UIUC Class of 2023 EA Thread

@ihmlo29 https://las.illinois.edu/academics/accessandachievement

@bds61821 is correct.

My DD got a letter dated December 21 telling her she’s been selected for the Campus Honors Program as a Chancellor’s Scholar. It includes a scholarship of $1,000/year.

My daughter also received a letter saying she’d been selected for the Campus Honors Program as a Chancellor’s Scholar. (She didn’t apply for honors and has already accepted an ED offer elsewhere.)

For those of you who have received scholarship offers, did it come in the official letter of acceptance package or was it separate?

I also received the Campus Honors Program selection, but didn’t get anything for other scholarships. The letter made it sound like scholarships would come later but idk. @emk2019 It came on the same day but separately for me.

D got accepted to Gies!
In State
1410 SAT
GPA: 4.1 W

She also got DA to Kelley. Did anyone else get unassigned under the major? I think she applied as Marketing but just looking for insight on what the “unassigned” means.

I think UIUC automatically considers all EA students for the honors program, and chooses from the bunch (not sure so don’t quote me on that haha). It’s very selective so congrats all who were chosen!
This is also the first year that Illinois public universities are starting to implement the AIM HIGH program, signed in by Rauner, which is basically a huge fund from the state and matched by the schools to provide money for high-achieving Illinois students. Currently, I believe Illinois and New Jersey are the two states that lose the most students to other state schools, i.e. Alabama Tuscaloosa gives 26 thou a year to students above 1420 sat and 3.5 GPA. Good for Illinois.
Anyway, a reason UofI might be giving a bit more money this yr is thru that program. UIC is doing AIM HIGH in a big way as well w/ covering full tuition for select in-state applicants.

http://osfa.illinois.edu/types-of-aid/aim-high-program
an article in case anyone was wondering about this

Accepted OOS

30 ACT
3.72 GPA
136/482 students
Outstanding EC’s (Nationally Ranked Referee)
Solid Essays
Public School
Economics Major

@llllrg, not sure for which university your unassigned question is intended. If UIUC, all freshman admitted to Gies are admitted unassigned to a major. If IU Kelley, I believe that is the same if you are a direst admit as a freshman; providing a desired major on the app is for informational purposes for Kelley but you are not expected to declare any major until second or third year.

@drusba son got admission to Industrial engg. Does he have a chance to change major if he takes the relevant classes in first year. His first choice is CS

@ppxyz123

There was a pretty heated (and informative from my perspective) discussion about changing majors (specifically about CS) in this thread. Check out posts #160 through #185.

@ppxyz123 Short answer is that it is very difficult to transfer into the oversubscribed majors like CS-Eng, BioE and MechE, and difficult to transfer into CompE and EE. Getting into the required classes is a plus, but some are locked out only for CS majors initially and everyone else has to hope for empty seats when they open to other majors. Getting top grades is also critical, of course. Making connections with counselors and CS profs is a good idea, too. Consider many others are also trying to transfer and so standing out is important to have a chance. My son has a friend who transferred into CS after freshman year by doing all the above, for example, but I suspect many transfers are declined for each one accepted, just as it is with freshman admissions.

@ppxyz123, you should assume there is only a small chance for CS even if he does well. Three engineering majors are currently considered seriously impacted – CS, bioengineering and mechanical engineering --with CS being the worst. For changing to CS for second year, you essentially need a very high GPA, and then get chosen for a limited number of seats available from the larger number of other students who also have very high GPA’s and want to switch to CS.

To give you an idea about chances of switching to another engineering major, see the Prep GPA cut-offs chart applicable to pre-engineering students at UIUC. The chart does not directly apply to someone already in engineering but is informative, https://dgs.illinois.edu/sites/dgs.illinois.edu/files/inline-files/Guaranteed%20Admission%20Major%20Chart_0.pdf The five separate boxes from top to bottom basically show the degree of difficulty in making a switch with the top box being very difficult and the bottom box being fairly easy.As you can see the list does change from one year to another but it is unlikely CS is going to become easier within the next few years.

@ppxyz123 as per Inter-Departmental Transfer procedure
https://wiki.illinois.edu/wiki/display/ugadvise/Majors%2C+Minors+and+Certificates#Majors,MinorsandCertificates-ChangingMajor

you would need to continue in current major (Ind Eng) in 1st sem, meet the advisor, apply for transfer in 2nd,3rd, 4th sem. Certain that intended major has its own requirements (CS classes and its GPA). It is highly unlikely to perform better while carrying the load of current major (Ind Eng) and intended major (CS). Also to be standout for intended major (CS), you need to participate in hard to get-in clubs and activities.
PREP admitted students have little advantage over declared major (Ind Eng), they have to take classes for intended major only (don’t need to take Ind Eng classes if CS is intended major), but they are more riskier path then declared major (nothing is guaranteed other then open capacity eng with requirements to be satisfied).

So to address your question about chance to change, ofc there is a chance but the path to materialize that chance is very difficult.

jinx.

does anyone know when we should be receiving the rest of merit based scholarships?

as per admission blog
https://blog.admissions.illinois.edu/?p=24397
“The Office of Student Financial Aid (OSFA) will begin sending out financial aid packages around mid-February”.
The Award Letter is comprise of
“all federal, state, and university offers of aid, including scholarships, grants, loans, and student employment.”

University-wide merit awards usually come at the time of admissions. From past reports, most departmental merit awards are done by Jan-Feb. Some departmental scholarships have interviews in that time period and then provide information about timelines. I’m sure there are exceptions that are issued right up until April 1st, but I wouldn’t count on merit aid if you haven’t specifically interviewed for an award or otherwise received a notice by the time financial aid packages are issued.

I do not know the timeline for the new Aim High awards, but it says you must complete a FAFSA by January 5th if your family income qualifies: http://osfa.illinois.edu/types-of-aid/aim-high-program

Award letter sums up everything from college finance point of view. As AIM High is a merit based IL state grant program, relatively loose need based criteria, unlike IL Commitment (full tuition for need-based in-state students), not a scholarship. As long as FAFSA is completed by January 5th, and admitted student is in top 5% of their college (this is not sure how they decide for incoming freshman), as its only EA decisions are out, it has to wait for RD decisions to determine top 5%, therefore it should be on award letter (end of Feb to mid-March, most admitted students should have that info).