I know the push to 2/19 is annoying for us EAs but at least its not a complete sh__t show like University of Texas admissions is. I’ll take clear and concise communication with a delay than complete chaos and non-stop anxiety any day!
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Feed in few details for Texas so first time applicants have better information about education world.
Not sure I can do it justice here…
UT EA (called Priority at UT) decisions are due by 2/1, RD decisions 3/1. Issues:
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Instead of releasing all at once, UT has been releasing admissions in dribs and drabs over the last 6 weeks with seemingly no rhyme or reason. UT releases all rejects AFTER all acceptances have been communicated. This means that everyone that hasn’t been admitted has been sitting on their admissions portals all month waiting for something to change in their portals. Refresh-Refresh-Refresh! Absolutely zero communication from UT. (Except those admitted get an acceptance email)
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UT has started to send acceptances to RD applicants BEFORE notifying all EA applicants. So if you applied EA and haven’t gotten accepted, you can only assume you have been rejected - again no communication from UT, but rumors on Reddit and College Confidential are running rampant so everyone is still hoping they come out with more EA accepts.
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While in-state Texas students in top 6% class rank are automatically admitted to UT (called AAs) , they are not guaranteed their choice of majors. The AAs have been watching their portals all month as their list of majors gets whittled agonizingly down one by one until you get everything changed to “Liberal Arts - Undeclared” if you dont get into any of your major choices. This is the only way you know you havent been assigned one of your major choices. Again, zero communication from UT.
etc etc
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Wow, agreed that is awful for those kids that haven’t heard. While the 2/19 date has been agonizing, I am grateful for the confirmed date. Purdue did the same thing but on 1/15. It will be here before we know it. Good luck to all!
can’t even believe what I am reading…Is Ted going to vouch for stolen admission?
It’s not stolen admission, lol, it’s just a crappy way they do their acceptances and the 6% rule is dictated by the state legislature to make admissions “equitable” and diversified so that it’s not just a few schools that get all the students admitted. This is why even though you may be an auto admit under the 6% rule, you are not guaranteed your major. Someone in the top 6% of their school that isn’t at a top high school may want to go into McCombs (one of the top business schools in the country) but realistically can’t compare to someone that is in the top 15% at the top rated high school in Texas that is not an auto admit hence that person the non AA is who gets the spot in McCombs and the other gets a spot in their UGS (gen ed) or undeclared program.
Then they have the rules that 92% admitted have to be in state also making things a cluster. They also received over 66k applications this year and started accepting AA in September. They have a very holistic process, take everything into account and sometimes people (not all) think they are entitled to admittance just based on grades and/or a good score, but we all know there are tons of people with good grades and scores.
It’s a tough one, but overall their whole process is awful and a lot of schools this year are keeping kids on edge and when everyone is talking about the mental health of these students, what some of these schools are doing is really a horrible thing. And I say this as a parent of a current UT student. They also did a lousy job and continue to do so with Covid. But as an academic institution, if you’re in one of the top programs, that is gold.
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I guess you took my sarcasm seriously 
Because people actually think that is actually what happens!! When my daughter was accepted as an OOS student 2 years ago parents of in state students were furious, implying she stole a spot from their kids and how did she get in, blah blah blah when their kid had xx stats, etc. Never comprehending that she had stellar stats herself. This is by far the worst year I’ve seen for UT how they’ve handled things, but at the same time, it’s the worst year of admissions all around. I have a senior, he didn’t apply to UT thank god, but it is affecting him at other schools and we are just trying to go with the flow. He’s not angry or feeling like someone that didn’t submit a test score stole his spot though or did something else to stole it. It just is what it is.
I would say UIUC and its students discipline set an example for all colleges how to effectively manage covid crisis w/o failure level disruption.
It seems from @etlindy points UT failed to execute its own good policies this year.
Agree, people believed in repeated lies, thus the events of 1/6.
This admission cycle, family admission stress is compounded with economy stress. Only time will tell how badly it exactly impacted, especially low income families.
UT never releases their admissions all at once, so this is not new, but this year it has been a more unpredictable than usual. In a recent year all acceptances were essentially done by mid January and then on January 31 (may have been Feb 1) all the rejections came. To me, they clearly have a rejection pile. When they know they’re not taking someone, just reject them and eliminate their stress and hope that they have a chance. Priority will hear by the 2/1 date, Regular hear by 3/1 but that doesn’t mean they don’t hear earlier than that. That is what is upsetting to people. Regular have heard before priority. That is more common than people think. The key wording is “by 3/1”. So it can be any time before 3/1 it doesn’t say between 2/1 and 3/1.
