Please Chance Me At McCombs

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Hello! I’m a high school senior who’s applying to UT Austin’s Red McCombs School of Business. Had I been applying any other major, UT would likely be a safety

US Citizen
Texas Resident
Attended Top 15 Private High School in Texas with strong connections
White
BHP legacy but they don’t consider that

Applying for Finance

Stats
36 ACT (36/36/36/35 superscored, 36/36/35/35 single sitting)
4.23 GPA (4.0 scale, school doesn’t calculate unweighted nor rank, max GPA is a 4.6 for juniors)
Outside of top 6% (non-auto-admit, I think the auto-cutoff is somewhere in the high 4.4 range)

Max rigor soph/junior year, 1 short of max rigor freshman year and 2 short of max rigor senior year

APs
Calculus AB - 5 (junior)
English Language & Composition - 5
Microeconomics - 5
Computer Science Principles - 5
Statistics - 4
Macroeconomics - 4
Computer Science Java - 4
Upcoming Senior Exams
Calculus BC
US Government & Politics
Physics 1
Physics C: Mechanics (Self-Study)
Physics C: Electrocity and Magnetism (Self-Study)
Psychology (Self-Study)
English Literature & Composition (Self-Study)
Human Geography (Self-Study)
The self-studies sound like a lot but I’m honestly bored to death in school this year, I already know everything in BC and I have an A+ in AP Physics. I’ve already started my self-studies and I’m well on pace to be fine.

Awards
AP Scholar with Distinction
Principal’s Honor Roll
JV Doubles District Champion (Tennis)

Extracurriculars
Interned as an accountant at a manufacturing company downtown over summer, 40hrs/wk.
Built a fitness program that I’m currently upscaling into app, coach and train lots of peers. Sold rights to sell my program to a respected fitness coach/influencer with 17k followers.
Track sales and purchasing a generate financial reports for my friend’s vintage clothing resale startup
Worked as a pool attendant for a local club for 2 summers. 10hrs/wk
Ex-Semi-Professional E-Sports Player, placed top 500 in World Cup Finals tourney in my North American Region (40 million competitors globally). Garnered a following of upwards of 29,000 followers and played for an organization (Apex Gaming) with over 250,000 followers. Celebrity gaming prodigy Clix also played for this organization, but left for Misfits about a month before I signed. Withdrew from gaming due to academic and athletic obligations.
Captain of freshman tennis team (played for 2 years, JV A sophomore year)
4 years of chess club and 15 years of chess

Essays
My essays are very strong. I’ve compared them with other applicants applying to similarly competitive colleges, and while the impact of the general material is similar, mine are significantly more well-written (no diarrhea of the mouth, grammatical inaccuracies etc.)
I also wrote the optional extenuating academic circumstances essay as I missed over a third of both my first semester freshman and first semester junior years due to unusually frequent and long-lasting battles with illnesses. These 2 semesters are responsible for my GPA and are the difference between my GPA being a 4.23 and a 4.5.

I mostly just wanted to be chanced for UT McCombs, but if someone wants to chance me for these schools as well I’d certainly appreciate it.
Michigan
North Carolina Chapel Hill
Yale
Rice (my school has really good acceptance rates here and I’m legacy)
Virginia
Penn

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I’ll respond with this - you have a great background and arguably could get into any college in America (but the top schools get more than they can take) - but if I wrote this:

Attended Top 15 Private High School in Texas with strong connections

I’d be asking my guidance counselor where I’m going to get into and not a website of wanna be AOs (of which I gladly am one).

I would say - make sure you know each school - because for example UNC isn’t direct admit, Rice is a brand new b-school so not sure if that matters and UVA is commerce - although you can get a focus.

If I saw any student with this list, I’d say - these are your reaches- so what are your matches and safety?

Good luck.

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Going off of my school’s admittance scattergrams, Yale and Penn are the only two reaches. UMich and UNC are hard targets (25-35%ish chance I’d say based on scattergrams), and as crazy as it sounds Rice is like a mid target. My school has like an 85% acceptance rate to Rice for perfect ACT applicants, plus I have my legacy, which will def help regardless of major.
UVA is also around a mid target.

Other targets are UMiami and UFlorida. UMiami I’d say is a low target and UF a mid-hard target, although easier than UNC and UMich.

I’m more interested in getting chanced for UT Business. If you could give me some info on that I’d appreciate it.

My safeties are A&M and UGA. I already got into A&M and I will more than likely get UGA with honors, as they auto admit top 10% of test scores to the honors college. If I don’t get any of my targets that’s probably where I’ll end up. I also applied to Clemson j Bc there’s no essay but I don’t wanna go there.

