Competitive majors, especially in McCombs and Cockrell, are very hard to predict, especially if you are not an auto admit. S2 was a national merit scholar commended, state placing awards (thereby city,district and region), leadership in marching band, 4 years of German, 4 years of PLTW classes, Physics 4 and calculus BC, an internship at a government contracted Aerospace engineering company during his Sr year (that includes every summer and guaranteed job after graduation if he stays with the program), programmed a joy stick for flight simulation and taught F-35 pilots how to use it, worked on super computer in areas not yet done anywhere in the world, write up in company communications, presented to executive board and many other unique things (submitted extended resume and rec letters in mid Dec). His strikes were being top 11% at the end of Jr year and because he went into the IB program as a Jr, he had only 1 AP he took as a sophomore. His Sr. year, due to the internship, he had to go back into AP and took 4 AP tests.
He did not get into UT and he was very disappointed. He was offered wait list for any open major in other colleges (except Engineering or Business) PACE and CAP. However, things have happened for him over the course of the past several months that have shown him that his safety is a place he can belong just as well as his dream school. So, just in case, in the event you don’t get into UT (and I do hope that you do), just know that your safety can be just as wonderful and because it is a safety, doesn’t make it less stellar or that it will be less challenging. Good Luck.
as a heads up so you are ahead of the game:
For UT, do apply as close to Aug 1 as possible and do your housing application asap after that. Then, be prepared to wait. Some people found out their major in earlier waves but a lot of business and engineering found out their major and/or admissions decision on the third Friday of February (auto admits and non auto admits). UT allows you to pay the $50 (non refundable) housing application as soon as your Apply Texas app is submitted and confirmed. Only after you get your admissions decision and you accept admission do you fill out the housing contract.
TAMU is a little different.
Apply TAMU at the same time, near Aug. 1 (after you fill out the Apply TX application, it will let you copy it to apply to other universities so you don’t have to spend a hour filling everything out again). Being academic admit, you should get your acceptance fairly soon (S2 was 15 days). You do not have to accept your admissions yet. You can wait to see what happens with UT. As soon as you receive your acceptance decision, you need to submit the housing application and $50 (non refundable) fee AND housing contract and $300 fee (refundable) . You MUST do both within 30 days of being accepted to be guaranteed freshman housing on campus and it gives you the best chance for you first choice of housing. For fall 2016, Hullabaloo (the newest dorm and most sought after, also expensive) was filled up by Oct 1 with students who did their housing app and contract prior to that date, which means, they applied in August and maybe, as late as first week of Sept. S2 did not finish his apps to UT or A&M until Oct 12, and still got his first choice of housing at A&M (engineering Living community). A&M housing decisions come out around June 1.
Once you apply to schools of choice, you will have a “portal” or dashboard for each school. Check those often. You will get emails about it and setting up your net ID.
If you do get accepted to UT, you will accept your admissions through that portal. Then, log onto your TAMU one and decline your admissions there. Then you can go through the steps to get your housing contract fee refunded (it lists the steps). If you end up at A&M, you will accept your admissions as well through the AIS.
So for both schools, be researching where you want to live NOW and get those housing apps in as soon as you can.