My Advice to Non-Top Ten/OOS Juniors Applying to UT

<p>for the new SAT? really?
wow. thats kinda low?
and i thought the essay was out of 12?</p>

<p>No that would be for the old SAT. As I just stated, UT does not take the writing into consideration at all.</p>

<p>No school releases the average score on the essay portion.</p>

<p>That would be the average ranking of an application essay for UT. And yes, the SAT essay is out of 6, with 2 graders. They add the two numbers together to get your score.</p>

<p>ohhhh, gotchaaa. thanks</p>

<p>I'm almost convinced to say that if you haven't received your decision yet the only thing you can hope for is summer. </p>

<p>As soon as summer acceptances start rolling in, it means that UT has filled up its fall class(probably saving some space for students they haven't looked at yet but are very qualified).</p>

<p>I talked to a guy at UT today and he said that they are actually overbooked for fall 2008.</p>

<p>So if you don't think you are a spectacular applicant I would prepare for bad news.</p>

<p>OOS Kids can't get summer for the most part, it's only offered to Texas residents. There may be a few exceptions, but as a rule they will give summer admission to kids they would have admitted were the top ten law not in place.</p>

<p>I don't know how they could know yet that UT is overbooked. They might be expecting an increase in yield or that they admitted more people than normal, but they can't be sure til May 1.</p>

<p>But yes, for ANY applicant if you aren't an-Ivy or near Ivy student and aren't in the top ten pecent at a Texas high school, don't expect to hear great news.</p>

<p>Not true, my friend who is top 11% like me got in. She had better ECs than me, scored a 1290 compared to 1300 by me, methinks I was close to getting in!</p>

<p>She wasn't ivy-caliber though.</p>

<p>OOS=Ivy caliber
In state, most of the Ivy-caliber kids are already covered under the top ten law</p>

<p>But when the acceptance rate is under 20%, it's as hard to get into as an Ivy league school.</p>

<p>Having a higher SAT than the school average is not a sure thing. I had a 1440, and got rejected from engineering and placed in the summer school thingy for natural sciences. For in-state, it's all about the rank. For OOS, yeah, that's pretty tough. Better off applying to top privates.</p>

<p>Bumping what I think is a good March 2008 "Advice for junior thread" - useful for current juniors who will be applying to UT in the fall of 09 </p>

<p>(Anyone think the top 10% rules will change by the time current juniors are seniors and applying next fall?)</p>

<p>I don't think the top 10% rule will change anytime soon. I know UT is really pushing having it changed, but there is not alot of support behind them. The general population does not care for the most part and there are alot of legislators from small town, Texas. The law hurts the good suburban schools of the large cities, primarily. The inner city reps and small town reps like the law, because their constituants are getting in when they would not have done so without the 10% law.</p>

<p>Besides, if the legislature is going to grapple with anything higher education related it will be the tuition increases - that's what people are screaming about now.</p>

<p>Actually Senator Dan Patrick, Houston, tried to have that stupid rule abolished last session, but failed. He will try again. Make sure you contact YOUR Texas reps and inform them of your opinion. It's just so ridiculous to penalize kids for going to great schools. My son is 15% at his current school, but his GPA would put him in the top 10% at 90% of the other schools in our district. </p>

<p>I'm sure any fix will be too late for my son (he's a junior) but should be fixed for all the other kids!</p>

<p>Yes, my son is a junior too and working his tail off to try to stay in the top 10%! He has 1 B in an honors class freshman year. If he gets another B, he will be around 11%! It's ridiculous!!</p>

<p>My oldest is a senior in college - when he was in high school, we were bit@@ing about the 10% rule to our, now, US Representative John Culberson! (he was a state rep back then) He told my husband that it isn't going to get repealed - maybe, in time it might get amended - but some form of it will always be around because of the block of rural reps and inner city reps who will fight tooth and nail for it. It benefits their constituents, and there are a heck of a lot more of them than big city suburbanites. We are left out in the cold on this one!</p>

<p>The upside though is that our kids have many opportunities for a great education! I wouldn't move my son from his school to get him into someplace where he wouldn't have to work as hard as he does just for the assurance of a spot at UT or A&M.</p>

<p>How do you know all these things? Recommendation letters, for example. How do you know that UT doesn't weigh them heavily? Who knows, all this info could be mere hear-say, unless you work in the admissions office at UT...</p>

<p>I was wondering what you think my chances are at UT, as an OOS student. It's my first choice, so I would really like to get in. I applied back in late-August, but still haven't heard back... Here are my stats:</p>

<p>Florida resident
GPA: 4.31
Class Rank: 12/85=14% (I attend a very small and competitive, private school)
SAT: 2070 (apparently UT is using the writing section for the first time this year)
ACT: 30</p>

<p>Volunteering: 800+ community service hours</p>

<p>Leadership: Founded two club, hold leadership positions in a few others (editor-in-chief of yearbook, etc.), NHS member, Science National Honor Society, Math Honor Society, and various other clubs and sports </p>

<p>Wrote 3 really great essays for UT.
Sent in two EXCELLENT teacher recommendations.
Applied for Plan II Liberal Arts Honors.</p>

<p>This should give you an idea about what types of schools I'm capable of getting into: Already been accepted to:
Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Alabama, Oklahoma, SMU, Georgia, South Carolina, Penn State, and Baylor</p>

<p>still waitin to hear from UT-Austin, Florida, and Virginia...</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>sja, UT has reported how they come up with an Academic Index and a Personal Achievement Index to decide how to admit students who are not UT top 10% students, and letters of recommendation are not one of the pieces of information they report that they use to decide who is admitted. (I think they use letters of recommendation to decide which admitted students are accepted into honors programs.)</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-texas-austin/569013-how-ut-chooses-its-not-top-10-students-2007-report.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-texas-austin/569013-how-ut-chooses-its-not-top-10-students-2007-report.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Yes, your teacher and counselore recommendations will be used by the honors program you have applied to for admission purposes, but UT doesn't use them for admissions into the university. </p>

<p>Noone on here can tell you whether you'll get in UT or not. You'll find out soon enough!!</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>