<p>loneranger - no sense trying to talk sense into people who just want to beat the dead horse.</p>
<p>It's not fair - what else is new?</p>
<p>flyboy - instead of posting your "improved method" of admissions to a public Texas university on a website, why don't you include it in a mailing to each of the state reps who refuse to budge on the issue.</p>
<p>What I think some of you people refuse to acknowledge is that this method of admissions has absolutely NOTHING to do with the University of Texas admissions department, and EVERYTHING to do with the Texas State Legislature....</p>
<p>They were trying to address how to have better URM representation when the courts overturned how the public colleges were considering them. The Texas legislature came up with the top 10% rule. Nobody has ever accused the Texas legislature of being visionaries. Remember how shocked they were when the colleges started raising tuition once the legislature stated allowing them to do so?</p>
<p>Vyse: I don't know where you are getting your info on DISD, but it is DEAD wrong. I attended DISD schools for 9 years. My nearest DISD school IS academically unacceptable, and I AM Hispanic. I don't live in the inner city though. DISD does NOT have bilingual teachers for most classes. Kids are thrown into ESL classes where the teacher does not speak in Spanish at all. By HS they are expected to have learned English already. I fit your criteria, and I am graduating top ten percent from Jesuit.</p>
<p>It's pretty simple: if your life's goal is to go to UT, and you can't get top ten percent at a school, and have a choice to go to a school where you can, you should take it up.</p>
<p>The family is not getting punished for anything. They made a CHOICE to go to a private school, there are consequences to that action. One of which is that they aren't in the top ten percent. I admire the desire to get a better education, and it will pay off at most schools. But UT is not centered around a culture where any private school kid can get in because he has okay grades and a decent SAT score. It is the ultimate meritocracy: no matter where you came from, no matter how poorly you test, no matter how badly your school sucks, if you work hard enough to graduate at the top of your class, you get in to UT.</p>
<p>And in all honesty at LEAST 75% of the Jesuit kids who applied got in. Some got SFC, but very few got CAPed. Some kids who have wanted to go may not have applied, but Jesuit has a very good acceptance rate because our kids are very well rounded and eloquent, so we have high PAI scores, and typically score above the average on the SAT. If you have enough going for you, you can overcome a lower rank. We had a student in the bottom half admitted this year.</p>
<p>We've also had kids transfer to other schools and get in the top ten percent. There are options. When you are deciding on a school, you don't just have to consider the present, but also the future.</p>
<p>Man, I guess I had little appreciation for getting into UT not being in the top 10%. I'm certainly not top-tier, and I got accepted in January, so it can't be unbelievably hard to get in.</p>
<p>They will not call a special session for the issue in my opinion, so the next time the Lege could meet to decide upon the issue would be from January to March of 2009. This would be too late for the Fall 2009 admissions process.</p>
<p>So unless the powers that be can convince Perry (an Aggie btw) to call a special session, the first class that could see a change is 2010.</p>
<p>"The family is not getting punished for anything. They made a CHOICE to go to a private school, there are consequences to that action. One of which is that they aren't in the top ten percent. I admire the desire to get a better education, and it will pay off at most schools. But UT is not centered around a culture where any private school kid can get in because he has okay grades and a decent SAT score. It is the ultimate meritocracy: no matter where you came from, no matter how poorly you test, no matter how badly your school sucks, if you work hard enough to graduate at the top of your class, you get in to UT."</p>
<p>What a crock. Rank is only one component. Would it be "the ultimate meritocracy" if an MLB scout told college players at the combine, "No matter how bad you throw, no matter how poorly you catch or how slowly you run, if you can work the count, we want you on our team".</p>
<p>I got capped with a 2100 SAT, and thats more than 250 points above Texas's average (yeah, I know they ignore the only section that requires creative responses and only look at the sections where you choose from a list of pre written responses, no need to remind me). I guess "having enough going for you" really means having a rich parent who went to t.u. and answers the phone when they call for money (like say, one who could afford to send their kid to jesuit)</p>
<p>vyse, you come off as very bitter against UT, and that is understandable considering your circumstances, but from what I understand, you are now happy at a&m. Why, then, do you keep haranguing people on the UT board? </p>
<p>It has been explained to you, ad nauseam, for the last 2 years since you were rejected, that UT admissions has nothing to do with your frustrations - as I told you last year, why don't you use all this boundless energy and channeled anger to convince your legislator to back the recision of the 10% law?</p>
<p>I got Summer Freshman'd at the T. I'm going to laugh next year when it all blows up (even more than this year?) in their faces. </p>
<p>Not that I'm bitter, or I even planned on going to UT, maybe that was why.</p>
<p>I probably shouldn't have put anything in the "other colleges I'm applying to" box. That probably hurt me since I had so many other options. Mystery solved.</p>
<p>Agreed. I attended an expensive, elite, private school with around 60-70 kids per graduating class. Nearly everyone-80%+ gets into UT, whether you are in the top 10% or not. In fact, even those with only average grades and scores are still offered acceptance. Its not fair, but going to a good private school makes getting into UT a breeze. </p>
<p>I suspect that UT has a special quota set up for Private Schools. A lot of the kids coming from Private Schools have parents who are generous donors to UT and important alumni, and even if UT can't admit on a per-person basis, they can offer many admits to these schools. No biggie to them, since the yield from Private Schools is not particularly high (most can afford a costly private college and choose to attend there). UT would probably like to keep a strong relationship with schools like SMS, Jesuit's, the whole SPC, the bigger TAPPS schools etc. </p>
<p>The toughest position to come from is a competitive suburban high school, with a ranking outside of the top 10%, with great (but not spectacular) 1200-1300 high SAT.</p>
<p>I went to a small non-elite private school where everyone's parents except for mine actually had to mortgage their 2nd boat during tough economic times.</p>