<p>Do you have any cost constraints?</p>
<p>If you do, go to each school’s web site and put “cost of attendance” and “financial aid estimator” to get an idea of what each school will cost you. Note that many public schools do not give much (or any) aid to out of state students.</p>
<p>Classify each school on the basis of cost as follows:</p>
<ol>
<li> Out of reach: no possibility of being able to afford attending.</li>
<li> Reach: small possibility of being able to afford attending (e.g. too expensive, but there is a reach chance of a large merit scholarship that will make it affordable).</li>
<li> Match: likely, but not certain, affordability.</li>
<li> Safety: certain affordability.</li>
</ol>
<p>Do not bother applying to out of reach schools, and reclassify your reach, match, and safety lists on the basis of whichever the higher category is. For example, admissions safety + cost reach = overall reach; admissions match + cost safety = overall match. You need at least one school that you like that is safety in both categories.</p>
<p>Admissions-wise, Texas public schools consider rank instead of GPA.</p>