For those of y'all that got into ECB, can y'all share some of ur stats and ecs?

I'm a junior interested in applying

hey everyone!

I’m offering free help to high school students from low-income or lower-middle-income backgrounds, especially seniors working on college applications right now. Other grades welcome too, but mostly focusing on those who are applying to college right now (but if you just have questions feel free to pm me!)

I’m a current McCombs School of Business student at UT Austin on a full-ride Terry Scholarship. I also earned a $52,000 Frost Bank Scholarship and attended Harvard for a summer finance program in 2025.

UT was the only school I applied to and I know how much of this process comes down to figuring out your story and telling it clearly.

What I can help you with:

• Brainstorming essay topics and finding your story
• Reviewing and revising personal statements + supplemental essays
• Resume and activities list review
• Scholarship applications and essays
• Navigating the application process: deadlines, strategy, what to prioritize
• Advice or whatever else you might have questions about!

Where I can be most helpful:

• UT Austin applications and essays, including the major-specific and short-answer prompts
• Highly selective schools (Ivies, Rice, etc.): I’ve studied how holistic review works and have plenty of friends who got admitted into private uni's.
• I’m just as happy to help with any other schools, in-state options, and scholarships. Every application deserves attention.

How it works:
I’m a full-time student, so my availability shifts during the semester, especially around finals. To give everyone real attention, I’m taking about 3 people at a time. I’ll reply to every DM within a few days. If I’m at capacity, I’ll tell you upfront and point you to free resources in the meantime.

We can do video calls, phone calls, or work over messages and shared docs, whatever’s most accessible for you. No cost, not charging you nor will I ever ask you for money.

To get started: DM me (or comment below) with your grade, the schools or scholarships you’re targeting, your deadlines, and what you’d like help with. If you’re sending a draft, please send it at least a week before your deadline so we have time to revise.

I come from a poorer background but thankfully had many people along the way to help me, so here I am trying to return that favor!

I'm not sure why MyStatus says 10/16 for the status date when I submitted on the 15th 8:20pm CST.

Anyone else have this issue or know about it?

so i realized back in like april i choose to send my ACT scores to some schools bc it popped up but i submitted my app for UT austin the other day and checked my status tdy and it said my ACT score was from back then when i did it in april but that score is like god awful and wanted to submit my score from september. is there a way to change it on my status

I genuinely didn't realize that I actually have to get College Board to send scores, and I ordered mine today. I was panicking and didn't read everything so I also didn't realize that it takes so long and I didn't pay for the rush option. I understand that's on me. But is it still possible for me to be considered early action? I have everything else submitted. I feel so stupid for missing this😭

Does anybody know the acceptance rate for cola at UT? Or the non auto acceptance rate for cola? I’m a non auto in state I’m top 6%, so I’m curious about it. Also any info on how competitive health and society is? It’s a restricted major for internal transfers but does that mean anything for freshman admissions? And also sociology competitiveness.

Any info or insight would be greatly appreciate!!!

# Demographics

* Gender: Male

* Race/Ethnicity: Two or More Races (Black and White)

* Residence: Northeast Texas

* Income Bracket: Extremely Low-Income

* Type of School: Public, Mid-Sized (Around 1700 students altogether and 398 in my grade) (School is 67% economically disadvantaged)

* Hooks: First Generation College Applicant

* Intended Major: Statistics and Data Science

# Academics

GPA: 3.92 or 95.37/100 UW GPA (Upward Trajectory, went from 3.85 to 3.92 as courses got harder)

Rank: Top 5.03% (20/398)

ACT: 32 (for reference: around \~15-20/\~380 make a 30+ every year) (Avg: 22) (My Math was a 33 and my English was a 35)

**Coursework:** 5 APs (World-4, Bio-3, Lang-4, US-4, Pre-Calc-5), 2 DE (Band 3 and Accounting 1)

* Currently taking 6 more AP's (Lit, Physics 1, U.S Gov, Micro, Calc AB, CSP), and 2 more DE's (Band 4, French "4")

Honors/Certificates

* Top 10% of PSAT Testers in my grade (10th Grade)

* 2x CollegeBoard National Recognition Program Award (10th and 11th Grade)

* 2x Texas Music Scholar (10th and 11th Grade)

* Summa Cum Laude Title (Top 8%) Rank

* Highest GPA Awards in French 2, French 3 Honors, Accounting 1, Band 3 DC, Band 2, (2nd highest in AP Precalculus)

* Member of National Honor Society (10th grade to now)

* Member of Mu Alpha Theta (11th grade to now)

* Member of French Honor Society (11th grade to now)

* Member of Tri-M Music Honor Society (10th grade to now)

* AP Scholar with Distinction (11th Grade)

* IBC for Accounting-Basic (11th Grade)

* Collegeboard National Recognition Award (10th and 11th Grade)

# Extracurriculars

1. Low Reed Section Leader | Marching Band (12th Grade)

Time Commitment: 17 hours/week | 16 weeks/year

Description: Direct field drills, structural marching coordinates, and section rehearsals for a 7-member low reed unit during competitive marching seasons. Manage group logistics and lead peer alignment under high-sensory environment constraints.

