<p>At Andover, at least, a 2.8 (which scales to a 4.2 on its grading scale) would be nearly the bottom of the class. Going by the (slightly stronger than normal) class of 2009, the 10th percentile is around a 5.5, the 40th is around a 5.0, and the 50th would be around a 4.7 or so. A 4.7 scales to roughly a 3.2 or 3.1 out of 4.0, though as sugarkim mentioned, some state schools will recalculate GPAs and not just take them as is.</p>
<p>Soccer_Dad I think it is a great question. I would ask their admissions people or talk to some of the placement people at boarding schools. I know that at St. Paul’s they do not rank students (and will not provide a ranking) and they will not calculate a GPA (they use a different grading system). So poor UT would have a real tough time figuring out what to do.</p>
<p>st paul has the right idea. if its that competitive…dont let kids attack each other over ranks</p>
<p>Thanks to all who posted on this thread - it is perfect timing for us - hope to contact the OP for a bit of collaboration as we are in Tx too.</p>
<p>I’ll add this:</p>
<p>The top 10% of each TX public high school receive automatic admission to Tx public universities - it is a state law that may change in the future but stands for now. This is a big deal because it floods the incoming class of university freshman outside of the “normal” admission decision making process of other schools. The remaining few vacancies are then easily filled with top students from other high schools such as Tx private schools and National Merit folks.</p>
<p>So, if University of Texas Austin or any other public Tx university is the ultimate goal then the advantage clearly goes to the top students in a Tx public high school - no question about it (in my mind at least) - private high schools are clearly at a disadvantage due to the state law.</p>
<p>Tough Situation!</p>
<p>According to the Common Data Set published by UT-Austin, 75% of last year’s entering freshman were ranked in the top 10% of their high school class. While that is well behind leading private schools and a handful of elite publics (Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan, Virginia, etc.) that generally exceed 90% or even 95%, it is still a very high figure for a flagship state university, particularly one as large as Texas.</p>
<p>(Mo1258, I sent you a message.)</p>
<p>I emailed UT admissions with my concerns and I’ve pasted their reply below. It doesn’t completely answer my questions, but her recommendations are ones that I can’t argue with.</p>
<p>Note that the change she refers to in 2011 is capping automatic admission for the top 10% of Texas public high school students, by class rank, at 75% of the incoming class. So they will offer automatic admission to the top 1%, then the top 2%, and on up until they’ve filled 75% of the class (which will likely happen before they hit 10%, given that an estimated 86% of the 2009 entering class was admitted under the top 10% rule).</p>
<p>And the reply from UT Austin admissions:</p>
<hr>
<p>Thank you for your email.</p>
<p>Providing the opportunities for your children to have the best high school education possible is definitely the right approach. Strong academic schools produce strong academic students. These students tend to do well on essays and the rigorous curriculum prepares them well for the SAT and ACT. They participate in extracurricular activities that are extraordinary. And those students that take advantage of all of those opportunities tend to do well in our holistic review process.</p>
<p>Your question, however, is about placing admission to UT Austin as the end goal. The law for automatic admission to UT Austin will change for the incoming class of 2011 and beyond. Excluding that percentage of students who get automatic admission, the rest of the students go through the review process. When speaking to students about their decisions to take AP or not, for example, we strongly urge students to consider the consequences that their decision will have if they end up not attending UT Austin. Will they have prepared themselves academically for university studies? Will your children decide to attend UT Austin after having gone to a boarding school? Will they have been academically prepared the best way possible? I understand how important and how personal this decision is and I can only advise that you and your family discuss your options for what will best prepare your students for any university, including UT Austin.</p>
<p>Best of luck!</p>
<p>Given that 25% of the UT Austin class will be non-auto-admit, it seems to me that your daughter would be fine. Her private school will send information to the colleges to which she applies (normally a school profile that indicated the rigor of the school in various ways) that should allow them to judge her fairly.</p>