How low is the admission rate for CS at UIUC? I’ve heard it’s insanely difficult to get into so just wanna know its rate of selectivity? Do they care more about EC’s too or is it more academic based?
5% ish for CS in engineering. I don’t think they take supplemental materials, so cramming in anything relevant in the limited space on the application can’t hurt. Be sure to pick a less selective second major. UIUC CS is not a safety for anyone.
According to a couple of sources on Quora (can’t link) from this year, it appears the UIUC acceptance rates are:
Computer Science - Engineering = 18.5%
Someone made an FOIA request earlier this year and the alleged acceptance rate was ~18% for Fall 2017 entry.
Definitely not 5%.
I guess they lied then. We were told pretty clearly at an engineering admissions session that it was under 10% admitted for CS Engineering. That would have been for 2016. There are other CS majors outside engineering, so perhaps there is a higher overall average. Or perhaps they meant percentage of students who accepted, which is given in this article as 5%. http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2017-02-07/record-number-ui-applicants-leads-record-number-admissions.html
Regardless, choose a less competitive second major on your application!
illinoisx3, do you have any ideas for a second major that’s less competitive?
Any of the Engineering majors other than CS, Bio or Mechanical if you have grades and test scores at the high end or above the middle 50% numbers posted on the engineering admissions site. That would include CompE, EE and Systems if you have solid stats. Engineering Physics has an elective option for a computational program, but we’ve discovered that the required CS classes are very difficult to schedule:-( In Liberal Arts and Science, Math+CS, Stats+CS and CS+X (Antrho/Astro/Chem/Linguistcs) are supposed to be less selective.
It’s also extremely difficult to transfer into CS-Engineering later, even with exceptional grades, so don’t assume that is a path unless you’ve talked to a counselor first.
4300 applications, 215 seats, yes. But not everyone accepted to UIUC CS accepts their spot. So in reality, somewhere between 700 and 1000 candidates are accepted.
I think a professor here mentioned the yield rate remains between 30-40%.
That’s exactly why I said it’s possible the engineering admissions counselor meant the percentage of students who accepted, rather than the percentage admitted. But you can ask them, if classification is necessary. The key point is that CS Engineering is very very competitive and even the article I linked mentions the difficulty to be admitted.
@illinoisx3 So do you think I have a decent chance with say a 34 ACT, 1530 SAT, and 3.91 GPA? Ik this is technically the wrong thread lol but just wanna get a bit of input. I can let u know EC’s if needed. I just really wanna get an idea lmao
Hi- I don’t really know other than scattered reports here and on google search. I would guess those stats are a little low for CS-Engineering unless you are an underrepresented minority or have some really good EC related to CS. My son had friends with similar or higher stats and were not accepted to CS-Engineering last year. I don’t know about their EC, though, so it’s still possible even if not good odds. I hope @asianfang or someone else can give you a better opinion.
Those scores plus solid EC do look like a decent chance for CompE or CS+Math/Stats.
Thanks for the input!
asianfag -definitely it is not above 10% admission rate for the CS department and probably 5%-ish for CS Engineering. The UIUC enrollment data publicly available says in 2017 Fall UIUC enrolled 160 students in all majors offered in CS department (i.e. CS from CoE + LAS). In CS Eng just 69 students was enrolled. UIUC says they got more than 5000 applications for CS. Assuming only 40% of the admitted students were enrolled (i.e. lower rate than colleges ranked similarly for CS), the admission rate would be 8% or less.
@illinoisx3 Do you know the acceptance rates for UIUC computer engineering? And is it possible to minor in computer science there?
What are the easiest and hardest types of engineering to get into?
You’re not allowed to minor in CS as a CE major and vice-versa. I’ve heard ECE is around 30-45%, but once again those numbers are dubious.
Generally BioE, CS, MechE are considered the hardest engineering majors to get into.
While still hard, Agricultural, EngMech, EngPhysics, Materials, Nuclear, and Systems Engineering are considered easier majors to get into.
Aren’t EE and ECE also supposed to be one of the most selective majors in engineering?
25 years ago EE was the most selective at UIUC. EE/ECE is still fairly selective and remains a top 10 program nationwide. It has just grown so large that it isn’t as selective as smaller programs like CS or Bio that are also very popular right now.
Did you get in?
Getting accurate figures on a reliable admission rate for CS Eng is almost an exercise in futility. Such figures are not provided by the CS department itself, and the method of admitting students renders any figures of questionable use. Until this year, those applying to CS eng could put it as a first or second choice major. If it was the first choice major and the student got second choice of another engineering major, he was counted as admitted to engineering for a overall engineering figures and not counted as being declined for anything. Moreover, many of those who had its as a second choice major got first choice despite that they may be included in the total of students who applied for CS Eng. Also, many of those who had it as second choice (and did not get first choice), were actually declined not because of quality but because most of the class was filed by first choice majors. The 18% admission rate offered above is probably as good as any guess.
Last year UIUC engineering admit rate was 42%.
UIUC CS rate was 25%.