I have been browsing some of the threads lately and noticed that some people have lower GPAs but are still in the top 10%-20% of their class.
I understand that UT relies heavily on class rank but do they take into account school competitiveness? At my school, (a private school from Indiana) a 3.8 GPA won’t even put you in the top 20%. There are a lot of bright students and with a class size of only 250, there are less students in my school to inflate my rank.
I noticed that the equation Texas uses in its enrollment directly factors in class rank but will they take into account high GPAs as well? I am worried that being in the top 30% at a competitive school (let alone an OOS School) might put me at a disadvantage.
Any comments before our decisions later this week would be much appreciated! Thanks.
Everything I have ever seen or heard says they do not care how competitive your school is. They say that competitive schools have more resources and opportunities and they want to see what kids do with those opportunities. However, I have noticed that many times kids with lower ranks (like 9- 15 %) from competitive high schools seem to do okay in the process. It may be that they say one thing and do another? Or that the test scores help those kids. I have also seen that they don’t take rank as seriously in very small schools where mathematically it is difficult to be an auto admit. Not sure that 250 is small though. I am talking about 10-100.
Different majors are more competitive than others. If you are trying to get into computer science, you have to be more competitive than for English. That is just supply and demand. I wish I had the statistic but we were told something like 60 percent of students apply to a very limited number of majors. Pick a less popular major and you have better odds.
GPAs are all over the place and hard to compare across schools so most schools do not pay a lot of attention to them or recompute them based on their own criteria if they do.
Also bear in mind that while a 3.8 may be below top 10 percent in your school, it might also be more difficult in another competitive school to get an A making the GPAs lower than in yours but the school no less competitive. Make sense?
Rigor of secondary school record is also considered “very important” in the UT Admissions process. So challenge yourself and take more difficult classes. Every high school calculates class rank differently, so it’s hard to compare.
@tommylew22 I’m assuming your a junior. I am too, and if my school ranked, I would probably be in the same boat as you…I have a 3.8 unweighted and 3.984 weighted, and my class has only 130 students, I would at least be in the top quarter, but no chance in the top 10 let alone 8 or 7. If your GPA is high, a very rigorous courseload can kind of cancel out the bad rank. UT is my dream school and if my school ranked, even though I’m OOS, I would probably have a much lower chance. Good luck.
I feel your pain, guys. I was offered PACE/CAP/waitlist in UT19 with a 3.97 unweighted GPA (got a B in Spanish I ) and a rank of 5/41. I understand why the percentage laws are in place, but it’s seriously disheartening under certain circumstances.
) and a rank of 5/41. I understand why the percentage laws are in place, but it’s seriously disheartening under certain circumstances.