What are my chances at UIUC?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I would like to major in Math with a concentration in operations research and minor in German. I live in Illinois and am a white female. I have a sad sappy story for my grades but I don’t think Im going to use it but rather focus on how I learned lessons from them. Not sure which would be better for my applications.

My grades
-Freshman Year-
ap human geography (B,A)
honors written&oral communication (B,A)
honors biology (B,B)
acting (A,A)
spanish 2(B,B)

-Sophomore Year-
ap seminar (A,A)
honors algebra 2 (C, A)
honors chemistry (B,A)
ap world history (B,A)
honors spanish 3 (B,B)

-Junior Year-
ap lang (B,B)
honors precalc (A,A)
ap physics (B,C)
ap us history (B,A)
ap psychology (A,A)
college spanish (A,A) (dual credit)
personal finance (A)

-Senior Year- (anticipated classes)
ap lit
college statistics (dual credit)
college algebra (dual credit)
ap environmental science
ap economics (micro and macro)
ap european history
ap spanish
ap german (self study)

-community college classes-
summer 2021- calc 1 and intro to cs at harper college

fall 2021- calc 2 and a history class at -oakton community college- (US since 1870)

spring 2021- calc 3

-Main EC-
Science olympiad 4 years - 3rd in state this year
swim team two years(covid) -not sure if i’ll include
Presented at the Harvard Global Health and leadership conference freshman year
Attended the Harvard Global Health and Leadership conference sophomore and junior year
Presented a paper at the International Youth Research Conference in Japan
Leader of the community outreach program at my school
Few more clubs but not very significant in my opinion
My main extra curricular would be work. I work as a receptionist at a country club and watch kids while their parents have dinner.

Please be blunt and don’t sugarcoat anything I know i’ve made quite a few mistakes but I would like to know -realistically- if i have a chance at UIUC for a Math major.

As you can see from my grades it’s been a bumpy ride. I have been working almost full time throughout high school and more than full time during the summers. I received a C in honors algebra 2 but after that I really got my act together regarding math and have become better some might even dare to say good. I am planing to use the improvement approach regarding my grades however my physics grade will likely be a C at the end of the semester so i’m not sure how effective that appropriate is.

2

I’m no expert. I’m only a freshman in high school. You’re ECs don’t suggest anything related to math, which is surprising since you want to major in it. You’re in-state, along with quite impressive ECs, and UIUC Math isn’t as competitive as its engineering, so I think you’ll be fine. The middle 50% (25% - 75%) at college of liberal arts & sciences is 3.5 - 3.95 UW, maybe your GPA fits into that category, idk.

3

You should not need college algebra after completing precalculus with A grades, since college algebra duplicates some of the material in precalculus.

Students who need to take college algebra either did not take precalculus in high school, or their high school math courses were of low quality. In that case, college algebra is one of the courses needed to prepare for calculus.

If the nearby colleges offer a calculus-based statistics course, you may want to take that after taking enough calculus.

4

Hello! College statistics is only a semester long course at my school and I need a full year of math my senior year. My logic following this decision is that if I take an easer course in the fall for my math class (college algebra) and taking calc 2 at the same time wouldn’t be as challenging and would prepare me more for the spring semester when I would be taking Calc 3 and college stats. I anticipate college stats to be significantly harder than college algebra but I will be taking calc 2 and college algebra in the fall which is when I would be working on college applications. I may even end up having more of a lenient schedule second semester even though i’d be taking college stats and calc 3 at the same time. I would be taking both dual credit classes through Eastern Illinois and i’m fairly certain it’s an introductory statistics class. Both calculus courses would be online and asynchronous.

5

Hello! I used to really dislike math (as reflected in my earlier grades lol) but I was apart of my schools math team freshman year. I wasn’t very good and didn’t ever competed so I won’t be putting it on my college applications. I started putting more effort into math second semester sophomore year and from then realized that I actually enjoy it and am pretty good at it once I developed the discipline needed to study math properly. I believe my weighted gpa will be a 4.1 at the end of my junior year and i’m not totally sure what my unweighted gpa would be off the top of my head but that’s not hard to calculate.

6

You will be taking college calculus 2 and 3 during the year, so why would you need to waste schedule space on college algebra?

7

I would be taking calc 2 and calc 3 at the local community college (it’s actually ranked number 1 in illinois is that matters) and college algebra and college statistics at high school.

8

Under those circumstances, taking college algebra would be a complete waste of schedule space. A student who has already completed calculus 1 has no need to take college algebra.

9

Yes, I totally agree with you. I wouldn’t be taking it if my school didn’t require a full year of math. College stats is only a semester class and I would need another math class to complete a full year of math.

10

What else that counts as “math” is offered at your high school (some high schools count computer science or other courses as “math”), and are you sure that your high school will not recognize taking a calculus 2 or 3 at a college to count as part of a “full year of math”?

11

Yes, I’ve talked to my counselor about that and they said that they wouldn’t count it. Unfortunately, cs classes are counted as elective credits and require prerequisite classes that I haven’t taken. There is ap statistics, but I would much rather take college stats because it is a dual credit course.

12

You may want to get the curriculum and policy guide for your high school and read it to check for any exception that your counselor may not know about.

13

I will look into it. Thank you!

14

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