Can you still get into your dream school if you don’t get accepted?

The latest post from our resident high school student. Sydney takes a look at a couple of examples of ways students can get into the school of their choice if they don’t get accepted directly.

What happens in the not so ideal scenario that you don’t get directly admitted into your top choice school? This is a major fear of many students, many of whom fail to realize that there are a plethora of other options which can allow you admission in the end.

One example of this is the Coordinated Admission Program (CAP) which allows prospective UT Austin students another route towards admission. With this program, students apply directly to UT Austin but could be offered the CAP program instead. In participating in the program, students can attend one of the UT Austin satellite schools (UT Arlington, UT San Antonio, UT Permian Basin, or UT El Paso) for their freshman year, and have a chance for admission at UT Austin after. The requirements for admission include:

• Students maintain a 3.2 freshman year GPA or above
• Complete a math course past College Algebra
• Complete at least 30 hours of class (15 per semester, summer classes will not count)

The downside of this program is that students are only guaranteed admission into the Liberal Arts College. This means that if a student plans on applying for a major outside of the Liberal Arts college then they will have to apply like any other transfer student. One major advantage is that students can save a lot of money. By attending one of the satellite schools that are close to home, you can save money on room and board. You also save money on tuition because for example, at UT Arlington tuition would be around seven thousand dollars versus UT Austin’s being around ten.

Another example of this is the Blinn TEAM (Transfer Enrollment at A&M) Program. With this program students are given two years to complete 45 Blinn Credit hours and 15 A&M credit hours and maintain a minimum GPA of 3.0. While you are guaranteed admission for achieving this GPA requirement, you are not guaranteed your major of choice. This program is somewhat simpler than the CAP program for UT Austin, but you do have two years to complete it. Taking more classes at Blinn College than Texas A&M for two years may seem like a disadvantage to some, but there are benefits to this as well. Similar to the CAP Program attending a local college rather than a large university offers generally easier and cheaper classes.

Many colleges have some variation of this type of program making it possible that you will have another chance at admission. To summarize: not viewing these programs as a second rate option can do you a lot of good. This is because you can save money, maintain a high GPA, and end up at your first choice college in the process. Therefore, not only is it not the end of the world to not gain admission to your favorite school right off the bat, but it also could benefit you in the long run.