DILEMMA: ACC/UT VS. UTSA CAP VS. UT DALLAS

State Forums
1

I have a bunch of options and I can’t seem to make up my mind!

  1. I agreed to UTSA CAP and I paid the processing fee but I haven’t taken any placement tests yet or went to orientation yet. I didn’t get much financial aid because my parents didn’t want me to get loans, so w/ grants + work study I can get $2386 in total. We looked at off-campus housing yesterday and an apartment would cost $679 per month.
  1. I've wanted to go to ACC in the first place after basically getting rejected by UT, but my parents wouldn't allow. However, my mom found out from her co-worker more about it and now she's basically allowing me to go, as long as I take transferable courses because I would do that in UTSA anyways. I'm leaning towards this option, but I've already decided I wanted to share an apartment with a friend, and I feel guilty now.
  2. Or I could just apply to UT Dallas and not have to worry about transferring, because it's a good enough school on it's own and I want to major in Computer Science (which I heard this school is pretty good for). I also heard they're generous with scholarships. The only thing is that I live in Austin and Richardson is a good 4 hour drive from here, and it's kind of obvious to me that my parents want me to stay close by. I would also have to pay another application fee, which is not cheap (I don't get free and reduced lunch.)

My parents have been kind of struggling with money recently, my mom has to take up about 2-3 jobs and my dad took another job just so they can help pay for my college degree. :frowning:
Is it really harder to transfer from ACC than to transfer from a UT satellite school with CAP?

2

If you are going to apply to UT Dallas, then you need to do it NOW. They will not consider you for scholarships if you are not admitted by March 31.

ACC is a great option, but I don’t know about the difficulty of transferring in from ACC. It would not be a problem at UT Dallas, but UT Austin rejects a lot of applicants. I think the CAP program guarantees you a place as long as you meet the guidelines.

It’s good that you already paid the processing fee for UTSA CAP, because they aren’t accepting anymore CAP applicants now. To keep your options open, you need to go ahead and do the placement tests.

3

I wouldn’t count on a scholarship offer from UTD unless you have both a very high GPA and ACT of 30+. The scholarship guidelines on their website are not automatic and neither my son nor his friend were offered a dime despite exceeding them. UTD without aid is more expensive than UTSA, TAMU, or UT-Austin, so you might want to save yourself the application fee if a scholarship seems unlikely. You might want to try your luck with U of H instead; they can be much more generous with financial aid than UTD for students without pinnacle level stats.

Either CAP (guaranteed admission) or ACC would be a good strategy, but CS at UT-Austin will be awfully tough to transfer into regardless of which route you choose. Just be sure to pick courses that will transfer to UT and work all year to get the best grades you possibly can. If you know CS is the major you want, you could always apply as a transfer to UTD next year as a hedge in case you do not get into CS at UT-Austin. Good luck!