<p>Hey everyone, I'm currently a Junior at a Catholic high school in Philadelphia. I've recently been looking a lot into UT, but I don't know what my chances look like.</p>
<p>Currently I'm ranked 5th in my class of 300 with a 4.0 GPA. I've taken all possible honors classes and this year I'm taking AP Bio and Language and Comp. The major I'm interested in is engineering and I'll be taking AP Physics and Calc next year.</p>
<p>My grades are good, but I'm not taking to SAT till November so I don't have a score for that yet.</p>
<p>Also, I have about 20 hours of community service per year (required) and am only involved in a few clubs. This is mainly because I play baseball year round, but I know that I'm not good enough to play for UT. Will playing baseball and other sports instead of school clubs harm me in the admission process?</p>
<p>UT is pretty difficult to get into for out-of-state applicants due to the top 7%-10% (changes each year) automatic acceptance of in-state students. They favor in-state over out-of state, but with your rank and good GPA, I’d say you have a good shot. They typically concentrate mainly on rank/tests scores for freshman. Try to shoot for at least 1900-2000 on your SAT and you should be fine! I also recommend taking the ACT, I scored a lot higher on the ACT than the SAT, but thats me </p>
<p>As for your sports over school clubs, I would assume it wouldn’t hurt but be more of a slight advantage since UT is heavy on athletics (football, basketball, baseball, etc.) </p>
<p>My OOS son was accepted, and his rank and GPA weren’t as good as yours. But he got a 2220 on the SAT, so that helped, and he had a lot of extracurriculars (Eagle Scout, excellent distance runner, etc.). So I think you will have a great chance if you do well on the SAT. Study hard!</p>
<p>dark – I’ll try to summarize info you can find spread across other threads.</p>
<p>As an OOS applicant, you will be a holistic review and the competition for the limited number of OOS slots is getting more intense each year. </p>
<p>UT computes two scores for holistic reviews. </p>
<p>The first score uses your class rank and SAT (or ACT) section scores to compute an expected freshman GPA. This formula differs according to the college to which you are applying. For example, the math section is more important for Engineering and Natural Sciences than it is for Liberal Arts. However, for the business school class rank dominates the formula. Note that UT does not super-score, but they do take the section scores from that single date which helps you the most. So, consider taking the SAT (or ACT) more than once unless, of course, you score in the 99th percentile the first time. (The average standardized test score for OOS students getting admitted is: SAT 1946, ACT 30)</p>
<p>The second score attempts to quantify everything else. 3/7 of the weight comes from the grade UT places on your essays (2 people grade each essay). So, take them seriously. The remaining 4/7 comes from the traditional ‘extras’. Your community service hours are nice, but playing baseball for 4 years will count much more because the emphasis is on depth/commitment & leadership. Being in every club on the planet is not impressive. What is impressive is a deep commitment to one or two (or to a sport or two). Make sure the committee knows that it’s a year round commitment, the hours involved, how you contributed, the number of years you played, etc… (I have buddy who coaches youth baseball in IL and for kids to get on the traveling teams in the summer requires year round practice – it rivals football in Texas for craziness. Of course, many of the kids coming out these travel teams end up getting baseball scholarships to college with a select few opting for the minors.)</p>
<p>One score is the ‘x’ axis on a simple graph and the other the ‘y’. Plot in the ‘high’ corner and you’re likely in. Plot in the ‘low’ corner and you’re not. Plot in the middle and who knows …</p>
<p>I just got my SAT scores back, and I scored a 1970 for my first time. 650 CR, 670 Math, and 650 Writing. I also plan on taking the SAT two more times.</p>
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