<p>Hi, I’m interested in the college of Engineering at UT-austin, and I will never be able to make the 10% cut off at my HS, regardless of my junior&senior year performance. </p>
<p>Here are my prospective stats by senior yr: </p>
<p>4.0 UW, 4.35W, top 25% at competitive public HS
2100+ SAT
a few 750+ SATiis.
6 AP tests (2 5s already)
**Close to NO ECs!<img src=“perhaps%2050-100%20hrs%20volunteering,%20some%20science/math%20competition,%20a%20JV%20sport,%20but%20no%20leadership%20or%20other%20national%20awards” alt="/B"></p>
<p>What is the best way to maximize my chances by next yr?</p>
<li> Get 2300+ or 33+ on the SAT/ACT?</li>
<li> Study a college physics course during the summer?</li>
<li> Do some internships, research or more science competitions as well as ECs?</li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks for reading. I am impatient to read your opinion/advices!!!</p>
<p>A score in the 98th or 99th percentile of the ACT or SAT is good to have anywhere - I think a big place like texas use your "numbers" quite a bit - it looks like you already have some good numbers so a good standardized test score would probably be helpful</p>
<p>Just get your rank as high as possible, and your in good shape. SATs are good, APs are enough, just a higher rank would help..</p>
<p>I was 13% with 1390 M+R, 32 ACT, and 4 APs and got in Electrical Engineering school with no problems. Oh and I had a whole lot less EC then you.. 2 years of a sport, like 10 made up community service, and 2 letters of rec.</p>
<p>FoxShox what is your name -_-;; I am also studying EE Here, anyways heres what I was</p>
<p>top 43%
1400+ SAT
Varsity Sports
some other crap not horribly important</p>
<p>I believe you will get into UT... but how can you have a 4.0 and only be top 25%... doesnt matter what your HS is, that should be around top 15% + minimum, i think someone is exaggerating -_-;;</p>
<p>Anyways best bet is always to raise your ACT / SAT...</p>
<p>i think for engineering having that 1400+ SAT and a really good SAT II math(790 or 800) score would help. and i understand that u cant do ne thing about ur rank so do stuff that is still in ur hands.</p>
<p>If you go to a high school with a good reputation, UT will be much more likely to accept you outside the top 10% than if you go to a less reputable or prestigious school.</p>
<p>We had a kid in the bottom half (well, he did have like a 1450) get in last year.</p>
<p>I think your SAT is fine, perhaps just a few more ECs.</p>
<p>Since 65% of UT's spaces are filled with top 10% students there is quite a bit of competition for the remaining spots, especially for engineering.</p>
<p>What do you mean by "competitive public HS"? Most schools are competitive, especially in the larger cities (I'm in Austin so I should know, haha), and using "competitive public HS" in an attempt to make your rank sound better doesn't work. 10% is 10%, it doesn't matter what school you came from.</p>
<p>Show that you're passionate and dedicated to engineering. Even if you don't have many ECs but show that you would rather focus on your math/sciences, that's just as good or so I hear from my UT friends =)</p>
<p>That argument is kind of flawed. Although I guess to most people their high school was competitive, but even the same schools in my district weren't as hard to have a higher rank than ours. I would have been in the top 10% had I transferred schools with the same grades but instead I was like 13.5%</p>
<p>Coming from Austin, you should realize that not all high schools are created equal.</p>
<p>To simplify:</p>
<p>Top 11% at AS Johnston does not get you into UT. Top 11% at Westlake does. There may be a few exceptions to this rule, such as kids at Westlake with no ECs and low test scores or a Johnston kid who was a stud otherwise, but not all, or even most, high schools are competitive or even close to it.</p>
<p>^agreed.. same kind of stuff happens in Houston as well, my school sent ~40 people to UT my year. About half were non-top 10 percent, including myself.</p>
<p>Looking at it simply, the 10% law guarantees that all 10% applicants get automatically accepted. Doesn't matter if you're 10% at a competitive school or 10% at a not-so-competitive school, it's still 10%.</p>
<p>However, I never said that people outside of 10% at not-so-competitive schools wouldn't get in. I'm sorry if I made it sound that way ^^;</p>
<p>Although I would think if you're in a competitive HS, it would make it a little harder to get in, right?</p>
<p>Either way, best of luck, maybe I'll see you there next year!</p>
<p>Well its harder to be in the top 10% at a competitive school, but I think UT has a good idea in terms of test scores and school performance for each school that it can gauge a school's merit and base admissions on that as well. I mean just because of the nature of the law you can't guarantee a person in the top 17 percent from a competitive high school will get in, but you can say for a good enough certainty they will. I still think that system is flawed, just because of so many different variables that you can't take into account.</p>
<p>Sorry guys, but I really think that some comments about me lying is undue. My low weighted GPA is because I transferred from a foreign HS, and ALL my courses were "unweighted" although I got straight A's. To be honest, the foreign HS courses were much harder than AP courses in my "competitive" public HS (it's ranked around 100 by US news out of all US high schools). AP's here are also a joke (on foreign standards), and I easily manage straight A's.</p>
<p>So, I end up with 4.0 Unweighted, and hopefully around 4.35 Weighted, regardless of how hard I study in the next yr (I'm taking 6 AP/honors courses, but my school can weigh maximum 4 of them only). Because my school computes the Weighted GPA for ranking, that puts me around top 20% (maybe top 25% if i'm pessimistic).</p>
<p>Regardless, I'm very bitter because of this (if i didn't get any transcript problems, I would have easily ended valedictorian). But treating me like a liar is unfair.</p>
<p>If you aren't top 10%, the next best way would be to go to a high-quality private school. E.g. Hockaday, St. Mark's, Ft. Worth Country Day, Kinkaid, St. John's, St. Stephens...</p>
<p>Students who are in a very competitive high school will have trouble staying in the top 10. One school that churns out 30-50 NM semifinalists, 60-100 NM Commended in a graduating class of 700+ came to my mind. I will not be surprised if some of these students switch to a less competitive high school in their senior year just to get a better rank.</p>