<p>Seems they have agreed on a proposal to limit 10% admissions to 50% of the class (would only affect UT Austin at this point). </p>
<p>But our good friend Royce Williams of Dallas says he has the votes to block it.</p>
<p>Get out your pens and start writing if you want it to pass. I think finding out who is in his "voting block" is the best course, but I don't know how to do it. Maybe there is more information in the Dallas paper.</p>
<p>This somewhat alleviates the overcrowding problem...but I am still in favor of a system that is not heavily weighted towards rank. (seriously, UT likes rank way too much). However, they will probably never do that because they need to "diversify" and not have UT be a bastion of kids from suburbia of Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, and Austin. Though I'm sure they could find another way. </p>
<p>And they don't have to hire as many admissions officers with the rank deal, because seriously, if your a certain rank applying to a certain school within UT, they either shoe you in without reading the rest of your app, or actually read it if you are not within the rank. I mean you could get a bum of the street to tell you if this kid is top 3% or not.</p>
<p>runpunk, you imply that UT is in favor of keeping the 10% rule. In fact, they are doing everything in their power to get it repealed or changed to lessen the impact. UT doesn't want 100% of their entering freshman to be admitted strictly on the basis of being in the top 10%. That greatly affects the ability to admit kids who can bring a myriad of talents and strengths to the university, such as artistic ability or musical talents. Right now, UT is the only school that is truly being hurt because a majority of the class (last year 71%) is admitted under the 10% rule; in a few years, with the current trend, it is conceivable that 100% will be admitted using only rank as a criteria. A&M will follow suit as well. </p>
<p>It is your elected state representatives that have enacted this rule and only they have the power to repeal or amend it.</p>
<p>ilovebusiness, I keep my eyes and ears open to news about UT because of having college age (or soon to be) kids. I'm happy to pass along what I've read or heard (and hope I'm not passing bad information ;))</p>
<p>I think that they should definitely change the top 10% rule to top 5%. This would still enable intelligent students from underrepresented high schools to gain admission into UT. Here's the problem with top 10%. First off, there's way too many kids - UT practically fills up (almost 80%) on top 10% kids alone. Second, there are very qualified and intelligent students from unranked schools who will not gain admission to UT simply because they have no class rank. Finally, class rank is very subjective. It is certainly easier to make top 10% in some random school in Tyler compared to a much more competitive school in Houston or Plano. And like I said, with top 5%, UT would still be able to diversify...but the very deserving kids from unranked schools and competitive districts would be able to gain admission too.</p>
<p>Tough decision. He just could justify the extra money to go out of state. He wants to save it for law/grad school. He will always be a USC fan though! </p>
<p>Ok, maybe I've missed something here, but how will they decide which Top 10% grads are automatically admitted and which aren't now that there's a cap? Is it by application date? By lottery?</p>
<p>UT would never do rolling admissions.. I would think they would do 1%, 2%, 3% until they meet their quota. Then notify the person that he/she wasn't high enough and would be considered with the rest of the applicants as normal.</p>