<p>@jkdreamers - The percentage drops in an attempt to keep auto-admits and the 75% level. A side effect is more qualified may be selected. If UT stuck with 10% the could probably fill their entire freshman class with auto-admits.</p>
<p>To prevent UT from becoming a regional university, UT asked the legislature limit automatic admissions at 75% of its incoming class. In due time, 100% of the admitted freshman would have been automatic admits, which would have limited UT’s ability to (1) admit top out-of-state students (2) admit the best oboe player in the world and so on.</p>
<p>One of the problems is that Texas has only 2 flagship universities (Texas, Texas A&M) for a population of about 26M. Indiana, on the other hand, has 2 flagship universities (Purdue, Indiana) for a population of 6.5M. The Texas state legislature has been kicking this can down the road for far too long, and no one with any long-term political aspirations wants to tell UT or aTm that their funding will be cut to support elevating Houston, TTU, or the like to flagship status.</p>
<p>Everyone in high school today should have known the UT admissions constraints when they entered high school. If UT Austin is the “be all, end all” school for someone, they knew what they needed to do. Even if they did not achieve that goal, there are many paths to getting to UT: CAP (which is soon to be discontinued), Community College, etc. </p>
<p>@kit890 made 2 great points - " Quite a few kids move just to attend another school nearby, where they change from top 10% to top 10." and “Even if you don’t get into UT, you will shine at some other school due to your superior high school education. And that’s a good thing too”. The second point is particularly astute. </p>
<p>Being in the top-25% to top-50% at Highland Park, Westwood, Westlake, Colleyville, Plano West, etc. (this is an incomplete list of top public schools we always hear about in Texas) will most likely have you better prepared for college than being in the top-7% at other, weaker schools within a 5-mile radius. The only downside to these top schools might be the lack of external perspective. A student who gets a 1250 CR+M might not realize that he/she scored in the 85%-ile nationally, but be frustrated that many of his peers scored in the 1400s. </p>
<p>Over 30 years ago, I graduated from Westlake at the top of the class. I know if I went there today, I would have been way lower!</p>
<p>@boilerhorn, why are they discontinuing CAP? Were too many students doing it?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I recall a mom on this board posting last year how her top 35% son was rejected with I believe six 5s on the AP Exams and 700 + on all sections of the SAT Reasoning test. He was from one of the best schools in the US and Texas.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That little bit of information does not allow anyone to form an opinion on holistic admission.</p>
<p>What I have heard and read is that CAP is a burden on the feeder schools and that many of them are considering getting out of the CAP business altogether. In many cases, they had only 1 academic advisor assigned to the role. For example, UTD left the program in 2011, citing that it was no longer consistent with its “instructional enrollment objectives.” I read that as meaning, “we want students who start here to finish here.”</p>
<p>UTSA plans to phase out CAP:
<a href=“UTSA to phase out CAP Program - The Paisano”>http://www.paisano-online.com/utsa-to-phase-out-cap-program/</a></p>
<p>In light of this, UT Austin started a co-enrollment program with ACC. After getting an associates degree from ACC, a student can then enroll in UT Austin.
<a href=“http://www.utexas.edu/news/2013/03/01/ut-austin-acc-co-enrollment-pace/”>http://www.utexas.edu/news/2013/03/01/ut-austin-acc-co-enrollment-pace/</a>
It is definitely not the same path as CAP or being admitted directly to UT, but one can get a UT degree that way.</p>
<p>According to a Daily Texan article from 2011, 9287 students were offered CAP and 1721 accepted. Of those accepted, 739 were eligible to transfer and 683 transferred. UTSA admits between 55% and 75% of all CAP students.