As for covid, UIUC had it’s hiccups at the beginning, but for a school that size they got their act together. My other daughter goes to a school that had their act together from beginning to end and it was phenomenal. It’s not that complicated and for all these schools unwilling or incapable to follow suit it’s really frustrating. In UT’s case a lot of it has to do with their hands being tied by the state legislature. On the flip side, it’s a lot easier for people to get vaccinated there as they are already vaccinating students 16+ with medical issues, and now just sent an email for the general public to sign up.
Now if only we in Illinois can get going on our vaccines. My county is still stuck in 1a. But my parents and I (in education so 1b) were able to go elsewhere.
Good to know UT process. It seems it is just another school struggling more covid related issues like other schools than systematic failures. In that case it is not a ‘stolen’ 
Think last March-April everyone was struggling as noone had full details and doesn’t know what to react w/o knowing full ramification. So most institutions choose safest option to shutdown campus, especially the states where Covid was raging back then. However then UIUC come up with perfect plan and manage last semester (besides initial hiccup caused by disobedient students) as well as current semester so far.
UIIC certainly gets credit for coming up with own test method, setting up 8 testing sites across campus, took disciplinary actions (not just to be politically correct kind of measures), removed the spring break now. If you feel comfortable sharing, which school is your D attending?
@PPofEngrDr She is at Cornell. Similarly when they redid the calendar last July, they eliminated Spring Break. They haven’t even started second semester yet as they pushed it in hopes of avoiding flu season and the predicted high case count, expected vaccine in Dec/Jan etc. They were gambling on a lot to happen there and it worked for the most part in starting late. Kids coming back from non contiguious states had to have a covid test before arrival, one upon arrival and 4-5 day quarantine (unless positive), entire campus first semester was tested 2x/week, now depending on your living situation or activities you’re involved in you might be 3x/week and if you’ve recently had covid you’re actually exempt. 100 positives over a certain period of time is an adaptive pause for the entire campus. They didn’t have that first semester and hopefully not this semester. Also eliminated spring break, put in a couple odd days off for mental health in there and will end at at the usual time in May. It will be a long semester for many, but the right thing to do. Like UIUC they also use their own labs to test and I think are doing something with the local school district too. I wish UT had something this proactive. They say anyone can get a test, but it’s not that easy. Hoops to jump through as my kid goes regularly to stay safe, but for those that don’t want to jump through the hoops, they wind up giving up.
These kids need to be held accountable for breaking the rules and I’m glad schools are doing so. It’s not that hard as there are examples of schools all over that have done a great job. Purdue, Illinois, Arizona, Syracuse and more. On campus, many in person/hybrid classes, social, etc., although I admit I know for freshmen at many of these places including UIUC and Cornell and UT plus it was rough.
Hi, I applied to Gies and just wanted to know what does the AR look like for OOS?
Well with UVA EA decisions released ahead of schedule, is UIUC officially the last EA to release decisions? I’m nervous to see those application numbers since most schools seem to be up 25%. The 19th can’t come soon enough. Good Luck everyone!
That increase seems frightening, but facts are different.
For UG admission, neither number of high school students nor number of UG seats have changed. It seems this batch is applying more wider net than they used to be due to uncertainty, chaos and lack of standardized test scores for whatever reason.
I would only concern if number of applicants (not just applications) goes up overall, not just a school (e.g. instead of 60% high schoolars apply to UG, this year 65% applied, just hypothetical numbers).
I completely agree, as that was our strategy this year too due to uncertainty. I believe the waitlists will be very active this Spring leading to delayed decisions for these seniors. I would hope the increase would lead to more in-state acceptances for yield purposes, however early data from UVA showed an increase in EA OOS acceptances. Let’s hope that’s not the case for UIUC.
@MelRose1975 As a recipient of a UVA OOS acceptance, I too hope UIUC doesn’t do that, and don’t think they will because they have that option of putting everyone in state into their DGS (or whatever it’s called) and engineers will be offered pre-engineering. Plus UIUC is much bigger and has a much lower standard for admits in different schools like ACES, LIberal Arts, Social Work, Education, etc than UVA. UVA also still has their state requirement of 2/3 having to be Virginia residents so technically they may have offered a few more spots to OOS in this round, but overall they still need to keep with that requirement as a whole. We don’t.
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Congrats on the UVA acceptance! I hope you are right about UIUC. We have twins and have crunched the numbers for Purdue and Indiana and financially it’s more than we want to pay for two. I have one that applied to Gies but would go LAS Econ over going farther away to IU for Kelly. The other applied directly to DGS since he is undecided and had lower stats so this makes me feel better.
Hi all!
Anyone have any info about if Pre-Med program is good at UIUC? Thank you 
Also, does anybody know how UIUC admissions can differ from that of schools which accept teacher recommendations and the personal statement (most common app. schools)
Since UIUC AR is higher than that of a lot of other schools i have been admitted to, does them not accepting LORs and Personal Statement indicate tougher chance of admission (in state) Thanks Y’all 