<p>I'm very interested in going to the University of Texas-Austin for petroleum engineering. One of the harder majors to get. Chemical engineering would be my second choice.</p>
<p>About Me....</p>
<p>High School Class of 2014
UGPA: 3.9/4.0
WGPA: 5.1/6.0
Rank: Competitive non-ranking Texas High School and I'm not in the top 7%. I don't know where I stand but a guess is around the 12% mark for a class of 700.
ACT: 33 Composite (35 Math; 35 English; 33 Science; 29 Reading)</p>
<p>AP classes (APUSH, Calc B/C, etc and dual credit classes) and honors classes. Still waiting on scores AP tests.</p>
<p>School awards for digital graphics and physics.
Football, baseball and summer lacrosse.
National Honor Society</p>
<p>3 year Captain and leader of fund raising event for cancer.
3 year mentor and leader for middle school kids.</p>
<p>Did summer intern work for a small oil company covering many facets of production.
Employed junior/senior years as a math and reading tutor. (15 hours per week) </p>
<p>Good rec letters and currently working on applications and essays. </p>
<p>So what do you think? Can I get into UT-Austin? I know I'm and auto-admit to A&M but I prefer UT.</p>
<p>It is just my opinion, but I would probably take the SAT. Otherwise, you are not giving them much to compare you with since you do not have a class rank and Texas tends to be an SAT state.</p>
<p>UT will use the school profile along with your GPA to calculate a class rank. As with most schools either test will work.</p>
<p>As long as your essays are good then your chances are good for UT admission. PetE will be a challenge since the average class rank for PetE is 7% and your are a little below that but your score is higher than the PetE average and you have a great math score. So you have a chance.</p>
<p>I have taken the SAT once last year and just didn’t like it as much. Yes I know Cockrell is very competitive so I hope my GPA and ACT will help along with being from a challenging school that sent over 60 kids to UT this year. Of course we had our share of kids that went to Stanford, MIT, Princeton, etc but that is not for me. Too many $$$!</p>
<p>Petroleum Eng isn’t quite as difficult to get into as chemical or biomedical and your stats look fine as far as ACT and ec’s go (especially that internship) but UT looks at class rank soooo much and that might hurt you a bit I remember an admissions officer i talked to told me that for most engineerings you want to be in the 6% range and for ones like chemical, petro & bme, 3% is considered safe. But that was also in context with really large schools like the one i went to in hs. I do think you have a good chance though. Also APPLY EARLY!!! IT really does make a difference, UT’s application system is on a rolling basis so you’ll hear back a lot sooner and from what i’ve seen your chances are just better.</p>
<p>Hmmm. What I see on the UT website is that they accept more students to chemical than they do petroleum engineering. Not that chemical is necessarily easier to get into but at least there are more slots so it seems easier.</p>
<p>^Yes I have. I will be applying to both UT and A&M along with some other schools out of Texas. I know I’m an auto-admit to A&M and hopefully get admitted to engineering. But Texas is my number 1 choice for now.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t call UT engineering a second tier school. As texaspg said it is normally ranked in the top 10. Plus I don’t think UCB has petroleum engineering.</p>
<p>Well it’s just that I heard alot about people that take up petroleum engineering, and alot of them talked about how it can get. Like how their jobs were way out in the rural, the increasingly stressful work as they went up in ranks and was overall not a good experience, except for those who really really liked it. Of course this can be for anything, but I personally have heard alot about it. Not trying to discourage you at all, just wanted to tell you. </p>
<p>Yes I’ve heard those stories too. On the flip side many don’t. My dad worked for a petroleum consulting firm, he was not an engineer, and the petroleum engineers sat in nice offices in the ubiquitous office building and rarely ventured out into the field. They would sometimes have to provide expert testimony in court though!</p>
<p>I just wish I knew the percentage of the ones in the field vs. ones in the nice office with pretty normal hours.</p>
<p>Any other thoughts since the application opens tomorrow? I will be submitting my application soon. Hoping for UT petroleum engineering.</p>
<p>I got my AP scores back and had 4’s and all of them. Not a 5 as I had hoped but still good.</p>
<p>The summer intern at the oil & gas company was very interesting and fun. They have asked me back for next summer if I get into the PetE program.</p>
I remember an admissions officer i talked to told me that for most engineerings you want to be in the 6% range and for ones like chemical, petro & bme, 3% is considered safe. But that was also in context with really large schools like the one i went to in hs. I do think you have a good chance though. Also APPLY EARLY!!! IT really does make a difference, UT’s application system is on a rolling basis so you’ll hear back a lot sooner and from what i’ve seen your chances are just better.</p>