@ak2018 In Texas, students in the top 10 percent are automatically accepted to the state schools, except UT Austin where you must be in the top 7 percent (some years 8 percent) Students are not guaranteed their choice of major but they are admitted. It is not the only way to get in but at UT something like 75 percent of the class is auto admit.
@ak2018 - auto admit in Texas simply means that a student who graduates from a Texas high school will be offered admission to a university (if they apply) if they have met the minimum required class rank/gpa/test score set by the university (and the State). By law a state university only has to guaranteed admission to the top 10% of a graduating class but the individual university usually then has an individual admission policy that guarantees admission for those other than just the top 10%. If you do not meet the auto admit cut offs your application goes into a “Holistic” review process.
At schools like A&M and UT-Austin the student can be admitted but may not be admitted to their major choice (this is particularly true for students who want engineering as a major). For Instance my D18 is considering UT-San Antonio (and possibly U of H) she meets the minimum requirements to be admitted for UT-SA because she is in the top 12% of her class and she will likely meet the minimum requirements for U of H. So she can be assured that she will have a place at some university in the state of Texas when she graduates. She does not meet the auto admit requirements for UT-Austin as it is expected that the Class of 2018 auto admit cutoff will apply only to those in the top 7% of their class. Auto admit requirements for UT-SA and U of H are: (You can see that the requirements are not particularly stringent…)
UT-San Antonio
Guaranteed Admissions
HS RANK IN CLASS SAT Score ACT Score
Top 25% no minimum no minimum
Second 25% 1100 SAT 24 ACT
Admission by Committee Review
HS RANK IN CLASS SAT SCORES ACT SCORES
Second 25% ≥ 900 SAT ≥ 19 ACT
Third 25% ≥ 1000 SAT ≥ 21 ACT
Fourth 25% ≥ 1100 SAT ≥ 24 ACT
University of Houston
Rank in Class Minimum Test Scores SAT I Total (CR + M) OR ACT Composite
Top 10% No Minimum No Minimum
Top 11%-25% 1000 21
Top 26%-50% 1100 24
51% and lower Individual Review*
D18 and I attended the college night at our local HS. I was eager to go to get an answer about how the school district’s current application policies and procedures were going to interface with the new Coalition for Access Application. Attended a session on the Common Application and asked my question…the GC said she was happy that I asked as “They” had just discussed it this past week and that “They” decided to not make it electronically accessible for transcripts/recommendations/counselor reports and that they would not “go into the app” (whatever that means), if a student wanted to use it the burden would be on the student to “make it work”. She finished her statement with “Don’t worry about it, only a few schools use it exclusively and those are far away so it won’t effect you.”
UUGGGHH…really? D18 has 2 schools on her list that are Coalition for Access Application exclusive. I am so frustrated with the attitude in our school district that no one is looking at schools outside of Texas. Faced the same uphill battle with D16.
@labegg Just know that you are not alone. Here in CA, at least at our public school, the assumption is that everyone will be going to a UC, a CalState, the local CC, or, perhaps, the ultra-, super-selective schools if a kid is “lucky.” In our program, I somehow have become the spokesperson for looking at things a little differently than most; which is a change, because they never wanted to hear my opinion before. There’s been a small “changing-of-the-guard,” so there is more openness to publicly stating there are other options out there.
Only about a month here too. He has to start on summer reading and we need to work on interstate driving and parallel parking. I’d like to teach him to drive our manual transmission car as well, because it has 4 wheel drive, which we will need in winter.
He told me that it’s ok if he doesn’t take his test in the summer, he is not really in a hurry and wants to drive well.
I’m glad he is being so mature about it. All we have to do is renew the permit.
Over the weekend DD and DH looked at cars and chose a nice, safe, reliable used car. DD had narrowed her choices between a more rugged “cool” SUV and a not-so-cool “mom” crossover. We looked at Consumer Reports reviews as well as compared fuel costs and she agreed that the “mom” SUV was a better choice for a new driver who has to pay for her own gas ha ha. It’s AWD so while not a true 4x4 like the other choice, should be ok in the winter. The SUV she was driving before her accident was a true 4x4 and very handy in the snow, but alas it is no more. My car is also AWD so we will have 2 vehicles with AWD and should be fine in all but the most extreme cases of snow.