<a href=“http://www.dailytexanonline.com/news/2012/10/07/total-transfers-via-cap-stay-low”>http://www.dailytexanonline.com/news/2012/10/07/total-transfers-via-cap-stay-low</a></p>
<p>@boilerhorn, thanks for the info!</p>
<p>“Over 30 years ago, I graduated from Westlake at the top of the class.”</p>
<p>There have been at least 2 presidential scholars from Westlake in the last 5 years. Since there are only about 120 Academic scholars each year, that is a big deal.</p>
<p>Wow, I didn’t know that - very cool. It makes sense, because a lot of UT profs live in the Eanes school district, where Westlake is located. Three of my close friends and I were all prof’s kids. Another friend came to Austin from England because her dad was a visiting prof. She ended up getting a PhD in Astrophysics and worked with Stephen Hawking. One night, I turned Nova on, and there she was, being interviewed about string theory. </p>
<p>:) My name is on a plaque in the school for National Merit - my nephew saw it. I guess I’m in good company, ha!</p>
<p>I’ll chime in only to say that the system doesn’t seem logical. Ask the 8 Ball wrote that supporting information was needed in response to an earlier poster with good stats that didn’t get in, so I’ll offer up the S’s as a holistic comparison. </p>
<p>7.1 % class rank (in a school not mentioned yet, but about three years ago we made the top 100 HS List)
5 APs so far, all 4s and 5s. 7 more coming from the senior year.
2280 SAT (750 M, 730 CR)
NHS, NSHS (president), varsity team player and captain ( sport not offered at UT)
3.84/4.0 GPA
He skipped soccer class as a Sr. because it was a 4.0 class, and would have brought down his average. Gave up his captaincy, but it’s a choice he made. </p>
<p>Didn’t really consider UT until he was invited, and attended, the Honors Colloquium before Sr. Year.</p>
<p>Just received his offer to attend ACC. I think he’ll pass.</p>
<p>Offered academic scholarships at three great liberal arts colleges (CTCL), making all three less expensive than UT. AND he can continue to play soccer. He didn’t make the cut for two of the schools for their full ride scholarships, but is competing with 40 others students at one of the three in a couple of weeks.</p>
<p>We flirted with the idea of him transferring to the other HS in our town so that he would be top 10 students, but he really is OK with his options. Just surprised that his state flagship didn’t accept him, but he could have gone for free to Alabama.</p>
<p>@David1959</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This is the problem. He applied to “three great liberal arts colleges” and for the most part polar opposites of UT. If he was honest on his UT application he listed those schools. Any Adcom would have say that screams “safety school” and why give a spot to a kid that will probably turn you down. Admissions is a crazy dance and sometimes even if UT was your son’s first choice, his other choices made it seem like UT was odd man out. PACE is a great program. Honestly he will get more attention from ACC basic course. But like you said he has other cheaper options so no need to go to a substandard school.</p>
<p>Just for FYI</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>IMO this was a poor choice. First, UT does not even consider GPA in admission. Second, the class rank that counts is calculated after the 6th HS semester, senior grades need not apply. Schools want leaders that are academically strong. He had a golden opportunity to show that on his resume but like anything else when you play a numbers game it backfires. So many kids are alike. 10,0000 kids applied with a 2000+ and 3.whatever GPA. Very few applied as team captains. So I ask, why did he give up extraordinary for ordinary? This could be a good reason why he has not had full scholarship success. It is also why kids with 1800 SATs get admission to UT, because something on their resume made them extraordinary. (And that is not APs or 5’s or SATs…they are leadership and passions that shine through on resumes)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes, true to the above. The cut off was the State’s way to address Affirmative Action because they got nipped in court with giving Blacks and Hispanics a “boost” in admissions over whites and Asians. We know every college and university does this, but Texas was specifically named in lawsuits that went to the supreme court and so it had to do something to satisfy black and Hispanic legislators (kids getting 17s on the ACT, that sort of thing but still felt they should go to the State university) and the courts so this is the way they did it. The 7% thing actually works to the advantage, perversely, of those in the top 30% (like the OP). With only a 7% quota, as compared to the prior 10%, UT can admit more from the 30% pool if it sees what it likes there. So, the OP still does have a chance (more so than in the past) if he posts knock out SAT or ACT scores and . . . . is a decent quarterback.</p>
<p>
I don’t know if it was successful, but in some high schools there was a parent movement to make those activities academically equivalent to AP and Honors classes in terms of getting a boost to the GPA. Only in Texas would football get a GPA boost! Since schools class rank by GPA, the GPA of football players, cheerleaders, band, etc. would have increased and they would have improved their class rank. The idea here is that kids spend all these hours that are valuable in terms of school community and spirit and that they should not be disadvantaged versus some kid who just goes home each afternoon, contributes nothing, and just studies. The USA isn’t Korea, after all!!</p>
<p>Our school gives no extra points for any athletics or fine art, but still the top five in the class were all in double blocked electives. If anyone comes here and says they had to give up a sport to be in the top 7%, it is not true, if anything they “dumbed” down their overall application by not doing what they loved.</p>
<p>Imakennacompton</p>
<p>You have very strange assumptions about enrollment of students with ACT 17.
