<p>Does being top 30% (albeit from one of the top public DFW schools) mean I'm pretty much out. Even though I have solid test scores and ECs, screwing around freshman year has hurt my GPA and now I'm top 30%. I'm worried that Texas puts so much weight on rank that I'm screwed. :( any help would be appreciated </p>
<p>Well I wouldn’t really call it “stupid percent rule”. I would say there is no way you will get in. But think about it, if you were Texas, would you admit yourself? There are thousands of people who didn’t screw around and focused on school. They will, and should, get in before you. </p>
<p>I’m not trying to be rude, I’m saying the truth. I don’t see how you can complain about the percent rule when it was very clear that Texas puts a high emphasis on rank. </p>
<p>Best of luck. </p>
<p>Just change the Title to: Stupid Freshmen. I happens to many of us. You will be just fine in life without going to UT. Even if they did not have the percent rule, you would have virtually no chance of getting in because your portfolio would not be competitive with the other much more highly qualified candidates. Besides, without the rule, the university would be free to admit even more OOS students which is what they really want to do. You cannot improve a situation if you blame others for your situation. Come to grips with your own errors and move on. I know…I’ve been there. </p>
<p>I have to agree with @MrDrProfessorSir. If you have attended the same high school from the beginning and you come here looking for people to commiserate with you over this “stupid percent rule” you will not get much sympathy. We save that for kids who transfer out of state or kids that go from privates to public and don’t have much control over transfer credits, etc. I assure you those kids in the top 7% in your specific High School don’t think the rule is stupid, because they have busted their butts to make sure they are inside the cut off.</p>
<p>I have no way of saying you are “out” based on your overly general overview of your ECs and Test Scores but unless you did something in High School that was is truly exceptional, then I would say your best chance is CAP. </p>
<p>I think the percent rule is ridiculous. UT certainly hates it. Admit the most qualified. </p>
<p>I hate the top x% rule too. Admission should be a holistic, not on class rank. No one likes it. If you’re above the UT 75th percentiles then I think you have good reason to complain.</p>
<p>Class rank helps to compare the rigor of your school. If you ignore rank kids who go to schools that give away grades. Tough schools that better prepare students would not get kids in college.</p>
<p>Not a huge fan of the system but legislatures had to do things like this because state colleges were admitting too many out of state kids and qualified in -state kids had no shot. It is a compromise and as such it hurts everyone in some way.</p>
<p>This kid was not going to get in regardless.</p>
<p>I agree that the rule is stupid, I am in the 3rd percent of my class. I feel as though UT should take the most qualified candidates. However, you cannot feel ‘screwed’, if you are in state, about the rule, because the rule is clearly stated for everybody to see. </p>
<p>I don’t understand how/why people in this thread are telling the OP he has a guarantee 0% chance of getting into UT based on his 30% rank. We don’t know anything about his other stats/ECs…he’ll be competing against students who are all non-auto admits/OSS. And how can you call him a slacker and did not try his hardest @MrDrProfessorSir!? Y’all have absolutely no knowledge if he “screwed around” and didnt try his best! Are you kidding me? Haha I just can’t get over the overall rudeness in the entire UT forum. Even though this post is a loaded question waiting for those who absolutely adore UT to snap back, calm down.</p>
<p>
You have no idea what goes on in your own state. The reason the percent scheme was implemented had nothing to do with limiting OOS students. The intent of the scheme was to admit more URM students. </p>
<p>If someone is screwing around, that implies that they weren’t trying their hardest. The kids that didn’t screw around should get priority. </p>
<p>Don’t know how to figure if you would have gotten accepted without that rule. Would you get accepted being in the top 30% at UVA , a school without such a quota? Look at the Naviance points or talk to your GC and ask if kids from your high school have much of a chance of getting accepted being in the top 30% of the class. It’s not as though NO ONE who doesn’t get in through the 10% rule gets accepted.</p>
<p>Neither of my nephews made top 10% from their highly competitive high school, but one was accepted to both UT-A and A&M and the other to A&M and kids from their school routinely get accepted despite not making that 10% cut. Whether 30% is too low, or what additional attributes one has to have to be considered at that rank, I have no idea. Your GC would well know, however.</p>
