I was somewhat mediocre (in the tier of “very good students”) and ended up with a GPA of 3.7, 120 hours of community service, some theater extracurriculars, and a SkillsUSA membership (participating in a Graphic Design district tournament whereby I got #15 place, albeit it does not hold much merit as there was only one judge whom looked at the screens one second and moved on). My Junior year, I received an award for Outstanding Performance in English Language Arts (only two students get it) and Outstanding Performance in Graphic Design (only two students get it, also). I had a couple of advanced classes (AP/Pre-AP) and a Dual Credit class, which is Graphic Design.
I am going to get a certificate from Adobe and probably an Associate’s Degree in Graphic Design when I graduate High School.
Still, I recognize I could have done significantly better (especially regarding extracurriculars - I am extremely athletic but I didn’t participate in “official” sports that count for school), and truth be told, I didn’t know the system that well and my counselor never called me or informed me of anything of importance (hell, I had to learn about SAT and deadline for applications myself), so I just went with the flow. My family typically studies at Europe or Asian countries, and even then, I have little communication with them, so that’s another factor of my relative ignorance in regards to the academic methodology.
In short, I did decent, but nothing special, which makes me doubt I will be accepted at UT Austin.
My two questions are these:
1). Should I apply to UT Austin now that you somewhat know my credentials?
2). If I am not accepted UT Austin, but I DO go to University of Houston, Texas A&M, or University of Texas Dallas, will I be able to transfer after two years (or whichever minimum amount of time is required) to UT Austin?
I am aware that some people do two years of community college and then go to higher level universities, for they took their time in such establishment to improve their grades. Isn’t it better to just go to a big college rather than a community college in order to later attend a more prestigious school?
PS: Please bear in mind - I unarguably do not have a lot of money, so applying to all colleges in the world is a non-factor. I will apply to four colleges max: UT Austin (maybe), UT Dallas, University of Houston, and Texas A&M (College Station).
I will take my SAT in October and I expect I will get between a 1250 and 1400 (original score was 1200, but I try to study as much as possible). Still, for the sake of the question, let us imagine I will get a 1250 SAT score.
Thank you, everybody.