Chances at UT Engineering?

I would like some insight on my chances on getting into UT Engineering. Here are my stats:

GPA: 3.8
Weighted: 4.2
Rank: 12/280 (top 5%)
ACT: 29

Extra Curricular:
Band for 4 years, Section Leader for 2. Made the All Region Band 2 years as well.
Robotics for 2 years, went to state championship. This has been very helpful because I’ve been able to learn CAD design and programming in C.
Varsity Tennis for 4 years, I’ve placed 1st at about 8 tournaments.
National Honor Society.
Phi Theta Kappa at my local community college from dual credit.

Volunteering
Volunteered at a week long activity called Camp Invention, mentoring kids about electronics and STEM fields
Played for a local church’s orchestra for 3 years

Work Experience
Worked at a peach orchard as a cashier for 2 summers
Tech intern at the school district for 1 summer as well.

I’m not sure if this will be good enough to get me in to Cockrell, as I know it’s pretty competitive. Should I retake my ACT and shoot for something in 30s? Anything else to strengthen my application?

In-state? If so, you are auto-admit at 5% class rank. 29 ACT is low for Cockrell, unless your math score is 33+.

Yes I am in-state, and yeah I had a feeling that a 29 wouldn’t be enough. I scored a 27 on math sadly so I guess I should retake.

Yes, retake if Cockrell engineering is your goal. You’ll want a strong math score. Best of luck!

You will get likely get CAPd. Those are pretty similar stats to one of my daughter’s friends (rank was more towards #20 but still in top 7%) and I think his ACT was either 29 or 30. He was CAPd and elected to turn it down and take a full engineering acceptance at a regional UT branch where he is thriving.

Do you have time to even re-take the ACT? Where else are you applying?

You don’t get CAPed if you are in the top 7%. You will be admitted to UT but it will be highly unlikely to be accepted to engineering. You will probably be asked to pick a major from what is open at the end. If you want to study engineering, your best bet is to apply to other state schools. Many do have good engineering programs - Texas Tech, UTD, UTA, UH.

What is the CAP program? Also, I would really like to attend UT Austin for engineering, so if the only thing that is preventing me from getting in is my ACT score then I can definitely study and get a higher score.

The CAP program is for student’s who don’t get the automatic acceptance. They are offered a spot at UT in COLA only if they spend 1 year at a different UT campus and can maintain a certain GPA. To get accepted to engineering you need a higher ACT score with trying to get the math as high as possible. Per ASEE, the 75%/25% scores were a composite 34/30 and the math score 35/30. http://profiles.asee.org/profiles/7365/screen/19?school_name=The+University+of+Texas+at+Austin

Alright I’ll shoot for a 33+ on my next take, thank you for the info!