Chance Me! UT Austin, UNC-Chapel Hill, Carnegie Mellon, U Mich

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi, I have posted a chance me earlier, but I thought I’d post again with some new information. I’m a senior and have already begun applying, but I’m curious about my chances I am interested in top-tier schools for Business/Finance. Am not 100% sure about what I want to do as a career, but interested in management consulting.

I am an Asian female from a competitive public school in Texas. Schools that I am interested in include, UT Austin, UNC-Chapel Hill, UMich, Carnegie Mellon, UIUC, NYU and UPenn. I am also interested in TAMU as a safety.

Basic Stats:
Unweighted GPA: school does not report but I have all As except I got a B in AP Art class.

Weighted GPA: 5.54/6.0 (6.0 not possible)

AP Classes:
16 total; all other classes were honors except PE and Art class
Freshman Yr:1, Soph0more Yr: 3, Junior Yr:7, Senior Yr: 6

Rank/Class Size: 49/872 (6th percentile)

ACT: 35 composite (36R,36E,34M,34S)

SAT II: Just took math 2 and US history, waiting for results

-AP scores:

AP Human Geography 5
AP World History 4
AP Psychology 5
AP Calculus AB 4
AP Stats 5
AP English Lang 5
AP US History 5
AP 2-D Design 5
AP Spanish Lang 4

AP Chemistry TBD
AP Macroeconomics TBD
AP Government TBD
AP Calculus BC TBD
AP English Lit TBD
AP Computer Science TBD

ECs-
Took art all 4 years of high school
Girl Scout: in process of earning gold award
Taekwondo
Student Council Member
National Honor Society
National Spanish Honor Society
National Art Honor Society
lots of volunteer experience (500+ hours)

Professional Experience:
Work as a front desk manager at a taekwondo studio (manage athlete contracts and gear/equipment sales)
I have job shadowed with a couple of major companies such as Deloitte and Frito-lay.

Essays:
about 8-9/10

rec letters:
not super impressive, I’m a pretty quiet kid and I don’t have close relations with most of my teachers.

I just want to know what my chances are at the schools I listed. Can you thing of any other schools that would be good fits? I will be able to afford out of state

2

You should be competitive for UMich OOS, but the OOS acceptance rate is 19%. Also, do you know if you will be applying to LSA only or LSA/Ross Preferred? In round numbers, there’s about 4,000 spots in LSA and about 500 spots in Ross, so the difficulty factor, in terms of acceptance, rachets up with the LSA/Ross Preferred app.

One other thing. I think the lack of enthusiasm for your teacher recommendation letters, if true, could be an admittance issue. Those are considered to be “important” per the UMich CDS. Just as much as your test scores.

I’m not as familiar with the other schools, but if I had to guess, UT Austin will be very difficult, since the OOS student population is very low and they reserve most of their freshman spots for residents. And all Ivys will be extremely difficult, including UPenn.

Edit: OP is a TX resident. Strike the above re: UT Austin.

3

Looks like you will be auto admit to UT-Austin as a Texas resident provided you maintain that graduating top 6%, correct? Then, it’s just a case of being admitted to McCombs…is that the plan?

TAMU seems highly likely, the rest of your schools are reaches.

If that is the full list, you might consider applying to some targets…maybe SMU? Fordham? Anything else on your list?

4

My bad, sorry. I missed the TX resident part of the post. Thank you @Mwfan1921

5

SMU Cox would seem to be a good choice. Perhaps IU-Kelley, although that might not necessarily be a match.

I might take out CMU-Tepper and replace with WashU Olin. The OP has high enough test scores and it can be targeted.

6

@Mwfan1921 yes, I should be auto admit for UT and I would love to go to McCombs. TAMU is definitely a safety. I have IU-Kelley and Wisconsin Madison as matches. SMU is too close to home for my taste and I wouldn’t want to spend that much to stay so close.

