Should I apply on August 1st (when the application opens)?

hkem123
Wed, 27 Jul 2011 01:38:31 +0000

Yes, I am sure UT knows about your high school, but humans do not make the admission decisions at UT, formulas do. The formulas do not take into account competitiveness of the high school attended.

Remember that UT goes strictly by formula for their review applicants, but it is not all academic. 50% of your “score” is determined by a formula using your test scores, GPA, and rank. The other 50% is based on formula using scores admission counselors gave the objective portions of your application. Then the computer puts all the scores on a chart and they accept a certain amount which creates the cut-off score. This process is repeated for each college that incoming freshman can apply to.

PAI- Everything that is not AI
AI- SAT/ACT, Class Rank, Completion of required curriculum, The extent to which the student exceeded the required curriculum. (No GPA)

The PAI takes these things into account:

o Scores on two essays
o Leadership
o Extracurricular Activities
o Awards/honors
o Work experience
o Service to school or community
o Special circumstances:
ƒ Socio-economic status of family
ƒ Single parent home
ƒ Language spoken at home
ƒ Family responsibilities
ƒ Socio-economic status of school attended
ƒ Average SAT/ACT of school attended in relation to student’s own SAT/ACT
ƒ Race (addition approved by the UT Board of Regents in 2003)

If you want to see the formulas and the whole process this explains it pretty well. http://www.utexas.edu/student/admissions/research/HB588-Report12.pdf

If you want the short version. Your PAI is 50% of your overall score. Your essays are 3/7 of that. So basically your essays are 3/14 of your total score when applying to UT-Austin.

Also, are you at a public high school that reports rank? I didn’t realize there were any in Austin that only had 189 students. Maybe if LASA is considered its own high school?