1. Principal Bass Clarinetist | Wind Ensemble (9th–12th Grade)

Time Commitment: 6 hours/week | 12 weeks/year

Description: Anchor the woodwind section as 1st chair in the premier concert band. Collaborated in masterclass performances resulting in 3 consecutive UIL Sweepstakes awards.

1. 1st Chair Tenor Saxophonist | THS Jazz Band (9th–12th Grade)

Time Commitment: 4 hours/week | 33 weeks/year

Description: Selected as 1st chair in the top-tier jazz ensemble following a rare 9th-grade promotion. Featured as a soloist across multiple public, regional, and festival venues.

1. Principal Bass Clarinetist | Texarkana Youth Symphony Orchestra (9th–12th Grade)

Time Commitment: 2 hours/week | 33 weeks/year

Description: Secured 1st chair placement in the premier regional youth orchestra via a selective blind audition circuit spanning musicians ages 10–19 across the region.

1. Ensemble Bass Clarinetist | Texarkana Winds Community Band (10th–12th Grade)

Time Commitment: 2 hours/week | 30 weeks/year

Description: Perform as a selected high school student representative alongside adult musicians, collegiate performers, and professional music educators in a regional community wind ensemble.

1. UIL Accounting Team Competitor (11th–12th Grade)

Time Commitment: 2 hours/week | 4 weeks/year

Description: Analyze corporate balance sheets, master ledgers, and complex financial spreadsheets under rigorous, timed testing constraints. Placed 2nd as a team and 14th individually at the highly competitive 5A District 10 Competition.

1. Student Lighthouse Team / Student Council (11th–12th Grade)

Time Commitment: 2 hours/week | 4 weeks/year

Description: Selected to serve on a 30+ member student leadership council tasked with architecting school-wide events, coordinating community outreach, and managing philanthropic fundraising drives.

1. Independent Music Composer & Arranger

Time Commitment: 15 hours/week | 10 weeks/year

Description: Write, arrange, and digitally engrave complex sheet music scores for full instrumental ensembles. Utilize MuseScore 4 to mix multi-track audio scores and manage a dedicated digital archive channel to host and analyze compositions.

1. Data-Driven Athletic Conditioning

Time Commitment: 1 hour/week | 26 weeks/year

Description: Train recreationally for athletic conditioning. Leverage the Strava platform to log, track, and analyze physical performance data. Achieved a personal record mile pace of 7:17.

1. Quantitative Algorithm Exploration (Computer Science)

Time Commitment: Independent Project / Coursework Integration

Description: Apply logic mapping, structural variables, loop systems, and fundamental data structures through independent Python script development and AP Computer Science Principles coursework to analyze algorithms and construct functional, clean program models.

Letters of Recommendation

* Calculus Teacher (9/10) (Talked mainly about how I didn't just want to know to how do a problem, but rather understand the underlying reason behind it)

* Engineering Teacher (9/10) (Talked about how my personality, my ability to collaborate with others, and how I had changed from my initial diagnosis with autism)

# Supplemental Writing

Main Essay: How my autism has influenced my passion for math and music (using music terms to describe math and math terms to describe music) Opinion: (9.5/10)

Prompt 1: Talks about how Statistics blends my love for Mathematics and Data Reasoning using examples such as the IVT in AP Precalculus and My love for creating spreadsheets comparing high school marching bands Opinion: (9/10)

Prompt 2: Talks about my progress in high school as I went from a scared freshman who didn't fit the culture of the band program to leader who everyone looks up to. (Used an example of me playing a solo during a football game to example my proudest moment and how I have progressed throughout the 4 years in the band) Opinion: (9/10)

Polymathic Scholars: Talks about how I wanted to apply due to my blend of rigorous mathematics in my statistics degrees and my passion for music. Used examples such as kinematics in AP Physics 1 and string quartet compositions in Musescore. Ended off by saying that I would be a great addition to the community due to how I could influence people to express their other passions in relation to how they provide similar structures to their major. Opinion: (9.2/10)

ik you should expand on your activities on your resume but what about including like ap scores, rank, sat and superscore?

