Class Rank at Texas

[aek525]

<p>From what I have heard about Texas, class rank is one of the most important factors for admission. However, my school does not rank students to protect B students who would be A students at most other schools. Will this hurt me when I apply to Texas? What other factors of admission would be the most important. (At the end of the year I will have a 3.8 WGPA)</p>

[wavylays94]

<p>If your school doesn’t rank, and thus you don’t get in under top 10% rules…
You have to be an outstanding applicant.
Examples of people I know accepted w/o top 10%:
Student A: Class president 3 years, Debate captain, two sport varsity athlete, eagle scout, part time job, yr president, legacy
Student B: Black, 1350 M+CR SAT, all state band</p>

[aek525]

<p>Is that in state or out of state?</p>

[wavylays94]

<p>In state…
Non-top 10% in-state is very comparable to OOS though…
They are competing for the same 25% of spots</p>

[fruitloops22]

<p>I was accepted as a non-auto admit in-state…There is no general rule for whether you’ll get in or not as a non-auto admit. It depends on a lot of things, one of the main factors being what school within UT you apply to. Your test scores will be important as well as volunteer work and leadership… GPA as well obviously. But just because you don’t have a certain type of involvement (i.e. President of a club,etc.) or skyrocket high test scores does not necessarily mean
you won’t get in. Good luck I was doubtful as to whether I’d get in and I did! Your GPA is great, btw.</p>

[hkem123]

<p>Okay, UT Austin uses a holistic formula for its admissions. The formula is made up of 50% academic achievement, 50% personal achievement. </p>

<p>Take note that the Academic Index does not take into account your GPA. I went to a non-ranking/non-GPA high school that sends 30 kids to UT every year, and I can tell you that they are going to assign you a rank based on the distribution your high school gives them. </p>

<p>Here’s the footnote for the Class rank:
3
Class rank is expressed as a high school percentile using the following formula: (1-(class rank/class size))*100. For students
from non-ranking schools, a rank is estimated using the student’s GPA and grade distributions provided by the schools. </p>

<p>

The UT Austin admissions routine for students not automatically admitted is elaborate and entails a broad concept of merit. Beginning with the entering class of 1997, for those not automatically admitted, the idea of merit was expanded from class rank and test scores exclusively to the inclusion of the following factors:</p>

<p>The Academic Index (AI)
High School Record:
o Class rank3
o Completion of UT required high school curriculum4
o Extent to which students exceed the UT required units
o SAT/ACT score5</p>

<p>The Personal Achievement Index (PAI)
o Scores on two essays
o Leadership
o Extracurricular Activities
o Awards/honors
o Work experience
o Service to school or community
o Special circumstances:

• Socio-economic status of family
• Single parent home
• Language spoken at home
• Family responsibilities
• Socio-economic status of school attended
• Average SAT/ACT of school attended in relation to student’s own SAT/ACT
• Race (addition approved by the UT Board of Regents in 2003)</p>

<p>Thus, merit includes the ambition to tackle rigorous high school coursework, the production of quality prose, and the desire to make a difference in one’s school, home, or community. Evidence of employability (work), and some sense of having excelled in any number of areas are also considered. Moreover, admissions officials place these attributes in the context of the circumstances under which the student lived.</p>

<p>The Academic Index (AI) is determined by a multiple regression equation utilizing a high school percentile derived from an explicit class rank [1-(class rank/class size)]*100, and verbal and math test scores from the ACT Assessment or the SAT I: Reasoning Test. The equation produces a predicted freshman year grade point average.6 After a review of the high school transcript, an applicant can be “awarded” a tenth of a point if he/she exceeded UT’s required high school curriculum. Thus, AI values range from 4.10-0.00.</p>

<p>The Personal Achievement Index (PAI) is UT Austin’s holistic approach to admissions. Admissions officers are trained each year to conduct comprehensive reviews of every application from students not automatically admitted. All applicants are required to submit two essays. Each are read and scored on a scale of 1-6. The application itself, and any attachments an applicant chooses to include, is then reviewed. A “personal achievement” score on a scale of 1-6 is then assigned to the application. From
the three scores, two essays and a personal achievement score, a PAI is computed. The equation reflects a 1997 faculty decision to give slightly more weight to the personal achievement score than the essays: PAI = [(personal achievement score * 4)+(mean essay * 3)] / 7.</p>

<p>AIs and PAIs of applicants not automatically admitted are then plotted on an admissions decision grid. (See Figure 1 below.) The most-qualified candidates are located in the cells closest to the upper left corner. Admissions liaisons, and/or representatives of Deans’ offices or faculty, then make decisions as to which cells to select as admitted students. Texas resident applicants are either admitted, “cascaded” to their second choice of major, offered Summer Freshman Admission, or offered the Coordinated
Admission Program (CAP) at a UT System component school. Thus, Texas residents submitting a completed entering freshman application by published deadlines are not denied admission to UT Austin. Non-residents are either admitted or denied.

</p>

<p>Also note that part of the personal achievement score is your SAT relative to the SAT of others in your school. So that means if you go to a school with a higher mean SAT, you need a higher SAT. </p>

<p>Yes, getting into UT is easier from some high schools than others. That’s just the way it is and there is no reason to complain about it.</p>

<p>Source: <a href=“http://www.utexas.edu/student/admissions/research/HB588-Report12.pdf[/url]”>http://www.utexas.edu/student/admissions/research/HB588-Report12.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;