<p>^ The complaint is about awarding points based on race (in the holistic portion). But the issue is whether there’s any approach for assembling the type of class UT wants that DOESN’T include preferences of some sort. (The answer is no of course, if the school wants to field a competitive football team.) The problem is that few object to preferences for athletes and preferences for developmental admits and preferences for children of university employees, etc. The two “testy” areas are giving preference on the basis of race, and giving preference to OOS students. The OOS “problem” is easily solved … just say no. The race issue is more nuanced. At what point do stats-based admissions disadvantage minorities? Immediately following Hopwood, the black admission rate dropped below 1%. That was unacceptably low, and led to SCOTUS’ Grutter decision.</p>
<p>Does Texas not need OOS money? Most State systems do need the money.</p>
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Don’t all flagship public schools have targets for Int’l + OOS? There’s nothing illegal about that. </p>
<p>If UT has already fine-tuned and lowered the % of auto-admits under the Percentage Plan from 10% originally, to 8% now, what makes you think they cannot lower the % of auto-admits further to accommodate more Texas residents under the holistic plan?</p>
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That’s their prerogative. One’s address is a mutable condition. One’s race is not.</p>
<p>It is unlikely many families will employ this strategy because it means their kids will get fewer educational opportunities in an inferior-performance high school. Remember that the objective is not just to get one’s offspring into UT, but to get them the best educational opportunity, period.</p>
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<p>No it does not; they are nothing alike. </p>
<p>The Texas numeric plan guarantees admission to the state flagship. The California plan only guarantees a student admission to the bottom UC campus(es). Admissions to the state flagship, Cal (or flagships, if one includes UCLA), are 100% holistic, after a student meets the minimum eligibility standards (for admission to the lowest UC campus).</p>
<p>Of course, meeting the minimum standards might only be good enough for D1 athletes, but the point is that Cal/UCLA admissions are 100% holistic, not formulaic as are ~75% of the seats at UT.</p>
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<p>They are holistic but race is not supposed to be a factor by state law.</p>
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<p>The UC Eligibility in Local Context does not guarantee admission to the UC school of the student’s choice. In practice, the students affected are likely to get admission to Merced if they are not admitted to any of the UC schools that they explicitly applied to.</p>
<p>It is also not top 12%. It is UC-weighted high school GPA at least as high as the UC-weighted high school GPA of the top 9% threshold of recent previous classes at the high school that gets ELC for the student.</p>
<p>In other words, it is not similar to the Texas class rank based admission system at all, where top 10% (7% at Austin) guarantees admission to the Texas public university of one’s choice (though not necessarily to the division or major of one’s choice), and most of the Texas public universities have other thresholds based on lower class ranks and test scores for additional automatic admissions.</p>
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<p>The way to game the class rank system is to move to where there is a very large high school with wide range of student ability and motivation, so that there are enough high achieving students to get the school to offer the various desired advanced courses, but there are plenty of lower achieving students so that any high achieving student will have a high class rank.</p>
<p>Of course, this may not be feasable, due to other constraints on residence location like parents’ job locations.</p>
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<p>While it may not be practical, it is ALWAYS physically feasible to move. I am the poster-child for moving to chase a new job location-- the last couple of moves averaged 6000 miles each.</p>
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<p>White suburban Texan here, with kids at a fairly decent public HS. I’ve never known or heard of anyone who moved or switched schools specifically to get into the Top%. I don’t doubt that it happens (jc40 mentioned some at her son’s prep), but I can’t see a huge exodus from the suburbs just to get into UT. Remember, we also have TAMU, Texas Tech and other public schools that many kids are perfectly content with and actually choose over UT… not to mention private schools like Baylor, SMU, TCU that offer decent merit money. It’s not like UT is the only good option. I think it’s much more likely for a family to switch schools so their kid will have a shot at a varsity sport (something I’ve seen a lot!), but that’s another topic. :)</p>
<p>Jea, thank you for your comments.</p>
<p>My old district Plano was mentioned above, and I actually have knonwn families to move away (typically from the entire district of Plano to surrounding districts).</p>
<p>In my tenth grade year, before I left, top 10% at my school was a 4.1. I don’t know where it is now. (a 4.1 on a weighted 5.0 scale)</p>
