<p>Just an FYI for those interested …</p>
<p>[UT</a> to shrink automatic admission to top 7 percent - Houston Chronicle](<a href=“http://www.chron.com/news/education/article/UT-to-shrink-automatic-admission-to-top-7-percent-3994767.php]UT”>http://www.chron.com/news/education/article/UT-to-shrink-automatic-admission-to-top-7-percent-3994767.php)</p>
<p>Very interesting! So what is the real motivation behind this change? By holistic, what do they mean? Do they mean more out-of-state students or foreign students, that can bring in more money?</p>
<p>I don’t live in TExas but I was always curious about this. What rank do they use? Do they require weighted rank or unweighted? And do they count rank at end of junior year or in senior year? If you get accepted and then fall out of top whatever percent do you lose acceptance?</p>
<p>Just curious how it works.</p>
<p>toledo, I meant to post this in the forum and have asked this one be deleted so you might want to slide over.</p>
<p>I think it’s a combination of things. One, they only have to take 75% of the freshman class this way so taking it down to 7% helps them hit that based on historical yield, etc. That remaining 25% is for them to hit other institutional goals – diversity, int’l and OOS’ers who bring in more money.</p>
<p>it is still a great bargain/deal. Many in the top 3% of high schools in California have trouble getting accepted to our state flagship(s).</p>
<p>I always thought that this rule helped with racial diversity. Tell me if I’m wrong. The only reason I can see them cutting back on automatic admits, is that they want to go after more tuition dollars from out-of-state and foreign students.</p>
<p>In my S’s public Texas high school, the rankings are calculated, using weighted GPA’s, at the end of the 5th 6-week period of the senior year.</p>
<p>As far as I can tell, it is up to each school district to determine how to rank its students. The Texas statutes do not appear to provide any guidance in this.</p>
<p>As for the news, I think some of my S’s classmates are not going to be too happy about this, as a number of them are counting on getting automatic admission to UT for the Fall 2014 semester.</p>
<p>Agree with austinareadad that each district has its own way of determining rank. Here, it’s weighted at end of junior year. If you fall out of top 10% (or whatever) after getting in, you don’t get rescinded as far as I know, and if you scoot in midway senior year, you can use that rank to apply and gain admittance.</p>
<p>toledo, there was a recent press release I saw that, to me, showed that the diversity is nowhere near what the state looks like. I’ll have to try to find it.</p>
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<p>What month would that be? That seems a little late for UT to still be processing admission applications. They really cut it close I guess.</p>
<p>Toledo, the goal of the policy is to increase racial and economic diversity and it does that by providing that 75 percent of the freshman class is to be made up of automatic admits who may come from any high school in the state, including those in poor areas and areas which are majority minority. When there are too many automatic admits, then either the size of the freshman class must be increased, which is not considered desirable for the standard reasons, or more than 75 percent of the class will be made up of auto admits. The problem with the latter is that it conflicts with the balance struck of 75:25 and a greater number of strong students from very good high schools, who did not make the top 7 or 8 or whatever percent, will then be denied because there won’t be enough remaining slots. I believe it has little to do with getting OOS or foreign full-pay students.</p>
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<p>So you’re saying that this new “holistic” view was meant to take in more students from the better high schools?</p>
<p>toledo, for the remaining 25 percent there is supposed to be a holistic review, which could include consideration of race, SAT scores, extracurriculars, etc…, and that is where the fights about racial preferences are.</p>
<p>bovertine, apparently UT does use the rank as calculated by the high school at the end of the junior year for admissions. I was going by my S’s high school website which claimed to calculate rank after the 5th 6-week period of senior year. That is apparently for other purposes, so as with Youdon’tsay’s high school, the rank that matters for UT is that at the end of junior year. Sorry for the wrong information and the confusion.</p>
<p>^It’s not a new view, but the % has changed (was 10% previously). </p>
<p>One consequence has been students look elsewhere, both within and out of state. Texas Tech has become hugely popular with many students I know.</p>
<p>I believe the current Supreme Court case on consideration of racial factors in college admissions (widely believed to roll these back) may come into play here, too, as UT and other universities are being directly challenged and may be trying to make a preemptive move.</p>
<p>In my world this is a good thing. We, who sacrificed and bought houses in neighborhoods with top ranked schools, are currently penalized when our kids rank below that magical top percentage and can’t be auto-admits to UT. Kids like ours had almost 0% chance of getting into the rare holistic review spots. By reducing the top 10% to top 7% that leaves a lot more open spots for our kids with > 30 ACT and > 2000 SAT scores to make it in.</p>
