My rejection story

Applying to College
1

<p>Alright here's my story. This actually happened about a year ago.</p>

<p>Anyways, when I was 17, I graduated highschool and went straight into community college. The first semester I was taking Calculus 1, Sociology, and US History I. I wasn't really motivated to go to college at the time, I didn't have a major picked out, so I pretty much just stopped going. I got a 0 in Calculus, a 1 in Sociology, and amazingly I passed history with a 2. At the time, I never knew you could drop classes and have it not affect your grade. I thought it was like highschool, you can either get an A, B, C, or fail it.</p>

<p>Fast forward 5 years later. I'm motivated to go to school, I got a major and a goal to work towards. I wanted to just start fresh. Well there's some law that says you have to be in good standing before you can transfer to another school. So whatever, I'll just do my first two years at community college. I retook both the calculus class and sociology class and got a 4 in both of them. I'm majoring in engineering, so most of my math and physics classes I get A's and B's in. The other classes, ones like english and fine arts, those classes that don't really seem like they have much to do with my major, I got Cs and B's in them.</p>

<p>Now lets go 2 more years into the future. I apply to the University of Texas at Austin. My GPA with my retaken classes is a solid 3.14. I had something around 60 hours of credits. I apply thinking I at least have a small chance of getting in since I know they reject anyone under 3.0.</p>

<p>I get a letter from them in the mail about a month after applying, and it turns out that they factored in those failing classes from when I was 17 into my gpa, which brought it down to a 2.97. So the rejection letter basically said something like they don't even consider people under a 3.0, and since I had a 2.97 my score was too low.</p>

<p>So I found out the hard way that the failed classes are factored in even if you retake them. I feel shafted though, because in one of the optional essays they allow you to explain any special considerations, and I basically argued that they shouldn't be counting the grades from my failed semester when I was 17. I mean I was 24 when I applied. I definitely did a lot of growing up and maturing.</p>

<p>Yeah so, UT Austin is the only public school that teaches mechanical engineering in the Austin area, so I had to move. Now I'm in San Antonio going to UTSA. Every time I tell people that I'm from Austin and I'm going to UTSA here, they always ask why I didn't just go to UT Austin, since everyone knows it's a better school for engineering. It sucks lying and saying "Oh I got tired of Austin. I've lived there for the past 10 years".</p>

<p>0.03 gpa points short of getting in. I still feel shafted. I'd feel better if they actually looked at my essays and analyzed the transcript instead of just calculating the raw numbers.</p>

2

<p>Why lie? Just say, “UT Austin may have smart people in the mechanical engineering department, but they sure have some dumb ones in the admissions office.”</p>

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<p>Is 3.0 GPA a guaranteed admission to UT austin?
Anyway you don’t have to go there for engineering; just do well in the one you’re going to and you’ll be just as good as anyone else.</p>

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<p>Move forward, don’t look back,and take advantage of the opportunity you have now. Make it your new dream! Perhaps your words will help another young teen who may learn that past mistakes can sometimes be obstacles in your future. However, redefining goals and believing that you are where you are meant to be can often be the springboard for success.</p>

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<p>Usually community colleges have articulation agreements with 4 year colleges and universities that guarantee direct admission into the 3rd year of a specific program provided that the student completes a specific series of courses with specific grades. I take it that your community college didn’t have this kind of agreement with the engineering program at UT Austin. </p>

<p>It is disturbing that the admissions officers at UT Austin can’t tell the grades of a 17 year-old from the grades of an adult. Save that rejection letter. When you graduate with honors from UTSA, send a little note to the Dean of Admissions at UT Austin to let him/her know how happy and successful you are.</p>

<p>Wishing you much success!</p>

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<p>Thanks for posting. I agree completely with Hunt. Your story should be required reading for students and parents who are wondering about the pro’s and con’s of a gap year.</p>

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<p>UT admissions has never been known for a “holistic approach” to admissions. I’m sorry, but I congratulate you for turning things around.</p>

