Ok. Looking for some advice. My son is dead set on getting in to Texas. The problem is that he attends an IB school in an open district (Garland). So every kid with a brain, for the most part, chooses GHS due to IB. This is a district of over 300,000 because it includes Rowlett and Sachse, so lots of smartypantses.
My son currently sits at exactly 7%. He has a 3.85 GPA on a 4.0 scale, scored a 1370 on the SAT, and has all kinds of positive references, clubs, etc... We took an official tour over the summer and heard much of the same stuff that has been mentioned on this thread - that is the importance of the essay and extracurricular activities.
I'm having a hard time determining if he's screwed or not by not being inside the cutoff. Assuming he does well on the essay, any idea what our odds are? I get that TX has high standards and lots and lots of applications, but it seems shitty that he would be adversely affected because he attends an extremely competitive (academically, definitely not football) school.
Poor kid. When I attended Garland, I had a 3.1 GPA and finished in the Top 5% due to IB showing up the year after I graduated. I don't recall even writing an essay.