Is it Worth Applying to the UC System - If Out of State?

[xiggi]

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As to address the main concern of having a powerhouse in-state flagship - I’m in a strange situation to say the least. I attend essentially a public charter high school that runs within an actual University (check out Wikipedia’s article on Early College Entrance Programs). Because of this - our program cannot legitimately rank its students - since there is no weighting of GPA, and since we all take the same classes at the same level of rigor (University classes). While Texas is a great school - due to the state’s rule where ANY student in the top 10% of the graduating class MUST be admitted to the University of Texas BY STATE LAW - this severely puts a strain on getting into Texas from private schools or schools with special cases such as mine. It’s why we have cases of students getting into Rice or Northwestern and having to go there because the in-state flagship of Texas rejects them not because they’re not qualified but because they simply don’t have room due to the requirement of accepting top 10% students.</p>

<p>This is mainly why I wanted to apply to the UC system. While many people give the argument “for that cost you might as well apply to better privates” - the fact of the matter is that for fields such as engineering (or maybe for Haas) too - there are actually very FEW private universities that are “better”.

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<p>IndianOptimist, I would highly suggest discussing your options with your guidance counselor or spending some time researching the admissions’ procedure at UT-Austin. </p>

<p>Fwiw, the 10% rule is irrelevant to students who plan to apply to the McCombs business school or to the Engineering school. While the 10% automatic admissions to any state school in Texas represents the safe ticket for the students who attend ranking schools, it does not mean that students who are not are almost certain of being rejected. There are PLENTY of students who are admitted to Texas from non-ranking schools. In addition, for admissions to the business and engineering schools, all students are placed on equal footing. </p>

<p>As far as “better” programs, the McCombs business school has two separate programs. The Business Honors Program is the honor program of the business school. To show how irrelevant the top 10% rule is to admissions to McCombs, here are a few stats:</p>

<p>Applicants: 6,761
Admitted: 1,213
Enrolled*: 721
Average SAT (admitted): 1289
Average ACT (admitted): 28
Average high school rank (admitted): 2.2%<br>
Average SAT (enrolled): 1266 </p>

<p>The Business Honor Program is much more selective. The SAT scores are between 150 to 200 points higher than the regular business school.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.mccombs.utexas.edu/programs/bhp/admissions/documents/BHP_Viewbook2008.pdf[/url]”>http://www.mccombs.utexas.edu/programs/bhp/admissions/documents/BHP_Viewbook2008.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Also remember that a student does not always get admitted to a business school as a freshman, but had to it as a transfer. And, last but not least, the term TRANSFER is one that has to be clearly appraised when comparing institutions. With the obsessive focus on freshman applications and admissions, it is easy to lose track of the impact of huge transfer classes at a number of schools. </p>

<p>Caveat Emptor!</p>