Should I apply Early Decision or Regular Decision?

drusba
Mon, 06 Aug 2012 20:45:29 +0000

UIUC has no early decision. It has a form of non-binding early action referred to as applying by the priority date, usually Nov 1, If you apply by Nov 1, you get a decision mid-Dec of admit, admit to alternative program (meaning you are rejected from your first choice major and admitted to something else, often Division of General Studies), declined admission, or defer until Feb decision (many in engineering get that deferral). The Sep ACT and Oct SAT are accepted for early action
It does not matter what your GPA is going to be after first semester senior year. UIUC uses grades through junior year to determine admission (or through summer after junior year if you take a summer course). They do not want you to even send senior year grades and if you do so the reviewers who determine admission will not get them. Senior year grades, which you submit after graduating, are used to detemine whether admission should be withdrawn after you are admitted.
UIUC does not use SAT IIs for admission and if sent, reviewers are not provided scores.
If you take multiple SATs or ACTs, you can choose which to send, sending multiple tests is not held against you, and UIUC uses that test it believes has the highest composite to determine admisison (if you send bolth SAT and ACT, it chooses the one it believes is the better score).
Your GPA is weak but you have an outside chance for CS engineering. Raising test score can help when GPA is weak when grades are on an upward trend, but you should still consider it a reach. ECs help. If you have testing completed by Oct SAT, there is no reason not to apply early action since applying later won’t add anything. Nevertheless, you can go either way.