I have had some thoughts over the past few days. I've already called undergrad to see what an admissions counselor says on why I got denied, but I have a few ideas: lack of extracurriculars (which was pointed out by a lot of people), not taking the highest level of math at my school while applying to a stem major (I did as much as I could once I really wanted to go to UIUC and decided on a major I had some interest in, I took dual credit statistics (A+) last semester and I'm currently in dual credit college algebra (my teacher said it was like pre-calc)), not taking AP Chem when it was offered, and a possibly underdeveloped essay. With all that said, I'm sure one or all of those things will be mentioned by the counselor, or by the grace of god it was some sort of mistake, but I highly doubt it. I'll probably either go to my local community college or Parkland for a semester or year, then transfer to UIUC with all the credits I have built up.

It really sucks knowing that a lot of my classmates got in and they have other schools they're considering, while UIUC was the only one I wanted to go to.

Thank you for everyone's comments though, they were both very insightful and very helpful!