What should I pursue at UT Austin?

Colleges and Universities A-Z The University of Texas at Austin
1

<p>I know many of you are thinking think that this is question only I can answer, but I will definitely appreciate some opinions from all of you:</p>

<p>My Stats:
Class: Junior
Rank: 45/712 (expected to increase to maybe 35-40 by the end of the year)
SAT: Reading:610 Math:670 Writing:690 Total: 1970 (First time, will retake soon)
Courses- All AP/ PRE-AP ( I have never taken a regular class in high school)
ECs- This is probably my weakest point. I have done student council as a freshman but decided to quit since it is basically a "decorating committee" in which we just decorate for homecoming, prom, etc. I was sent a recommendation for NHS but didn't have enough hours last year to join. I will definitely get in this year. I was also in Mu Alpha Theta for one year. I guess my best EC volunteering at Baylor Medical Center. I have accumulated 78 hours so far and will hopefully reach 400 hours by the end of high school. I also have a small business as a reseller on Amazon and make about $5000 net profit annually (I am not a large seller by any means but do sell about 200-300 items a year). </p>

<p>So now I have to decide if I want to go into business, medicine, or engineering.
I personally enjoy business quite a bit but will rule this option out if I am not accepted into McCombs. I have heard that McCombs only accepts people in the top 3% and I am not even close to that. I know many people just transfer into McCombs but I really just want get accepted in a school and not worry about transferring later on or anything like that. </p>

<p>Medicine is also a profession I am interested in, particularly surgery. At my time at Baylor I was able to observe quite a few fascinating surgeries and can't imagine myself being any other type of doctor. My Parents are also doctors and sort of "expect" me to become one as well. The problem for this major is that I don't know yet if I am willing to commit at least 7 years of studying + 3 years of residency + another 2-3 years of fellowship. Also Medical School is quite difficult to get into and if I am struggling right now in high school, I don't know how well I will do in College. Nevertheless, this is still a great option for me since I enjoy helping many patients at Baylor. </p>

<p>I have heard that the Engineering school at UT Austin is difficult to get into but hopefully my stats are good enough. I am mainly interested in Petroleum Engineering, but the future of this field isn't looking to great. Out of the three I guess this is the field I have the least experience with. </p>

<p>Again I know this isn't a question I am supposed to answer on my own, but I really am lost. Are my stats good enough for any of those schools at UT Austin? What should I work on to increase my chances? Any help is appreciated.</p>

2

<p>They’re good for all three. Rule out engineering since you don’t really show a lot of desire for it. McCombs does not only take the top 3% (you might be thinking if Business Honors or Plan 2), so you should definitely give it some thought since you already have some experience with business. Medicine is totally up to you and if you mature by early senior year and decide whether ir not you want to devote so much of your young life to your career as a doctor. It is a great and well-paid career, but it looks like you do not want to commit so much time, even though you show some desire to enter the field and have an obvious advantage with both of your parents being doctors. </p>

<p>You may be confused right now, but you will get a better idea of what you want to be over the summer or early next school year.</p>

<p>Sent from my Desire HD using CC App</p>

3

<p>Maybe a combination of business and biology, since you have an interest in both. Take pre med classes so med school is an option later on. </p>

<p>Sent from my DROIDX using CC App</p>

4

<p>A couple of recommendations:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Retake SAT at least 2 more times. You will definitely score much higher. Try to understand the ways the questions are set up, and how the harder questions have answer options to lead you down the wrong path, etc. Try to get into the mind of the question developer and look for patterns. This comes from practice and retakes.</p></li>
<li><p>Make sure you take ACT as well, twice. For UT there is a multiple regression formula for scoring applicants (SAT, ACT, class rank, level of difficulty of courses, essays, other activities/leadership etc). Having two data points such as SAT and ACT increases the multiple regression scoring, and if your application is selected for holistic review for Business School admission, then having the 2 SAT and ACT data points (assuming there is congruence) increases their confidence in how they see you quantitatively. Once that is done, it’s all up to your essays to close the sale. Yes, businesspeople have to sell, and you have to start by selling yourself, if you like that sort of thing. If not, consider medicine or engineering.</p></li>
<li><p>As for your parents being docs, and you being unsure of the long years of med school, vs. engineering, here is a copy of a response I sent another poster recently, which might have relevance for you.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>"Well, he sounds like a great kid, and you’ve obviously done great to get him where he is. I would not push him one way or the other any further. Let him decide for himself.</p>

