So The university of Texas has been my dream school for as long as I can remember. I go to one of the most competitive public high schools in Texas ( and top 3 in Austin ), I applied for the government major ( in liberal arts, I later plan to go to law school ), and my GPA and rank aren’t near the UT average ( 3.3 unweighted, didn’t submit rank ), but my test scores are above the UT average ( 1360 SAT, 28 ACT ). Also, I’ve played 3 sports in high school, been in multiple clubs including NHS, and have a really impressive work and volunteering resume. Not to mention I also worked at the golf club for the college itself and was able to get letters of recommendation from powerful UT alumni. I feel like all these impressive holistic stuff as well as my test scores will make up for my low GPA, and the fact that I’m going for one of the easier majors will help, but I’m not positive.
And hate that I will have to wait until February for a decision 
Thanks for any feedback!
Firstly, your gpa is low- However, you mentioned that you attend a really difficult public high school. Your high school gpa might not be what UT is looking at. Every school has a different scale system, so when they recalculate it, which considers your high school’s level of difficulty, your gpa may be much higher. I’m assuming the 1360 is from the new SAT which is not bad at all. Moreover, you are a really well rounded student- 3 sports and impressive ECs. Lastly, since you live in Texas, your chances of acceptance increase much more. Good luck! Please chance be back!
Thank you! Why would UT recalculate my GPA though? I didn’t know colleges do that… And yes, both my parents went to UT, and I’ve lived in Austin my entire life. So definitely helps to live in Texas.
According to UTs common data, they don’t look at GPA at all. Class rank is pretty much king.
Oh okay, I chose to omit my class rank ( it was 200/600), and my counselors said that they’ll auto generate you a rank based on your GPA. So that would help in my case. Thank you so much!!
Yeah if your class rank were to be submitted, you’d have practiacally no shot.
Luckily that is not the case!!
You have a school in Austin so most likely UT is very familiar with your high school and has many applicants every year. They will be able to see how successful students from your school with similar stats have done and judge off of that.
Hopefully you’re trying for like COLA or communications. You’ll have the best chance there.
Good luck!
Yeah! last year about 250 people applied to UT at my school and about 200 of them got in, so they definitely know the difficulty of the school. When they take my GPA and formulate a genetic class rank for me, it should be much higher and give me a better shot at my dream school.
And I’m applying for government (within liberal arts), but I hope to later transfer into business or continue and go to law school after undergrad.
Thank you!!
If your hope is to graduate with a business degree, you need to apply directly to McCombs.
Transferring into McCombs is Extremely difficult. If you’re very set on getting a business degree, I would try to consider other options.
Check out this site: https://my.mccombs.utexas.edu/BBA/Internal-Transfer
It reiterates what I just said.
We were told that for recommendation letters it is not who writes them as much as that they have known you for a good length of time, and that they can actually talk about you. We were also told that having family alums doesn’t matter either. It looks to me that your class rank will be your greatest challenge as they auto admit the top 7% this year and then I’m not sure of the academic admit %. I’m assuming you have applied to some other schools as well to give yourself options. Good luck