<p>Not ashamed of my Aggie kid at all! Her major was there, she doesn’t like it much, but that is her fish to fry. (And we were very happy with A & M for their older sister’s vet school) She is the one that draws the lines between her and sister’s education. She (The Aggie) sees UT as a better choice. I would love to hear about other experiences from other parents who have kids in both programs instead of a bunch of impatient applicants. I also did not go to UT. </p>
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<p>I am sorry I completely disagree. If UT is your absolutely be all end all (which I personally believe the concept of “dream school” is ridiculous) then you have to educate yourself on what it takes to be an auto admit. If that means giving up the trumpet, or football or dance so you can take four more AP classes, then do it. It is 100% about choice. I am not saying that is the right approach, but I am saying there is a formula and unless you push the most difficult classes to the max, someone will out rank you.</p>
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<p>What is wrong is parents and students that come here and bash the admission policies and even worse the time frame for admission of the University of Texas. (how DARE UT not tell special son snowflake that they think he is the best applicant they have ever seen and they must do this within a week of getting his file) This is not Harvard. I can’t for the life of me figure out why people take these admission policies personally. These admission directors do not meet you or your kids. They stare at paper and can turn you child down because the Whataburger they just ate gave them heartburn and your kid works at Whataburger, SAT score and GPA need not matter. </p>
<p>Y’all honestly have taken this all way too personally. I was simply trying to draw a point that when you play a game with an auto admit school, you have agreed to play by their rules and yet you feel coming her and proclaiming “how dare they snub” your special snowflake.</p>
<p>Here is the real problem with auto-admit…and why the big schools hate it so much…the best students are sometimes excluded because the auto-admits got the spots. Being in the top x% of the class only means you got good grades. Grade inflation is not just on the teachers and administrators, it comes from parents and students trying to work the system to get around the fact that the kids are academically average. You see it everyday in school where students and parents badger, cajole and suck up to teachers to squeeze grades they don’t deserve. These are the same types who spend hours of time and money taking classes on how to take the tests and how to manipulate the writing tests, etc. That is not to say all auto-admits fit in that category. S1 is going to be on the bubble of auto-admit. He pulled down a 1560 on his core SAT and a 230 on the PSAT. Average of over 795 on 3 SAT II tests. No prep classes, only took the tests the one time. He is having to compete on equal footing or get passed over for kids who are much less capable, but have mommy and daddy pulling strings to make sure they crack the auto-admit ranking. His HS does not even release the 1st semester transcripts until tomorrow…we will see how it turns out then.</p>
<p>As for A&M versus UT. For those of us living here who are not attached to either one, it is laughable. Both have top 10 Engineering schools. Most of the difference is the same as the difference between Dallas and Fort Worth. Austin is more metro and appeals to urban types with rich-kid attitudes. A&M appeals more to country types with a my truck is bigger than yours attitude. Easy to see from the outside why some people get put off by one or both schools.</p>
<p>I liked A&M better, S1 likes UT better. He applied to both and would be happy with either. I don’t care where he goes. That is his decision and he will have to live with it either way. It will come down eventually to who has the best program at the best price point. Could end up a Sooner since they give much better money.</p>
<p>And yes…given the system, it will take more time for UT to get through their applications.</p>
<p>8-Ball, I am sure you are not ashamed of your aggie kid. I posted that as an indicator of how you are coming across. It usually isn’t what you say, it is how you say it. I purposely said it wrong.</p>
<p>As for those complaining about the admission process, I prefer to ignore them.</p>
<p>@Torveaux
I kind of disagree with you about grade inflation. Does it happen? I’m sure it does…but here goes mine
S told me at a very early age he wanted to go to an elite school starting middle school. I forced him to swim as an EC because he failed every other sport out there. Moving forward to now senior year, not only he’s being a year-round club swimmer, varsity 4 years swimmer, 3 years waterpolo. He also has completed 5 AP all 5’s and taking now senior 7 AP’s. All A’s in a very high competitive public magnet and on his way to a valedictorian. NOT one and I mean not one have I spoken with any teachers through HS. He’s done all on his own and I’m very lucky!
