Hello,
I was admitted to uiuc as undeclared as I wasn’t admitted into the CS program. Additionally, I was admitted into the twin cities CS department. My parents are telling me to commit to uiuc since it’s better ranked but I’m afraid I will have low chances to be admitted to CS in later years of college. Please let me know what you think.
thanks!
You’ll have a low chance of being admitted in to CS at UIUC.
Ask your parents what they would do if you don’t get in to CS at UIUC.
http://www.cs.uiuc.edu/admissions/undergraduate/transfer-students indicates that you need to earn a 3.67 college GPA with at least A- in two CS courses to even be eligible to apply to enter the CS major at UIUC. But the process is competitive and meeting that GPA and grade criteria does not assure admission.
https://www.advising.cse.umn.edu/cgi-bin/courses/noauth/apply-major-statistics indicates that some students in Minnesota’s College of Science and Engineering were admitted to the CS major with college technical GPAs as low as 2.4-2.8 (3.2 is automatic admission). If you have direct admission to the CS major, you do not even have to worry about that (but does Minnesota do direct admission?).
In any case, if you go to Minnesota, it is very likely you will be able to major in CS. If you go to UIUC, it is very unlikely that you will be able to major in CS. What will your parents say if you go to UIUC and then are unable to get into the CS major?
Go to Minnesota. UIUC CS is overflowing with kids and it’s nearly impossible to transfer. I know students who went here, got 4.0s, and got denied and had to transfer universities. Minnesota is a pretty good program anyways.
In general I think very highly of UIUC, especially for CS (my son’s there), but it is indeed very challenging to transfer into the College of Engineering and the CS major. My son had a friend freshman year who didn’t get into Engineering originally and was hoping to transfer in, but he ended up transferring to another school. If that’s going to happen to you, it’s probably better to just start out at the other school. Minnesota is still a very good school.
BTW, UIUC has some CS majors that are not in Engineering (CS+Math, CS+X). You should maybe check into those, see if they’re potentially of interest, and what it takes to transfer into them – it will be easier than into the College of Engineering, but still may be difficult.
@csdad2: The UIUC CS+X majors are a little easier to transfer in to but still require at least a high GPA. They would be uncertain as well.
I do think that transferring into CS either in the Engineering or the L&S school (for a CS + X degree) at UIUC is going to be hard. If your heart is set on studying CS, I’d pick UMN. It’s a good school (not as good as UIUC perhaps, but respected, nevertheless). It’s a much safer choice in your situation,
Thanks for all your responses! I asked my advisor for a course plan from DGS if I plan to go to stats + cs since it’s a bit easier.
The issue isn’t the course plan but the fact it’s selective and competitive. To give you an idea of how high 3.67 is, a 3.0 is pretty good freshman year in engineering or stem, as there’s definite grade deflation or a strict curve.
Odds are overwhelming that you will NOT get into CS. Would you be okay with possibly just the statistics major (but even that isn’t easy?)
If you’re truly interested in CS, go to MN. The program is excellent and th students overall very strong (31-33 act on average)…
Completely agree with the above. As a DGS student at UIUC good luck getting any intro CS classes - you will have low priority on these popular classes. Whereas at UMN-TC it’s quite easy to get those intro classes - probably due to the set up that everyone needs to qualify to get into the program. Huge risk if you are not direct admit at UIUC for CS or CS+ X.