So UIC as a college isn’t that great. But somehow being accepted to their Honors College is prestigious and equivalent to going to MIT? Something doesn’t quite add up. How can there be such a divide between the college as a whole as this small portion of it? If anyone knows anything about UIC’s Honors College, would you mind sharing?
I’m not sure where you were given the information that the UIC Honors College is the equivalent of going to MIT. I also don’t think I would agree that “UIC as a college isn’t that great”.
My son has been accepted at UIC and into the Honors College (as well as several other schools), but I don’t think he views any of those as the equivalent of MIT.
Having said that, I do feel that being in the UIC Honors College will come with benefits that you don’t get otherwise.
http://www.uic.edu/honors/about/benefits.shtml
Not sure if this answers your question or not.
@WaitingInCPA The people I talked to during the UIC HC cattle call (y’know that seminar where we all wrote essays and had interviews all at once?) are all applying to schools with much higher rankings than UIC. A few girls in particular were applying to the likes of MIT and UPenn. Unless this is a grossly underestimated safety school, I see no reason for them to reach so low. From what the statistics and student reviews show me, the school isn’t that great-- and that’s me being polite. I’m a research orientated person, and these are just my findings.
I think if you are a “research-orientated person,” you ought to perform more critical, in-depth research before you publish your conclusions. WaitingInCPA’s responses are correct. Basing research university assessments upon where a handful of other students apply is neither a sound comparison, nor statistically rigorous. UIC Honors comes with advantages. It is not MIT, nor should it be. They have distinctly different missions, and different populations to serve. The caliber of undergraduates does not approximate MIT or Penn, though Honors students will have significantly higher qualifications. That said, UIC has one of the most diverse undergraduate student populations in the country, and this can provide a very nice advantage. If you receive a nice funding package from UIC, that can also be a great advantage.
UIC is one of approximately 100 research universities in the U.S. that qualify as “Research Intensive”, the highest category of research activity under the Carnegie Research classification. In other words, it is a major player. Some of UIC’s programs are quite strong, including its school of public health, as well as certain areas or disciplines, such as analytical philosophy, some areas of English, and likely others if you hunt around. It is also one of the few schools in the area with an accredited school for architecture. Also, UIC graduates partake in a rather unique alumni association, in which alumni are combined in the general, and very large, U. of I. association (along with Urbana-Champaign and Springfield).
This doesn’t mean UIC Honors is the best choice for you, but it merits further analysis.
UIC is a very young school being less than 50 years old. It certainly has been improving the quality of students and has been getting more competitive to get in each year. This is one of the grossly underestimated school IMO.
Hello my name is Hamsini Kala and I am a senior who has recently applied to the UIC Honors College. I really want to get in and I applied with a 3.47 weighted GPA and 27 ACT score and I am just wondering what my odds are of getting into the Honors College. Is it really competitive? What are the benefits of going there? Could somebody shed some light on the student stats please? I am a really nervous applicant :)]