@nickster12 it’s in the southern suburbs. student body is more than 90% african american. it has a 2 rating on greatschools.com. yep. alot of fights too.
@avisaxena33 - what you mentioned is very difficult to believe - not saying you are lying but maybe someone embellished something. Computer Science/Engineering and Bioengineering are the two most difficult majors to get into at U of I. Even imsa kids have to have high GPA ACTs to get accepted in those majors. Remeber also that U of I is mostly a numbers game - limited essays, recs. Go to U of I forum to see what kinds of ACTs and GPAs get in let alone get a scholarship. There is a ton of articles about how U of I is turning to internationals and out of state since most instate kids are not enrolling due to low financial help (either aid or merit). There is a Chicago Tribune series about it and also google “University of China in Illinois”. It is a Higher Ed article and talks about how out of state an dinternational who pay full price help the budget. Anyway - go check other forums and you will see how tough it is to get admitted to Comp Sci. An imsa diploma is definitely not a guarantee (it may be for U of I admission, but definitely not Comp Engineering). I know of 3 IMSA kids with great grades and one qualified for financial aid who did not get any - just loans. If you get in at IMSA, the college counsellors will debunk all the myths you know.
sorry about your situation @vniatge.
http://collegeapps.about.com/od/GPA-SAT-ACT-Graphs/ss/university-of-illinois-urbana-champaign-admission-gpa-sat-act.htm
@vniatge Dude. You’re from a disadvantaged neighborhood. That should give you a pretty big boost at IMSA, not a disadvantage. Your ec’s are definitely better than mine, and besides, think of 8th grade as a practice year. Between 8th and 9th, my SAT went up by over 100 points, essays improved significantly, etc. Maybe you won’t get in this year, idk, but it will improve your chances for next year.
On a completely unrelated note, anyone else get the summer at brown brochure? It looked pretty cool…
@aminorspark I get a different brochure everyday. They just want your money and they find you through collegeboard I’m pretty sure.
@theedog You’re right to some extent-- they just want our money and we’d be better off taking courses through the Northwestern CTD thing. But there are several classes there that aren’t offered at my high school or through Northwestern, so it kinda appeals to me. My school’s pretty awful about accepting credit anyway, so it might be something worth looking into.
@aminorspark I agree with that, CTD is pretty good.
@aminorspark - that graph is for all of U of I not just CoEngineering. Go to the U of I forums to get a better idea of what you need to get to U of I Engineering. There are some good information there, albeit secondhand.
@nickster12 The engineering average statistics: http://engineering.illinois.edu/admissions/undergraduate/
I’m guessing those SATs are for only math and CR? And computer is the hardest to get in to. I wouldn’t go by forum statistics. Not just the second hand info thing, but it’s a self selecting sample set, so pretty strong bias.
Do none of you have school??
Why are you on forums during classtimes?
@aminorspark - i remember looking at U of I forum when I was applying. I havent been there lately but I just checked it out. there are some discussions there about a parent who attended an admissions meeting and they talked about admissions stats. granted that these are secondary sources, but they match what I know based on my experience. Check out the “Another Record Year in Engineering” forum. Again, these are general admission statistics. there will alwys be outliers.
@jxuwyrm I’m out sick today, so no. And even when I am in school, I have a free period
@aminorspark Wait, so you aren’t taking three electives?
@aminorspark The brown U one is just wanting to take your money. There are specific opportunities where even if they cost money, it will generally be low and you will be nominated by your school, teachers, etc. For example, the summer at stanford one I got was the one I got nominated from my school and it was only for like $500 compared to the regular summer at stanford where you must apply and pay like thousands. I just today received another one to go to northwestern, harvard, berkely, for the national leaders thing from my school. Anyway, just look at the price and how you “got” in and you can tell if it’s legit or not.
^
@theedog At my school, all lab sciences are two periods, but for one of those periods, only half the time is used two days per week, no time is used two days a week, and the period isn’t part of the schedule one day per week, so just about everyone gets a free period. Given course requirements, the only way for any Freshman to take an elective is if they take an additional period in the morning, which I would have done, but in 8th grade I could not figure out the schedule system, so I got stuck with the default.
@aminorspark Seems confusing but at least they put more emphasis on science.
@theeedog lol no. More time for it, but it’s by far the easiest course I’m taking. No homework, teacher basically just shows us videos all day. Reason #1 why I would want to go to imsa.
@vniatge Yeah, as others have said, your background can only serve to increase your chances of admission at IMSA, since they’re looking for diversity and that includes people from underprivileged backgrounds who they see have lots of potential. Also, @kidfood, as an Asian myself, I had a HUGE culture shock when I moved from my ~90% white school in Memphis to a 60% Asian school in the Bay Area. I’m definitely not complaining, it was just strange considering that I’d never seen more than a handful of Asians in my entire life.