<p>Anecodotally on the TX system, this thread is from earlier this year, from a Texas student in an residential early college program that doesn’t rank its students, thus making the student ineligible for the top 10/8% program. The UT results thread near decision day also has many students who received CAP (the same program Fisher was offered) and have 2000+ SATs and other things that were rejected to the flagship for the first year.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1478561-why-did-i-not-get-into-my-top-schools.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1478561-why-did-i-not-get-into-my-top-schools.html</a></p>
<p>"If Texas had such a system, that is if Fisher wins, would the Texas percentages be the same as they are now are substantially different? "</p>
<p>I believe the contention is only over 5% of seats and not the rest. The athletes, OOS, and Internationals are cash cows that support the financing of the school and are not part of the lawsuit since there is no holistic process for them (athletes get admitted if they meet NCAA standards and coaches want them, OOS and Internationals are kind of a fixed number paying huge fees - no skin color involved in the decisions at all).</p>
<p>One can get into UT being top 7% but it just means they are admitted. They don’t get admitted to the department or major which takes place separately based on the competition level. So one may not get into CS/EE or business honors for example unless they are in top 3-4% of the their class and have a reasonably good score like 2000+. I know someone this year in top 1% of the school (one of the classmates is going to Harvard) with 2100+ score who was not given an admission in EE until February or March although admitted around October. In many cases people who are admitted to UT don’t go because they did not get their major. Many may go to other state schools in Texas over UT or A&M because they don’t get their majors there.</p>
<p>I don’t know what UT’s policy is on admittance to departments, but TAMU’s is not currently as you describe. If you apply early, and you’re an auto admit, you get your department. They fill up slots until the slots are gone. First come, first served. I hear that’s about to change. But for now, if you’re an auto admit, and you didn’t get your major, it’s because you didn’t apply soon enough.</p>
<p>You can’t get EVERY department at TAMU just by applying early. You have to see the threads to see a pattern for departments like petroleum engineering where many just get ignored even if they apply early.</p>
<p>Texaspg, I’m telling you what their stated policy is. It’s what is communicated on campus visits, and they give you tips on getting your application in IMMEDIATELY when they become available. PET E is one of the first ones to fill up. You have to really be on your toes to make it in. But until Fall 2014, that is the stated policy, campus-wide. D3 is MECHE major, which also fills up extremely quickly, and we had all of her information ready, and her essays ready to cut and paste. As SOON as the application was available, she entered the info and submitted it.</p>
<p>So the current TAMU policy states that if you are in top 10% and apply August 1st, you get whatever you want? That sounds pretty odd for a top school.</p>
<p>Yea, that’s pretty much it. However, I hear it may change for engineering in 2014. Top 5%, and then after that you’re a review admit.</p>
<p>Didn’t really mean to derail the thread. My point is that if that’s UT’s policy, they may be unique, because it is not currently TAMU’s</p>
<p>The current UT policy is that they admit the students based on rank and it does not go any further. You apply to two departments and if both reject, you get general studies or something like that as a major.</p>
<p>UT changed from 2012 to 2013 where the regular department admissions were held off for many students until March.</p>
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<p>TPG, that probably apply to the regular business program at McCombs. The BHP is substantially harder to be admitted at in terms of ranking and SAT scores.</p>
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<p>I’d tend to agree with such assessment. Again, I do not believe that the UT automatic admission is tracked heavily at the top prep schools in Texas as their students look at more selective options. The best programs at UT --read Plan II, business, engineering, and perhaps communications-- all require specific admissions that go beyond the 7-10 percent process. My take is that parents make the financial and the students the efforts to attend the selective college prep schools for reasons far different from scoring an automatic admission at UT. And, as the above member posted, the rare moves might be related to varsity sports and not for gaming the admissions. </p>
<p>All in all, the bulk of the debates about UT are not at the highest academic levels in the state. Nor are they at the lowest levels. Simply stated, at both ends of the spectrum, it is a non-starter as UT is not high on the preferred list of schools. The action is mostly at that huge middle section of academia that is suburban and rural in nature. If you follow the lights on any Fall Friday Night in Texas, you will find the dialogues about the score, the cheerleaders, and UT. :)</p>