I really slacked off freshman year. Right now, I have a 3.0 GPA and I’m ranked 158/481. This year I’m trying to get my act together, studying hard, shooting for high As in every class. Right now I’m in Honors DIM, Digital Art and Animation, Psych, Pre AP Algebra 2, Pre AP English II, AP World History and Pre AP Chemistry and I’m making A-/A+ in all except for Chem, made a B- first 6 weeks (could have made an A- but I let someone copy off a paper and I was caught.) I’m in the 2nd 6 weeks now. I really wanted to get into UT but I don’t think I really have a chance. I’m working on improving my grades and doing extracurriculars (I’m in KEY Club, am an officer in Robotics and Coffee Club, and I’m working with my friends to perhaps make a Computer Programming or Anime club. I plan on volunteering at the library near me Winter and Spring break), but will it be enough? What else should I do? What other colleges can you guys see as potential options for me? My dad works at the local community college so I have the option of taking Dual Credit classes over the summer for free to raise my rank, should I go for it? Please help, I feel so nervous all the time because I have no idea what to do or where to go. Sorry if all of this ends up incomprehensible, I can barely think straight. Thank you for reading.
I am actually in the same boat as you, except I’m a senior and it sounds like you’re a sophomore. Any way i started off as 256/450 and now I’m 128/450. I recommend taking as many AP classes as you can handle if they are weighted more. Also don’t just do extracurriculars to pad stats, because colleges can tell and actually prefer a few activities that you showed real dedication to. Just keep improving through the next few years and your chances will increase. I have similar stats to you and am still applying to UT anyway and if I’m miraculously accepted ill let you know. Finally if you keep improving you can pretty much get accepted to any Texas university, excluding rice.
I wish you the best of luck! And oops, I forgot to mention in the post that I’m a sophomore, female and Hispanic. I’ll go add that onto my post now… At my high school APs are weighted quite heavily, I think. I’m genuinely interested in computers and programming 
(don’t think there’s any way I’ll be able to get into CompSci at UT, though…)
Bump.
UT is review school if your not top 7%, so I would have good back up plans. Have you considered Texas A&M’s Comp Sci tracks or their Visualization program? If you can get your rank up to top 25% and a 1300 on your SAT, you’ll get automatic admissions their. They have a famous and equally successful computer science program. But incase your intested in animation (even a little) their visualization degree is an animation degree that has animators heavily recurited by animation companies like pixar or reelFX.
Also, since you have access to FREE COLLEGE EDUCATION I would advise you take 4 summer classes (2 summer 1 and 2 summer 2) every summer till you graduate(2 summers, 4 classes, 3 hours = 24 hours) so you can test out of general comp sci classes.
Your main flaw is your class rank. But, depending on your school, most students gpas drop during junior year, so if you can push though with strong A’s then you will get a dramatically better rank.
Hi! As of January, 2016, I am now in the top 20%, 96/461, with a 3.35/90 GPA UW, 3.6/94 with weight. On the new PSAT, I made an 1170/1600 which I believe is the equivalent to about a 1700/2400? though I could probably pull it up to a 1300~ with what I know now, and I’m still studying whenever I have free time. I’m no longer in Coffee Club really and our Robotics Club sadly dissolved due to lack of interest, however I am still an avid member of Key, I recently joined Engineering Club, and I hopefully will be able to join MAT and NHS next year.
I’m currently filling out paperwork for summer dual credit at the moment, and I’d need special permission from my counselor to take 4 DCs every summer, but I’m confident he’d allow me to if I asked him about it.
On me considering CompSci, I’m not really as passionate about it as I was before, and I’m considering other careers and degrees, like maybe going into Education, Political Science, or maybe even Premed… I’m really not sure! But I suppose that’s part of being young, huh?
When it comes to Texas A&M, no, I haven’t really considered it, my sights have mostly been set on Baylor and UT, haha, but I’ll definitely look into it! I’ll probably end up applying to all 3, with Baylor and TAMU being fits and UT, sadly, being a reach.
Thank you for taking the time to reply to my thread! A lot of people actually overlooked it, and I assumed that it would just be kinda forgotten, haha.
@zoriez don’t worry about it. Thats why we’re here!
I would say try to get that 1170 to a 1400 becuase since the test is redesigned, the curve for what is considered a good score will change to.
Next if its in your power… DON’T let your robotics team completely disappear. I actually just took a TSA team that just lost their teacher and 80% of there members and I found new people who were interested in it. Now on college Apps I can include in my essay the story of how I single handly saved an entire engineering club (that I led to nationals). Since your in an engineering club already (I hope its like the one in my school) maybe you should consider making a Technology Student Association team, because that is known alot better then MAT(or at least I don’t know it). Its not too difficult to become advance to All State in Texas. Having a State champion ship title in a new club that you started for engineering will make you look better to UT admissions.
I hope he says yes, b/c it does lighten your course load alot in college. You might be asked to take TSI thoug if you havent already.
Great that your not sure! And your taking DC classes. If you can then I would suggest that from your 4 classes, 1 be a class for a specific major and 3 classes be for basic gen ed requirements.
Hope that helped.
LET ME LOUDLY FANGIRL BECAUSE KPOP
(assuming I recognize your profile pic) But from what I’ve heard, improvement in grades impresses colleges. It shows the ability to grow.
Nice job getting your grades up!!! btw your psat is out of 1520 not 1600, the new psat is weird and for some reason they decided to make it out of 1520, so it’s more like an 1850/2400.
@lessonwitch2
Hi! I took my TSI and my scores were as follows:
Reading: 390
Writing: 389
Essay: 6 (I hate how they grade the essays with a computer…)
Math: 360 (bluh)
So, I ended up at college level for all classes but my parents and counselor didn’t want me to take 4 DC classes because they felt that I’d be overloading myself, and because I want to volunteer, study, and be able to finish my summer homework in a timely manner it was best for me to just take 2 DCs during Summer II.
I’ll be taking US Government and Macroeconomics to get them out of the way. I’m really excited about them!
Show colleges that you grew. If you show a BIG improvment then top colleges will look at you. Study hard, get active and take challenging classes that you think you can handle. And remember even the smartest ones with like 5.0 don’t make it to Ivey leagues.