Hey all,
I was wondering how strict UT is about the top 6% benchmark. Say you are one to two people outside of the top 6% (like rank 26 when the cutoff is 24. for auto admit). Will UT be a little lenient when looking at you application because you were really close or will you be bunched in with the rest of the non-top 6% group?
for auto admit, my guess is its pretty strict. Anecdotally speaking, the girl at our local top Austin HS was the cutoff just outside the auto admit 2 years ago - did not get in and appealed twice and did not get in. Good news…she transferred in later.
To clarify…I believe UT will stick to the rules for the autoadmit process…but so many kids get in under holistic review - have great essays, activities that support your chosen field and good test scores.
They round to your disadvantage. It is a law so they interpret it strictly. It is 6 percent not 6.005 percent. That does not mean you won’t get in under holistic but you won’t as an auto admit.
I think the question is if you don’t get in with the top 6%, are your chances better if you are in that 7th% than say someone in the 9th%.
When it jumps to holistic review, I don’t think so. Your gpa and scores might not be better at 7% at your school than someone in 13% at an extremely competitive high school. Holistic means they’ll look at the entire application, not just at close you were to the 6% group. If that were the case, they’d just admit the top 7%, or top 8% until they were full.
They are so strict that a valedictorian of a class of 10 was denied:
https://www.texastribune.org/2017/05/22/ut-denied-her-so-she-got-them-change-their-admissions-rules/
It also matters which major you’re trying to get into. My son’s high school usually has 15-20% of the class accepted at UT. However, very few people outside the auto admit range at his HS get accepted for engineering or computer science, and even some who are auto admit are denied those majors.
My nephew was not auto-admit, and even though he had great ECs, he was rejected. He appealed without success. It’s really difficult. 
Not really, it’s pretty much computer based. Texas A&M is more flexible and they’re more accommodating with the more popular majors.