Interview 127: Brian Hodges on “Understanding University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign”

  • Brian Hodges gives his background and his admission experience
  • An overview of the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign including many of their colleges
  • Why computer science is so popular at UIUC
  • Why the Gies school of business is in high demand
  • Why economics and architecture are so hot
  • The Grainger College of Engineering Communication and Mass Media
  • Other programs that fly under the radar
  • Research opportunities at UIUC
  • The benefits of enrolling in the Honors college
  • How they guard against students claiming they are interested in certain colleges that have higher admit rates
  • Whether UIUC admits by major or by college?
  • Why they sometimes share their admit rate per major and they sometimes don’t share this information.
  • The process for doing an internal transfer
  • A major change this year in how they respond to applicants who are not admissible to their first or second choice program
  • How some things about their admissions process are different for out of state students
  • How admissions to General Studies works?
  • What criteria are used when a student is doing an internal transfer?
  • Transferring from community colleges to UIUC.
  • How the advising system works for students in the Division of General Studies
  • How UIUC will decide if they are going to remain test-optional
Brian Hodges
  • How holistic admissions works at UIUC
  • How admissions differ at other University of Illinois campuses?
  • Whether AP scores are factored in at UIUC for more competitive majors.
  • How does state residency and geographic residency impact admissions decisions?
  • What do students do for fun?
  • The food scene in Champaign.
  • Why sometimes the location is referred to as Champaign and sometimes as Urbana

You can also listen on Episode 289, Episode 291, and Episode 293