My chances for UT Austin and Texas A&M

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>So, I'm now a senior in high school. I messed up my grades slightly from being lazy in junior year but now it's a 4.27 GPA. On the ACT, I have a score of 21 writing, 25 math, 25 science, and 21 English. Do I have a good chance to get accepted by UT Austin or Texas A&M? I'm also from California and want to move into the Petroleum engineering major. If not, is there anything I could do to increase my chances?</p>

2

<p>With an ACT that low, you’ll have a lot of difficulty getting into UT unless you happen to be top 7%. UT pretty much only looks at GPA, rank, and standardized testing. ACT is still pretty low for A&M, but 4.27 GPA should be okay, though I doubt you’d be in contention for any sort of scholarship</p>

3

<p>Seems like to get automatic academic admission to A&M you would need higher ACT (30 or higher) … see <a href=“http://admissions.tamu.edu/freshman/admitted”>http://admissions.tamu.edu/freshman/admitted&lt;/a&gt; but if you were a Texas resident attending high school in California might be a little easier as you could rely on just needing top 10% class rank.</p>

<p>At UT it also seems a stretch - their average ACT for out of state admits is 30. See <a href=“http://bealonghorn.utexas.edu/whyut/profile/outofstate”>http://bealonghorn.utexas.edu/whyut/profile/outofstate&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>But why would you want to go to A&M or UT unless you were eligible for merit aid (A&M has some great merit packages for national merit finalists for example)? California has some great public colleges that are almost $25,000/year cheaper (see <a href=“Cost & Tuition Rates - Texas One Stop - University of Texas at Austin”>Cost & Tuition Rates - Texas One Stop - University of Texas at Austin; vs. <a href=“http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/paying-for-uc/tuition-and-cost/index.html”>http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/paying-for-uc/tuition-and-cost/index.html&lt;/a&gt;) since you are in state. I like the state of Texas and the people are friendly … but … that is a lot of money.</p>

4

<p>The problem is, there aren’t much California schools with the Petroleum Engineering major :[</p>

5

<p>Three of the top 5 Chemical Engineering undergraduate programs are in California, and Chemical is broader than Petroleum and overlaps with it. You can do fine coming from top California schools (via a ChemE for downstream oil jobs or even MechE for upstream) if your goal is to work in oil exploration or refining. See</p>

<p><a href=“Can a chemical engineer work as a petroleum engineer? - Engineering Majors - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/1075564-can-a-chemical-engineer-work-as-a-petroleum-engineer.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Alternatively, do a masters in Petroleum engineering after you have finished your ChemE degree.</p>

6

<p>Pretty difficult for out of state students to get into Texas schools especially with your test score :-S … what about the Colorado School of Mines? Super popular engineering school. </p>