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<p>UT Austin is VERY hard to get into, especially for engineering. They have way too many applicants for the number of places available. They have to have minimum standards. I think you would have been doubtful for engineering even with a 3.14 GPA.</p>

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<p>“The other classes, ones like english and fine arts, those classes that don’t really seem like they have much to do with my major, I got Cs and B’s in them”</p>

<p>My impression from the above is that if the OP had worked harder, he could have raised some of those C and B grades, but didn’t bother because he thought those classes weren’t important. If that’s the case, then the OP needs to stop complaining and start learning the lesson that Life handed him.</p>

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<p>At the little seminar they held they said you really need a 3.5 to have a good chance of getting in, so yeah I probably would not have gotten in with the 3.14, but I’m just saying that above 3.0 is when the admissions department supposedly starts to factor in your essays, letters of recommendation, and community service type stuff done.</p>

<p>Yeah and you’re right Northstar, I certainly didn’t think those classes would make much of a difference, but they did.</p>

<p>I know for my philosophy class I was 2 points short of an A and I had some extra credit opportunities in that course I didn’t take advantage of. English Comp 1 and 2 were both based on how many papers you wrote, and each class would have required 2 more papers to get an A in. I probably could have gotten an A in Calc 2 with just a little more studying. I should of had an A in Intro to Chem, but I had to wake up so early for that class that I missed a majority of the labs. 25% of the grade was from labs and 75% from test. So even though I had above 90% average on the tests, the labs was where I lost my points. Leaving the house at 7am to fight rush hour traffic the whole way and arrive to class by 8am sucked so much. My parents lived a little bit ways outside of Austin, and I was living with them to keep things cheap, but sitting in the car for 45 minutes daily to get to school really wore me out, and alot of the classes I had C’s in were one’s where it would be the only class I’d have for the whole day. So at the time I would just skip most of them because I felt I didn’t get much out of being there and also I felt that it didn’t make much sense to spend 90 minutes in the car and only 80 minutes at the school.</p>

<p>Anyways yeah, I’m moving forward. To me, the way I figure, an accredited mechanical engineering degree is an accredited mechanical engineering degree, so what’s the difference between school if they’re both licensed to give out the degree? Incidentally, that was my view when I applied to UT Austin. I didn’t want to go there because it’s a “good” school, I wanted to go there because it was in the city I lived in.</p>

<p>After I got my rejection letter I applied to UT Arlington, UTSA, University of Houston, and UTEP. I got into all of them no problem. I think UT Austin and maybe A&M are the only schools where you really have to be accepted. Interesting note: UT Arlington was the only one that was prompt in telling me if I got in or not. UT Arlington notified me in the middle of May. UTSA notified me about a month before the fall semester started. I never heard any rejection/approval from UTEP but in the middle of September I got a letter from them telling me to call them if I needed help picking out my classes, and University of Houston notified me I got accepted for fall 2008 about a week before the semester started.</p>

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<p>I like that you’re moving forward. You’re right - do a co-op or two in ME, and you will get a good job in your field when you graduate. The fact that you didn’t go to Austin won’t hold you back. </p>

<p>And if you really want Austin, then do very, very well at your current school this year, and then try to transfer. If you get in, then great. If you don’t, then stay put and be happy.</p>

12

<p>

I don’t want to seem like I’m piling on since this has already been commented on, but a word of caution to the OP. Just as UT looked at your GPA in classes that didn’t seem that directly related to your major, your future employer(s) are going to look at how you do on all your assignments, not just the ones you find interesting or relevant. </p>

<p>As a new hire at a company (esp. out of college) you’re going to be given some scut work. Stuff other people didn’t particularly want to do and managed to avoid doing. So even if your forte is ME, you’re going to be asked to do boring things like looking over requisitions, checking drawings are updated as part of a Change Notice, etc. And just like UT, your managers and fellow workers are going to form an impression of you based on how you do on everything, not just your skills at actual design.</p>