This is the official thread for those applying EA to University of Illinois Urbana Champaign.
List your unweighted GPA, any SAT /ACT scores, and ECs. What majors are you going into?
Ask your questions, the CC community is here to help!
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What are the chances of getting into UIUC with the following
SAT is 1510, unweighted GPA 3.842 is 9 APs including senior year and 6 Dual enrollment courses.Applying for Linguistics and CS, I am out of state(CA) Will EA help?
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Daughter applied on 9/18 via the common app. In State, GPA 4.3W/3.98UW, SAT 1480, 7APs, Marketing major. Fingers crossed!
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Hello,
Applying to UIUC , EA , Nov 1. Are these question optional ? Want to be sure before we submit. Thanks
Explain any challenges (outside of COVID-related) you have faced throughout your academic career, including the dates or timeline below.
If you have a low grade or a drop in grades that you have not already explained, do so below.
That is my understanding. These questions give you the opportunity to provide context, if needed, for grades that might make an admissions officer, say, “that’s weird, I wonder what happened there?”
I have also heard the director of admissions say they place very little emphasis on freshman grades, because they know a lot of kids have a hard time with that transition to high school. And since this year‘s seniors transitioned to high school during Covid, I suspect a lot of them had weird grading freshman year. Some kids might’ve done badly being remote; some kids might have been pass-fail; some might have grade inflation. For these sorts of issues, the best source to address this is the school counselor in the counselor letter.
If your child had an issue that was truly specific just to your child, you could address it in these places. For example, if Covid touched your family in a way that put stress on your student more so than the rest of the school population. Or if your child had a concussion at one point during high school and that affected grades, etc.
But there is no need to go looking for something to add. It’s ok to leave these blank.
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Thank you.
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This thread is very quiet for a competitive admit school. We are what 19 days away from decision day, who else is anxiously awaiting decisions? Anyone know how many applicants UIUC has received this cycle?
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Also waiting on UIUC, my DS24 applied EA.
When does EA decision come out?
I believe January 26
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I’m also surprised this thread is so quiet especially compared to how active the Purdue EA thread was.
DS in state first choice major CS/Math
3.9 UW/4.4 W 1560 SAT
Rejected from Duke ED accepted Purdue CS
UIUC CS/Math is his top choice
Good luck to everyone!!
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Yea, I was hoping to see some portal astrology action
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This is a quiet thread! Maybe because (a) their admissions director is so transparent and does such a good job of providing admissions stats from last year, and (b) their CS program is so amazing surely that they’ve hired a former student to fix any admissions portal issues. 
I also have noticed that in prior years the UIUC posters on here tend to be very nice and not overtly competitive. S24 is applying into Gies for business and we have gotten the vibe that the school is more supportive than competitive (likely because it is small and so hard to get in).
Good luck to all!
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Purdue thread was crazy, especially the last few days when portal astrology went into overdrive! My kid was accepted to Purdue (Honors too) Business school. However he applied into ACES at UIUC as they have some interesting business type majors. Hope we can get some updates soon on admission stats, etc.
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ACES is a great program with good career path options!
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Agree that having a precise decision date allows for less angst and wasted time checking portals - love the transparency
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We were out of town and I missed the Purdue portal astrology discussions! I didn’t get back to this page until the day decisions were released. I don’t know if that is a good or bad thing. lol.
DS is applying to LAS at U of I and we are eagerly awaiting January 26. DH and I are both alums but it is so much harder to get into nowadays. I felt like it was definitely more supportive than competitive during my time there. Good luck to all!
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DH and I are alums as well. I remember S24 asking if that would help in admissions, to which I responded … not unless our last name is also Grainger. LOL
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Two alums here as well - crazy how competitive it is and too bad so many in state kids are unable to get in. One of my twins didn’t even bother to apply to Gies. The other twin applied LAS which is still super competitive.
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