My son did not apply where he could be automatically admitted, he thinks it stinks. He’s #8 out of 851 seniors and that puts him in the top 1%. He went for higher and more difficult not because I wanted but because he chose for it</p>
<p>collegeshopping,
sorry, I confused you with somebody else.</p>
<p>There is a parent here with 2 children in UT and A&M engineering. Does anyone remember who it is? I am still trying to figure out how to use search in this new forum. Cannot even find my own posts. :(</p>
<p>@soana63 - That is truly awesome for your S. The anecdotal evidence of your son does not really change my point. In my experience, he would be the exception not the rule. I compare how the 1st test score compares to the GPA. If the GPA is high and the initial test score is not, it tends to indicate that grades are inflated. I also know a TON of parents who just cannot let the kids make their own beds (so to speak). S1 has done everything pretty much on his own. He has made mistakes (such as not sending his transcripts right away), but it was his decision. Part of the reason he was not in the top 2 or 3 percent was simply due to transferring from a religious HS to a public one and the grades/weighting did not exactly transfer. The truly sad thing was that the private school was more challenging by a factor of about 3. Ultimately, he will learn more by dealing with the challenges.</p>
<p>Another interesting note is that at SOME schools the top 1-8% of the class have been at the same school for all 4 years. What a lot of people are saying in this thread is that if you push yourself/have your parents push you, you can do it. Well people can also still push themselves but life happens. You move states/different schools, then different grading scales, new envionrment, you also want to be involved in sports/ECs, making new friends, all these other factors. Whether you are a military child or corporate transfer child, today a lot of students are a lot more transient than they used to be. Don’t forget about them and those that suffer from other conflicts such as, family and health conflicts. I don’t understand your narrowminded viewpoint on class rank…there are a lot of externalities in this world that don’t fit your perfectly executed/planned high school experience that launched you to that top rank.</p>
<p>And of course these are not excuses, but additional obstacles that require a less straightforward approach to getting in the top ranks.</p>
<p>@brighalake
Sure things happens. Right now my S is going to what I believe the hardest part of his young adult life:( One of his swim and water polo mate and HS senior was diagnosed with stage VI cancer last week…devastating to all of us</p>
<p>Met a lady at Target the other day who heard me talking with my mom about how I was no longer interested in UT Austin. She started laughing so we finally asked why. She must be a die hard Texan or something because she started talking about how amazing UT Austin is and how only a fool would give up attending there if they had a chance and went on to explain how her son went there. I asked what he got his degree in. Then she went on to explain that he did not graduate there, he dropped out.</p>
<p>See…with the top 10% rule, which translates to top 7% now for UT Austin, it means that many people who get in cannot cut it. When I started high school, and where we lived, I was the top of my class at a mediocre school. Then I moved. Now I am at a top high school and top 10%. UT Austin only has a 50% 4 yr graduation rate. THAT does not rival Ivy League. UT Austin is NOT Ivy League, and it is not worth this. Their average SAT score range is much lower than Ivy League. Fact is, you get in to UT Austin, you will be in with a bunch of freshmen who were were top 7% of any podunk high school in Texas. My SAT scores will be way higher. I have higher hopes than the 50% 4 year graduation rate. And I will be one of thousands, who no one cares even showed up.</p>
<p>UT Austin is NOT Ivy League and people who go to UT Austin and think they can compare it to Ivy League are fooling themselves. You are not going to get an Ivy League education or experience at UT Austin. SO, that being said, waiting far longer for an answer from a state school like UT Austin is in no way the same as waiting three months for an answer from an Ivy League school. AND IF I had applied to Ivy League as early as I did UT Austin, it would have been ED and I would have gotten in months ago. </p>
<p>For me, I ONLY applied to UT Austin because one of my teachers insisted I apply to the Plan 2 program and I would love it. I have not even toured yet. And with the way their admissions office works, even if I get it, it is unlikely I will tour. What few people I have met who went to UT vs TAMU, the way they behave is completely different. The UT students look past you. They recite things they were told to say, as evidenced by the fact that they use the same exact wording. They are scripted. The TAMU students seem to speak from the heart. This means a lot to me. Getting in to UT Austin has never been a priority for me, so I certain have not spent my high school years working toward getting there. IF a specific college were THAT important to me, it would be something much better, or higher ranked, or whatever else, than UT Austin. UT Austin is what it is. And what it is is just a big state school. Some people are in love with it, and fine for them. But I am not. And if I go there, my SAT scores put me above the 75th percentile. Even though UT Austin has these weird admissions policy, in the end, it would not be a good academic match for me. A lot of people who attend there never graduate college. A lot of people who go there have never taken the rigor of courses I have. Sure, there are SOME great students there. But it is not the same as a top school with high expectations to get in to. It is simply a school that inputs your information to a computer and then spits out an answer. </p>
<p>On the grade inflation, when we moved here, I had some teachers who hated me because I was the new kid in town. They gave me low grades. My mom quickly jumped in a started volunteering and bringing donuts and coffee to the counselors office over the summer when they were doing schedules. She started sending gifts for my teachers on holidays and such. Guess what? Even since she started bringing donuts, I have gotten the best teachers! And my grades have skyrocketed. My mom will even tell you that she brought those donuts because she knew I needed better teachers. I mean, that first year, I had the teachers with the biggest reputations for being nasty. Two if my teachers flat out refused to grade my work and would tell me I couldn’t do it because I came from a different district that could never amount to this one. </p>
