So, please understand my situation that I have to use english. 1. I am senior who will graduate next year [97.2] Around 10 month, I will apply to ur grad. univ for grad study. In the former BBS articles about UIUC, I get to know the brief life and atmosphere of UIUC. 2. I guess that most korean students think about the reasonable grad. univ for degree around 9-10 month this year. As I am a person who read the UIUC BBS daily, I hope to listen to the past experience of grad.students of UIUC for me and the most students thinking to apply to this univ. * Especially @ the average score of exams [GRE, TOEFL] : possible score to be admitted. ( even though ur past score is top-secret. ^^) @ the strong area of each department. ( E.E : IC Design / Communication / Signal Processing / extra ) *********************************************************************** In my case, I am thinking to apply as M.S degree. Is it possilbe to get R.A as M.S degree after one year? I mean I also think the financial factors make my final decision. ^^ I hope u all in UIUC grad student do a nice job on ur grad study. and achieve ur final goal. ^^