<p>How difficult is it to get into the engineering school for oos student? S has ACT 33, rank top 10%. Will it come down to the essay? Any advice on what to focus on in the essay?</p>
<p>33 ACT is more than adequate for instate so im sure it will be fine for oos. Rank is quite important to UT, if not the most important factor for admission. just by saying top 10% it is a little vague where your Son is at. I know for a fact that engineering has about a top 7% cut-off (some expections(high test scores etc)) for instate students and id imagine the criterea to be tougher for oos. So if your sun is sitting under top 5% preferrably under 3% he shold be fine. From what i know UT is all about numbers, essays dont carry much weight. Also it depends on his major, is he ChemE, ME, BME? BME only accepts 100 students per year making it more competitive while there are hundereds of students in ME.</p>
<p>I am told that class rank has far less bearing for OOS students than instate. My daughter was admitted with a below top 10% and only a 27 ACT. The standards for instate are far more exact than for OOS.</p>
<p>socaldad, your daughter was accepted this year, right?</p>
<p>In many Texans’ opinions, UT made the instate acceptances so ridiculously hard (and capricious) this year in order to SHOCK the state legislature into finally changing the top 10% law, which they did, in a small degree, at this past legislative session. </p>
<p>I will be curious to see how admissions turns out in 2011, when the new law goes into effect, both for instate and out of state students.</p>
<p>My point being, don’t use this year’s examples as how things will be from here on out - I doubt that OOS applicants will have a less exacting standard in the future. I may be wrong though - that out of state tuition sure is expensive, and UT can use the $$! 
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<p>socaldad, what major did your daughter apply to? even though in texas there is the top 10% rule, kids may gain acceptance into UT but not the college of their choice. business is very competitive and engineering is pretty competitive. i dont see a non top 10 27 getting into those majors, but you are right oos varies</p>
<p>Ag54, yes my daughter applied for this year. She starts in August. You are correct that this year’s admission process was different, and they did do certain things to move the legislature. They doubled the oos admissions this year. The fact remains that Class rank is not looked at the same way as in state. They tend to look at the whole picture for OOS, as opposed to class rank prevailing for in state. Geography also matters a lot for oos. I was told that the communication school is recruiting in So. Ca. and NY. They want to attract more kids from there. The admissions office recently opened a full time office in NY, and are considering opening one in LA. That is probably a year away. Things might change in two years, but I suspect that OOS will continue to be looked at under a different light than the top 10% rule for in state.<br>
Pdad, She got into Communication. You are correct that it is not as competitive as Bus or eng. Your child has great numbers, and I wish you all the best of luck. We feel lucky to have our d going to school in Austin. It is a special city and good school. I hope it works for you</p>
<p>Powers and admissions have done a lot of shady things to try to end the top ten percent law–and they largely failed in their attempt.</p>
<p>They have reeled back the freshman class size by about 1200 students since the establishment of the top ten law, while the number of top ten grads has grown. And they’ve started arbitrarily rejecting many qualified in-state but not top ten applicants to get more suburban support for ending the law.</p>
<p>And the new law would have had absolutely no effect on the freshman class size for the most recent freshman class–it still would have been 81% top ten percent due to the conditions of the law.
A lot of questionable practices in my opinion.</p>