<p>Just to make it clear, the 75:25 split is about slots for in-state Texas students, as the 75 + 25 = 100 percent of students who are to be admitted as Texas residents. It has nothing to do with OOS and foreign students.</p>
<p>When the State legislature ammended the top 10% rule exclusively for the University of Texas, Ausitn, it was done because of a push made by the University itself to have more control over the mix of students in each of its entering classes. At the rate admissions were going prior to the change, there would have been no reason for a kid in the “non-top 10%” to apply. The applications generated by the top 10% would have yieded the entire incoming classes going forward, and those classes would have began to stress the University as whole, as the incoming freshman class would have begun to expand in size beyond what the University felt would be in its best interest. (ie, they like a target freshman class of 6800 and this year they were pushing 8,000 because yield was so high, which is more than likely why the percentage declined from 8% to 7%)</p>
<p>The reason this law can cause controversy is that just like all states, there are many high achieving high schools and many under achieving high schools. Parents in traditionaly wealthy, “Type A” schools would raise the “not fair” flag that their child, (for example sake) was in the top 12% with a high GPA, 12 AP classes with 4’s and 5’s and even with a strong profile, was bypassed for admission to UT because they fell outside the top 10%. The University simply did not have additional room to even begin a holistic review process of non-auto admit applicants because the auto admits were squeezing that percentage each and every year.</p>
<p>It is true that a student for example from a Plano High school in the 3rd quartile might possibly have a greater SAT score, have taken more APs and even have a highter GPA than a student in the top 5% from a valley school. This is exactly why the law was put on the books in the first place. It gave children in under funded, under achieving districts and opportunity at the State flagship. It has been reported and studied that these students do quite well at the University. The gut feeling that they would fail or not perform has not been validated. Really the opposite is true. The kids in the top 10% despite what high school they come from, perform better than their “non top 10%” peers. This holds true even when SAT or ACT scores are factored in, ie, just because you score higher, it is not a predictor of excellence at the University level.</p>
<p>At my daughter’s high school, it is drilled into the children and the parents that if you want your child admitted in the auto admit group, then they better have their crap together. GCs tell the kids to aim for the top 5% because top 10, 9, 8, etc, may not be enough. Our district also cuts rank off at the end of the 6th quarter (end of Junior year) and no matter if you worm your way into the top “whatever” your first quarter Senior year, it does not matter. Your auto admit status does not change. It is the same situation for kids that “slip” out of the cut of percentage. If they made it at the end of Junior year, then it is what it is.</p>
<p>The University pushed for this change so that more kids in the high achieving high schools could have a legitimate shot at admission. It can’t be easy to get calls from all the Texas exes irritated that their child is not going to their beloved University. It was not because the desire to go after more out of state students, I believe it was to quell the growning tide of discontent growing in Alumni support. The University is smart enough to know that most alumni will cluster in more alfluent areas and their children will become “victims” of the top 10% rule. But the fact remains the rules are WELL known. There should not be surprises for these seasoned veterens of the system. But if their child slips through the cracks, the safety net has been expanded with reduction of the auto admit percentage.</p>
<p>I figured this was going to happen sooner or later. I believe alot of the kids in the “holistic review number” will also be athletes… </p>
<p>8000 is a lot of kids, A&M is in the same boat this year with a huge freshman class. I wonder if it will change from 10% rule to 8%?? My D’s GC was saying last year they thought it would happen in the next couple of years.</p>
<p>I like A&M’s academic admit program – top 25% with a CR+M of 1300. That helps those acadmically successful students at the high-flying schools who don’t crack the top 10%.</p>
<p>Collegeshopping has it nailed. Very good post.</p>
<p>The rank is captured at the end of the junior year, and admittance is NOT rescinded once awarded on the basis of rank. If the school doesn’t rank, or doesn’t rank at that time, they can “assign” a rank.</p>
<p>It helps with racial diversity. The lower the percentage, the more it helps. UT is being OVERRUN with auto-admits at 8%, and that’s why they have reduced it to 7%.</p>
<p>As far as A&M going to an 8% rule - it could happen. But A&M also auto admits the top 25% of graduates completing all “recommended” coursework if they have an SAT score of 1300 (at least 600 in each M & CR) or a 30 on ACT (at least a 27 on math and English).</p>
<p>This HELPS students who are in better high schools where it’s more difficult to make it into the top 10%.</p>
<p>Cross-post with Youdon’tsay</p>