Chances at UIUC

[Sukhoi]

Originally posted by: AsianriceX

Originally posted by: raptor13
It's so funny hearing all you guys talk about how hardcore UIUC engineering is. I mean, I know it's tough and it eats up a lot of my time but it must be different viewing it from the inside as opposed to the outside. I've always just taken whatever work I had to do as duty... I had to do it and I did. It never seemed out of the ordinary or particularly ruthless. Weird.

That said, $1 U-Call-It drinks on Sundays are an engineer's best friend.

Out of curiosity, what field of engineering do you major in?

He's in mechanical with me. I agree with his opinion. It's hard and a lot of work, but it's not this super impossible stuff I was led to believe it would be.

 

[ronin2kr6]

hey just to add a note here, dont underestimate the power of enthusiasm. If youre really committed to get in then talk to an addmission counselor. if you can make an appointment and show up in person (i know itll be hard for out of state) but uiuc likes people who take intiative. I went there for finance, but one of my friends applied with your grades and slightly lower sat last year to C.E., i went with him and we talked to an addmissions counselor, and he was really cool. The guy took time out of his day to talk to us for about an hour and a half. he looked over transcripts, grades, curriculars, and made notes on my friends application the whole time. When we were done, the counselor had a big smile and said look forwards to hearing from us. So be enthusiastic about it! However one caveat, whwnever the rolling addmissions start, have your application there on THE FIRST DAY. otherwise your chances of getting in become less and less with every passing day. If the application process has started already, well then best of luck.....


p.s. that whole story and i forgot to tell you that my friend got in

 

[timosyy]

Haha, thats the thing i'm most worried about.

Application deadline for rolling is December 15.

Found that out November 27th. School takes 2 weeks to process transfer requests.

Edit: Ok, now I'm confused.

From UIUC's undergrad freshman information site

"For fall admission, you may apply between September 15 and December 15 (priority filing deadline is November 1). The completed online application and all supporting materials must arrive in the Office of Admissions by the deadline. After December 15, applications will be taken on a space-available basis. Please check the list of program of availability."

From US News info page on UIUC:

Fall 2005 Admissions Deadlines:
Regular decision:
Send application by: January 1
Decision sent by: March 1
Accept offer by: May 1

 

[flawlssdistortn]

Engineering is not that "hard" once you get over the fact that:

1) you are not doing it only for the money (engineers actually earn their pay)
2) discipline, study skills, and maturity need to be learned before you get to the "cool" stuff
3) you ARE required to learn a foreign language - mathematics
4) There's not an element of engineering that doesn't involve it
5) actual "hands on" opportunities are few compared to the paperwork (you want to just tinker around with stuff, then you go to ITT tech)

 

[memo]

Originally posted by: Kyteland

Originally posted by: OulOat

Originally posted by: BigJ
timosyy. I got into UIUC College of Engineering (CS Major) last year (would've been class of 2008) with these stats:

Prepare your ass for the 73's. CS173, 273, and 373. I heard anal lube works well.

Those were my best classes there. Those and CS 375. Then again I took them with J. Erickson and Reingold, two of the best profs in the department. Reingold is gone now, but if you have the opportunity to take a class taught by Jeff Erickson, take it!

My friends and I called these the x73 sequence. X for death that is.

 

[dak125]

UIC and UI are great schools. But, mainly for their math/engineering schools. That's coming from a good friend who was an engineering major. at UI. Lot of morons go to the Champaign campus, go to UIC, the city's a good time.

EDIT: Forgot to mention you shouldn't have any problem getting in .

 

[memo]

Originally posted by: dak125
UIC and UI are great schools. But, mainly for their math/engineering schools. That's coming from a good friend who was an engineering major. at UI. Lot of morons go to the Champaign campus, go to UIC, the city's a good time.

EDIT: Forgot to mention you shouldn't have any problem getting in .

UIUC > UIC

 

[flawlssdistortn]

research profs, recruited asians and other top students > UIC

 

[SammyBoy]

Stop being so friggen asian GOSH

 

[LordMorpheus]

UIUC isn't that selective. Note that the ranking was for the graduate level studies. UIUC focus's more on its grad students, from what I hear.

THe undergrad program is very good, but not the best. I was accepted but chose to attend Rice University for undergrad. If I go to grad school it will probably be Carnegie Mellon (Robotics mecca of the world baby!)

for what its worth, my stats were gpa (unweighted) aroun 3.75, mostly honors/AP classes (so a weight would have boosted it signifigantly). 1530 SAT (780 math, 750 verbal). I think two thinks that helped my app were 2 years as lead design on our FIRST robotics team, and 4 years of chinese (I'm a mutt of various European cultures, btw. and being male, middle class, and white makes it harder for me to get into school than lotsa kids. Being asian probably makes it even harder for you, asians are already very overrepresented at universities, and there is some ridiculous drive to make the racial proportions at universities reflect that of the population. Its nonsense, take the kids who deserve it. College addmission should be color blind. But thats just my opinion).

yeah, Rice is a better undergrad program, Our grad school, however, doesn't get as much focus or money so it doesn't put us on top of any lists.

