Chance a Texas Junior! [3.85 UW GPA, not top 10%, 1350 SAT, for Finance]

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Hello, everyone. 2026 is the year I have to lock in on college apps (2nd semester junior) and I need some advice to see if I’m on the right trajectory. This website usually has reliable info.

BASIC INFO:

  • Finance major everywhere but UT Austin (Econ)

  • Interested in going into Corporate Law

  • TX Resident, current junior

  • Female

  • Large public suburban high school

ACADEMICS:

  • 4.10143/5.0 W GPA

  • 3.84615/4.0 UW GPA

  • 1350 SAT (700 RW 650 Math). Taking the SAT 2x more. I took the ACT and am still waiting for results on that.

  • School doesn’t do class rank, but I’m between the top 11% and the top 25%

  • 11 AP Classes + 9 honors by the end of high school

ECs:

  • NJHS/NHS (9–)

  • Model UN (10–) - Running for both state officer and officer for my school’s chapter

  • DECA (10–)

  • Peer Leadership (10–) = We mentor kids k-9 in group settings and/or one-on-one once a week. We also plan major school events and organize fundraisers.

  • Principal’s Advisory Committee (10)

  • Library Volunteer (10–)

  • Independent Creative Writing Project: Authoring a 35,000+ word coming-of-age novel over the course 3+ years; developed original characters and long-form narrative; revising weekly and workshopping independently. (10-). I don’t really know if this could be considered a valid EC, but I wanted to show my passion for writing.

  • HS Dems of America (11-) - Running for officer of my school’s chapter

    • Serving on the TX HSDA Legislative Committee

  • Event Coordination Internship with a local environmental organization (11)

  • American Eagle Sales Associate (11-)

  • Paid Sales and Marketing Intern for a startup in the custom clothing industry (11)

  • Director of Outreach for an international 501(c)(3) pediatric cancer focused nonprofit (11)

  • Officer + Co-Founder for my school’s film club (12-) = Club won’t be started until next year, and this will be started by me and a friend who wants to become an entertainment lawyer. Hopefully, this doesn’t look redundant since I genuinely do love film, and it is a passion of mine.

AWARDS:

  • Outstanding Effort in Biology (9)

  • 6x Scholastic Writing Regional Award Winner (3x Gold Key, 2x Honorable Mention, 1x Silver Key)

  • HRC Honorable Delegate at TXMUN 2024 Regional Fall Summit (10)

  • John Locke Essay Contest 2025 Shortlisted Entrant (11) - Top 18.65% out of 63000+ across the globe.

  • MEU Best Delegate at TXMUN 2025 Regional Fall Summit (11)

SCHOOLS:

UT Austin, UW Seattle, Penn State, UT Dallas, Texas A&M, Indiana Bloomington (Kelley), University of Houston, Virginia Tech, University of Arizona, Florida State, Pace University, and Boston College.

Side Note: I have taken courses at my school related to my future area of study and career goal, namely business law and principles of business, marketing, and finance

Thanks for reading this. Any feedback is appreciated!

2

Fine application.

Why are you not applying to business at UT. I know why you’re not - but you need to study what you want. Major over school and you are putting the school over major.

Congrats on a fine profile. You’ll do well.

Here’s my guesses - with the current SAT.

You didn’t say which classes you’ve had or will have - can you update on:

Which English you/will take?

Math?

Science?

Social Science?

Foreign Language?

These are far more important than the electives in your major although those are great too.. Answer that on the core classes and then I can better chance you.

Are there any budget constraints?

Given you are going for law, and that’s never an assurance you’ll get there, you’ll want to budget another $300K - and honestly, where you go will likely matter little, if at all, as to where you go to law school. In other words, you could go to Lamar and end up in the same LS as you will out of UT. Your LS app will likely be based on GPA, LSAT, and others - like work experience.

Let me know about your classes and budget and I’ll do my best to chance you.

Thanks

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3

Here are the classes I took throughout HS (and plan to take senior year)

Math: Geometry advanced, Algebra 2 advanced, PreCalculus advanced, AP Statistics, AP Calc AB (senior year). I took Algebra 1 in 8th grade.