Chance me for UT Austin CNS Biology (EA)! I’m a Texas resident with a 4.533/5.0 weighted GPA, 3.80 UW GPA, and a 34 ACT (36 Math, 36 Science, 35 English, 32 Reading). My class rank is 157/975 (~top 16%), so I’m not an auto-admit, but I attend a very competitive high school. I’ve taken a rigorous course load with around 18 APs by graduation, Multivariable Calculus, and Dual Credit English. I generally earn As in STEM courses, while my Bs are primarily in humanities. My extracurriculars include Memorial Hermann–Texas Medical Center, where I was selected for a competitive hospital volunteer program as 1 of 50 students from 700+ applicants and later invited back as 1 of 12 for year-round volunteering; serving as a Youth Executive Lead for EAS, organizing 15+ events and leading 20 volunteers; founding and running my own tutoring business, which has helped 16 of 17 students improve their grades; serving as VP of an MSA with 100+ members; designing and presenting a medical device for rheumatoid arthritis through HOSA; working as an orthopedic medical scribe in Egypt; coordinating cancer-awareness events; and tutoring Spanish-speaking students. I’m also a first-generation Egyptian American and help care for my younger siblings several afternoons a week. My essays focus on personal growth, my interest in biology and embryonic development, and my service experiences. What are my realistic chances for CNS Biology, and do I have a shot at Health Science Scholars (HSS)?

Was trying to do the form, but seems there are conflicting instructions. On one hand, the "credit" example field is given with 1.0 per year, 0.5 per semester. However, instructions (below) state to fill out the form exactly as it shows on high school transcript (my high school does 5 per semester, 10 per year). Are we, or are we not, supposed to convert credits to 0.5/1.0 standardized? I have emailed admissions with this question, but have not yet received a response. Just didn't want to leave this hanging if someone already knows. Thanks!

"How to Complete Your Submission:

1. Start by having a current copy of your high school transcript available for all complete academic years. If you attended more than one high school, you’ll need a current copy of your high school transcript for each high school attended. All courses will be entered on the same form.
2. Carefully, read through all instructions and help text. This form can only be submitted once. There is no “save option” and it must be submitted in the same sitting to ensure information is complete and accurate.
3. Enter the courses as shown on your transcript.
4. Grades must be reported in a standard letter grade (A, B, C), 4.0-point GPA, 100-point numeric format. Grades assigned in IB, IGCSE, 5.0-point GPA, or other scales must be converted. This field is restricted to four characters.
5. Corrections or updates after submission will not be accepted. All “Ex.” text must be overwritten.
6. Click the “Add Course” link to add an additional row within each subject area.
7. You are REQUIRED to report…

• courses within five principal subject areas (English, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, and Language Other Than English).
• a course per grade earned. For instance, if you took English 1 and your high school assigns a grade for each semester, then you’ll make two entries, one for the first semester and another for the second semester’s grades. If your high school assigns a full-year average grade, then enter the full year grade once.
• each course’s grade level (dropdown), course name, grade, term (dropdown), and credit. Course level (dropdown) is optional and not required.
• if you DO NOT have any coursework to report in a subject area, then check the box 'No courses to report'.

1. DO NOT report…

• more than one grade per grade field. For instance, if your grade is an ‘A/B+’, then record it as the higher grade.
• courses that are currently in-progress.
• courses that are incomplete, dropped, or no grade is earned.
• courses taken prior to high school.

1. You are NOT REQUIRED to report...

• Optional - course level (dropdown)
• Optional - courses under 'Other' coursework. If you choose to do so, you MUST report all corresponding attributes.

1. For mathematics and science courses, you’ll additionally need to select a subject from the drop down. If such a course is integrated, covering more than one subject, such as pre-calculus and calculus, then select the subject appearing higher in the dropdown list."

My highschool transcript is the only part left of my application and it says awaiting arrival even though my school was said to send it 3 days ago.

Should I check with my counselor and make sure it was sent?

I want to make sure I’m applying by early action deadline

Hi! I’m looking to get into the B.Arch program at UTSOA. I’m an in-state applicant who qualifies for auto-admission. While I’m ranked top 10 in my class, having taken only AP/IB courses, my SAT score is in the 1300s. I’d say my extracurriculars are decent, and I’m submitting the optional portfolio, since I have a strong background in art. I’d appreciate it if anyone has any advice or personal experience that could be of use. I’m worried my SAT score may be a deal breaker despite everything else.