Anywho, I think you've got a very good shot at UIUC. With those grades, especially the upward trend over the last couple years, and high SAT's (1430 is probably well above the mean at UIUC's engineering school), a few extracurriculars, and whatnot, you should get in no problem.

 

[OulOat]

Originally posted by: timosyy
Haha, thats the thing i'm most worried about.

Application deadline for rolling is December 15.

Found that out November 27th. School takes 2 weeks to process transfer requests.

Edit: Ok, now I'm confused.

From UIUC's undergrad freshman information site

"For fall admission, you may apply between September 15 and December 15 (priority filing deadline is November 1). The completed online application and all supporting materials must arrive in the Office of Admissions by the deadline. After December 15, applications will be taken on a space-available basis. Please check the list of program of availability."

From US News info page on UIUC:

Fall 2005 Admissions Deadlines:
Regular decision:
Send application by: January 1
Decision sent by: March 1
Accept offer by: May 1

What are you going to do, trust the school itself or trust a magazine?

 

[timosyy]

Good point.

Sending in my SATs today, collegeboard lists UIUC as "University of Illinois Urbana"

It was either that or Springfield or Chicago so I guess thats the right one but .. bleh.

Writing my essay now. Just went on a mad nerdy tangent in the third paragraph..

"Born to parents with masters in computer science, my childhood was spent on old IBM XT 286?s in the days before Windows and 32-bit color, where six megahertz was the cutting edge of speed. Honing my typing skills in MS-DOS, I quickly developed my own typing conventions, and became familiar with the actual file system of the computer before GUI?s and point-and-click interfaces candy-coated such things with buttons and menus. Learning format c: at the age of four caused havoc for a short while as my parents were forced to continuously back up their work on five-inch floppies which were, literally, floppy."

Haha ..

 

[OulOat]

Originally posted by: timosyy
Good point.

Sending in my SATs today, collegeboard lists UIUC as "University of Illinois Urbana"

It was either that or Springfield or Chicago so I guess thats the right one but .. bleh.

Writing my essay now. Just went on a mad nerdy tangent in the third paragraph..

"Born to parents with masters in computer science, my childhood was spent on old IBM XT 286?s in the days before Windows and 32-bit color, where six megahertz was the cutting edge of speed. Honing my typing skills in MS-DOS, I quickly developed my own typing conventions, and became familiar with the actual file system of the computer before GUI?s and point-and-click interfaces candy-coated such things with buttons and menus. Learning format c: at the age of four caused havoc for a short while as my parents were forced to continuously back up their work on five-inch floppies which were, literally, floppy."

Haha ..

Yeah... you might want to post your essays here before submitting them...

 

[timosyy]

My sarcasm meter is broken at the moment but ...

yeah, probably shouldn't. hm ..

 

[OulOat]

Originally posted by: timosyy
My sarcasm meter is broken at the moment but ...

yeah, probably shouldn't. hm ..

No, I was referring to the fact that your essay excerpt sounds too techy. You have the keep in mind that your audience (old admission people) probably has no idea what "format c:" does or what a "file system" is.

 

[timosyy]

 

[astralusion]

just a thing...you need to know what specific kind of engineering it is....cause some schoools are amazing at just one or two parts of engineering, but might not have a great overal program

 

[agnitrate]

Purdue is a joke to get into. I believe I applied in April of my senior year and I got in. It's quite hilarious, really. I had to apply to Purdue because I was on the 'waiting list' to get into UIUC's engineering program since I applied so late.

I later found out that I was accepted into UIUC's comp. engineering program, but I didn't find that out until June or July when it was already wayyy too late. I ended up not wanting to be an engineer anyways and now double major in math and CS here @ pdue. I think you shouldn't have trouble getting into UIUC and ... Purdue? bwahaha they won't turn anybody down.

-silver

 

[timosyy]

@ astralusion -

UIUC = #4 undergrad computer engineering

 

[timosyy]

Gah ... I wonder if its ok to admit weakness in your essay. Specifically, paragraph 6, when I'm talking about High School ...

