UT Dallas chances? Low GPA, good SAT

Colleges and Universities A-Z The University of Texas Schools (Other Than Austin
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CS + Math double Major (for the application, CS was my first choice, Math was my second choice, but I do plan on double majoring)

GPA: 3.1 UW; third quartile at a very competitive school. This is clearly my primary concern.

SAT: 1480

Big upwards trend, I was completely terrible during my Freshmen and Sophmore, and my HW grades across my classes averaged to something like a 17/100 and got primarily Bs and Cs. Junior year I picked it up a bit and finished with a 4.1 W GPA, and this year it is roughly a 3.8 W or so.

APs:

WHAP 5

AP Physics 5

APUSH 5

AP Lang 4

AP Euro 4

AP Psychology 5

(my AP exam scores do NOT reflect that grades I had in the class; primarily Bs, some As and some Cs)

and this year AP CompSci, AP Gov, AP Micro, AP Calc, APES, AP Lit.

ECs: Chess club (have won a couple tournaments), coding club, coding competition club, Quizbull club, boxing.

Community Service: Around 100 hours at a retirement home, and a week spent in Honduras building a school last summer.

Hispanic male, Texas resident, early decision.

Other information: If it matters at all, I am already a fairly decent programmer, having experience with C, C++, Java, Rust, C# and Python. Have taken eDX’s CS50x, and currently studying coursera’s Standford’s Machine Learning course, and I did mention this in my Essay topic B.

2

There’s a 76% admissions rate for this school. Do you really believe you are in the bottom 25% of applicants?

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Well, given that the school has fairly high average test scores, (1210-1430; 25-75th percentile), and my GPA is quite low, combined with the fact computer science is often one of the most competitive majors in universities, I felt I had reason to be worried.

But I suppose I am just overly-concerned here.

4

@Nietszchemon Have you completed the application to UTD?
UTD usually sends out the decision within 1-4 weeks.

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Yes, I completed the application just a couple days ago.

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The reason for the high test score averages is the fact that they give away a full ride to all the national merit finalists, and full tuition plus a stipend for every high stat kid that is near the top of their class. It’s almost every kids safety school in the Dallas area. Some students are needed to pay the bills for all the free tuition scholarships they are handing out. The university is new on the scene and is making a calculation that the free ride will lead to future donors.

7

That’s quite enlightening, thank you for the reply!

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I also think you will be accepted. Per the Common Data Set, 64% are in the top half and 89% are in the top 75%, so 25% of all students are in the third quartile. You have a very competitive score, so let us know when you get accepted.

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I also think you will get in - those are great test scores @Nietzschemon

But unless I am reading something incorrectly on the common data set @GTAustin - 9% of students come from the 3rd quarter and 2% from the 4th quarter - for a total of 11% from the bottom half (and 89% from the top half).

https://www.utdallas.edu/ospa/files/CDS_2017-2018.pdf (Page 10 C10)

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If you really want to attend utdallas you should go to a community college first. The credits are cheaper, and it will allow you the opportunity for merit money as a transfer. You still finish in the same amount of time and it will save you a decent chunk of change. I think they have a guaranteed admissions for community college transfers in Texas because they originally weren’t a 4 year university and in order to become one they had to make certain stipulations.

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@BlueBayouAZ, you are absolutely right, I misread it.

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I’m not sure the high scores are only attributed to the money @Artful4art - though that is a HUGE factor.

I’m totally fascinated by the growth of UTD. I did not realize it had undergrads until college program searching with my daughter this year. And now it is one of her options.

It’s a school (freshman) that did not exist when I was an undergrad. I recall the graduate program when I was heading to grad school.

From everything I’ve read about its formation - is back in 1990 it had to keep the same freshman admission standards as UT - Austin, so it was not taking students from North Texas State, UT Arlington and other Texas Metroplex schools. Kind of like the wright amendment to SWA. And they attracted those students with the scholarships. I believe the rule is no longer in place - but they still maintain ACT and SAT scores higher than TAMU.

