I’m a white, male from NJ (Rising Senior) who wants to apply to UT Austin as a finance major and the BHP. As I have heard that getting in oos is really hard I wanted to see if anyone who has been accepted thought that my stats were similar to theirs.
3.9 Weighted GPA
4 APs and 2 Dual-Credit Courses one of which is business oriented which I have an A+ in.
34 ACT, 34 on the math section
Taking 3 Subject Tests in July
3 years varsity wrestling and maybe senior captain, 4 years Track
President of a 60 member BBYO chapter
Elected vice president of fundraising and finances and advisor to the same chapter
Service trip to South America for two weeks over the summer, 76 hours of community service
2 Internships in the financial sector
During the same summer I had two internships, I was also a counselor on weekends for prospective campers at a sleepaway camp
4-year member of the business, Spanish, and book club, president of the book club
4 years Debate, 3 years varsity, two-year captain; 2 years MUN
7 years of volunteering with special needs children
4 years class council secretary and prom committee
Completed an invitation-only leadership program through BBYO
Work for a non-profit organization started with my friends
Taking 4 college classes next year and double math
Unfortunately, I will not be able to take calculus next year; I am taking pre-calc and AP Stat
More stuff that I can’t remember right now; My grades have also been steadily improving since freshmen year.
Students who have been accepted oos please comment your stats and whether I have a decent shot of getting in for the finance major and/or BHP.
Yes, it is harder to get in OOS because by law, at least 90% of UT students must be in-state. However, according to this: https://admissions.utexas.edu/explore/freshman-profile, your ACT is above the 75th percentile for OOS students, so as long as your class rank is not low, you will be a competitive applicant. As business is one of the hardest majors to get into however, you should work hard on your resume and essays as those will make the most difference. As your Academic Index is basically set, working on these will improve your Personal Index.
You have a great ACT and EC activities - you should be able to put together a great resume. Your GPA/class rank seems to be your weakness. All you can do is to put together the best application possible, write great short essays, and hope for the best.
My S will be an OOS freshman next month in McCombs. He applied in August, was accepted in mid-December, got a BHP interview, but ultimately did not get in BHP. His stats were 33 ACT / 1460 SAT, top 3.5%, with strong essays and ECs, and good work experience. But even regular McCombs admission is very competitive, and S is happy to be in.
BHP states that their average admit is 34 ACT / 1510 SAT / top 2% - and so S knew BHP would be a bit of a reach. But there were some with similar or maybe even slightly lower stats who got in. Also, I have heard (but not sure) that BHP may be increasing its freshman class going forward, meaning that admission may get a bit easier.
how do they compare ranks from schools? have been trying to find that since my son goes to a Top 5 school in TX that has around 60 graduating seniors! if you compare his SAT, SAT subject, AP scores, ECs etc., he would be in the Top 5-10% of any program in UT Austin including Honors program! Since top 6% is only 3/4 students and top 2% is just 1 student in his school!
Feel that UT’s blind adherence to class rank is kind of short-sighted! Would appreciate your comments!
The top 6% percent rule is a state law. UT Austin cannot independently adopt another admission methodology for automatic/guaranteed freshman admission. Under the statute all Texas high schools are considered equal (there are no “top” schools), and it requires percentile rankings to be treated as comparable.
Thank you. But, I thought 6% is only to get admitted to the University Auto Admit but there is No guaranty for a specific program, right?
If that is the case, can’t individual programs use their own standards based on SAT testing, SAT subject test, course rigor such as AP comp science or taking tough math classes, previous students performance from that school etc. Do you know if that is what they do for say BHP or Turing programs etc.?
@kg2013 Yes. Although we are OOS, my understanding is that part of the reason they keep lowering the cutoff for in-state auto admits (it was 7% a couple years ago, and 8% not long before that, etc.) is so that they were having to accept students that might normally not have been accepted. Now, with the more selective numbers, they can use discretion with the school they put those students that are in the Top 5%, and then still accept more Texans from “higher” quality schools that might not have gotten in before and they can be more selective. It is fascinating that the state treats all schools equal. I don’t understand why they don’t change the statute to just be that they have to auto-admit a certain % of students in the state period (like North Carolina or Virginia have to do), instead of it being a certain % per school.
My daughter is hoping to get in to McCombs, and was told she will have to wait until February but it is nice to see that someone above said their freshman son actually heard last December, so maybe there is hope as this is her first choice and it will be nice to be done.
Admission into a specific School is the key and that is solely based on the competition for that program for that given year. Each year it is different. So ultimately auto-admit doesn’t mean much - I know plenty of students last year who did not get into a first choice or second choice major who were auto-admit and the options they were given under general admissions were ridiculous.