Hi guys!
I’ve been following CC for a long time and finally made an account. I am an auto-admit female student - in the top 1.8% of my class of 750ish. I applied for priority admission back in September and found out on 1/31 that I was denied Computer Science and would have to pick from a list of available majors.
I was utterly devastated by the news as UT Austin is my dream school and I was so excited to pursue Computer Science at my dream college.
I went ahead and selected undeclared through the School of Undergraduate Studies in the hopes that I might be able to internally transfer after the first year. Although I am still waiting back on other schools, I will most likely go to UT Austin.
I write this post in the hopes of gaining some advice and support, as well as to hear what others who were also denied their first choice major are doing - and if you are taking the undeclared route. I am still having a hard time dealing with this rejection.
Thanks for reading and good luck to everyone 
You sound like an incredible student. I’m sure you’ll have lots of strong acceptances to choose from.
As a UT parent, my advice would be to please consider that you may never be able to change your major to CS at UT. This is the same advice I would give to denied engineering and business majors as well. The risk is just not worth finding yourself unable to change your major to what you really want to study.—And that happens regularly.
You could start at another university in CS and then try to transfer into UT. That way, you’ll still get the degree you want even if the transfer is denied.
With your stats, other schools would love to have you and would surely offer you merit money as well. Good luck!
Hi there. My son is in the exact same boat as you except he was denied McCombs on 1/31. We are encouraging him to move on with other options but he did submit an appeal with his fall transcript, fall work experience, etc.
It’s a long shot but with your stats you should definitely consider submitting an online appeal. And for what it’s worth, we can totally relate to the crushing blow. Best of luck to you!
Transferring internally to CS is extremely difficult, probably requiring a 3.9+ in rigorous courses (especially difficult at UT). I would advise going to another school or community college, getting as close to a 4.0 as possible, and then trying to transfer in after one year
@inspiredtechie What are your stats, STEM classes you took and EC activities?
If you can show aptitude for computer science, I think CS is not difficult to transfer in, especially for female students.
I was offered an admission twice in CS at UT, once as a freshmen and once as a transfer student, and graduated with a BS in Computer Science.
@CertifiedCC What was your GPA and classes taken?
@PokeyJoe Thank you so much for your kind words, they mean a lot to me. I’ve been considering the risk of not getting the transfer when the time comes and have been very conflicted about that. As of now, I only have one other acceptance and am waiting to hear from two other schools. I will make sure to keep my options open and I am really grateful for your advice.
@momdonovan I am so sorry to hear that about your son 
That makes me sad to hear that he is in the same boat as well.
I did end up submitting an appeal a few weeks ago that included a fall transcript and awards achieved since I submitted my application. I know I don’t have much ground for an appeal but I thought it would be worth a shot - at least I’ll know I did everything I could.
Thank you so much for your response. I truly wish your son the best of luck on his appeal and where he chooses to go.
@awesomesaucee Thank you for the advice 
I have heard that internally transferring - especially to CS - is extremely difficult. I guess I will have to decide in the next few weeks if I am ready to take that risk or not. Have you had experience with transferring?
@CertifiedCC Thank you for your response
My SAT score was in the 1400s range. I am involved in outside community service activities and multiple organizations at school including honor societies (NHS, Mu Alpha Theta, and National Spanish Honor Society), Student Council, CS UIL, and DECA (State Qualifier for two years) to name a few. I have also held various leadership positions throughout all four years.
I have taken 10 AP classes total throughout all four years including AP Calculus AB, BC, and AP Computer Science (I am an AP Scholar with Distinction). In addition to those classes, I also took CS I, CS III, and a class on HTML coding. Over the summer at ACC, I took several Dual Credit classes.
That is so awesome that you have a BS in Computer Science - when you applied for your transfer, what classes did you take that you felt really showed your dedication to CS?
@inspiredtechie I am applying for Fall 2018 as an external transfer to CS from another 4 year school. All I know about the process is what ive seen here from previous years, and it looks like all external transfers have a 3.8+ GPA and internal transfers had 3.9+
@awesomesaucee Good luck on your transfer and I really hope it works out for you! Keep us updated
@awesomesaucee, @inspiredtechie
I was an international student graduated from a non-English speaking high school, top 1% in my high school class and got A’s on all STEM courses including physics, biology, chemistry, math; got 790 on SAT math.
In my freshmen year, I took a couple CS and at another top tier university (not a community college) and got A’s in all of these.
At my time, there was no computer science course offered in high school. However, I’d say I was above average in my understanding of software and computer technology at my time.
@inspiredtechie Were you offered math or physics as a major to choose from?
@CertifiedCC good to hear. I’m about in the same boat as you except I’m a state resident
@CertifiedCC Wow, that’s really impressive! And no, I was not offered any STEM majors to choose from which was really disappointing.
@inspiredtechie
I can definitely relate. The same happened to me with McCombs. I got denied Business on 1/31 and have still not gotten over it. Unfortunately, my college counselors told me that I could not apply for an appeal because every piece of information had already been sent to them. I applied for Human Dimensions of Organizations (HDO), a new major at UT which seemed related to Business at first, but after checking the courses it did not correlate to what they were promising, so I am quite disappointed.
Could you give an update as to whether you will still attend UT? I have been told by students at the University that the process of transferring into Business (I am sorry but I do not know about Computer Science) is hard but it is definitely not impossible. I am still deciding on what to do.
I am quite conflicted and am definitely in the same boat as you in dealing with this rejection since UT was my dream school as well.
Good luck to you!
@spanishmzp Internally transferring into McCombs at UT is not impossible, but will require a 3.9+ GPA while have the pre-requisites done(Calc 1, Calc 2, Micro, Macro). They use a strict GPA cut off to transfer in that goes up every year
@spanishmzp I am so incredibly sorry that this happened to you too And that really sucks about HDO - I would’ve thought it would be business-related as well.
My personal advice (even though your college counselors told you that couldn’t apply for an appeal), if you strongly feel that this is where you were meant to be, is to still try to submit an appeal with any updated achievements including your fall transcript - which is what I did. For me, there is more consolation in knowing that I tried all my options.
As of now, I am still waiting on two other schools. My final decision will depend on whether I get accepted with a good financial aid packet from those out of state schools. As of right now, I am strongly leaning towards going to UT as undeclared and then trying to internally transfer. I will let you know what I decide. Have you heard back from all your schools?
Again, it is hard to hear that there are other students just like me dealing with this rejection. But, no matter what happens, we will make this work and we’ll end up right where we are supposed to be. Let me know what you decide as well. I wish you the best of luck in where you go and what you do.
@momdonovan I’ve been following your story. My son may soon be in the same position. Any word?