UIUC 2015 Forum

[punkyg0608]

still no response about the scholarship negotiation.

From what I've heard, it generally takes a week or two. They've still got a lot of people waiting to hear back from them about admissions, so I wouldn't expect a response on this any time soon. Keep us updated though, and good luck!

[mattviphky]

still no response about the scholarship negotiation.

Pure speculation, but it could be that they are looking over your negotiation request, hence the delay. That would beat getting rejected out of hand.

I'm hoping your request works, because I am in literally the exact same situation (same SMU offer, and a few others I'll tack on... unfortunately, my initial scholly from UIUC was a bit lower than yours). Good luck!

still no response about the scholarship negotiation.

From what I've heard, it generally takes a week or two. They've still got a lot of people waiting to hear back from them about admissions, so I wouldn't expect a response on this any time soon. Keep us updated though, and good luck!

Thanks for the encouragement! Yeah, I know it hasn't been too long, but I still feel somewhat anxious about the whole process. Oh well, ball is in their court now. Good luck to the both of you as well. Yeah, hopefully those SMU scholarships help out!

[tooswolle]

still no response about the scholarship negotiation.

Pure speculation, but it could be that they are looking over your negotiation request, hence the delay. That would beat getting rejected out of hand.

I'm hoping your request works, because I am in literally the exact same situation (same SMU offer, and a few others I'll tack on... unfortunately, my initial scholly from UIUC was a bit lower than yours). Good luck!

still no response about the scholarship negotiation.

From what I've heard, it generally takes a week or two. They've still got a lot of people waiting to hear back from them about admissions, so I wouldn't expect a response on this any time soon. Keep us updated though, and good luck!

Thanks for the encouragement! Yeah, I know it hasn't been too long, but I still feel somewhat anxious about the whole process. Oh well, ball is in their court now. Good luck to the both of you as well. Yeah, hopefully those SMU scholarships help out!

Best of luck man, I'm waiting on a few peer schools of UIUC before I negotiate but have other lower ranked schools with money under my belt. I'm growin fond of the school but the debt is enormous and I'm out of state too.

[mattviphky]

still no response about the scholarship negotiation.

Pure speculation, but it could be that they are looking over your negotiation request, hence the delay. That would beat getting rejected out of hand.

I'm hoping your request works, because I am in literally the exact same situation (same SMU offer, and a few others I'll tack on... unfortunately, my initial scholly from UIUC was a bit lower than yours). Good luck!

still no response about the scholarship negotiation.

From what I've heard, it generally takes a week or two. They've still got a lot of people waiting to hear back from them about admissions, so I wouldn't expect a response on this any time soon. Keep us updated though, and good luck!

Thanks for the encouragement! Yeah, I know it hasn't been too long, but I still feel somewhat anxious about the whole process. Oh well, ball is in their court now. Good luck to the both of you as well. Yeah, hopefully those SMU scholarships help out!

Best of luck man, I'm waiting on a few peer schools of UIUC before I negotiate but have other lower ranked schools with money under my belt. I'm growin fond of the school but the debt is enormous and I'm out of state too.

Yeah, compared to other states, the cost difference between in-state/out-of-state is very small. I think it's about 37k in, 42k out.

[DportIA]

Did anyone else get a blue envelope with a USB inside of it today? I was hoping there would be a response to my scholarship negotiation request, but alas it was not.

[JD Janitor]

complete and under review since 1/13. no movement since

[tooswolle]

Did anyone else get a blue envelope with a USB inside of it today? I was hoping there would be a response to my scholarship negotiation request, but alas it was not.

yea i just got it and was taking a look at it. It's a pretty nice marketing ploy if you ask me and it also lets me take a look at the school and faculty. Pretty nice looking usb though haha.

[naw]

Did anyone else get a blue envelope with a USB inside of it today? I was hoping there would be a response to my scholarship negotiation request, but alas it was not.

yea i just got it and was taking a look at it. It's a pretty nice marketing ploy if you ask me and it also lets me take a look at the school and faculty. Pretty nice looking usb though haha.

