<p>SMGcrossfire, My son was born in Urbana and we lived there for 10 years, then moved OOS, too. My son applied to UIUC during the priority application period last year (November 1st deadline). He applied to Mechanical Engineering and was admitted for Fall 2012 (he is a freshman now). He took both the ACT and SAT tests. He found that the tests were very different and he thought the SAT was easier than the ACT. He only submitted one set of SAT scores to UIUC. He didn’t submit his ACT scores. You might want to try the SAT just to see how you do (if you have a chance).
Also, be sure to write strong essays. Many people say that the essays aren’t that important, however, I believe that given the number of qualified students who apply and are turned away, if you have an outstanding essay, it might be the factor that gets you in over another applicant with similar grades and test scores but a weaker essay. (UIUC was the only school that my son applied to…and because of that, he put alot of effort into making his application stand out by writing quality essays. You have to remember that all of the applicants have good grades and good test scores. I think writing a good essay is what got my son admitted. I also think that moving OOS gave him an edge on his essays because he could write about unique experiences that he had from living OOS that he never would have had if he had stayed in Illinois. His experiences helped him stand out from among the crowd to get noticed.)
There are many books with examples of essays that have gotten students into top colleges. Go to your local bookstore and read a couple of these essays to see what an interesting essay looks like. Please don’t put down your extracurriculars. Just by looking at your list of extracurriculars, I can easily see one that I am sure you could use to write an interesting essay for Essay #2 (line 27 on the application). The admission people want to know who you are. They will not accept references, so the only opportunity you have to show them is thru your essay.
Good luck to you !!</p>