<p>He could go into biomedical engineering (e.g. next generation tech like today’s MRI’s) or into nanotechnology where they are now working on nano needles (so small they cannot be seen with the naked eye) to deliver medicines in a targeted way. Similarly, there are so many cutting edge things on the horizon in cancer, anti-aging, and a ton of other stuff spawned from cracking the DNA. But things have just begun…And, if he feels ‘no’ med school is what he wants, I’m totally positive that he will absolutely get into med school. A kid like that, for sure!</p>

<p>I have a friend in the area where I live whose daughter started out on the premed track and after nearly 2 years decided she’d had enough and moved to McCombs BHP in her sophomore year. She just graduated this past summer as a Finance major and started with Deloitte Consulting. Her dad pushed her into the pre-med track! </p>

<p>When I was in Wall Street and in my mid 20’s, one of my closest work buddies left to go to med school because his family was from the financial world and they had pushed him into NYU Business School and the Columbia for an MBA. Think of the wasted years and how unhappy he was, trying to please his parents?</p>

<p>In other words, like Aristotle, a bit of self discovery is needed at this age.</p>

<p>Taking a wide swath of courses in many discplines allows both the right and left hemispheres of the brain to blossom. Most of the wonder in self discovery is in the dawn of being able to integrate the two sides of the brain and then distill and synthesize new and innovative thinking from that process. The process then becomes iterative and potentially self-propagating, unconsciously or sub-consciously.</p>

<p>Engineering and Medical leverage different aspects of the brain and the satisfaction from compassion (as many medics inherently possess) is not learned. Perhaps, your son intuitively has a need to go beyond pure rational thought and reasoning? I don’t know, just thinking aloud… "</p>

5

<p>Re: point 1 test retakes, quantman07’s advice to prepare before retake is critical. Most test takers do not improve their scores on retake 3+ because they blow off preparation! Use the free online detailed score reports of past tests to identify types of questions you frequently miss and then learn how to answer them.</p>

<p>Re: point 2 UT’s use of test scores, UT uses the best score from a single sitting of either SAT or ACT. You don’t get additional points for additional scores. Depending on your choice of major, UT may consider only certain sub-sections of the SAT or ACT. See
<a href=“http://www.utexas.edu/student/admissions/research/HB588-Report13.pdf[/url]”>http://www.utexas.edu/student/admissions/research/HB588-Report13.pdf&lt;/a&gt; (particularly page 4 and footnotes 8-10) and [Testing</a> & Test Scores | Be a Longhorn](<a href=“http://bealonghorn.utexas.edu/freshmen/admission/testing]Testing”>http://bealonghorn.utexas.edu/freshmen/admission/testing)</p>

<p>Please remember, test scores are only one piece! So don’t focus on them to the detriment of other important pieces. [What</a> We Consider | Be a Longhorn](<a href=“http://bealonghorn.utexas.edu/freshmen/after-you-apply/factors]What”>http://bealonghorn.utexas.edu/freshmen/after-you-apply/factors)</p>

6

<p>I agree with TxArtemis re max of 3 tries on ACT and SAT. Only send UT your highest single sitting score. Do not send them the rest of the scores.</p>

<p>I believe it is important to take your quantitative data and input them into the multiple regression model UT uses (because they provide the correlation coefficients for each of the variables). </p>

<p>To understand what I am recommending, it is very important that you carefully read and really understand pages 1-5 of this report from the UT Admissions Research.</p>

<p>Page 5 is super important to analyze your chances of making the quantitative cut (after that it your essays and EC/leadership become the final deciding factors for McCombs):</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.utexas.edu/student/admissions/research/HB588-Report12.pdf[/url]”>http://www.utexas.edu/student/admissions/research/HB588-Report12.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>The reason I highly recommend at least 2 sittings on the ACT for McCombs applicants is because for McCombs they have 2 different multiple regressions, one based on SAT scores and the other on ACT scores. </p>

<p>First, this gives you 2 chances to see which one comes out better for you. If both your SAT and ACT scores are similar in terms of your percentile ranking, then the 2 different McCombs multiple regressions should show congruence. I can’t speak for the UT admissions commitee decision-making, but for me, if both SAT and ACT showed congruence and if I were the decision-maker, then that would make a meaningful difference (ceteris paribus i.e. all else being equal: leadership, essays etc.).</p>

<p>And for McCombs, remember that the resume can be a key differentiator. They not only want to see everything about you in a holistic sense, but they also want to see how you can sell yourself in a resume. After all, as a business school, they are only as good as their placement (which is a proxy for demand from corporate recruiters, relative to other schools, given McCombs puts out a lot of product (i.e. supply)).</p>

7

<p>Can someone explain to me how difficult it would be to try to get my pre med pre reqs and go to McCombs at the same time?</p>

8

<p>It wouldn’t be</p>

9

<p>Bump!!!</p>