A flash drive...with a .htm link to a website? I hope UIUC realizes how pointless that is.

[tmon]

Did anyone else get a blue envelope with a USB inside of it today? I was hoping there would be a response to my scholarship negotiation request, but alas it was not.

yea i just got it and was taking a look at it. It's a pretty nice marketing ploy if you ask me and it also lets me take a look at the school and faculty. Pretty nice looking usb though haha.

A flash drive...with a .htm link to a website? I hope UIUC realizes how pointless that is.

Not sure anyone said it just linked to the website. Though I guess it's probably all info that's more or less findable elsewhere. Their admitted students' website is kind of silly though compared to others.

[wvu]

It is just a link to a website. At least Arizona's had PDFs on it. =P

Anyway, just withdrew. Good luck all you waiters/waitlisters.

[tmon]

It is just a link to a website. At least Arizona's had PDFs on it. =P

Anyway, just withdrew. Good luck all you waiters/waitlisters.

lol ok then. It's probably more for the "oh, they sent me a usb drive, that's nice" factor anyways.

Thought I'd gotten mine today, but it turned out it was just a normal admit mailing that said the same thing as the acceptance email, plus a couple other pages.

[kalede]

Got my fancy usb drive in the mail today too. Even though it doesn't really have much on it, I appreciate the school sending me shiny things.

Has anyone started making plans to attend a open house yet?

[freaknroll]

Do most people fly into Chicago and then rent a car to drive down for ASW? Can you fly into Champagne?

Just wondering what the standard protocol is for most people.

[Ludo!]

Do most people fly into Chicago and then rent a car to drive down for ASW? Can you fly into Champagne?

Just wondering what the standard protocol is for most people.

Flying into Champaign is pretty expensive. Every time I've ever tried to book a flight to or from Champaign it's always been a couple hundred bucks more. I think most people either fly into Chicago or Indianapolis (depending on where you can find the cheapest rates) and rent a car.

[mrjohnsterman]

Do most people fly into Chicago and then rent a car to drive down for ASW? Can you fly into Champagne?

Just wondering what the standard protocol is for most people.

Flying into Champaign is pretty expensive. Every time I've ever tried to book a flight to or from Champaign it's always been a couple hundred bucks more. I think most people either fly into Chicago or Indianapolis (depending on where you can find the cheapest rates) and rent a car.

There are a couple companies that have shuttles from Chicago airports down to Champaign:
http://www.illinishuttle.com/
http://www.suburbanexpress.com/
http://www.lincolnlandexpress.com/

I took them during undergrad, but never to or from the airport.

If you are going to rent a car check out Bloomington-Normal airport, slightly bigger than Willard (1hr 10 min away by gmaps, I've made it in 45 min). Also, if you are planning to fly into/out of willard - they don't even open the gates until 30 min before the flight so you don't need to get there long before your flight (only time I ever flew out of Champaign was when Harvard was paying for it).

[freaknroll]

Good info, thanks.

[fltanglab]

Got my fancy usb drive in the mail today too. Even though it doesn't really have much on it, I appreciate the school sending me shiny things.

Has anyone started making plans to attend a open house yet?

They just sent out info for travel reimbursements. I have booked two nights in the block of rooms they have. I'm driving five hours Thursday night...

[illini22]

Hey, 2L here, If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask, I will try to come here as often as possible to answer them.

[gregucla10]

Just got in with a 50% scholly.. was wondering if anybody was traveling long distance (I'm in LA) to the Admitted Student Open House on March 29th? It seems more cost-effective, given the new information via their "Travel Support Program", to pay for lodging on your own, then get some kind of reimbursement for the flight over.

[freaknroll]

Hey, 2L here, If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask, I will try to come here as often as possible to answer them.

What actions has the administration/school taken in the wake of the number scandal? Is anyone worried about a possible rankings drop and do you see employment numbers taking a hit? Also, what schools would UIUC consider peers for the purposes of scholly negotiation?