I didn’t realize how long sending scores took so I procrastinated till the last minute to send them. Will my chances drop drastically if I change my app to RD?

I was looking at UT Austin’s newly released Fall 2026 admissions numbers and started doing some math.
According to the university’s September 22 announcement:
98,841 students applied for freshman admission.
9,487 actually enrolled.
89,354 applicants never enrolled.
UT Austin hasn’t published the total number admitted for Fall 2026 yet, so we don’t know exactly how many were rejected.
But here’s what caught my attention.
UT Austin encourages students to apply for on-campus housing before they even receive an admissions decision because housing priority is based on when they apply.
The housing application fee is $100. And it’s nonrefundable.
So students are encouraged to pay $100 to get in line for housing at a university where admission is extremely competitive, without knowing whether they’ll even be accepted.
I started wondering how much money UT Austin collects from students who never attend.
Using the 89,354 applicants who didn’t enroll:
If 25% paid the housing fee: $2.23 million
If 50% paid: $4.47 million
If 75% paid: $6.70 million
If 100% paid: $8.94 million
Obviously, these are hypothetical figures. Not everyone applies for housing, some students qualify for fee waivers, and we don’t know how many applicants actually paid.
But even if only a quarter of the students who didn’t enroll paid that fee, we’re talking about more than $2 million.
And some of those students were never even offered admission.
I understand charging a housing deposit once a student has been accepted. But encouraging students to pay a nonrefundable fee before they know whether they can attend seems questionable, especially at a public university.
I’d love to know:
How many housing applications did UT Austin receive for Fall 2026?
How many applicants received fee waivers?
How much did the university collect in housing application fees?
How many students paid the fee and were subsequently rejected?
Is this standard practice at other universities? And should colleges be allowed to collect nonrefundable housing application fees from students they haven’t even admitted?
I’m genuinely curious what other families think.

I'm currently a Public Health major and I recently realized my current university is not it and I really want to transfer to UT and found out about Health and Society and it really does align with my interests. If anyone has successfully externally transferred to H&S, please loan me your advice on everything. If someone could please share their stats especially their ecs it would help me tremendously. Thank you!

I applied for admission to UT Austin on Oct. 15, and I marked on CommonApp that I was a Texas resident who wanted the Texas Free Week waiver. Does this 'x' on MyStatus mean that my fee has not been waived? Will it affect whether I am considered an early action applicant if I pay my fee now?

My sat score is 1210: math:670, reading:540. UW gpa: 3.65; W: 4.13. I've taken 7 AP classes, 5 dual credit. My rank is 193/623. My ecs are varsity tennis, mentored sophomores, internship at an engineering facility: reveling technical drawings on excel, robotics club, winning first place, owned/ created successful business, social media manager for a club, translater for my grandparetns; family responsibility. I speak fluently 3 languages and am learning French in highschool. I have a very diverse international background. None of my parents nor I was born in the US. I want to apply to do mechanical engineering,do u think I have a chance, what advice would you give me. Please help

I'm a Hispanic/white woman, in state

I am applying for early action, and sent in my SAT Score on Oct 17th. Collegboard says the estimated delivery is Oct 20th though, and I need all materials in by the 22nd to be considered early action. Should I worry? What should I do?

Hello everyone, I am a Texas resident ranked in the top 3.4% of my class. I have decent EC's related to my intended major at McCombs and good essays. But I have a 1240 SAT score.

I received a very generous offer from Trinity University here in SA to pay only 13k a year. But it is conditional on ED (binding).

My EC's include: DECA President, CPA internship, and UT DYNAMC program (accounting camp, 55 people accepted), and more.

Would ya'll reccomend for me to take the ED offer or continue under EA and hope for McCombs?

It's been about 3-4 days since I've submitted my application through common app, and there's nothing coming from UT regarding my EID and stuff like that. I'm not too concerned at the moment but I'd really like to submit my expanded resume among other things before the 22nd.

Hi, I have a question regarding the High School Academic Coursework Entry Form for my daughter. She has taken several community college courses, including Multivariable Calculus, Differential Equations, and other science-related courses, but they do not appear on her high school transcript. Since these are college courses, should we enter them in the main Academic Coursework section or under the “Other Coursework” section? Or is there another place to report them? She has already sent her official community college transcripts to UT Austin. I would really appreciate your guidance. Thank you!

