Like many, my dream school is UT Austin, but I’m not top 10%, so I’m trying to find alternative routes to attending UT Austin, like the CAP program.
I currently have a 98.82 GPA, but I’m expecting that to go up once they update it with the spring semester’s grades. I have a 1290/1930 SAT Score, which I am retaking in the fall.
Honestly, you don’t even have to “tell me my chances”, but for those who did CAP or PACE or transferred in, what were your scores to get in?
If you already completed the programs, what feeder school did you attend? What were your grades like? What was the difficulty level of the classes?
If you later on applied to Mccombs and did/didn’t get in what were your scores?
Sorry for so many questions!! I’m just kind of freaked out and stumped by this whole decided what college to go to thing… need as much help and advice as I can get!!!
CAP is offered to all Texas residents who do not receive regular admission to UT Austin. PACE is for qualified students who simply were not competitive enough to receive a spot because of the limited space. I applied to CNS computer science and received CAP/PACE/waitlist, and will be attending UT/ACC in the fall. My stats were alright. 8/43 class rank, 29 ACT, 3.96 unweighted GPA.
According to the report I link to below, PACE is for top 10 percent admits who aren’t offered admission to UT as a regular admit. CAP is for all Texas residents not admitted. Provided you meet the required high school requirements, you will get CAP. Based on some of the posts here this Spring, UTSA fills quickly. If you are mentally prepared to be “capped” you can act quickly. Decide which campus you prefer before you get notified so you can do sign up early. So many kids hold out hope for being a holistic admit and then take a day or two or a week to process the CAP decision.
As for getting from CAP to Austin- the requirement is to take 30 hours at the CAP school and make a 3.2, that gets you into undergraduate studies or liberal arts in Austin but not McCombs. McCombs requires 24 hours in residence in Austin before you can apply to McCombs and you can only apply for Fall admission. Your UT GPA will need to be at least a 3.6 and closer to a 3.8 to get in. McCombs has pre-req requirements that you need to address either in CAP or in that first year in Austin. CAP to McCombs is difficult but it is possible if you want it and you work for it. You get two chances to apply to McCombs and then you can’t anymore.
If you do not get into McCombs, you need a back up plan. One that I like is to major in Economics and get the Business Foundations certificate.
If UT is your dream, then CAP is a great program. Some people decide it is not worth the risk and apply at a school that will accept them and give them the major they want- a novel idea since you are spending good money for a degree.
Actually, PACE is not anymore restricted for top 10% students. I think this is the 2nd year and they relaxed the requirements. I knew a lot of people that had a rank worse than 10% that received the PACE offer. They still had a semi-competitive rank (no more than 20% and around a 2000 SAT)
@Ayeboy11 Thanks for the update. The date in the link I posted is almost a year old and it was probably based on the previous year’s practice. Glad to hear PACE is open to more kids than it used to be.
I was top ~15% of my class with a 31 ACT/1930 SAT applying for CS/ECE. I received CAP and attended UT Arlington. I had a 4.0 by the end of the year, taking the courses I needed to apply for Engineering (Cal, Phys, Chem, etc.) and was accepted to Electrical yesterday. The classes weren’t difficult; it was simply the matter of learning the material and applying what you learned in practice. Obviously I didn’t apply for McCombs, but I’d imagine maintaining a 4.0 and taking the required courses to apply (Cal 1/2 & Macro/Micro) is the best bet to getting into McCombs.
I had the option of going to A&M or Baylor (with a nice scholarship), but not getting into the major I wanted at A&M because of limited space and Baylor not having an engineering program of the same caliber as A&M and UT deterred me from these two options. I’m personally glad I decided to do CAP, but in all honesty I would’ve gone elsewhere had I been accepted to a similar tier program.
I totally forgot to check back, but thank you all for your answers, this is exactly what I needed, information from real life experience and such!! @JD1327@gettingschooled@Ayeboy11@SlimShadyLady