Top 10 percent rule is unfair

basic.HTML
Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:04:27 +0000

Happy: Thanks for the backhanded compliment that I’m not ignorant but rather I’m narrow minded. I dismissed the importance of grades earlier due to your statement the top 10% law related to grades. Again, it’s not based on grades, but rather how you fare against your peers. While technically, yes, grades are involved, it’s one’s ranking against the other students which takes precedence. I admire your hope for equal opportunities in higher education. However, when that happens, the more educated students who do in fact score on higher on AP tests and the SAT receive the proverbial short end of the stick. They are the ones who are not immediately admitted to the university and instead are provided the CAP program or summer admit option. The less educated ones are the ones who receive the direct route to the university and forgo the satellite university. Wouldn’t you agree it would be rational to send these other students through the CAP program where they would be able to learn in an environment dedicated to catching them up to the other students at the flagship institution?

Bourne: I hope you didn’t think I was trying to boast and project the impression I believed I lived their struggles. I was simply showing I knew there were other situations out there outside my own. I do believe in a utilitarian philosophy where we can maximize good. While the 10% law does benefit those less privileged, it doesn’t make sense to me why those close, but not top 10% should suffer.

UT does a fantastic job of providing different opportunities to admission to the university, whether through its summer program, CAP, or an external transfer from a community college. To me, if it weren’t for the top 10% law, the students would be apportioned more fairly.