- in state, class of 2028
- hispanic
- low income, no assets/retirement/savings (17k/yr AGI family of 3)
- NOT First gen but i almost was
- underfunded inner-city Title 1 public school (982 sat avg, 847 school district avg)
- somewhat noncompetitive area (not rural, not houston/dallas/austin)

STATS:
- UW GPA: 96.12
- W GPA: 100.67 (six seven)
- very strong GPA upward trend
- Rank: 6/93 (top 6.5%) (im working towards getting top 5% 🤞)
- SAT: 1480, 780 RW 700 M (highest SAT score in the school). RETAKING NOVEMBER AND UNTIL I GET 790+ MATH
- associates degree by graduation, 20 DE classes [95% of ppl in my school do this though]
- no APs (school barely offers any).
- highest math will be AP Calc AB by senior yr 😢 (hardest math track my school has)

ECS:
- (10th/11th) Custom built & sold budget PCs locally. $13k revenue over 6 months, 30+ 5 star reviews; managed accounting for 250+ transactions, 15h/wk

- (11th) Led weekly SAT instruction in my school; delivered 15+ workshops, selected as 1 of 10/400 students to lead schoolwide lessons. Received informal commendation from school principal. SIngle handedly created 10+ lesson plans. Conducted 3+ lessons to a crowd of 100+ students as part of school-mandated schoolwide SAT lessons for the entire junior and senior classes

- (10th/11th) Online Volunteer SAT Tutoring: Tutored 100+ students online; answered 1,000+ SAT questions, mentored 10+ students to earn 700+ section scores, tailored 1:1 study strategies.

- (10th/11th) part-time janitor job, 10hr a week (got laid off a few weeks ago sadly)

- (9th/10th/11th) Created & edited 60+ educational Rubik’s Cube YT videos; garnered 1.2M+ views in 3 months, collaborated with 5+ creators in the space

- (9th/10th/11th) Family Responsibility: managed family budget helping family save money, and house cleaning (8hr/wk)

- (9th/10th/11th) volunteer at numerous rubik's cube competitions: judged 250+ competitors across 5+ Rubik’s Cube competitions; coordinated with fellow volunteers to support efficient event operations.

- (10th) cyberpatriot varsity member: Served as co-head of the varsity team in 2+ CyberPatriot competitions; developed team strategy & helped improve competition scores by 20%.

- (11th) AVID Class representative: tutored peers in coursework weekly; organized AVID cohort events, led teams of 20+ students, raised $200+ through fundraising. (in my school, AVID is required all 4 years)

- (11th) school Astronomy club member, helped plan & execute 2+ fundraisers which went on to raise $300 in total; contributed event ideas and supported financial management.

- (9th/10th/11th) wikipedia editor with 100 edits; edited articles about rubiks cubes

- (9th/10th/11th) 100+ community service hours working at school events and fundraisers

- (10th) art club member: contributed to 2+ events

- (9th/10th/11th) weightlifting

Awards/Honors:

- 3rd place within state Rubik's cube championship
- peaked top 100 nationally for the hardest discipline of competitive rubik's cubing (9th)
- peaked top 2.5% nationally for 3x3x3 competitive rubik's cubing (10th)
- peaked top 3.5% nationally for 2x2x2 competitive rubik’s cubing (11th)
- school's A honor roll (9th/10th/11th)
- president's list, community college (9th/10th/11th)
- national hispanic honor society member (11th)

Additional Info:
- single parent household
- both parents are #unemployed
- mom (custodial parent) is 90-100k in debt
- family hasnt had a car since i was in 7th grade, which makes some ECs a lot harder (my city's also super car dependent)
- part of family is homeless
- squatters lived in our home in 9th grade so it affected my grades a lil
- had to spend like 20-30hr a week cleaning in 9th grade bc my dad was a severe hoarder so that also affected my grades + ECs

So I submitted my application on October 15 and I just got my my status profile. I’m supposed to send official scores but it will take up to 5-10 business days but the deadline is on Thursday.

Is this happening to anything right now? What should I do?

Hi! We are high school students working on a research project related to Austin CapMetro. We’re hoping to hear from UT Austin students who use CapMetro and would be willing to share their experiences and opinions through a short survey. Time to complete: 2 to 3 minutes. Privacy: All responses are completely anonymous and used strictly for academic research.

Take the survey here:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSerCgtH9enkTv9FR5xQKw3eh3BGDY6iEvMLLNfYVFdFhdtMog/viewform?usp=header