Hi im an international student in india. My ACT score is 32, i got 92% in 11th grade. And i have pretty good extra-co like founding an NGO and so on. But i got rejected by UT austin which is below UIUC in terms of ranking in computer engineering, the major i applied ( accpeted in UIUC for first choice engineering as well )
But what does this mean ? Like i couldnt get into UT austin, so like does my application suck that bad ?
I also applied to colleges like Gtech, UCB, Carnigie…
Undergraduate or Graduate applicant? UIUC’s undergrad programs are 50% more selective than UT’s (60% vs 40%). The rankings that you mentioned are for GRADUATE programs, and have absolutely no bearing on acceptance chances.
OMG SAME!!!
I am so tired of Indians thinking that just meeting the eligibility requirements guarantees them admission, and that a school’s acceptance rate indicates whether they can or can’t get in. And no, I’m not racist, I’m Indian too.
Get this: a school’s ranking or acceptance rate has no bearing on your application. You can get accepted into Harvard, but still be rejected by Dartmouth. Do you seriously think your application sucks after you got accepted by UIUC?
I completely agree with @DarkEclipse
But, I don’t blame you OP. My parents and I also used to think like this (I’m also Indian). But fortunately, we shred those thoughts last year after discussions with counselors and friends/family.
You see, one you’re in the top 10-15 or so, stop thinking about which is up and which is down. It gets absurdly random then. Even for the top universities, there is a lot of subjectivity.
So, relax! NEVER EVER base your decision based on 2-3 ranks up and down of university. And remember, different people have different viewpoints. What might be a bad essay for UT Austin may be good UIUC or GaTech.
Your current acceptances and rejections are absolutely ZERO reflections of future acceptances and rejections. Almost every child has 1-2 surprise decisions.
My son was also rejected from UT Austin. It is not easy to get in there as 75% MUST be from within Texas.
I have to tell you that my son is in the same boat. He applied ED to Cornell engineering and was rejected. He attends a very small private school and a girl who is a Chinese exchange student also applied ED for engineering and was accepted. Her stats were exactly the same as my sons. My son is Caucasian. I feel there is definitely reverse discrimination happening. He was also deferred from Michigan. I’ve seen many accepted with much lower stats and it seems because they are either female (all the schools in their info sessions tout their stats about women in engineering) or in an under-represented class. It seems unfair to accept those students who have lower stats for that reason. My son has a 3.75 GPA and a 32 ACT, Great SAT IIs, GREAT ECs, lots of APs which he did extremely well in, an internship in engineering firm where he didn’t just do coffee runs, he was actually writing code. He was holding down 2 jobs and had lots of leadership in school and on Varsity teams. He got into Purdue - didn’t apply to UIUC and is waiting on the other schools mentioned above. These are just my thoughts. I feel your frustration @vinkool, hopefully you and my son will be accepted wherever you most desire! Good luck!
This is what I’m talking about! Look at these stats of an international who got accepted to UT (Copied and pasted from that thread)
Jut got Accepted!!
International Student
Major: Civil Engineering
GPA: 3.5 (UW)
SAT: 1910, M=770, CR=540, W=600
SAT 2 Math2: 710
SAT 2 Physics: 640
APs:
Calculus AB: currently taking
Physics 2: currently taking
Chemistry: currently taking
A 3.5 and a 1910? The SAT 2s are not anywhere near what my son got and this person is only taking Calc AB not even BC and physics 2 now and Chem now. My son took all that last year Makes no sense to me!
@nosyla
Something in his essays? LORs?
@DarkEclipse HAHA I agree with you SOO MUCH. im indian too. i got into UIUC, and now my parents think i have a fair chance for berkley, and guaranteed admission to usc and ucla. (WHICH IS COMPLETE HORSE MANURE)
OP, I also got rejected from UT austin but I am not inernatioanl. I live in california. I think UT austin is more rigorous to get into although the program is less prestigious.
Another guy with a 2180 got rejected. I got 2320, topper of class etc got rejected…people from my school with much lower scores got accepted. I had heard this before, that universities like these reject students who they know wouldn’t accept their offer of admission anyway, so that their yield rate remains high. Did not believe this till yesterday…
@finallyfree I know right? My parents don’t think like that (luckily) but a lot of Indians do!
Wow. That’s UChicago tier slimeballness.
^Well, I am not sure why you made such a comment on UChicago. Chicago has the second highest average SAT scores in the country. www.businessinsider.com/smartest-colleges-in-america-2014-10
I can’t speak for other mentioned colleges why they rejected high SAT score applicants, but Chicago accepted plentiful of high stats kids. If they happen to reject a few, it would not be considered abnormal at all because there are simply too many for them to pick and choose. Besides, high stats are not the only things to be considered in determining admission.
Folks, UT-Austin reserves the vast majority of its undergraduate spots for the top 7% of TX HS students, so getting in there may be much tougher than other schools that are higher ranked or whatever.
@nosyla, you (and many folks on this thread) are too stats-focused. All of these schools you mentioned are holistic in their admissions to some degree. Does that mean that some give a bump to female applicants to Engineering? Probably. But the key takeaway is that stats are just a few datapoints that they look at. And no two schools follow the exact same admissions system or look for the exact same things (and what makes you stand out at one school may not at another when you look at Ivies/equivalents because those schools also want to mold the class that they want as well).
BTW, almost no one care about the SAT Writing component. And some public engineering schools may weigh the SAT Math more heavily. Evidently, UIUC Engineering use to only care about the Math section of the SAT/ACT. Don’t know if that’s still the case.
BTW, @hungryteenager, overall admit rates may be pointless to compare. For instance, UIUC admits by major and some majors have much lower admit rates than others. In the case of UT-Austin, the admit rate for the top 7% of TX HS students is 100%. The admit rate for everyone else is much lower.
@PurpleTitan
I’m not trying to contradict your statement, but UT Austin does weigh the writing component quite heavily. It’s part of their academic index formula.
As far as international/out of state go: only SIX percent of all out of state applicants end up enrolling at UT.
@PurpleTitan
Yeah, I wasn’t trying to put too much weight into that, though I thought that the engineering acceptance rate was about even with the overall campus. Might be wrong there. I was just trying to pointing out that a slight difference in the USNews rankings was not an indication of selectivity or admissions chances.
PurpleTitan is correct: UT Austin’s rates are meaningless for OOS or international applicants. 75% seats are filled with the top 7% in Texas. So, the admit rate for the top 7% is 100%. Only 25% seats are left for other Texans (who have priority, especially if they’re top 10%), athletes, OOS legacies. What’s left there is for internationals and non legacies OOS applicants.
Math:
if 75%x has 100% admission, and [x + (y + C)] = 60% admission, where (y+C) = 25% of the total number, and the percent for y is three times that of C, what is C’s percent rate of admission?
(My estimation is: less than 10%, or Ivy-level, like at UNC-CH).
@Fredjan, OK, UT-Austin would be one of the few schools that care about the SAT Writing component, then.