<p>I'm currently a Junior attending a Texas high school. I have roughly a 3.3-3.4ish unweighted GPA and a 4.5ish weighted GPA (based on recent prior transcrips, progress reports, and my current grades). I'm taking the SAT within a month but recieved a 195 on the PSAT and expect to score above the 2000 mark, and retake it in Fall after some summer SAT practice courses. Unfortunately I transfered from Northern Nevada in the middle of my sophomore year. Transitioning from an education system that offered very few honors and AP classes and very few EC's, along with coping with some crippling stints of depression for about two years, to a far more prestigous public IB school, in a state with far more prestigious universities, is frightening. My first two years were very troublesome for me due to the transition and my depression, but I've improved significantly in my school performance this year. Next year I'm enrolling in 5 to 6 (still working on schedule) AP classes, and the rest dual-credit, and am working my way into a few school honor societies and volunteer programs. Unfortunately, I don't feel that given my almost complete lack of EC's up to now, a mediocre GPA, a decent Junior year, and a hopefully great pre-Senior year summer and Senior year before college applications is going to be enough to get into my dream school, UT Austin, or my other preferred schools: A&M, and some out of state ones like UW Seattle, and UC Berkely. If I stay on track for getting some extra courses and EC's/volunteering down in summer, and keep my grades up in my Senior year, do I have the credentials at least for CAP or PACE at UT Austin? I'll end up around the top 20-25% so automatic admission to either UT or A&M is out of the question. And if not CAP or PACE, can anyone suggest some colleges more in my league to check out? I don't mind out of state, so long as it isn't outrageously expensive. I'm a white male, my family is middle-upper class, and I'm looking into majoring in Physics, Economics, Computer Science, or Political Science, depending on how my next two years of education go.</p>
<p>Sorry for the massive amount of information and fairly vague questions, but any help would be appreciated, as weeks of reading about majors and colleges have proved quite unfruitful.</p>
SAT CR+M >= 1300 and SAT CR >= 600 and SAT M >= 600
ACT >= 30 and ACT English >= 27 and ACT Math >= 27
will gain admission to Texas A&M.</p>
<p>Other Texas public universities (besides Austin) have automatic admission criteria that extend beyond the top 10%.</p>
<p>Berkeley will be a super-reach (probably unrealistic unless you are a recruited athlete) with a 3.3-3.4 unweighted GPA. Financial aid will not cover the out-of-state additional tuition.</p>
<p>You may be aware of this already, but I thought I should point out that if you are top 25 percent of your graduating class and your SAT CR+M >= 1300 (with at least 600 on both), you are automatically in at A&M.</p>
<p>ETA: I didn’t see that ucbalumnus posted just before I did. You can ignore mine.</p>
<p>Thank you for the corrections on the A&M automatic admission. I found this out rather recently, not sure why I forgot it. And thank you for the referral to the other forum, it was a nice bit of advice. Also, UC was more of a childhood dream, never really looked into it as a practical college. But still, any way into UT is preferable to A&M, as it better suits my intended majors and mindset compared to the type that attends A&M.</p>
<p>Looking beyond the main UT and TAMU campuses, how about one of their branches? UTSA or UT Dallas, for example? UTSA is growing like crazy right now, with nice, new dorms and a cadre of top students who do grad and professional degrees at top universities. San Antonio is a young, dynamic city. UT Dallas is trying to build its reputation in the STEM area if that is of interest. It sounds like you would be admitted to any of these schools, and if your upward trend continues you would do quite well.</p>
<p>To go in a completely different direction, what about Texas Tech? </p>
<p>You may get CAP, indeed.
A safety may be UTD or UTSA - you may even get a little merit.
Look into Southwestern, Trinity TX, and Austin, plus TCU perhaps.</p>
<p>What is your budget? (if you don’t know, run the Net Price Calculators on some of the above colleges and bring the results to your parents).</p>
<p>Now, if you’re willing to go outside Texas, there are many possible choices - those schools represent matches and reaches since UTD and UTSA would be your safeties.
For Physics, Lawrence in Wisconsin (excellent for physics, research program for undergrads in the sciences!)
For Economics or Political Science, American University, Occidental
For CS, UMN-Morris, St Olaf, South Dakota School or Mines, New Mexico School of Mines, SUNY Binghamton
For science and economics: Dickinson, Connecticut College, Goucher, Hendrix, Rhodes, Centre
If you can get to 1330 CR+M, you’d automatically get into College of Engineering + Honors College + Honors Dorms + Full Tuition + $2,500 stipend at University of Alabama (a very sweet deal.)</p>
<p>Thank you all for the advice. I kind of posted this on a whim after a long night of stressing over my future and was hoping for some reassurance or different directions, hah. I use this site quite a bit and it’s hard to find suitable advice when so many people here seem to so much better off academically. I had been fearing that not making it into a top tier school would be devastating to my future for whatever reason.</p>
<p>How likely is it that I’ll make CAP or PACE at UT?</p>