I hope this is true! A friend’s son was auto admit, 2/570, 1550+ SAT, all state musician, lots of CS ECs and awards…offered liberal arts/undeclared! He applied for CS.
How does that make sense!
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My child is liberal arts (history, wants to go to law school). She has a 33 ACT, 4.16, very very competitive high school, varsity sport captain, tons of ECs, and in state. She was caped. Now I’m wondering …… it looks like they took a TON of these auto admit computer science, engineering, business kids and gave them “liberal arts undecided” randomly. Did that take all the liberal arts spots up? (I’ve seen over 10 of these posts on blogs this morning). Are these super techy kids going to do liberal arts??? This is crazy.
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Completely agree. I’m one of 'em! I don’t know what I should do… appeal, accept other offers? I applied for ECE, so I think I’ll try to possibly appeal, but I’ve begun the process for other colleges. Maybe I’ll reapply for masters.
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Sucks for the “techy” kids but also sucks for the kids that applied liberal arts. Really really horrible!
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Ii guess that’s true and the techy kids are taking the spots. I feel your pain. Is it a good idea for liberal art program at UT to take many techy kids? Maybe the University is thinking AI liberal arts?
Or maybe it’s a strategy for the University, they have to take 6%, so they wish the techy kids drop themselves and find somewhere else. So maybe your child still has a chance just wait a little bit.
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I just don’t believe in compromising my major. If you’ve been set on a major and didn’t get it, and If UT is still heavily desired, changing to another major within the same realm may work for appeal, but yea I’m absolutely NOT taking liberal arts. Rather go to A&M where I’ll get the same degree for cheaper.
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If this is true I honestly don’t know what kind of admissions office UT has
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Read above…… there are multiple kids and parents on this site aging that their kid did not get 1/2 choice major of computer science, engineering etc, then they were randomly given “liberal arts undeclared” (which I had never heard of and didn’t know was an option). Sounds like they had to take 6%, but threw them in liberal arts so they would leave themselves and go to another school. Again this is speculation, but after reading alot of these, plus know 3 lib arts applicants that got caped with VERY stats and resumes it seem legit to me.
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I believe it’s UT’s way to soft reject these auto-admit kids. If they want engineering/business/cs, these kids aren’t going to enroll for liberal arts/undeclared.
Many of my son’s friends received CAPed as well. I hope your child will receive some great options in the next few months.
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The merit scholarship and honor quad housing are the biggest benefits of honors mechanical engineering. There are no special classes or priority registration or even a first year interest group. They gave her an incredible scholarship which we very much appreciated.
At a giant school like UT, I’d say most successes are based on being really proactive and being a go-getter rather than a label of “honors.” She is loving her experience and opportunities at UT thus far but I don’t think they have to do with being an “honors” student. She has taken a very active role in ASME and works in the surgical robotics lab because she went out and secured those opportunities for herself. Hope that helps!
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My daughter received well over that. It’s absolutely a possibility. There is a range for sure but it goes all the way to full tuition
This has been true for years…. There are over 3000 high schools in Texas and if the top 6% is 20 kids on average from a high school… It’s probably much higher than that… That is 60,000 auto admits… This is their way of doing a soft rejection
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I think I could believe that if these kids didn’t also have amazing stats other than just being top 6%. If you’re top 6% but your test scores were lower, ECs weren’t great, didn’t volunteer, didn’t have a job, etc then yeah it makes sense. But kids with 1500+ SATs, plus amazing ECs, starting clubs or non profits, holding down jobs, multi sport athletes and still not getting in is crazy. My daughter is auto admit, applied McCombs, but was put into Moodys. I could explain that others with a much better applications and stats were ahead of her but when her friend from her same school, lower class rank, lower GPA, lower SAT scores, very little ECs, no jobs, bare minimum volunteering, admitted that her parents wrote her essays got admitted into UT and got into McCombs, she doesn’t understand. And I don’t either. It is what it is and she is moving on but still very disappointing.
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I follow this college counselor on Facebook. Her post regarding this years’ admissions cycle should be pinned and posted everywhere. She makes some very relevant points regarding the whole process, many of which we, as parents and students, don’t always see and understand. I get the hurt and confusion and anger, it’s valid, but also, getting capped or being an auto admit and being pushed into COLA Undeclared is really just a small blip in time. It by NO WAY should define the student as a person or takes away from their achievements and self worth. Feel all
the feels, then onwards and upwards!
A smart, driven, accomplished student will bloom wherever they are planted. 
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Very well said. And of course that’s what we tell our kids, but this is a state school. These are tax dollars not private dollars. The lack of transparency and fairness for kids that have dedicated 4 years to getting into this school is outrageous and needs to be changed.
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People chalk it up to “oh this happens every year” kids with much higher stats, resumes, ECs, everything get capped. But, the fact of the matter is this state school cannot keep rejecting kids that are WAY better in EVERY WAY and accepting kids who are so far below others. People continue to say “it’s a numbers game”. No! These are tax dollars. Review the applications and rank them based on merit!
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I think it is hard to make assumptions that any students stats would have put them ahead of a group of students and qualified them for admission based on anecdotal data received on a chat board. There are thousands of kids that received admission to many majors, and we are just seeing a small sampling of anecdotal data here.
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Oh absolutely! Some wonderful well deserving gets that got in. But many many “obvious screw ups” in this process. And we can’t keep chalking it up to “it’s a numbers game” or “it’s a lotttery”. This is a state school run on tax dollars and there needs to be transparent, understandable, and fair processes in place. Surely you would agree?
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I hope so cuz it’s painful reading some of this stuff…
I do agree that the admissions process should be fair. With the 6% rule in place, though I do believe someone who sits outside of that should not expect to be admitted.