<p>So really, if my mom had not brought the donuts, I would not be in the top 10%. I have no doubt in that. I was in an AP English class where half the student earned A’s. The other AP English class actually managed to finish the year with no A’s.</p>
<p>Let’s address the “scripted” part. This is called branding and I will be the first to admit UT is a brand. If you ever go to the Parents forum, college tours are a big topic of conversation. I get what you are saying, a good down home girl giving you her life story to how she landed at TAMU is warm and fuzzy and all that happy stuff. People in Austin are generally chill and I would not stay they “look past” you, but they really just don’t care what other people do. Maybe that rubs you wrong and that is perfectly ok. But it is more of a culture of Austin than UT specifically.</p>
<p>As far as the Plan II program goes, I am drawing the conclusion that you are still waiting to hear from them. This is a much different story than general UT admission. The people that make the decisions about Plan II admission are some of the nicest people I have ever met. They are meticulous, generous and hard working. They also read what you wrote. First your essays that you wrote on Apply Texas and then your Plan II supplement. They start these applications as soon as the first batches start rolling in. They read your resume, they read your transcript, your test scores, everything. Then they build an incoming class. They look for avid readers, musicians, scientists, poets, painters, mathematicians, mechanical engineers, all the while looking for that special “Plan2ness” that they advertise. I have no idea what that is, but I will tell you when you are involved in the program as a parent or a student you know it when you see even if you can’t describe it. Building and making these incoming classes take time, a great deal of patience and sometimes negotiation. The people behind the curtain know you are anxious to hear form them, but to them it is an art and frankly rushing it is a disservice to every word written by every applicant. The structure of the Plan II incoming class is what makes Plan II special. It might not be the Ivy League, but it is a really special program for a really good price if you are instate. Classes are small, the community is very close knit and the support is amazing. Plan II kids don’t judge or compete against each other, they leave that for the rest of the University. They spend their time on collaboration, drinking in knowledge and learning from not only their professors but from each other. They bond through the toughest class at UT…Plan II Physics and they celebrate really heavily when it is done. So I have complete respect that you don’t want to wait anymore. But they are taking their time to make sure everyone has a place and that the fit is just right. And if that is not worth waiting for so be it. But I can assure you I have never met a Plan II kid who for one minute regretted their decision to wait for that big brown envelope. And of course some get their envelopes in November. These are the very, very Plan II kids. You’ll know them when you meet them. You are drawn right to them. They crafted their application in just a way where the class is built around them. The admission committee has to start somewhere. It is just how it is. </p>
<p>Edited to add @undecided2014: I also looked at another post where you posted that you had everything into UT by Nov 10 “Liberal Arts and Plan II.” Priority Deadline for Plan II was October 15, 2013. At that point Plan II starts to review apps and build that class. By Nov 10, 2013, the first wave of acceptances where being prepared to be mailed. That quickly shrunk your chance. If they offer admission to X number of kids and they send out X number of acceptances, then you know how math works, there are less to go around. Of course there are still spaces, but the just like cars that pour into a parking lot, the later you arrive, the fewer spots there are. </p>
<p>@undecided2014
I’ll repeat the question that another user has already asked. What Ivy League institutions have you gotten into? You come off as extremely bitter and entitled by suggesting that out of tens of thousands of unique, and possibly better applicants, you should be looked to first just because your SAT score is in the 75 percentile. UT Austin’s 50% graduation rate? Have you heard of A&M’s 50% graduation rate? UT Austin is an incredible school in its own right, with incredible honors programs that have near 100% job placement rates. A&M is also an amazing school, but neither deserves to be bashed just because you haven’t gotten in yet. I’m sorry that you’re disappointed that UT Austin has not sent you a decision yet, although they clearly state that most decisions will come in late February or Early March. I’m sorry that you feel that it’s not worth the wait, although UT Austin has some of the top programs in the country. I’m sorry that you feel the need to tear down other people and universities just because you aren’t mature enough to accept the fact that you haven’t been accepted yet. Welcome to the real world. </p>
<p>The Ivies? More reputation than reality, especially in the sciences. If you want to be a lawyer, by all means take that merit scholarship at Harvard…oh wait…the Ivies don’t have merit scholarships…hmm…well assuming your parents are very wealthy or very poor, you can be a great lawyer coming out of the Ivies. Princeton and Cornell are the only ones will really good engineering programs.</p>
<p>Your posts are sounding like a spoiled little kid who didn’t get picked first so you talk bad about the game. It is called sour grapes. I am no UT fan. I am only here because S1 is interested in UT as an option. MIT is his first choice, but with only 1000 undergrads per year that is tough even for a NMF. Big universities are mostly what you make of them. Find one that fits you and move on. The process at UT seems to be better than at A&M in the sense that they don’t go as much on first to apply. I’d rather see the most deserving kids get accepted than rush to admit those who applied when it opened up. </p>