahead of a student in all academic with a 27 ACT? Even if the academic student got all A's - aren't the honors and AP courses supposed to count for a bit more? I know his essay would have been very well thought out and proofed as both parents were extremely invested in him being accepted and I know for certain that he has never had any discipline problems in high school. I guess I'm just trying to understand not so much why he didn't get in but why the others did. J</p>
<p>I forgot to mention that he applied LAS, undecided. I guess I just thought that applying early October with his stats would have been good enough to get in. J</p>
<p>that really sucks, Jeannie. </p>
<p>but remember, waitlisted does not equal rejected.</p>
<p>Of all factors, class rank and ACT score are the two most important. When high school does not rank, they do an estimate and they also look at course load including adding some weight for AP/honors courses, but to make any real comparison to others you would need the actual transcript of all of them and know any other factors that might apply. Also, a declining GPA -- going from high freshman to lower junior year GPA -- can have a negative impact and vice versa for a rising GPA. Also, schools that do not rank very often send a school profile with the transcript that will provide ranges, e.g., the top 10% GPA range and top 20% GPA range for the class as a whole, thus effectively providing some class rank information from which a probable class rank can be estimated.</p>
<p>Note, I agree that a 29 ACT for LAS is usually very good, but it is definitely not a guarantee of admission in and of itself and you are at best only half way to getting admitted with that score. </p>
<p>Also, the wait list is not a rejection. Typically, they end up offering admission to 25% or more who accept being waitlisted although LAS is probably lower than that.</p>