We aren’t from the DFW area - so it is probably looked at a little differently by students/councilors here. It’s frequently a Business/Engineering/Pre-Med backup to UT. I know two Top 7%-25% students with perfect ACT scores - that would have been Automatic Admits to TAMU - who did not apply to College Station. So it’s more of a second choice - and not a “safety school” for kids in this area. I hope that makes sense. Still a back up - but not the “if I can’t get anything else” school.

My daughter is interested in Animation. That means her in state choices are TAMU, UTD and SHSU. SCAD is also an OOS choice. She is not confident yet in her figure drawing for CalArts.

Also - it seems to have always donors from the time of it’s formation as a graduate program. The endowment is more that UT Arlington and it is a lot more than the SFA, SHSU type schools. But I don’t see the much merit money for transfer students. $1500 a semester for 3.75-4.0 transfer GPA is the highest award I found. A 3.0 is $500. While they are transfer friendly - I think they are trying to get traditional 4 year students.

I don’t know - I was very pleasantly surprised by the campus. I expected it to feel like a total commuter college. But I think with its recent growth and freshman dorms - it has made huge progress toward a university feel. We toured at 2pm on a Friday - and at 4pm there were still tons of students all around campus.

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@BlueBayouAZ if it’s not the money, what do you think it is? It’s not the sports teams or the night life. For a university to have such a high acceptance rate 76% and such high test scores, it’s the money. The amount of international students is also a large factor due to the money.

I personally think the school is amazing. Done several tours, and think the future is bright for the university. My daughter is also pursuing the animation trek and I am pushing her to choose utdallas, but it’s way down her list and will only go if it’s not financially feasible at about 5 different schools. My only concern about the school is the lack of connections to the industry. I went to an event at the Dallas museum of art which had utdallas professors proclaiming the lack of opportunities for their graduating students in the Dallas area. This was done partly to shame, I guess, one of the presenters that was a local animation studio company.

The reason for choosing community college first, especially if you live in the metroplex area, is because you can save a lot of money on your prerequisite classes. If you don’t receive any scholarships initially to attend the school, why pay full tuition for what is still largely a commuter school. If you do well at the community college, you will have saved money and have the opportunity to save even more money with a transfer scholarship. There’s still plenty of other scholarships you should apply for before making that decision, if you don’t receive aes money.

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I do have concerns about the lack of connections to industry as well. That is one thing TAMU does seem to have going for it - even though there isn’t industry in College Station. I was hoping UTD had relationships with the animation and gaming companies in the DFW area.

Oh and I do think the scholarships are a HUGE factor. But I also think at this point - at least at my daughter’s HS - UTD is gaining a very, very positive reputation among the high performing “nerdy” population. Lots of kids here choose it over TAMU of UH (if they aren’t getting into UT). And since we are not from the DFW area - the students we know make UTD a full college VS commuter college experience.

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After this year, I will have many of my prereqs out of the way with AP exams:

APUSH (2 classes at UTD)
AP lang
AP Lit
AP Calc BC (2 classes at UTD)
AP Physics C M + EM (4 classes at UTD!!!)
AP CompSci A (2 classes at UTD)
AP Macro
AP Govt

APES, AP Euro, AP Psych, and AP World Hist, are either not accepted by the school, or are not part of the CS curriculum.

Source for AP exams accepted by UTD and corresponding classes: https://oue.utdallas.edu/undergraduate-advising/ap-credit/

So maybe going straight to UTD would be my best option?

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It appears you have about 42 credits thru AP with many of your GE requirements done. You could probably get your degree in 3 years. If you don’t get admitted, even though I think you will, you should consider the transfer route. I’m wondering if you did just one semester at community and got a 3.0 GPA, you might be eligible for an automatic admittance to UTD. You still need courses in humanities, creative arts, and another science class. Check with an advisor to see if this is an option for you. For more information about the Comet Connection, contact a pre-admissions counselor at 972-883-2270 or 1-800-889-2443 or email interest@utdallas.edu.

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Any word yet? @Nietzschemon

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Got in today!

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Congrats!

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Congrats @Nietzschemon

When did you submit your application and when was your application complete?