Academic units can communicate with students at the inquiry, admitted, and accepted stages:

  • Inquiries – Students who have expressed an interest in Illinois and your college’s interest area
  • Admits – Students who have been admitted into your college/major at Illinois but haven’t yet accepted their offer to attend
  • Accepts – Students within your college/major who have accepted their offer to attend Illinois

Prospects

We cannot process any college emails to prospects (students who haven’t expressed an interest in Illinois). The Office of Undergraduate Admissions does manage a communications plan to encourage prospects to add us to their college list and provide more information regarding their academic interests.

Inquiries

An inquiry is defined as a student who has expressed interest in Illinois by one of the following methods:

  • Completing an inquiry form
  • Sending in a test score
  • Emailing or calling the Office of Undergraduate Admissions
  • Actively engaging with several emails
  • Spending a significant amount of time browsing the Admissions website
  • Starting (but not finishing) an application

As noted above, units can only communicate with inquiries who have expressed an interest in one of their majors or programs. These interests are created by but are not limited to:

  • Slate inquiry forms on college/academic unit websites
  • Slate inquiry form on the Admissions website
  • Students finding and expressing interest via the Program Explorer
  • Student records (test score submissions, etc.) that come with academic interests

Applicants

An applicant is defined as a student who has submitted an application but has not yet received a decision. Therefore, an applicant audience includes students who will unfortunately be denied. Due to the sensitive nature of applicant communications, colleges and units are not allowed to communicate with applicants. The Office of Undergraduate Admissions manages an applicant communications plan to ensure students continue to receive appropriate touch points from Illinois while awaiting a decision.

Admits

An admitted student is defined as a student who has applied and received an offer of admission to Illinois. As noted above, units can communicate with students who have been admitted into their college/major.

Pre-May 1 Accepts

Accepts are students who have accepted their offer to attend Illinois. As noted above, units can communicate with students who have accepted an offer into their college/major.

Post-May 1 Accepts

May 1 serves as a transition date for units to start communicating with incoming students directly (without needing to submit a request through our office) using their illinois.edu email address. Learn more about this policy and how to send your emails post-May 1.