ARISE is a program that provides academically talented students coming from low -income backgrounds support and preparation to successfully earn their engineering degrees from the University of Illinois. If accepted, students are directly admitted to The Grainger College of Engineering.
The ARISE Program provides support for attaining excellence in engineering for those students whose high school records do not yet represent their potential. For example, ARISE students may have high GPAs but lower ACT scores, or did not take Advanced Placement (AP) courses. The program addresses the needs of students looking for a small community within the larger college. ARISE students represent the rich diversity of Illinois. Previous cohorts have included students who are first in their families to attend college, students from small high schools in rural communities, & students from backgrounds underrepresented in engineering.
In college athletics, a "redshirt year" gives a student an extra year to train and develop at a collegiate level without using a year of sports eligibility. Illinois is a part of a six-university consortium awarded a five-year, $5 million dollar grant by the National Science Foundation to implement a bridge year for incoming freshmen. ARISE provides a select group of engineering students the opportunity to prepare for our world-class Engineering program at the University of Illinois. ARISE is designed to build learning skills and strengthen academic preparation for Engineering coursework. This ensures that the ARISE scholars have the foundation needed for placement into an Engineering major.
