From UTArlington To UTAustin

<p>I appreciate any advice you can give me whether it be technical or personal.</p>

<p>I am a sophomore at UT Arlington. My tuition is being paid entirely by a scholarship I got, and I am commuting from home to save money. I recently (the beginning of this year) changed my major to civil engineering.</p>

<p>Now, UT Austin has always been my goal. I settled with Arlington simply because of the scholarship, but now I regret it and I want to try to transfer next year. I'm even toying with the thought of applying for this Spring (deadline is October 1) but I am not a fan of doing something last minute, and I feel like such a mess right now. List of reasons why I want to transfer include I hate commuting, don't like Arlington, not a fan of the student life, and I really just don't want to be near home anymore. I've also got that college ranking mentality in my head where I'm seeing UT Austin in the top 10 and UT Arlington not even listed in the top 100. I hear people say that UTA is fine and it has a good reputation in the area, but the thing is I don't want to be in the area...</p>

<p>I'm sitting at a 3.6GPA right now, so I'm sketchy on my chances for Cockrell. I am pretty confident that I can raise it this year though.</p>

<p>My main concern is the money. I will have basically gone from paying nothing to paying $18,000 (for tuition and living expenses). I'm not so sure what I will get from financial aid simply because I didn't get any cause of the scholarship. I did fill out the form for this year though and got an ECP ~6800. My parents can not contribute a dime to help me. I have approx $5k saved up.</p>

<p>And so after that little story, thank you for reading, here are my main concerns:
Do you think my transfer application will be accepted?
Would you transfer?
How can I afford it? In other words, how exactly do people pay for college when financial aid can't cover everything?</p>