UIUC pursued my son after his first SAT. His stats are very good and he’s gotten into some select colleges and their honors colleges. We were just surprised that he didn’t get any kind of merit scholarship being that he’s in the scholar’s program. Most schools automatically give you something, even if it’s only $2500 a year.
@Cotwoag1 I’m really surprised you didn’t get a merit scholarship with those stats!
The only general (not departmental) merit scholarship UIUC gives for OOS students is the “University Achievement Scholarship” for 8-12k a year. I received the scholarship and tried looking into why I did, but the criteria is pretty elusive. Maybe merit scholarships are also based on leadership, volunteering, etc (even though the requirements say “Out-of-state incoming freshmen with outstanding academic achievement”).
It seems like they don’t give out many scholarships for OOS students. I went to the LAS James Scholar reception, and my dad said a lot of the parents were asking about OOS scholarships (meaning their kids did not receive one).
Merit scholarships likely are based on your major as well. For their most popular majors (and CS is probably the most popular), UIUC probably doesn’t feel like it has to give out much merit money to get high-quality students to attend, and if they do, it would be to those kids in the major at the very top (so with perfect/near perfect stats, etc.)
@imthereal pretty much. I thought I had pretty good stats for UIUC (36act, competitive extracurriculars, IB) and am kind of puzzled as to what they look for. I’m thinking that the engineering department is overloaded with smart Asian males though, so that might be it. Oh well, UIUC isn’t really an option for me anymore without a scholarship
There just isn’t much pure merit money to go around. There are scholarships that aren’t related to need, but many of those are used to target students with desired demographic characteristics.
I’m OOS and got 4k in grants and the rest are loans.
We’re instate and got nothing. Other out of state schools would be cheaper due to the merit aid my son received, however, it’s not significant enough to make it worth going to those schools and UIUC for Computer Science, is far better. I can’t imagine how frustrating it must be for OOS students who want to go there but can’t since their OOS is in line with private schools.
Decision: **Accepted - Materials Science & Engineering - College of Eng**
**James Scholar, $8k/yr from University, $2k/yr from Department**
**Objective: **
ACT (breakdown): 36 E, 36 M, 35 S, 33 R, 12 Wr, 35 Composite
SAT I (breakdown): 690 CR, 780 M, 690 WR (2160)
SAT II: 750 M2 730 PHY
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): N/A
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): N/A
AP (place score in parenthesis): None
IB (place score in parenthesis): None
Senior Year Course Load: All Classes taken at WPI (Private engineering university in MA)
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): State and Regional Science Fair Placements/Awards
**Subjective: **
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Gymnastics -15 yrs, GSA, Theater, Dance, Student Govt (President)
Job/Work Experience: Internship in Organic Chem Lab
Volunteer/Community service: 200+ hours at Nursing Home
Summer Activities: Gymnastics Camp (Counselor), STEM Camp (Counselor)
Essays (rating 1-10, details): Why I love MatSE 9/10, Starting college early (essentially) 8/10
**Other: **
State (if domestic applicant): Massachusetts
School Type: Public Magnet
Ethnicity:White
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: $200k+
**Reflection: **
Strengths: Girl in engineering, ACT, Work in my field, moving schools to get ahead
Weaknesses: SAT, OOS
Where else were you accepted/deferred/rejected: Accepted w Scholarships to Pitt (w Honors), Penn State (w Honors), WPI, RPI, Deferred then rejected from MIT
**General Comments: **
Gonna come down to UIUC, CMU, and Cal 
Knew UIUC’s financial aid package is not good, did not expect it to be this poor, glad that we did not apply,
Decision Form
Decision: [ color = green][ b]Accepted - MAJOR - College[/color]**
[ b][ u]Objective: **
ACT (breakdown): 35
SAT I (breakdown): 2130 (didn’t report)
SAT II: Math: 780 Bio: 710
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.8
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): top 10%
AP (place score in parenthesis): didn’t report anyone except a couple of 4s
IB (place score in parenthesis): none
Senior Year Course Load: don’t remember tbh
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): none
[ b][ u]Subjective: **
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Exec board/founded a couple of clubs at my HS
Job/Work Experience: Interned for a psycho prof summer after my sophomore year
Volunteer/Community service: various
Summer Activities:Summer camps for two summers, interned for one summer. summer after senior year vacationing
Essays (rating 1-10, details): probably an 7-8, honestly not amazing but they were good
Teacher Rec #1: no idea
Teacher Rec #2: no idea
Counselor Rec: no idea
Additional Rec: no idea
[ b][ u]Other: **
State (if domestic applicant): not domestic
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Public
Ethnicity:Asian
Gender:Male
Income Bracket mid-high:
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.):first generation college
[ b][ u]Reflection: **
Strengths: ACT score, gpa + percentile?
Weaknesses: no major awards,some essays were on weaker side, accidentally reported low SAT score to certain schools (not uiuc, but NU)
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: Accepted probably because ACT, GPA + rank
Where else were you accepted/deferred/rejected: NU - rejected Notre Dame - deferred into accepted UC Chapel - Rejected
[ b]General Comments: **