[illini22]

Hey, 2L here, If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask, I will try to come here as often as possible to answer them.

What actions has the administration/school taken in the wake of the number scandal? Is anyone worried about a possible rankings drop and do you see employment numbers taking a hit? Also, what schools would UIUC consider peers for the purposes of scholly negotiation?

1) After the "freak out mode" things have gone down to almost normal. They gave us a speech outlining the measures they are taking to ensure this never happens again, but I honestly cant remember. They were very "THIS WONT HAPPEN AGAIN" and I think the Dean is very serious about it as his head (aka job) is on the line if any little thing goes wrong. The school is mostly now trying to contain the mess and making sure it doesnt become a long term problem.

2) There will be rankings drop, no question about that. Now the question is how much, 2-3, 5, 10? more??? By looking at the numbers of other schools, say Iowa, plus the other factors they take into account, most people are predicting somewhere between 26-30 depending on what other schools report. The big issue is ensuring that this becomes a 1-2 year problem and we can rebound back. This whole mess was because we aimed to high (there was a 5 year plan to make the school go down to 17-18, and when the 168/3.8 people went somewhere else, the admissions dean went into freak out and changed all the numbers. So expect a drop, but I think we will be back to a top 25 school soon. I say this because employment is likely going to take the least hit, and our numbers there are much better than Indiana, Iowa, or any of those other "peer" midwest schools. Where we might lose is over the people that were undecided between ND/Wash U and Illinois, I think those will tend to leave us. But we will continue to place Much better than most other top 30 midwest schools. The reason why employment will be hit the least is because most firms dont care as much about "scandals" and hiring is highly driven by alumni at those firms, which are not going anywhere.

3) Hard to tell. I know people who negotiated using as bargaining a full ride from a tier 2 school in their home market and by using a no money offer from a top 10.

[tmon]

Thanks illini. I may end up being one of those applicants choosing between UIUC and wustl. Given that you think employment wont be impacted too much by the numbers scandal, what do you think are the reasons for choosing Illinois over Wash U? I'd prefer and have ties to the Chicago market, which I know is rough right now for both schools, but do you think there's a good reason to choose one over the other?

[kalede]

Another option is to take the train from Chicago to Champaign-Urbana. I checked Amtrak earlier today, and it only costs $14.

[illini22]

Thanks illini. I may end up being one of those applicants choosing between UIUC and wustl. Given that you think employment wont be impacted too much by the numbers scandal, what do you think are the reasons for choosing Illinois over Wash U? I'd prefer and have ties to the Chicago market, which I know is rough right now for both schools, but do you think there's a good reason to choose one over the other?

If you can take out the scandal part (which long run will be completely forgotten), I would think carefully about your decision. Here are my two cents (I got into both schoools):

1) I liked the people at Illinois more than the people at Wash U when I visited

2) While I think that Wash U may have slightly more national reach, U of I does place better in Chicago.

3) I honestly liked Champaign more than St. Louis. Yes, St. Louis is an actual city, but it is no Chicago/NY/LA. So I felt like I dont get any of the big city perks with some of the bad effects of it (high crime, higher Cost of living). Champaign is a college town by all measures, cheap cost of living, small (yes, sometimes too small), but with some of the perks the college town provides.

------------

That was specific to me, so this should be more tailored to what you want. But it is a gamble. I think that the scandel shake the school up where they are REALLY getting their shit together (especially the career services is 1000x better). But they might not be able to rebound from it quickly. And I dont mean that in the job sense, but in the rankings.

I like to play things safe, so if I were in your shoes, I would only take Illinois over Wash U if I wanted Big law Chicago, otherwise, all things being equal (aka money) I would go to wash U.

[Wart]

Make sure you consider tuition increases in your decision. Illinois (at least for the most recent 1L class) has locked in tuition for 3 years. I'm not sure if WUSTL does this as well, but make sure you know if they do or not, otherwise tuition your 3L year could end up being 5G more than what you thought it would be.

Also UIUC has easy scholly stips.