Advice for a high school freshman shooting for McCombs?

I attended U.T. Austin decades ago as a journalism major, and now my son is hoping to be accepted to McCombs in a few years. He starts high school this fall. I have researched the degree plans for McCombs, but I’m looking for advice on high school class selection. What are the MOST IMPORTANT classes to take in high school to prepare for McCombs? AP Calculus? AP Economics? AP Statistics?

Most important thing for UT (but not for his education) is to learn how your school determines class rank. Every district in Texas does it differently. Understand how the GPA scale works and how much AP classes hurt and help him. How much do fun electives hurt and help him? Because being in the top 7% (or whatever it will be for his year) makes a huge difference in admissions difficulty. The better the rank, the better his chance at his first choice of major.

All degree plans in McCombs require Calc I and II. Many, many McCombs students take these at community college. They all require two- three economics classes. These are easier than Calculus but still many take the two lower level ones at community college. Statistics does not seem to be as much of a weed out class at UT. My son took what would now be called the Multidisciplinary Studies endorsement and he has done very well at UT. He did take Calc AB in high school and AP Micro. AP Macro was not offered but he would have taken it if he could have.

In general, he needs to learn time management, study skills and resiliency to be successful in college. My son also worked in high school and took part in a time consuming EC with progressive leadership roles. While he learned time management skills, they were still NOT good enough when he was confronted with boundless free time at UT and the responsibilities of laundry, feeding himself and taking care of his health. I’d say it was early November of freshman year before he figured those things out.

Thank you, getting schooled. We’re in the Northwest school district, and my son is on the Business endorsement track. To rank in the top 7 percent at my son’s high school, students must take PreAP/AP classes and do very well in them. Only core and language courses count toward class rank.

One more question: Do you know if being in the top 7 percent guarantees admission to McCombs for in-state students? I’m seeing mixed messages on that one …

No it doesn’t. The same AI/PAI grid used for holistic candidates is used to place students in a major. (See Best Practices thread and documents). Basically, a combination of rank, test scores, leadership, essays, work etc. The higher the rank, the better. The higher the test scores the better. And so forth.

I think major leadership is really important for McCombs too. Student government, club officer, varsity sport captain, etc…looking at kids getting interviews into business honors that appears to be key.

Be an active member in DECA, if your son’s school has a DECA chapter. I know plenty of friends who were admitted to McCombs and weren’t even in the top 10%. They’ve told me that it’s probably because they were successful in DECA competitions and used their DECA experiences in their essays.

Mom of a current McCombs student here. I wouldn’t worry if your student lacks official business type clubs.

After the obvious areas of grades, rank, and leadership, I would say that the essays are very important.

Our son was outside the auto admit range but, in addition to his stats, he is a very strong writer. He applied to BHP and, while he did not get in to that program, he was admitted to McCombs in December as opposed to the more common February notification for non-auto admits. We believe his essays helped him stand apart.

Our school doesn’t have DECA — only a brand-new and weak FBLA chapter. Is DECA considered superior to FBLA? And can anyone define leadership? In college admissions, does that term only apply to elected positions?

I think this year the top 6% is auto-admit to UT https://news.utexas.edu/2017/09/15/growth-in-texas-drives-automatic-admission-to-top-6-percent

@GigiMayf
In the case of our DS, his positions were not elected. He was an Eagle Scout, with increasing responsibilities over a growing number of areas and other Scouts as he progressed.

Also, his school activities showed a track record of rising positions and mentoring others as he moved through his four year activities. His track record was supported by awards and competition wins along the way.

Any student with a four-year activity could possibly have this type of leadership opportunity if they are demonstrating growth throughout high school.