will my petition succeed?

[Eigen]

I would not upload scanned awards and honors, I've never heard of anyone doing this and can't imagine it would be well received.

All questions on an application will have some effect on their decision, or they would not ask them.

[TakeruK]

Well, sometimes the financial aid question is specifically marked as "This question does not affect your admission decision". 

If you want to showcase your awards and honours, do not upload them like this. Instead, just list them in your CV, if they are relevant. I would not list minor awards and honours.

[paulwece]

The honor is actually pretty significant. Per your advice, I will just list them in my resume, and not upload it as separate documents.

FYI, one of the honor I'm talking about is the William Lowell Putnam math competition, and I got 3 problems right on it. This is actually no small feat. I wonder how much it can add to my application.

Another achievement is my invention of a simple yet innovative medical device that won honors mention in a invention competition sponsored by the Discovery Channel. Out of over 3000 applications, I made it to top 80. I actually got the interest of a doctor from Washington University specializing in the disease for which the device target, and we were talking about testing it in clinical trials. Due to the lack of funding and the fact the disease is rare and market is not too big, I didn't act on it at the time, for it required me to build a number of prototypes.

And of course, I started that company of mine 2 years ago. My goal is to research and design innovative products that can help people. I've already designed a simple yet innovative product and have received some pre-orders so far. But my ultimate goal is to move beyond the "simple" stuff and use my creativity toward something more high tech and cutting edge, and this is why I choose to go to graduate school. 

[TakeruK]

I agree that these honours you list are worthy of mentioning. But the standard way to include these honours (and even higher honours) is to list them as a line in your CV. It would be very abnormal to scan a copy of the certificate or any other material for the honour.

[rising_star]

Thanks for the advice guys. I did make an appointment today for later this week.

In the meantime, I have started my online applications and I got a few questions:

1. They ask you if you are applying for masters, or intend to continue to for doctoral degree. Will my answer to this question affect their decision?

2. They ask if you are admitted, do you wish to receive financial aid. Will my answer to this question affect their decision?

They have an "upload credentials here" tab where one gets to upload the transcript. But they also have "additional uploads" under each institution. I wonder if I can upload some scanned versions of awards/certificates I got to the "additional uploads." Although I did mention the awards in my resume and essay, I want to show my letters/awards as well. They are very impressive honors.

Thanks

1) Yes, it will affect their decision. They likely have a certain number of openings for PhD students and a certain number for MA students. Don't lie about your intentions. Be honest.

2) It might or it might now. 

The best way to get answers to those two questions would be to contact the specific programs and ask them. 

Re: "upload credentials": Definitely do not upload scanned copies of awards and certificates. Also, you should have a CV (curriculum vitae) that you are using, not a resume. Your CV should have a section for "Awards and Honors" (or a similar title/heading) under which you can list what you have received. No explanations either, btw. Just list what it was you got and who it was from. If they want more information, then they'll ask you.

[paulwece]

1) Yes, it will affect their decision. They likely have a certain number of openings for PhD students and a certain number for MA students. Don't lie about your intentions. Be honest.

2) It might or it might now. 

The best way to get answers to those two questions would be to contact the specific programs and ask them. 

Re: "upload credentials": Definitely do not upload scanned copies of awards and certificates. Also, you should have a CV (curriculum vitae) that you are using, not a resume. Your CV should have a section for "Awards and Honors" (or a similar title/heading) under which you can list what you have received. No explanations either, btw. Just list what it was you got and who it was from. If they want more information, then they'll ask you.

I will not lie about my intentions. My plan is to get a MS degree and work in the industry. I will also talk about my business background in my essay, which is a huge part of who I am.

However, just out of curiosity... is it true that it's generally easier to get in as a masters since there is probably more slots, more turn over, and they don't necessary have to fund you?

[TakeruK]

I will not lie about my intentions. My plan is to get a MS degree and work in the industry. I will also talk about my business background in my essay, which is a huge part of who I am.

However, just out of curiosity... is it true that it's generally easier to get in as a masters since there is probably more slots, more turn over, and they don't necessary have to fund you?

The short answer is "yes".

The long answer is that the quotation marks means that if the school offers a terminal Masters program, and if it's not necessarily fully funded, then generally, a larger fraction of terminal Masters applicants are accepted than PhD applicants. This is very generally true for engineering disciplines. The numbers I've seen are something like 5-10% acceptance fraction for PhD applicants and 50%-60% for terminal Masters applicants. Since you are in engineering field and the way you stated the school's question implies that they do have a terminal Masters program, I think for your case, the answer is a yes.

[paulwece]

Thanks for the help everyone.

Regarding the petition which is the title of this thread, I finally met the new dean today and the result is better than I thought. He agreed to withdraw that semester as long as I provide documentations from a few professors at the time, which I have no problem getting. 

However, deadline for UIUC is 9/1 and I'm not sure the changes can be made before than. There is a chance, but the timing is very urgent. So I probably have to submit a transcript without the withdraw and resubmit a revised copy later. This means the admission committee will still get to see the old record. I wonder if the fact that I've provided all the documentations and the dean formally approved my petition would cause the admission committee to disregard that semester as if it was withdrawn and not hold the old grades (that they see) against me?

[fuzzylogician]

The admissions committee will likely not meet at least in the first 7-10 days after the deadline. There will be some bureaucracies first to be handled by the graduate school or some secretary in the prospective department, before the files actually reach the faculty on the committee. There is a good chance that the transcript will be updated before anyone sees your file. Moreover, even if the old transcript is technically there, if you submit an updated transcripts with the withdrawn semester, that is what will be considered. Since you've already mentioned elsewhere wanting to briefly discuss your struggles early on in grad school, I think you'll be perfectly safe. If anyone compares the two transcripts and wonders what happened (and for that matter, if they only see the updated transcript and wonder about the missing semester), there will be an explanation for them to find. 

[paulwece]

Thanks fuzzylogician, much appreciated.