English: Regular English 1, English 2 advanced, AP Lang, AP Lit (senior year)

Science: Biology advanced, Chemistry advanced, AP Environmental Science, Advanced Forensic Science (this is for senior year. We have an option to take regular Forensics, but this year they’ve introduced an advanced version of the class)

Social Studies: AP Human Geography (only AP class offered for freshmen at my school), AP World History, AP U.S. History, AP Government + AP Macro (In Texas, you take one semester of Gov and one of Econ your senior year), AP European History (senior year as well)

Foreign Language: Took Advanced Spanish 1, 2, and 3 in 8th, 9th, and 10th grade, respectively. The requirement for years of foreign language in my school is 2 years.

Other Electives: Took Fundamentals of Computer Science as a freshman and realized it wasn’t for me so I switched to business and liked it more, Principles of Business + Marketing + Finance, Business Law, Peer Leadership (it’s an EC, but the club is an actual class period at my school), Art (Freshman year)

My parents said budget isn’t an issue and that I should focus on the quality of education. However, personally, I want to stay at or under 55k since my parents also have my younger sister to pay for. I know Boston College doesn’t really fit this, but I want to see where I get in, and I know people who’ve gotten good aid from them. I know Massachusetts well because I’ve grown up there, but I moved to Texas before my freshman year, and it would be nice to get in somewhere close to home.

4

Well done! You have built an impressive résumé with far more strengths than weaknesses. Being a Texas resident will also work in your favor at many of these schools. Based on your current academic record and extracurriculars:

  • Likely admits (safety schools): UT Dallas, Texas A&M, University of Houston, University of Arizona, and Pace.
  • Solid targets: Penn State (University Park), Florida State, and Virginia Tech.
  • Most competitive (reach schools): UT Austin, Indiana (Kelley), and Boston College.

Overall, this is a well-balanced list with a healthy mix of likely, target, and reach schools.

Where things may be more challenging at the most selective programs:

  • SAT score.
  • A less obvious alignment between your extracurriculars and a finance major.
  • No AP exam scores yet (especially 5s).
  • Limited advanced quantitative coursework typically associated with finance applicants (AP Calculus BC, AP Statistics, AP Economics).
5

A&M Mays business will be a reach, if not auto admit. A 1450+ SAT and A&M ranked 1stQ will be needed, to have a shot. Apply August 1st.

@1Ds1230 i strongly suggest taking AP Stats senior year, it’ll help you when taking College stats.

6

I have only taken 2 AP Exams yet (AP Human Geo and AP World) and recieved fives on both. As for EC’s, even I agree the alignment is a bit of a challenge. For me, finance is just a stepping stone to entering law, and I want to work for a few years to save up for law school. I want to Major in international relations and/or government so it makes my career path more clear. Is there a way I already/can make up for this gap?

7

Now is probably a good time to mention that I’m already in Advanced PreCalc and AP Stats together as a junior. I added AP Stats up top but I think it looks like I’m taking it with Calc AB Senior year. Apologies for the confusion.

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8

Oops. I meant “Minor” not major

9

Ok. Thx. Fine profile and I’M using the SAT listed.

No to UT

No to UW

Yea to PSU and IU but not business. Will need to transfer.

Yes UH

Toss up Va Tech - but it’s easier OOS than in-state (they want your $$)

Yes Arizona

No FSU but maybe summer start

Pace yes - it’s very different than the rest of your list. What’s the thought here? If you have Pace, maybe look at Bentley, which will, on average, perform better in finance.

BC - no

You have some find admits - and then you have some where you won’t (IMHO) get into the B school. I don’t recommend attending and trying to transfer in. I prefer direct admit - but as long as you know the risks.

If, or should I say when, your test moves up, please come back and I can re-chance you.

Best of luck.

10

You can major in anything- literally anything- and get into a fine law school. So majoring in finance as a stepping stone if your true interests are international relations and/or government is a sub-optimal plan. Especially since reading and writing- lots and lots of reading and writing, is the best pre-law “prep” you could engage in and Finance majors don’t do a lot of that.