7

@Hamurtle I was considering adding Olin to the list, are there any other matches or reaches you think I should try for?

8

@StarlightSami if you are willing to pay the costs, UC Berkeley Haas might be considered, but it won’t be a match even with your grades/test scores just because of how competitive Cal admissions are.

USC Marshall could be a reasonable target. As would BU-Questrom.

9

UPenn is unlikely, replace it with Rice and demonstrate your interest as much as you can, they may offer some merit money if they liked you enough . You are sure to get in UT Austin and A&M so no need for adding more safeties. Your odds are good at UNC, U Mich and CMU and you can add Hopkins as well. No guarantees but you are a solid candidate for these schools.

10

Texas A&M isn’t a safety, because their business school is almost as hard to get into as at UT.

11

@coolguy40 I have no idea where you are getting that information, but it is definitely false. A&m is basically a guarantee. It is way way easier to get into than Austin

12

Rice doesn’t offer a business or finance major for undergrads, but a related option is economics. Business is offered as a minor.

13

@StarlightSami Its on the website. I see this exact scenario all the time on this forum like clockwork. Kids apply to a “safety” school that’s not really a safety and end up at community college. A&M may be a little easier to get into, but the business school is not a safety. A safety school should assure both acceptance as well as the major you want to study. A&M picks most of their business candidates as freshmen. If you don’t get in as a freshman (even great candidates can get turned away), it’s near impossible to get in from the outside, because they don’t admit very many outside candidates. Just to be safe, I recommend applying to perhaps Univ of Houston. You don’t have to go there, but at least you have something tangible locked down just in case.

14

TAMU is a safety for OP (as long as it’s affordable), as TAMU is auto-admit for top 10% in-state grads. http://admissions.tamu.edu/freshman/admitted

Mays isn’t a safety as it is competitive admission, but admission is first-come, first serve, so OP should get her app in soon, if it hasn’t been already sent. https://mays.tamu.edu/undergraduate-enrollment-plan/

15

That’s fine, Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Chicago and most other top business schools doesn’t offer undergrad degree in business. No matter if you do undergrad in economics or business or maths, eventually you’ll need an MBA to boost your career. Unless it’s a bachelors in business from Wharton, it’s not worth much.

16

From another TAMU admission thread, the published admit rate for business is ~50%. These rates are from the TAMU page …

http://dars.tamu.edu/Student/files/Apply-Admit-Enroll-Sum-All-Fa18-incl-Galveston.aspx

The admit for business at UT is ×probably× 25%.

So is TAMU a safety? Not really. A safety IMO would be 75%.

TAMU admit rates:

Ag 53%
Arch 46%

  • Business Admin 48%
    Education 48%
    Engineering 85%
    Geo 67%
    Gen Studies 100% (But that is the Gateway etc kids)
    Liberal Arts 56%
    Science 62%
    Vet 72%
    Public Health 57%
17

As an OOS applicant from a competitive school, your stats are competitive for UMich depending on whether or not you apply to a specific school (good in Ross if you demonstrate enough interest and have strong personal essays–solid in LSA). I offer LSA as somewhat of an afterthought because if you decide to transfer to Ross as a student at UMich (cross-campus), your chances of being admitted with the existing admission statistics are about 13%.

18

TAMU is auto admit for Texas students in the top 10% of their class, so it is a safety for OP.

Mays admission is first come first serve, so not guaranteed…potentially requiring OP to choose a different major/school within TAMU.

19

Can you provide a link to this Ross cross transfer stat? I’ve read on the website that about 100 cross campus transfers are admitted each year. But nothing about how many apply.

Also, a freshman applicant for Ross Preferred admission must be admitted to a home school (LSA, CoE, etc.) first before Ross will admit them. And it’s quite possible only the home school admits them, but Ross does not.

20

@coolguy40 @Greymeer Thanks for the suggestions. But I have already applied and have just been accepted into their business school. So, currently it is my backup