<p>UIUC is rising on my S’s list of schools. We are going to visit next month. </p>
<p>Here are a few questions:</p>
<li> He’s going to be a CompSci major and I understand housing is tight and there is a certain dorm he should try to get into. Can someone remind me what that is? Are there certain dorms that are more studious and less ‘party-ish’. Is there a specific Engineering or CompSci dorm?</li>
<li> Has anyone heard anything about merit scholarships? The only scholarship we’ve seen to date is for study abroad.</li>
<li> If he decides he wants to transfer to Business, is that difficult?</li>
<li> What else should we be asking at this point?<br></li>
<li> He didn’t apply for ‘honors’. Is there a separate application, or are all students considered.</li>
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<li>ISR-probably full by now. Hendricks- Private Housing, costs more</li>
<li>Dunno</li>
<li>No but a lot of engineering and business classes dont correlate so the switch shud be done as as soon as possible( no problems after fresh yr but after soph year would be ok too i guess). Make sure he takes a lot of general education classes in the begining if hes not sure he wants to stick to CS.</li>
<li>dunno</li>
<li>dunno</li>
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<li>haven't heard of any but would love to get any.</li>
<li>no separate application. when you were filling out the online app, you should've seen a separate box, which was optional, which stated that if you want to be considered for honors, you would have to type like 3-4 sentences why.</li>
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<li><p>Personally, I would not get overly concerned about which dorm to get into. Illinois Street Residence Halls (ISR) has a lot of enginnering majors including upperclassmen. However, a very large number of engineering majors stay elsewhere on campus in a variety of dorms and, frankly, a lot of people think ISR is actually one of the worst dorms (among the smallest rooms, noisy heating and air conditioning units, dull building). Hendricks, among the private certified units, also has a lot of engineering students (more upperclassmen than freshman) because it is very close to the engineering quad -- which as a freshman, your son will have only one or at most two classes the whole year; most of his classes will be in the main quad. But a lot of students believe it a boring place and too expensive. No dorm is as wild as some try to claim (like for the six pack) or as quiet as some try to claim (like ISR). Calmer than other places include Allen (Unit One group), Lungren (all male but shares facilities -- dining, front desk, recreation rooms -- with Barton which is all female), Lincoln Avenue Residence. Florida Avenue Residence is kind of in between but its downside is that its acronym "FAR" accurately describes its distance from the classrooms in the main and engineering quads. Living/Learning Halls like Allen (Unit One) are fine but the biggest benefit is not the living/learning -- those groups get course sections for a number of courses for which they have priority registration and that can mean the difference between getting a freshman course you want or need and not getting it. Housing is generally awarded in order of the submission of your housing application. </p></li>
<li><p>Merit scholarships are hard to come by. Very few full rides; there are a number of college, department, or special group merit awards but even if you get lucky for one of those the amount usually ranges from only $500 to $3,000 a year. Most are awarded based on ACT or SAT test score and class rank without additional application; do a search on UIUC's site for "scholarships" and you will find most.</p></li>
<li><p>Transfer is more difficult first two years and easier junior year and you need to meet minimum requirements GPA/courses taken of school into which you are transfering and those can be difficult to do particularly if switching from engineering to business because curriculums are unrelated.</p></li>
<li><p>Best way to famailiarize yourself with everything at UIUC is to search for info on its site -- practically any question you can have has answer somewhere on the site and the search engine is Google which makes it easy to do. Things to check out may include residence halls, living/learning communities, food programs you can choose, medical facilities (very good), costs, recreational facilities, the engineering site in general for computer science.</p></li>
<li><p>No separate app, you are informed of eligibility after you are admitted to UIUC. Two main programs are Campus honors (admits about 240, enrolls about 125, need to be in upper 2% or 3% in class rank and test score to get invite) and the James Scholars program for which each college has its own and for engineering usually requires a 33 or higher ACT. Both are oriented to General Ed courses that you need to take and a lot of engineering students actually turn them down for that reason.</p></li>
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