Hi, I don’t know too much about how this whole applying to college thing works quite yet, but I’m going to apply for UT Austin with hopes of studying computer science. I am within the top 6% of my high school class (of 2019) so I believe that qualifies me for automatic admission. If I understand correctly, that doesn’t gain me admission to the computer science program at UT, and I still need to have a strong application otherwise. If this is incorrect, please disregard this entire post.
What are they looking for in computer science applicants, if there are any specifics?
These are my current qualifications.
- Background: US citizen, parents are naturalized immigrants from Latin America, I live in-state
- 4.46 weighted GPA, ranked within top 4% in very competitive public high school
haven’t taken SAT yet, I have signed up for one in August and I believe I can attain a reasonable score in the 1500+ range - no SAT subject tests yet, I will sign up for some ASAP if recommended.
- 8 AP exams taken thus far (Human Geo, World History, European History, Calculus BC, Chemistry, English Language, Music Theory, US History), scored 5 on all except Chemistry (4), I will take AP Computer Science A this upcoming school year as well as some other APs (gov, econ, stats, and also dual-credit multivariable calculus). Took honors classes in basically everything else (ex: 9th grade bio, 9th-10th grade English).
- Miscellaneous interests include: Orchestra (have played violin in school since 6th grade), quiz bowl (have participated since 9th grade), music composition (been composing since I was 12, won award for composition entered into regional fine arts program), novel writing (been writing since I was 6, finished novel when I was 14 but didn’t publish it, I plan to rewrite and publish in the future), some light coding experience (worked with HTML/CSS through serving as administrator on a small website, very rudimentary JS experience)
- No internship/work history yet, I will go after some ASAP if recommended.
Sorry if anything said above is irrelevant/stupid/unnecessary/etc., I’m just beginning my forage into the applications process. If there is a better place I can post to in order to get help with this, please point me in that direction.
How are my chances looking for admission into the UT Austin compsci program, and what do I need to do to increase them?