Yeah, if you are recruited, or you found a treatment to cure cancer, or if you hold a few patents, lower grades would be fine. Otherwise, most schools consider GPA to be most important or at least important. Look up the CDS and you will find that info. For UT Austin, grades are most important for in state auto admission. For other in state and OOS students, it is a reach anyway due to the limited seats left. A lower GPA would not help.