CAP program

Colleges and Universities A-Z The University of Texas at Austin
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@JackM82
I will be doing my UT CAP program at UTSA. I have the following questions and I would appreciate if u have time to answer them.

The questions are related to how to and when can I become an economic major.
I understand that I need a minimum GPA of 3.2 to be auto admitted to COLA and that cal 1&2, micro and macro economics are required to become an Econ major. However, I failed to find the required min GPA in order to become an Econ major. Below are my questions.

  1. What is that min GPA to be eligible to become an Econ major?

  2. Do I have to apply to become an UT Econ major while I am doing my cap program or at a later time?

  3. If I meet the min GPA requirements as well as have taken the 4 required courses, can I become an Econ major during my first year at UT? Or, I have to wait for a year or two?

  4. other than the 4 required courses mentioned above, for the rest of the 6 courses, can I just select them from the cap program approved course list provided by UTSA?
    I do understand that I have to meet with an academic advisor, but some had suggested don’t trust the advisor 100%.

Thank u in advance for ur help,
Yuki

22

@chuang2017

  1. What is that min GPA to be eligible to become an Econ major?

Just above the 3.2 from my understandings

  1. Do I have to apply to become an UT Econ major while I am doing my cap program or at a later time?

You can apply at the conclusion of your CAP year

  1. If I meet the min GPA requirements as well as have taken the 4 required courses, can I become an Econ major during my first year at UT? Or, I have to wait for a year or two?

Yes you can, you dont even have to have the required courses technically, I became and Econ major without Micro, Calc 1 or calc 2

  1. other than the 4 required courses mentioned above, for the rest of the 6 courses, can I just select them from the cap program approved course list provided by UTSA?

Can’t stress this enough, knock out your core requirements that will be difficult at UT. (Sciences, Government, History, foreign language, composition, english) The ones I mentioned should give you a good ballpark of what to take, I was able to knock out most of my general eds at UTA which was nice because the same classes at UT tended to be much more difficult from what I hear

23

I went to UTA last year, and got into McCombs with a 3.875! Math classes are hard but utilize their math tutoring (free!)
I am really good at math, and alot of my friends ended up with Cs or Ds in calc 1 and 2 but if you put your mind to it… you can make an A! It takes alot of work and determination… so you really need to believe in your ability to work if you want to get into McCombs! @damon99

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@noelleb I got into McCombs from the Cap program! feel free to message me for advice if you want! It is doable! dont let advisors scare you!

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For those transferring in the CAP program — Has anyone received notification of acceptance into McCombs today?

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Going to UTSA as a CAP student this Fall but am looking at sticking w/COLA, so that’s pretty straightforward…what’s got me a little confused is that the advisor at UTSA placed me in a STATS class to fulfill my math requirement. Anyone else done this and transferred w/no problem? I absolutely do NOT want to sign up for a class my first semester that won’t meet the CAP math requirement. :confused:

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@JackM82 Did you apply for economics while in the CAP program? Or once you were at UT. It seems now you can only apply to 1 non automatic major in the CAP program. So I can’t apply for both Business and Economics. What did you do? And if you did an internal transfer into economics how difficult was the application?

28

TLDR: If you aren’t a Liberal Arts major, don’t join the CAP program.

I’m a computer science major and I’ve just completed my freshman year at UTA as a CAP student. I have 57 credit hours, a 4.0 GPA, three letters of recommendation, an IT certification (CompTIA A+), an Eagle Scout Ranking, ~290 community service hours, 4 years of job experience (not relevant to compsci), Honors status at UTA, membership in Golden Key International Honour Society, etc. I ranked first in my class for Intermediate Programming, Calc 3, Physics 2, etc. I was on track to finish my degree in 3 years instead of 4.

I was not accepted into the College of Natural Sciences (CNS) at UT.

I was told that the CAP program is difficult and that most people drop out of it, but if you work hard enough you can make it into your college. This is not the case. After being run around by UT’s admissions office for a while, they told me this: Almost all spots at UT’s colleges are reserved for internal transfers, and CAP students are treated with the same priority as any external transfers (if not worse).

I have looked at every requirement I could find for admission into the CNS, and I have gone well beyond each of them. It is simply a matter of whether or not you are an internal transfer. The average GPA of a student admitted to the CNS in 2017 was a 3.7 according to UT. I have repeatedly tried to find what I did wrong to be rejected from the college but I’ve found no other answers.

If there is a way use the CAP program to get into a non-Liberal Arts college at UT, it likely involves starting at the Liberal Arts college, then spending two semesters waiting to get into your college. Bear in mind that most UT colleges only accept students during the fall. In most cases, this would mean wasting two semesters on classes irrelevant to my major, just for the chance to get into my college. (A chance that would likely be diminished by wasting so much time.)

After investing so much time and effort into the UT system, it is no longer feasible for me to transfer my classes to another university without losing about 25 hours in the process. I will be finishing my degree at UTA. They offered me a $15,000 scholarship last semester to opt out of the CAP program, and I should have taken it.

It is my opinion that CAP representatives should inform prospective students that the program is strictly meant for the College of Liberal Arts. The program is an excellent way into the Liberal Arts college, but any student looking beyond that should start as a freshman at UT or attend a different university.

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@CollegeDrifter1 I’ve just realized that this is an OP questioning thread and not an open experience sharing thread. Sorry about that, I’m new and I have no idea how to move/delete my comment.

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If you’re looking to transfer to UT, it’s best to attend Austin Community College. CAP is more expensive and misleading (really only for liberal arts majors)

31

Is the CAP offer guaranteed for all Texas residents who don’t get accepted into UT at first?