If your high school doesn’t rank, how does UT view your application differently? Is more emphasis placed on SAT’s , etc?
I believe they will internally rank you based on what they know about your school’s data set and where you approximately rank within that.
@aristos My son’s school does not rank and I think it worked to his advantage at Texas. We are in the midwest, so comparatively there are few applicants. The college counselor didn’t remember anyone from his school ever applying there. He got into engineering with approximately a 3.4-3.5 ish GPA. ( His school doesn’t give GPA’s either) he had a 36 ACT and was also a NMSF. He got rejected from a lot of schools not ranked nearly as high as UT Engineering but also got merit $ at some very good schools- you just never know. IF a school truly looks at the whole applicant, my son was very strong with great internships, highest level of math/science classes school offered, volunteer, work, teacher recs. etc…That being said he still got rejected from lower ranked engineering schools including Pitt, Minnesota and waitlisted at Ohio State. ( He applied to about 14 schools and got into half.) I hope this helps and good luck! I am so happy to be DONE with the process you have no idea!
@oliver17 Wow… 14 schools is about 10 too many for me (I applied to 5, accepted to 3). Congrats on UT Engineering, it’s an incredibly good program.
It is DEFINITELY an advantage. UT does not look at your GPA when making admissions decisions so instead they review your application holistically, which definitely worked in my advantage as I had a mediocre GPA (meaning I would’ve had a low rank) but stellar test scores and EC’s along with good essays and rec’s from teachers. I also think that UT’s admissions criteria for private school kids who go to non ranking schools are generally a lot less stringent, as usually about 80% of kids are accepted from my school into UT.