1° no, you cannot get into UT (Austin) because Texas public universities admit based on class rank. They have a little leeway, but not much. 75% will be top 6% students, then 25% will be out of state applicants, athletes, international applicants, and some non-top6% students, mostly top 10% and a couple top 20% with exceptional records that just happen to be in a hyper competitive school. Top 50% is nowhere near what they want to see.
2° UNT is nationally known for music, so apply there, apply early, apply to all the special programs you can find there (definitely honors).
University of Houston Honors would also be a great safety/low match and you’d be able to continue your collaboration with their newspaper. This type of experience is invaluable if you want to have a job in that field.
3° your EC’s have the potential to get you into pretty competitive schools. But these won’t be in Texas and certainly not large public universities, which usually admit based on combination of GPA * rigor *test score. You will need to apply to private universities, including many out of Texas.
Therefore, so that we can help you with good suggestions, can you tell us
- your FAFSA EFC (the minimum your family will be expected to pay)
- your parents’ budget out of pocket (from current income and past savings) – you said 15-20K.
If your EFC is 15 to 20K, then you need to target “meet need” schools. If your EFC is much higher than that, you need to target schools that offer merit aid and the list would be quite different.
“Merit” is anything you bring to the college that they don’t have in abundance and really want. Therefore, each college will define “merit” differently.
In the meanwhile, look into “fly-in” programs at colleges. Those are selective so you need to apply to several in order to get one or two. Students admitted to the “fly in” program have much higher odds of admission and it’s a cool way to visit places. The “fly in” program will pay for your plane ticket to the campus. They will have assigned you something to read and you’ll participate in a class where they’ll evaluate how well you handled the reading and discussion. You will also meet students, professors, administrators. It’s an opportunity for them to evaluate whether you’d be a good fit for them but also for you to see whether the college would be a good fit.
BTW this is a high reach program where EC’s would matter tremendously - run the NPC first. (NPC = net price calculator, to be run on every college website since each college calculates your “net cost” differently).