40 Acres and/or Honors Chances

Colleges and Universities A-Z The University of Texas at Austin
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Background
Sex: Male
Area of interest: Mechanical Engineering
State: Texas
Income: Very High
Race: Hispanic
Type of School: Homeschool/Private

Academics
GPA: 3.8 Unweighted
Class Rank: 1/20
ACT: 32 (English 31, Math 35, Reading 30, Science 30) I am taking again and may make higher.
Awards: None; Did not take PSAT

Leadership
250 hours in a Peer-to-Peer program dedicated to helping students with social or mental disabilities fit in academically and socially freshman-senior
75 hours as one of twelve leaders of a 300 person church youth group sophomore year

Extracurriculars
2 weeks at a Texas A&M STEM camp on campus
Varsity Golf junior-senior
The church youth group as a member as mentioned earlier freshman-senior
Boy Scouts up until Star Scout kindergarten-freshman

Volunteer
40 assisting tornado victims in Moore, OK
50 hours at vacation bible school
12 hours at a local needs-based scholarship program

Work Experience
Bus Boy at a nice mexican restaurant 20 hours/week
Sales associate at supplement shop inside a gym 20 hours/week
Been working 20 hours/week for the past two years straight and actually took out a loan of 17k to purchase it and I mentioned it in my essays

Recommendations
Principal 10/10
Sophomore Algebra 2/Junior Physics teacher 10/10
Junior English teacher 8/10
Current employer 9/10

Essays
Essay A: 8.5/10
Essay B: 9/10

I know 40 acres is extremely competitive, but I want to know if I stand a bit of a chance? Also, would engineering honors be probable for me?

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bump

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Always impossible to assess one’s chances for honors programs, and most certainly difficult to asses a chance for 40 acres. For Engineering Honors Program, which is a bit different than other honors programs (i.e. there are no honors engineering courses), they are looking for candidates that not only have top HS rank and SAT/ACT scores in math and science, but also longer-term engagement with STEM-related accomplishments / involvement throughout high school. For 40 Acres, they are looking for students who will be the face of the program, externally focused, mature and talented in speaking with confidence and knowledge. You can see how many of the 40 Acres awardees have a background in speech and debate. You can also see that an inordinate number of 40 acres winners in the last few years seem to be dual-degree Business Honors (BHP) and Plan II (the most distinguished honors program at UT, which is actually a major).

No one can tell you chances to get into any of these, but you can look at the profiles of current students, and glean some idea as to what accomplishments were deemed impressive enough to result in an award.

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Additionally, for 40 Acres, ACT average is 34, something in that range.