I don’t think that’s how it works. Cited from Schreyer’s latest email:
“You must have an offer of admission from Penn State to receive a decision from the Schreyer Honors College. If you do not have an offer from Penn State as of February 28, you will receive your Schreyer Honors College decision on our page if and when you receive a Penn State offer of admission.”
Doesn’t say anything about having to accept the offer. Could you share this reply you’re describing about having to accept Penn State’s offer?
Penn State? I never mentioned Penn State. I know other schools offered honors in acceptance letter so I was confused why Illinois told us we had to accept first.
I believe that James Scholar notifications are done by each college and notification may vary from one college to another. My son received an email from Grainger College of Engineering a little more than a week ago informing him that he was chosen as a James Scholar. We received something in the mail Thursday with the same info. There is no merit money associated with James Scholars that I am aware of. My daughter is currently a sophomore in ACES and there was no merit aid toed to it then either.
I don’t have information about any honors program.
Interesting data for sure. Out of curiosity, I sorted the Zip Code data to see what the top 10 non Illinois zip codes are for currently enrolled students. I excluded all the zips "unknown’ returned on USPS website search (presumably international) and the top ten are heavily weighted to NY and CA, specifically Northern California:
I wonder if that Abbeville Georgia ZIP Code transposed some numbers. That’s a town of less than 3000 in the middle of nowhere Georgia. Would be strange to have 55 people at UIUC particularly when Georgia Tech is in state.
There’s something wrong with the UIUC enrollment count by zip code. @VirginiaBelle is spot on that there’s no way Abbeville GA has 55 kids at University of Illinois. The sole public high school in Abbeville’s county – Wilcox County High School – has about 350 kids. It’s doubtful that there are 55 kids from Wilcox County attending UGA or GA Tech, let alone UIUC.
I suspect that the UIUC zip code file is set up to pull the first 5 identifiable digits in the postal code number. Truncating the postal code to 5 digits will inadvertently count foreign place codes. For example, postal code “310015” is the postal code associated with a major city (Hangzhou) in Zhejiang province in eastern China, a province that’s home to about 55 million people. I can easily see 55 kids from a populous province in China studying aboard in Illinois, especially given that many international students are drawn to engineering and CS.
U of Illinois does some nifty enrollment reporting, but that zip code-parsed file has issues.
I have no idea about all the other zip codes but what is most interesting to me are the Northern California zip codes. Cupertino, West San Jose and Saratoga are all continguous cities within a 5-mile radius if we look at just the populated areas and not the open space in the hills. And it’s clearly the FUHSD (Fremont Union HS District) schools like Monta Vista, Lynbrook, Cupertino, Homestead plus Saratoga High that are feeding into UIUC. While Fremont, CA is geographically further away across the Bay, the demographics and academic reputation are very similar to FUHSD. My guess is that UIUC has good yields from these high schools and the students themselves hear good things about UIUC from their own alums. I believe one of the high schools even has their own informal meet-and-greet for their specific high school to welcome freshmen and catch up with other alumns every August. I believe students from these schools are attracted by the strong CS and engineering programs at UIUC and apply to Grainger in particular. It seems both UIUC and the high schools see a nice fit with each other. UIUC knows that the parents can afford out-of-state tuition and students can easily assimilate and do well.
I think you are right that the international postal codes are truncated. There were at least 7 or 8 codes scattered among the 6xxxx Illinois zip codes when I was building the list where a Google search showed no US results but likely international, with some of them indicating China and some indicating various European cities. I excluded all international but I agree Abbeville, GA was a head scratcher and you provided the reason. The NY and CA zip codes make sense to me since my son has personally met at least one kid from each of the CA zip code plus a kid from Stuyvesant HS in NY. I think the takeaway is the concentration in NY Manhattan and Northern CA zip codes among the top 10. While I am more familiar with Northern CA high schools and not NY, I think there are similar feeder schools in Manhattan NY.
Yes, agreed. And for the record, even though the UIUC zip code file might be a bit screwy due to the possibility that international postal codes are being captured, the data is still interesting. You noted the high concentration of kids from some of the more affluent suburbs of “Silicon Valley,” and the fact is that not all of these academically strong kids can get into Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Caltech, or USC for engineering/CS. Given that these kids have grown up with tech all around them, top-flight midwest engineering schools like Illinois, Purdue, or Michigan are likely on the radar screen as potential options for these tech-minded kids. And as you note, kids from Northern California will have parents with the means to afford to pay OOS tuition.
One other thing, I have to hand it to the University of Illinois for being very transparent when it comes to its admissions data. Illinois provides a lot of admissions data to prospective students, and the admissions director at UIUC, Andy Borst, does guest spots on a lot of admissions podcasts to help de-mystify college admissions a bit for those who are interested. Bravo to U of Illinois Admissions for being more transparent than most.
Right on. Two students (kids of my classmates) that I know from the BayArea are in the Midwest for CS program. 5Yr BS/MS at UIUC and CS at Purdue. They didn’t get into the highly competitive CS programs at Stanford, Berkeley and picked these schools. UIUC, Michigan, Purdue, Indiana, UW Madison and MSU have some real good programs.
Hello, my son is still undecided between UIUC CS+music, Virginia Tech Eng with interest in CS (where we are in state), UMD CS and Pitt CS. Right now his #1 is UIUC which would require heavy loans. We do not qualify for financial aid and the only school that gave any merit aid was UMD with a tiny amount that doesn’t really make a dent. We understand there is basically no academic merit money for OOS students and I am wondering if anyone on this thread has had any luck applying for scholarships for sophomore, junior, etc years.
You can get deparmental scholarships later but you shouldn’t rely on that. That’s a crapshoot. My daughter was given an extra $5K her second year - but on top of scholarships she had first year. Others apply for $$ - they may or may not get.
Are the other schools comparable to UIUC - as you have music there?
What’s your top choice?
If it’s financial, your choice is made - or you’d have to find another (Bama, Arizona, MS State and more) that could meet your cost.
Va Tech is certainly nothing to sniff at - if the cost is good, the campus is gorgeous and has the country’s top rated food -in my opinion, a very overlooked and important item.
Thank you. And agree, Va Tech is a great school that has become increasingly selective. I think the prestige of UIUC’s CS program along with the opportunity to study music technology is really attractive to my son but the finances are just crazy. We are looking into what opportunities there are with a minor in music at VT perhaps. Going to an admitted students tour where he will learn more on April 1.