I’m an Indian-American and unfortunately the stereotype tied to my ethnicity is amazing grades as well as phenomenal SAT scores. However, my grades are somewhat average compared to most and my math grades are incredibly low (C’s) in comparison to many people applying to UT Austin. I understand that Math is a very important subject, however, the majors I’m looking at don’t involve it in any way. I’m drawn to English and Sociology which are the two majors I’m pivoting between. I’ve talked to admissions counselors from this university about the extreme competitiveness that comes with the admissions process and it has only worried me more about my chances at the university. The essays I will be submitting to UT Austin also explain my struggles with math and how I’ve used my anxiety with math to help me strive in other subjects. Will this also help? Please let me know if you have any guidance or recommend talking to anyone else involved with the university so I can know my options.
The biggest factor in UT’s admissions process is GPA. If you have below a 3.5, your chances are not good. The other parts of your application will help, of course, but they’ll rarely make up for a sub-par GPA.
It really depends on what is the preferred academic program you are interested in applying to. UT has regression formulas that predict your academic preparedness for the different colleges. Unfortunately all of the colleges include math in their respective formulas; however, that component of the admission formula is more heavily weighed in Engineering than say College of Liberal Arts (COLA). You should take both the SAT and ACT as you may perform better in one vs the other and UT will simply use the test that maximizes your admission chances.
One thing my son did to get non auto-admit to COLA a couple of days ago was to contextualize his subpar rank into his essays. For example, in the essay that UT asks you to explain how you are prepared for a certain major or program, he began the essay by mentioning how he really did not put much effort into his freshman year courses and bluntly admitted that this was reflected in his poor course grades. He then explained that as a sophomore he took his first AP class which was AP World History and he discussed how that content in that course really lit a fire in him academically. He cited how he took more AP courses from that point on and excelled academically including receiving a 5 on all of the AP exams. Having a 790 subscore on the SAT Critical Reading and 36 on the ACT English section also helped. Because my son was seeking admission as a history major, he also took the SAT Subject Test and received a 740 on that exam. If a subject test is offered in a subject that correlates well with your desired major, maybe you should consider taking that test. UT does not directly use subject test for admission purposes (no place for it in the regression formula); however, my son cited his relatively strong score on the History subject test in his essays as further evidence of his academic preparedness to study the subject at UT. Good luck.