Hello, I am currently going into senior year, and its come the time where I have to start applying to colleges. I am a smart student (in my opinion) I take the AP’s and pass the tests. The thing is I REALLY slacked off sophomore year and my GPA plummented. I had a decent Freshman year - 3.4 - but again my sophomore year was just horrendous. I realized I had to shape up my game and try much harder, and I did, my junior year I took 3 APs and ended with a 4.0 Weighted GPA, still not very bad. I got a 29 on my ACT and I have a HUGE passion for computer programming. Now dont get me wrong… I dont want to go to any Ivy League schools or anywhere near that level, but I believe I can prosper in a decent college but because of my lousy sophomore year I feel like that creates a giant black mark on my application and will weigh me down…but I know that is not an accurate representation of who I am as a student. What should I do as far as applying to schools?! I want to be a software engineer/computer scientist and my first (and hardest) choice school is UT (University of Texas) thanks for any help and I hope you understood my rant 
Since you’re in Texas, what’s you class rank?
What’s your parents’ budget vs. EFC?
UT is likely out.
Texas Tech may be a very good option for you. It’s very good for CS. do you have a problem with TTU?