It’s being inspected by our mechanic today and hopefully she’ll have the keys in hand tomorrow. This is perfect timing as I leave for SFO on Wednesday to visit my parents and I don’t want her driving my 6-month old vehicle with only 4500 miles on it!
We just bought a car for S18 to use, it is not his car and it will go to S20 when S18 goes to college. We ended up with new 2016 Scion iA. Toyota is dropping the Scion brand beginning this month and the 2017’s will all be branded as Toyotas so they are really trying to get rid of the cars they have on hand. Thankfully we don’t have to worry about snow in central Texas!
We live in Portland, Oregon and the public transportation is so good that few kids are keen on getting their driver license. My 16 year old still doesn’t even have his permit! go2girl waited until she was 18 to get her license and it brought the insurance rate way down. Will probably do the same thing with go2guy. go2guy is returning from Chicago and HOBY WLC today. Can’t wait to corner him and hear all about it. The rest of his summer will be pretty quiet studying for the SAT and coming up with a plan for volunteer hours. I just found out that Colleges that Change Lives is coming to town on Thursday with representatives from all of their schools there. I figure this will be a great first pass since he is likely to focus on small LACs. We already toured Clark University and he loved it. He has an interest in urban studies/planning and now it’s just a matter of finding the schools within that context. I can’t see him in a rural area but fortunately a lot of the CTCL schools are in more urban areas.
First day of band camp here. 2-9 every day until school starts next Wednesday. Summer is basically gone, but I actually think S’18 is ready.
S’13 came this weekend for a few weeks before he heads back to college for his senior year. The house is so much more alive with everybody here. I know it’s a cliche, but enjoy time with your kids while they are still home. .
Today is also our first day of band camp. Ours runs 7am-4pm through Tuesday the 9th. Then school starts on the 18th. DS15 moves into his dorm room on the 18th so I won’t be home to see her first day of school for the first time.
So today was the first day of cross country tryouts at my school, but I couldn’t go since I’m going to be at summer school all week, with this week being the last week of summer school. I was, however, debating on whether or not I should even do cross country. Since summer school started, I’ve been waiting for it to end so I could have more available time to prep. If I decide to do cross country, it’ll be like my PE summer class all over again, where I’ll be so tired after practice, I won’t feel up to doing prep. So I was wondering what I should go for, prep or cross country. I would honestly love to do cross country again, because I kind of miss being with all of my track friends and being on a team, but I’d be fine with starting in November doing indoor track.
Our son does XC as well. They practice all summer, but official practices don’t start until 8/22. It is a no-cut sport so they will allow anyone who wants to be on the team to join. However, he said that after going to training camp with them a couple weeks ago, it looks like he will need to be running a sub-17 5k to make varsity this year. Our son’s goal is a sub 16:30 this season. He’s been training hard on his own as his job is at a sleep away camp and he has not been able to go to practice with the team. So he has been running during the two hours a day he has off each day for personal time.
DS decided not to run XC this year, which I think has been liberating! He got first official part time job this summer working at the local movie theater. He seems to like it. We will see how it goes when school starts back next week. I handed him down my 8 year old car last fall when he turned 16. For now I am paying the insurance, so he is working for gas and spending money.
@RoonilWazlib99 If it’s not too much to ask, how was your son able to schedule a time to have someone from the Engineering department go on the tour with them? I just got off the phone with the Engineering department, and they said they don’t do anything like that.
My D is considering running xc for the first time this year, and I’m a little torn. There were tryouts today and she had to run a 4K in under 44 minutes. She made it in 37, so she can do it if she wants. I’m worried about the time commitment, though. She also works part-time, and this year she’s got a very heavy course load on top of all the standardized testing. On the other hand, she still needs to knock out her PE requirement and this would help. I’m going to let her decide, but I’m not sure she knows what she’s in for…