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11

The key question to ask is if you will be eligible for any need-based aid from BC. BC essentially offers zero merit aid except for a tiny number of students. Their only merit aid is the Gabelli Scholarship, which is offered to a total of 18 freshman (out of nearly 40,000 applicants). Typically, those 18 students have credentials that make them contenders for Ivy-level schools - tippy top grades and scores, highest level of course rigor, extracurriculars/awards/accomplishments also at the highest level. So, I just don’t recommend applying unless you have checked BC’s net price calculator and the numbers for need-based aid look doable for your family.

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12

Absolutely! Boston College does not use merit scholarships as a discount strategy. Given that reality, I don’t think it makes much sense to apply without first running BC’s Net Price Calculator to ensure the projected need-based aid is reasonable for your family’s financial situation.

A classmate of my son’s was a recipient of the Gabelli Presidential Scholars Program, and he is an exceptionally impressive young man. He was one of just 18 students selected from nearly 40,000 applicants. With BC’s overall admission rate hovering around 12.5%, admission alone is highly competitive. To then be invited - after admission - to receive the Gabelli Scholarship is extraordinarily rare. Statistically, you are looking at roughly the top 0.05% of the entire applicant pool.

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13

I want to do corporate law, though. I am interested in finance and like learning about it, plus my plan is to work for a few years and save up. I want to do finance in the international/law/government aspect. Sorry I know the way I’m wording this doesn’t make sense but I am very interested in the intersection of finance and law rather than just finance itself. Does this make sense?

14

If you are interested in finance- then terrific, that’s your answer. But studying it as an undergrad doesn’t give you a leg up for law school, or once you are IN law school. There are plenty of lawyers who work at the SEC, white collar defense, prosecution of financial crimes, Mergers and Acquisitions, etc. who did not study finance– at all.

Majoring in philosophy, history, etc. DOES help for law school. Not for the content- but because you are reading thousands of pages of dense works and then writing complex analytical papers where you have to find evidence (in legal terms- precedent) for the argument you are making. Again- not necessary for a lawyer, but really helpful to have a robust background in the type of arguments and fact-finding you’ll engage in.

But if finance fascinates you- fantastic.

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15

One of my son’s best friends turned down BC for Rutgers honors because BC offered nothing, and Rutgers gave him a lot (Rutgers only gave merit to very high stat students who got into the very small honors college).

16

This seems like an appropriate list in terms of competitiveness-spread. I can’t quite infer what you’re looking for in a school from the list, though. Most are large publics, but then you have BC and Pace which are private and mid-sized. Why those two in particular, out of all the private universities outside of Texas that you could have chosen?

In the mid-sized private genre, University of Denver particularly comes to my mind for you, as two of its greatest strengths are business and IR/public affairs. There’s a creative writing minor too. Like BC and Pace, it’s in a major city with public transit access to campus. It’s in between BC and Pace in competitiveness. Their Pioneer Leadership cohort program is excellent too, and you might be a candidate for that. Maybe worth considering? You could get merit there, which won’t happen at BC, and the travel would be relatively easy while still giving you a complete change of scene from TX.

Also, if you like NYC (Pace) and a Jesuit university would work (BC), then why not Fordham?

The business school at UW-Seattle is tough for OOS students to get direct-admit offers, and it won’t come in under 55K.

If you stick with your current list, you’ll certainly end up with good options; it’s just hard to intuit your priorities from studying the list.

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17

I did actually think about Rutgers, but I was worried about how much money I’d get from them as an OOS student.

18

I don’t have many specific requirements (that seems like a very rookie generic thing to say, but it is true in my case). I mentioned in an earlier reply to another person that I was born and raised in Boston and didn’t move to Texas until freshman year, and that was why I wanted to apply to somewhere close to home. I also did think of Fordham but was hesitant about the cost.

19

Rutgers does give much to oos or instate, it’s like Penn state. One if mine applied to 20 schools, lots of flagships, Rutgers was the only one without any merit offered.

20

Another more likely college in the NY metro area is Seton Hall. Reasonably strong business school, but an excellent international relations program. They do have a new quantitative economics program between their diplomacy school and business school, which could be of interest. You’d likely get some good merit aid there.

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