<p>Rice is more holistic, cares about diversity, etc. UT only cares about rank and to an extent, test scores.</p>
<p>mmm alright thanks man</p>
<p>I have to disagree with some earlier posters, I think UT Austin is a match for OP. The CDS shows that ~25% of freshman admits are outside the top 10% - some 2000 students, they can’t all be athletes (I hope). Given that the rest of OP’s record is good - 3.8 GPA and 2100 SAT, plenty of AP’s, reasonable EC’s and volunteering, I don’t think 18% rank is a killer at all. Go for it, thegreat!</p>
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<p>Be careful of the distinction between admitted and enrolled students (the latter being what is reported in the CDS).</p>
<p>By policy, about 75% of the admitted students are in the top 7%. However, the enrolled student profile is not as strong, since (at any school) the top end of the admitted student pool tends to have many other choices, and students generally choose the most selective school they get admitted to, unless cost prevents them from doing so. So Texas almost certainly has a lower yield among its top 1-4% admits than its top 5-7% admits.</p>
<p>Remember also that the approximately 25% of the admits from other than the top 7% includes:
- non-Texas-resident applicants
- applicants from schools that do not rank
- home schooled applicants
- recruited athletes and other special admits</p>
<p>The OP can certainly apply to UT Austin, but should treat it as a reach, and prepare for the possibility of not being admitted, or being offered CAP.</p>
<p>But, yes, the OP probably has a better chance of admission at “more selective” schools that are not so rank-centric, since the rest of the academic credentials other than rank are top tier. For example, Berkeley and UCLA are generally seen as “more selective” than UT Austin, but the OP’s chances of admission at Berkeley and UCLA may actually be better than at UT Austin (but the cost for out-of-state students may take them off the table).</p>
<p>Yes - UT, if you’re not top 7% (or at least within the top 10%) is not accessible for you. However since your stats are excellent, you can apply to other schools where the primary criteria aren’t rank, but rather a combination of GPA, course rigor, extracurriculars, and test scores.</p>
<p>The UC’s do not give weight to race or ethnicity. However, they do take into account your essays. You can use race in an essay to describe the world you come from or any adversity you overcame.</p>
<p>More importantly, you can get credit by being a first time college attendee (that means being from a family whose parents have not gone to college) and economic status still counts.</p>
<p>However, OSS tuition for the UC’s is frankly quite unbelievable. It is as high as many private options with less financial aid. From a financial point of view you are better off in Texas or going private with scholarships.</p>
<p>OP, try not to take all this personally. The schools are not rejecting you. They are following a formula that works for them.</p>
<p>You need to find schools to which you FIT, as I said earlier. We’re not saying they cannot be prestigious, but somewhere along the line you fixated on UT and some uc schools. Part of your fit then is to chase these schools. So apply to a couple of them. Bio majors can find fit anywhere, but what about THIS bio major. </p>
<p>Then find texas or uc or several of the thousands of colleges where you are likely to be happy, where you will find, ahem, stubborn friends, or friends to whom prestige is important, or black friends, or friends who like to joust with adults, or friends with similar interests or sense of humor, or friends who say “Imustbethegreat.” Find a school that will support you also with opportunities for research or internships or study abroad. Finally, try to find a dozen campuses where you feel you might. Then go visit schools near home and see how you fit at a large, medium, and small school. Narrow down the dozen with this info. And try to come up with a list of where you best fit. Then go visit some of these. Enjoy finding out who you are.</p>
<p>^^ love the reply jkeil911. There’s a lot of truth to that.</p>
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<p>Not true - you are over-estimating the effect of rank outside the top 7% auto-admit group. According to </p>
<p><a href=“https://sp.austin.utexas.edu/sites/ut/rpt/Documents/IMA_S_ProfileFTIC_2012_Fall.pdf[/url]”>https://sp.austin.utexas.edu/sites/ut/rpt/Documents/IMA_S_ProfileFTIC_2012_Fall.pdf</a></p>
<p>the average rank of all enrolled freshman (2012) was 10% - and since more than 70% of them are in the top 10%, they must be admitting a lot of of significantly lower-ranked freshman for the remainder. Outside the top-7%-ers the CDS indicates that school rigor is the most important factor for UT; I think OP is going to be very competitive for one of those last few hundred slots.</p>