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The reason I need info on UT McCombs is because our scattergrams are very uninformative since they don’t consider major. So 95% of applicants from my school with my stats are getting admitted, but I have no idea how many of those are business applicants. There’s scattered rejections around there which scare me because I know they’re all for business. I don’t think anyone’s been rejected with a 36 except one dude with an abysmal GPA, but there’s a couple with 35s who have.

Still, need more info from someone who knows McCombs admission profile well.

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Fully agree. There’s no reason for big shot private school students to ask here about chancing. Their college counselors are usually very plugged in. Other questions may be fair game.

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My counselor always gives very vague answers like “you’ve got a great chance” or along those lines.

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Based on D22’s friends who got McCombs last year, I’d suggest somewhere between low match and likely - compared to you, they had lower test scores, slightly higher grades (usually top 6%) at an average suburban public school rather than a top prep school, and I would say generally less impressive ECs. Not a safety, as you know, but pretty good chance.

Although going for humanities rather than business, D22 had fairly similar stats last year (36/36/36/33 M for non-STEM, top 2% at suburban public) with these results:

Yale RD: rejected
UVA EA: accepted (legacy)
Rice RD: accepted

I think this is a very solid profile for Rice, which is actively seeking business majors for the new program - feeder school, legacy, etc. In ED I would probably say solid match; if RD, high match/low reach. Does your scattergram indicate legacy status? UVA and UNC are just brutal for OOS non-legacies. There was a new thread here on CC a few days ago by an unhooked '22 student from NJ with outstanding stats who was admitted to Princeton and Columbia…but not UVA or UNC.

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Princeton and Columbia are much more chance-related than UNC and UVA as Princeton and Columbia have to pretty much hat pick most of their applicants since they admit so few.

No one with a 36 has been rejected from Rice at my school except one guy who had like a 3.6 weighted. It doesn’t take into account legacy but with only 15 plots with a 36 it’s most likely none of those guys were legacy.

Aside from Yale, UNC is definitely easily my hardest target. Scattergrams to UVA from my school are solid, I have a pretty good chance.

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Yale is a Hail Mary and I’m only applying because I refuse to go to a school where there aren’t girlfriendable women, and Yale is notorious for being the Hot Ivy

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25-35% odds are not a target imho

You had two tough years and excused them it sounds like. Depends on how you did it but may not be a winning strategy.

In the end, you’ll get into A&M. Likely UGA so if you feel covered then u r all good.

As for Clemson, you could apply to apt with no essay. Why there ?

If you are just throwing apps out for the sake of it, then why not Bama which has a ranked Manderson School or Arizona which has the fine Eller School - both with big merit.

Or Indiana where you’d get Direct Admit and is on par with where you’ve applied reputation wise although you may have missed the priority deadline.

What discipline in business are you seeking?

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Bcuz no one can say for sure. Why does it matter ? You’ll get in or you won’t ? And you’ll then go from there. That you applied will get you consideration.

I think your two ‘sick’ semesters will hinder you but I’m not an AO. Depends on the illness… but schools are risk averse.

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Because i don’t want to waste my time at safeties with a 36 when I’m already into A&M I rather cast a massive net to targets. I consider anything in the 25-75% range a target and anything above/below a safety/reach

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The legacy comment was not so much about Rice, which isn’t known for heavy legacy preference (although it is “considered” per CDS, and my daughter knows several otherwise-unhooked legacies in the Class of 2026). More about UVA/UNC, which definitely give a legacy boost for OOS. For UVA, the OOS legacy acceptance rate back in 2020 was roughly double the published OOS rate. Also note that UVA recently brought back ED in addition to EA/RD, so not yet clear how that will affect the other rounds (as I assume you will not ED to UVA).

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Seriously ? U write this Hope you’re real name isn’t your username bcuz if it is, any school reading this chat just denied u.

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That’s fine. I made the comment because u applied to Clemson due to having no essay. A&M is a fine school.

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I didn’t even know those schools took legacy into consideration. I thought that was illegal for public schools tbh. None of this matters if I’m able to get McCombs, and I’d be happy at Georgia with honors as well. UNC and UVA would both definitely be cool if I don’t get McCombs, though.

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Good point. Thanks for that I just changed my username. Would appreciate a comment delete

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What discipline do u seek in business. Some schools outperform others. Marketing. Accounting. Finance. Real estate. MIS. Supply chain etc

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Finance, but applying Econ to Yale

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You look at SMU ….better known for finance then many on your list. I knew that b4 I validated via the list.