Future plans for University of Texas at Austin

State Forums
1

Hi, I’m a Junior in Class of 2017 and I currently am in a Christian school outside the States.

I just want to know what areas I would need to improve on in order to increase my chances of applying for University of Texas in Austin, majoring on engineering. I currently have

  • a cumulative GPA of 3.9
  • 1 AP on Mandarin, currently taking AP Chemistry and planning to take AP Calculus and AP Physics next year
  • about 50 hours of service works
  • a member of school varsity volleyball team
  • SAT score of 1830

What are the areas I would need to work on? Also, is a GPA of 3.9 a safety zone to applying colleges like Texas Uni in Austin?

Thanks.

2

You will not get into ut engineering out of state with an 1830 SAT. Take it again since you are a junior and bring it up to 2100+. OOS for ut engineering has a 2% acceptance rate

3

I quite didn’t understand on the 2% acceptance rate part. So a 2100 SAT score is a safe score for UTA?

4

@ruckaboi There is no such thing as a safe score for UT. (FYI, UTA is the University of Texas at Arlington not Austin. The university in Austin is referred to as UT.)
The only guarantee UT offers is for admission to in state students in the top 7 or 8% of their graduating class. (Depending on that year’s calculation) That acceptance does not include a guaranteed choice of major.

Look at the accepted student statistics on the UT web page to see how high your stats need to be in order to be competitive. Good luck and apply to at least one additional school you can count on.

5

@vs1997

Where did you find that number? It is indeed hard to get into UT as an OOS but you can’t just throw an arbitrary number like that.

Anyways, I am OOS and I was admitted this year to Engineering.
I had a 34 on my ACT, so you probably should aim for around the SAT equivalent. I’d also suggest upping the # of AP’s, because I think that shows you are willing to challenge yourself.

Can’t really comment on “50 hours of service”, hopefully they are good.

6

@sarangooL
My school limits the number of AP’s each student can take (For example, in my school, juniors can take up to maximum of 2 AP’s and seniors can take up to 3 AP’s). So would SAT Subject Tests be another alternative to AP’s since my school limits number of AP classes but not SAT Subject tests?

7

@ruckaboi

That’s really strange… Forgive me, but why on earth would a school want to potentially limit how much a student wants to challenge themselves?

So in that case, you should definitely explain to UT that your school doesn’t allow you to take as many AP’s. And yes, I would try to do good on some subject tests. Mainly Math II and Physics.

8

@sarangooL

My school (high school principal) said that the reason for limiting AP classes for each grade in high school is to reduce the amount of “stress” students receive from taking more AP classes.

Also, what is a good gpa for applying to UT?

9

@sarangooL that number is calculated from a chart they released a couple of years ago, I think it was for the 2009-2010 academic year. it was on their data website and archives which I can’t seem to find anymore.

10

@vs1997
Maybe so, but I really doubt it’s only 2%. From what I know UT is very heavy on class rank and academics, my test scores and grades are good, but my class rank is only 10% (compared to like <7 for many people) and my UW GPA of 4.1 is fairly low, and I was admitted to Engineering way back in November.