Texas has TSI (“college ready” composite ACT score is 23, Math and English minimum 19)
<a href=“http://www.utexas.edu/ugs/tsi”>Texas Success Initiative | TEXAS Undergraduate Studies;
<p>If there are students in the top 7% that UT Austin has to admit, but their scores don’t meet TSI exemption requirements, and if these students HAVE MONEY TO ATTEND (and it’s a VERY RARE COMBINATION) , these students are placed in a special program to take remedial classes during summer. They sign contract that if they don’t get certain grades in these classes they are out. </p>
<p>Google UT “Automatic Admission: HB 588 (Top 10%) Reports”, they have a lot of data, including number of students in certain SAT/ACT score range groups , both auto admits and not. You will be surprised to see that non auto admits are actually not much better than auto admits. </p>
<p>The majority of schools don’t have double block electives. </p>
<p>Our school was not the most competitive, but even our top students did certain tricks.
For example, mandatory Speech class was taken in middle school or summer school (GPA doesn’t count).
We did not have AP ComSci so mandatory computer class was often a weighted dual credit BCIS class offered on HS campus (GPA counts) or regular summer class (GPA doesn’t count).
Top students practically stood in line to get non-GPA classes like office aid to leave 1 “true passion class” on schedule in addition to all other AP classes. Or they just took free last period class with permission to leave early (no Study hall classes in our school).
My daughter dropped from top 1% to top 2% because she took non weighted DGA (digital graphic and animation) class for computer and regular sociology instead of office aid, plus she tried a couple of other non-weighted electives just for fun (won several competitions with these electives, but GPA went down)</p>
<p>An acquaintance of mine had to withdraw her son from a very competitive school with a heavy Asian population, the kid was on the brink of becoming neurotic (parents were university professors, by the way). Almost like Korea. :)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Not sure what districts you are familiar with but we have had two batches of kids go through two different major school systems, both of which have an abundance of double blocked electives. Come to think of it, in our current school system I can’t think of one athletic, dance, cheer or music (band or orchestra) that is not double blocked. </p>
<p>Because of the double blocks, kids go to summer school or do correspondence courses for every “non-weighted” class to off set the “damage” of double blocks.</p>
<p>ya ya</p>
<p>“You will be surprised to see that non auto admits are actually not much better than auto admits”</p>
<p>Not surprised and not really the correct comparison. The auto admit group consists of two sub groups: A) those with the best rank from the best schools and B) those with the best rank from lower performing schools(who may not have been admitted with holistic review). The non-auto admits are composed of C) high performing OOS applicants and D) in-state applicants that were below the auto-admit cutoff.</p>
<p>What we would like to compare is group B to group D. But we don’t have those stats. Furthermore, group A drives the stats for the auto-admits higher and similarly (I suspect) group C drives the stats for the non-auto admits higher. So we can draw any conclusions. IMO</p>
<p>I don’t love the 7% rule - but it at least gives kids from all over Texas some equality.
In my day, 60% of every freshman class had to be “failed out” because auto-admit made for a huge # of kids.</p>