"My first couple years in High School I decided to ?play it safe?, and enroll in so-called ?easier? classes, sometimes not taking as many honors as I would have preferred. I found that I could not thrive in this environment, however. The general aura was one of complacency, of being ?just? good enough. It was learning on cruise control. Spanish, as well, was a struggle. The grammatical conventions between Chinese (my other second language) and Spanish were simply too vast to overcome. Soon, however, these restrictions fell away (I completed the requisite years of a secondary language, Physical Education became an optional course), and I started taking more risks in my course selection. I found I functioned best in a competitive environment, and my grades rose as I took more challenging courses, filling out my course selection with APs and other higher-level subjects of interest. Senior year by far has been the most fulfilling of all my years of schooling, enrolled in such courses as AP Physics, Calculus, and Computer Science. There was a unique joy to be found in the mastery of specific aspects of each field in the maelstrom of information suddenly available."

(unfinished)

I'm trying to explain my poor grades freshman/sophmore year, and point to the fact that Spanish was straight C's which dragged my GPA down, but now i'm doing much better in much harder courses. Still, though .. its admitting weakness in Spanish and almost kind of like .. trying to cover up freshman/sophmore year.

 

[agnitrate]

Is this essay for UIUC? I remember writing an essay, but it wasn't an 'all about me' kind of thing. I'm pretty sure I wrote about why I wanted to study there and why I chose my subject, but I wrote it as a story instead of 'First i did this, then i did this, etc, etc'. I'm pretty good at writing b.s. like that so I'm sure they just gobbled it up.

Perhaps you should try to make your essay stand out duder. Don't write like everybody else and you won't get treated like everybody else. You shouldn't be on the defensive with regards to your grades in the essay. You're supposed to make your case, not give them a reminder that you're human and MIGHT just be capable of failure every now and again.

[edit to ease your mind]

after reading about all the extra-curriculars everybody was doing and all of their 'activities' they've been involved with as a means of puffing up their chances of getting into schools, I just would like to show that you don't necessarily need that crap to get into UIUC. Here are my stats :

0 extra curriculars
Worked since I could get a job
...
profit

Literally, I didn't do clubs in high school or sports or anything. I worked my ass off at my job and that's all I could do. I attended sports and did that stuff when I had time, but I just couldn't fit it all in. You don't need superb grades and a thousand extra curriculars to get into decent schools guys. It might look better, but it's not a requirement by any means.

[/edit]

-silver

 

[timosyy]

Haha .. well .. UIUC has a personal and professional statement.

Their personal statement is pretty open-ended. I was originally actually trying to tie all this in to a painting I saw once at the Met' - "The Innocent Eye Test" by Mark Tansey, and talk about stereotypes (yeah, would work better if i was a liberal arts major). It's become a documentary of my life =/.

Professional Statement is the whole why you want to be an engineer, what you plan to do at UIUC and what you plan to do afterwards thing.

Edit: thanks for the ease of mind - I actually have little to no extracurriculars.

 

[memo]

Originally posted by: timosyy
Good point.

Sending in my SATs today, collegeboard lists UIUC as "University of Illinois Urbana"

It was either that or Springfield or Chicago so I guess thats the right one but .. bleh.

Writing my essay now. Just went on a mad nerdy tangent in the third paragraph..

"Born to parents with masters in computer science, my childhood was spent on old IBM XT 286?s in the days before Windows and 32-bit color, where six megahertz was the cutting edge of speed. Honing my typing skills in MS-DOS, I quickly developed my own typing conventions, and became familiar with the actual file system of the computer before GUI?s and point-and-click interfaces candy-coated such things with buttons and menus. Learning format c: at the age of four caused havoc for a short while as my parents were forced to continuously back up their work on five-inch floppies which were, literally, floppy."

Haha ..

nerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrd

 

[Sukhoi]

Originally posted by: memo

Originally posted by: timosyy
Good point.

Sending in my SATs today, collegeboard lists UIUC as "University of Illinois Urbana"

It was either that or Springfield or Chicago so I guess thats the right one but .. bleh.

Writing my essay now. Just went on a mad nerdy tangent in the third paragraph..

"Born to parents with masters in computer science, my childhood was spent on old IBM XT 286?s in the days before Windows and 32-bit color, where six megahertz was the cutting edge of speed. Honing my typing skills in MS-DOS, I quickly developed my own typing conventions, and became familiar with the actual file system of the computer before GUI?s and point-and-click interfaces candy-coated such things with buttons and menus. Learning format c: at the age of four caused havoc for a short while as my parents were forced to continuously back up their work on five-inch floppies which were, literally, floppy."

Haha ..

nerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrd

Wow I hadn't actually read that paragraph before! LOL

 

[flawlssdistortn]

Maybe you should write about something else, sports, hobbies, perhaps. UIUC has enough nerds, so if you want to play that card, I guarrantee you better be like steven hawking or something.