<p>I, too, don’t think the OP has any chance of getting into UT on the first try. My nephew had OUTSTANDING stats (such as being one of the best players of his instrument in the state), except that he screwed around and ended up in the top 25% of his class. He didn’t get into UT. The kid was born with orange blood, too! He had probably attended every home game, and most of the bowl games, since he was four years old (my dad, a UT prof, took him). He appealed the decision without luck. He is now a freshman at an OOS school in a region that has been pounded with snow this year. He is not very happy. I wish he had accepted CAP, but he was too upset at UT to do it.</p>
<p>Oh, I forgot to mention that he was also an Eagle Scout and sent over a bunch of reconditioned computers to a third-world country. </p>
<p>Having said that, it can’t hurt to apply. And why not take CAP? Spending a year at UTSA isn’t the end of the world.</p>
<p>Duplicate.</p>
<p>I agree that you might get a CAP offer. I don’t agree with the other posters who say you “screwed around.”</p>
<p>@brighdalake you said:</p>
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</p>
<p>So I ask, did you even take the time to read the original post? Let me help you out here. DFWstudent wrote:</p>
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</p>
<p>So with that quoted, I am pretty sure you might consider apologizing to @MrDrProfessorSir. The only thing he did, that you failed to do was actually read the post. The only person being rude is you.</p>
<p>Again, the GC at the high school can let him know what his chances are. Again, my nephews Texas high school got a number of kids accepted outside of the auto %. Don’t know if holistic admission would look at a breakdown of what caused the lower GPA. I say this because my son got into schools with a lower GPA than other rejected, and without compensating test scores, but he went from not good grades freshman year in a non honors track to College level, AP , top offered track senior year and getting straight As there. We highlighted this, and it did make a difference to some big state Unis too.</p>
<p>But I don’t know how it works in TX, at UT in particular, but neither of my nephews were in the top 100% of their classe, and one did get accepted to UTAustin, both to A&M, and some of their classmates did too. It makes no sense if a student is in a school where all of the students are high level to have the same standards put on them in terms of %. In VA, there are schools where the class rank can be pretty low and kids still get accepted to UVA. I know kids accepted at ivies in the 30% range of certain schools. How carefull the holistic process for those who are not auto accpeted is done, and how much GPA/rank counts there, will be a part of the picture for the OP.</p>
<p>“There are thousands of people who didn’t screw around and focused on school. They will, and should, get in before you.”…</p>
<p>No I read the post, I read it in a different context. I read it as a way that he had improvements throughout his high school years. Starting low freshman year. But I just became taken back by the responses to his post by giving him not much advice, just attacking his honest opinion of his freshman year. Im sorry if it felt that i was misinformed and if i came across rude, He didnt say he screwed around his entire high school career. doesnt eveyone try to improve from freshman year? My post is a reaction of what I’ve seen lately on this forum: parents mostly, some students, have very strong opinions on Texas admissions and I feel that there’s more to consider in the discussion.</p>
<p>I shouldn’t go on CC right when I wake up because I can’t write clearly when I see poster writing things that clearly aren’t helpful.</p>
<p>As an OOS student, and someone not in the top 10% (private school), I never screwed around during through my years. I have taken the hardest classes, and kept a decent GPA (with an upward trend, and my strongest semester was senior fall). Some of the kids in the top, took easier classes (which is by no means an excuse for me). Personally I dislike the % rule. I know kids who are in the top 50% in my school who are brighter than kids in the top 5% at some of my local public schools. That said, this is still from an OOS student’s perspective.</p>
<p>@brighdalake I think the point being made is that in the majority of school districts, class rank, the way it is calculated and its importance in UT admission is literally drilled into the heads of 8th graders when making course selections. With that said, when kids “screw around” their Freshman year, frankly there is no rebounding that. If they don’t want to go to UT, that’s fine, but you can’t come here and behave as if UT is important when the actions of who ever is asking the question show it was not important enough or they would not be in the situation. It happens every single year an although it is “shocking” and new to the applying class, it is just beating the same dead horse that died here 4 years ago.</p>