pls chance for merit aid

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
1

<p>Asian male, from Singapore</p>

<p>One of the 2 most competitive high schools in Singapore.
SAT: 2290 (C740, M780, W770) one sitting
Rank: HS does not rank</p>

<p>Courseload:</p>

<p>Heaviest workload possible in my HS, and in my country.
Grade 11:
Math A
Chem A
Phy A
Bio C (this is considered to be stellar in my school)
Econ B
General Paper A</p>

<p>Grade 12:
I expect my grades to fall this year, maybe an average of B. but i'm expecting average A on my actual 'A levels' exam.</p>

<p>Volunteer:
Led a nation-wide fund-raiser and raised $42k for a charity.
Taught a web design class in a primary school for 2 month
Selected for tutoring of weak math students in my school
public performance of calligraphy in a local museum</p>

<p>ECs:
local math olympiad bronze
2 year president for an academic club
stanford EPGY
National science fair: Entered 3 projects, received Bronzes on 2
Science research program
presented papers at a science conference
school projects day: high distinction, top project for category
play varsity inline hockey
class representation (elected)
volunteer for interact club
4 years calligraphy
1 year judo
2 year computer club
5 year karate (brown belt, under a very rigorous grading system)
5 year swimming (with many awards)
1 year of self-initiated research project in which i designed a medicine database, filing for patent, not hoping too much out of this</p>

<p>Awards:
Creative multimedia competition -1st place. this is a national web design competition
ministry of education award for leadership
international bronze for calligraphy
various awards for needy students (i come from a humble background)
qualifier for the most prestigious national science talent search</p>

<p>Work/Internship:
1. Spent one summer servicing computers and servers for a semiconductor factory
2. Internship at Legal Aid Bureau: 1 week full time
3. Internship at Centre for Strategic Infocom Technologies: 4 weeks full time, with research paper
4. Intership at National University of Singapore 1 month full time, 2 month part time, with research paper supervised by Assoc Prof.
5. paid Internship at a renowned graduate medical school, 2 month fulltime, 1 month partime. with research paper with NOVEL results <--*(hook?)
6. attachment with mediacorp. i was casted in a local game show.</p>

<p>extra:
1. I'm first generation college student,
2. I am very serious about karate, i will likely make it my essay topic.</p>

<p>What I want to know is my chances of admission, and more important, what kind of merit aid i can expect. thanks for the time guys!</p>

2

<p>engineering, btw. electrical otherwise undeclared</p>

3

<p>Grades and SAT appear to give you good chance. However:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>UIUC, as you are probably aware, does not offer need based aid to internationals.</p></li>
<li><p>With your application as an international, you must submit a form and proof to show that you can actually afford to pay the first year's estimated costs (tuition, fees, room and board, books). If you cannot submit such proof, your application will be rejected. In other words, you will not even get to the stage where you will be considered for merit aid.</p></li>
<li><p>If you get to the stage for merit aid, you should not expect much. Grades and SAT may win some but maximum is likely equal to out-of-state tution relief, e.g., you would pay in-state tuition plus all other costs, and more likely is something a lot less than that.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Also, you cannot apply to engineering in an "undeclared" category; you need to designate a major. The only undecided category is in the Arts & Sciences college.</p>

4

<p>For anything over a thousand or two, close to 0. You have to be the president of a nation to get significant merit aid at Champaign.</p>

5

<p>wow.. notthatgood4, if you were serious when u said its really hard to get more than "a thousand or two", i probably can't afford to attend uiuc. i was hoping i stand a chance at getting something in the range of $20k. the guys at UMich are telling me i can get that amount. But i still different schools have different policies.</p>

<p>so anyone else? how much do people normally get? what did you get? care to share?</p>

6

<p>My sister had like a 4.4 weighted GPA, 29 ACT and got absolutely nothing, not even a thousand in good faith. I have a 4.1 weighted GPA, 34 ACT, and I don't expect to get anything there. Only one of her friends got anything over a couple of thousand, and she was #1 in a class of over a thousand. However, perhaps their policies are different for international students that I am not aware of.</p>

<p>With your credentials, you can get a very nice merit aid package almost anywhere though, just UIUC is not the most generous in this department. It's still worth a shot of applying at least.</p>

7

<p>cool. thanks notthatgood for the encouragement. which other schools should i look at btw?
my thinking is that i should apply to public schools and hope for merit aid instead of private schools because i can't afford private schools even with a huge financial package. is that right?</p>

8

<p>Some private schools will give you huge aid packages, so I wouldn't rule them out automatically.</p>

<p>Do you have an area of the country in mind? I can give you some suggestions, possibly ones you can go to for a huge discount if you give me that information.</p>

<p>For example, at Ohio Universtiy in Athens (a very nice school from everything I've heard), you would qualify for a discount of In-State tuiton + 4500 just on your SAT alone, making it around 13 k a year. You might even get more from a department with your credentials. They have something called the Honors Tutorial College for elite students such as yourself. Worth looking into to. I'm looking into going to there myself, but just at the journalism school which is regarded as one of the best in the country.</p>

<p>The more information about what you're looking for in a college, the better suggestions I can give you.</p>

9

<p>For a school with a strong electrical engineering program that you can get good scholarship to, I would suggest looking into Oklahoma State.</p>

<p>Here is the scholarship program in which you might qualify for a nice scholarship <a href="http://www.okstate.edu/finaid/scholarships/academicscholar_main.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.okstate.edu/finaid/scholarships/academicscholar_main.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>And here's the electrical engineering school
<a href="http://elec-engr.okstate.edu/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://elec-engr.okstate.edu/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

10

<p>For a school with a solid electrical engineering program that you can get good scholarship to, I would suggest looking into Oklahoma State. Not considered "elite" like U of I or UM-AA, but I'm sure you'd find a good job with a degree there.</p>

<p>Here is the scholarship program in which you might qualify for a nice scholarship <a href="http://www.okstate.edu/finaid/scholarships/academicscholar_main.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.okstate.edu/finaid/scholarships/academicscholar_main.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>And here's the electrical engineering school
<a href="http://elec-engr.okstate.edu/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://elec-engr.okstate.edu/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

11

<p>thanks! i'll look into those.</p>