<p>Interesting shift in strategy. I wonder how noticeable of an effect this will have on the student body. I could see it greatly benefiting the many well-qualified students who are rejected every year as a result of their lower class rank at a competitive high school. I’m also curious about what the top 1-2% that were traditionally accepted but now get rejected will choose to do. In any case, I don’t see this affecting the average applicant other than receiving a later acceptance. This policy would probably just weed out the students from weaker schools and those that sneak in from a school that graduates 30-something valedictorians a year. Most other students’ essays and extracurricular activities are probably in line (or at least not too far out of line) with what their class rank and standardized testing scores would predict.</p>
<p>All I can tell you is what we were told by Admissions in the sessions for Fall 2011 applicants and that auto admission status did not guaranty admission into any major other than UGS. </p>
<p>If you are saying that by being in the top 1-2% of your class meant that the rest of your app was ignored by certain colleges and you could glide into any major, maybe that was the unwritten, uncommunicated truth. I could see why it wasn’t publicized as official policy, because that is not fair. Not all valedictorians are equal because the competition (school to school) is not the same, nor are the curriculum or grading standards. </p>
<p>Said another way: validictorian of an academically underperforming school is not equal to validictorian at a college preparatory academy. If there are 100 students at the college prep academy and 98 of them attend college and graduate college in 4 years (year after year after year), being ranked #100 in the college prep school is the same as being #100 in a school with 400 students. </p>
<p>Admissions must look at the peer group in the high school and do holistic review to get the best students to attend Texas.</p>
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<p>It was not an “unwritten, uncommunicated truth” for McCombs. </p>
<h2>From the McCombs’ website as of February, 2011, meaning Fall 2011 admits:</h2>
<p>Admission
Admission decisions for the McCombs School of Business are made by the Office of Admissions. We do not, at any point, see applications. There is no separate application for the McCombs School of Business, except for the Business Honors Program. If interested in being considered for the McCombs School of Business, simply indicate Unspecified Business as your first-choice major on the ApplyTexas application. You should also give careful consideration to the second college or major that you list. If admissible, students will enter McCombs as unspecified business students.</p>
<p>Texas legislation guarantees admission to the University of Texas for students graduating in the top 8% of their class from a Texas accredited high school. It does not, however, guarantee admission into the McCombs School of Business.</p>
<p>1.A maximum of 75% of the Texas resident spaces (approximately 750 students) is admitted according to rank. The Office of Admission begins with those students ranked in the top 1%, followed by top 2%, and so on until approximately 75% of the class is filled.
2.The remaining 25% of our Texas resident spots (approximately 250 students) are admitted through a competitive process. After automatically admitting eligible Texas applicants each year, the university fills any remaining spaces in the freshman class through holistic review.
If not admitted to McCombs as a freshman, UT students will have the opportunity to apply for admission through the internal transfer process.</p>
<h2>Getting Admitted | McCombs School of Business | The University of Texas at Austin</h2>
<p>Posted by TXArtemis on this thread, which, coincidentally, you participated on:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-texas-austin/1082180-who-gets-admitted-first.html?highlight=mccombs+automatic+admission[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-texas-austin/1082180-who-gets-admitted-first.html?highlight=mccombs+automatic+admission</a></p>
<p>So, yes there was pure class rank admission until July when the entire university changed their admissions strategy to holistic review.</p>
<p>In 2008, President Powers lobbied for modifications to the Top 10% law as originally enacted. Here’s a summary of his rationale for change and a brief report on what the 2009 legislature did, resulting in the above-discussed changes effective this admission cycle:</p>
<p>[President</a> Powers On the Issues | April 2008 Know](<a href=“http://www.utexas.edu/know/2008/04/02/ontheissues-april/]President”>http://www.utexas.edu/know/2008/04/02/ontheissues-april/)
[President</a> Powers On the Issues | July 2009 Know](<a href=“http://www.utexas.edu/know/2009/07/20/ontheissues-july09/]President”>http://www.utexas.edu/know/2009/07/20/ontheissues-july09/)</p>
<p>The impact of decreased emphasis on rank in favor of holistic review is most likely to be seen at the lower end of the top 9%–some won’t make it into their choice of competitive major, others outside the top 9% will make it.</p>
<p>Sorry to interrupt, but…
Missing a comma, here, sir.</p>
<p>I didn’t realize they were absolutely necessary, especially in such a short, straightforward sentence.</p>
<p>ha, ha, ha, ha,!</p>
<p>@TxEx86, </p>
<p>You bolded the wrong passage, IMHO. I read the entire post and here is my take…</p>
<p>Yes, UT, as a whole does admit the 1%, 2%, etc into the SCHOOL OF UGS. That is round 1: you are admitted to UT, as an auto-admit.</p>
<p>Round 2: Majors are selected after holistic review (the entire application, essay, ECs, test scores, etc). Admissions makes all the decisions of colleges and majors based on holistic review. </p>
<p>That is to say: McCombs, CNS, Cockrell, etc do NOT pick their own students… Admissions does that for them. One notable exception are the Performing Artists. I’m pretty sure major placement there is based on the opinions of the Theatre and Music faculty and not the decision of Admissions.</p>
<p>Goodness, Eaglemom, give it a rest. The above post was from McCombs’ website for Fall 2011 admits and pertained only to McCombs’ students. 75% of McCombs’ admits prior to Fall 2012 were based on class rank. Re-read the above post again in the entire context, and the accompanying link where you posted last February, and it applies to McCombs. But, be still your quivering heart, ALL admits are now holistically reviewed for ALL majors.</p>
<p>BTW, UGS is the default college students are admitted to after ALL major decisions are final. So, no, students are not “admitted” based on class rank to UGS. It is the catch-all for those whose stats are lacking, yet are admitted to the university after all is said and done.</p>
<p>txex86: What you wrote about McCombs is what I understood to be true up until last year. I don’t think we will know how admissions deals with “holistic review” until a track record is established. I don’t really have a sense of what the track record has been with engineering or if it will change some this year since things do seem to be changing. What I do expect is that my S being in the top 3.5% of his class with less than stellar SAT scores will have a difficult time getting into McCombs, and would have had an even harder time last year. He might do better with engineering especially civil engineering if that was his first choice. </p>
<p>However, if he just gets admitted to UGS I wouldn’t say it was because his stats are “lacking”, perhaps they are based on the two choices he is making and the order of priority he is giving them. They are not lacking in the sense that he could not get into another major. I had thought of UGS as the same as an undeclared major. That just sounds kinder than the way you stated it. As you stated it, sounds like the major for kids that the university just has to admit by law but doesn’t have a place for. As I have looked at UT from a distance this isn’t how I envisioned UGS to be.</p>
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</p>
<p>Many top tier universities force all students to enter as undeclared, which may be where you are getting this positive outlook from, but UT essentially forces a major upon you. In many cases, the major-specific introductory courses are restricted to those students who have been accepted to the major so students in the UGS are forced to take non-specific core requirements until they transfer in to a major. In majors with rigidly structured degree plans such as engineering, this means that the 4 year program doesn’t effectively start until they transfer in. In most cases, this means that you only go into UGS if that’s your only way into the university.</p>
<p>OK, thanks for clarifying that. From what you are saying it seems that whichever way he goes between first or second choice, if he ends up in UGS he’s probably better off going to TAMU, where he has already been accepted to engineering. (Assuming that in the spring he still want to be an engineer :))…Or maybe it is better to have a second choice major that isn’t in one of the highly competitive schools, so if he’s thinking of going business, maybe economics would be a better second choice to McCombs. It would be easier if the choice was clear at this point in time. …I’m assuming all you get is two choices not three.</p>