Hi, I was wondering what my chances are of getting into UT Austin. I’m not eligible for automatic admission (I’m in the top 9% of my class) but I did get a 1300 on my SAT and I’m an in- state applicant. I’m on the varsity volleyball team at my HS, I’m Vice President of a volunteering club and I’m also a secretary in German Club. I’m involved in Good Sportsmanship League, National Honor Society, and German Honor Society. I also started a book club at my school. I really want to go to UT but I’m not sure if it’s possible with my stats so I wanted to seek some advice about the issue.
I’m also planning on applying to the College of Liberal Arts or the College of Communication. Liberal Arts is what I’m the most interested in though.
It was very competitive with the class of 2019. If you are not an auto admit then your SAT score should be more in the 1400+. I would definitely retake it. UT wants you to write everything into your resume. Colleges like to see you were committed and involved in at least one activity for a longer period of time. If you consider playing volleyball and are a great recruit for UT, then that could be your ticket in as well. If you think you have a chance on getting your rank up with the next fall semester then you can send that as an update. Many students were admitted later with an appeal, one of the reasons, they had a change and made it into the top 6%.
A lot of people say that the chance to get into a major at the College of Liberal Arts is higher and less competitive. For Majors like Business, Engineering or computer science you would need to be more in the top 2-3%, even some auto admits don’t get into their first or second choice major through all colleges.
Even if you think your chances are slim, still apply and see it more as a reach school and add some target and safety schools to your list. Apply early but don’t rush through the application process.
Good luck
I think you stand a decent chance, but it UT would be a reach school. It’s a good school if you plan to be a liberal arts major. For a degree in business, computers, STEM, etc, it offers very little flexibility to change majors because these majors are ridiculously selective.
Honestly, If next year is anything like this year, I would expect that you would be offered the CAP program. My dd and most of her friends had very similar stats and anyone outside of the top 6% was CAPped.
I say put forth your very best effort but have some other options. There are a lot of good schools out there!
I’m the father of two kids who both were admitted to UT as review applicants. My eldest son was admitted to Liberal Arts Honors in 2016, and in this most recent application cycle my youngest son was admitted to McCombs. Again, both of my kids were not auto-admits and in-state applicants such as you.
Overall, I think you could be a competitive applicant to UT considering you are applying to Liberal Arts which you may know is not as competitive as say Business or Engineering. Having said that, your SAT score is a little on the low end for UT. I suggest you re-take it as UT will simply accept whatever is your highest score and disregard any low scores. Even if you do not raise your SAT score, you could still possibly get admission to Liberal Arts if the other aspects of your application are strong.
Make sure you submit the optional resume, it really isn’t optional for review applicants. Also, make sure you give almost excruciating detail about all of your academic, work, and extracurricular experiences on the resume. If you have a rising grade trend, note that on the resume. This is not a time to be shy. Also, even after you submit your application, avail yourself of the opportunity to submit additional items to support your application even after you app is complete. For example, during my youngest son’s senior year he was selected to participate in a leadership activity for his school which occurred after he submitted his app to UT. He contacted UT and they explained to him how he could upload the certificate respecting his participation in that program through a miscellaneous file system on his admissions portal. He utilized that process to also notify UT when he was accepted into a competitive pre-college program for admitted students to A&M’s business school.
Additionally, take a look at the blog maintained by the former UT admissions counselor. At no cost, he’s willing to review your essay and give you some general feedback on your UT resume. My youngest son used this to get some general tips that were helpful in re-thinking how to organize his resume. Also, consider buying the former UT admission’s counselor’s book to get the details on UT’s admissions formulas which will explain why Liberal Arts is not as competitive as Engineering/Business. Good luck.