<p>Wow, so in your opinion Cy Ridge is one of the best schools:</p>
<p>[Cypress</a> Ridge rated ‘dangerous’ by state - Houston Chronicle](<a href=“Cypress Ridge rated 'dangerous' by state”>Cypress Ridge rated 'dangerous' by state)</p>
<p>Also, if 25% of NMFs are sponsored by Corporate and NM Corp then I am guessing there must be at least 30 or 40 NM Scholars just from that Houston area list. In addition there would be about 12 from just Dad2013’s D’s high school. Similarly, there must be about another 50 or so from Dallas. So, I am guessing in all of TX there must be around 250 NM Scholars who made it with Corporate or NM Sponsorship. So why is it that UT just attracted 60? Where did the rest of them go, Dad2013?</p>
<p>Once again I am not saying that UT does not get good students. What I am saying is that the average scores at UT cannot be higher because they have to draw top 7% from any school that applies. I am also saying that many of the instate top students (NM Scholars) head to other universities. UT BHP is one of the best program of its kind in the country. Similarly the engineering school is one of the best. So, please do not misunderstand what I am saying.</p>
<p>@perazziman - Why are you hanging in the UT forum if your kid goes to A&M? Just to bash the school and people. I never saw Ya Ya say Cy Ridge is one of the best. He said it had a different economic background. Go back and read it. </p>
<p>Do you know where ALL the NMF’s enrolled?</p>
<p>The average test scores for incoming freshman.<br>
UT ACT range 25/31
A&M ACT range 24/30</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>First of all I do not think one has to have a child at the university to “hang out” here. I entered the thread when someone asked a question about research dollars spent at A&M. Then, Dad2013 questioned the NM Scholar stats so I responded. Also, FormerProf suggested that top 10% may need to be modified with minimum standardized test scores and I responded. This is not just a UT issue, it also impacts A&M.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Here is the student profile background, how is it different?</p>
<p>[CyRidge</a> High School](<a href=“http://schools.cfisd.net/cyridge/profile_cyri.htm]CyRidge”>http://schools.cfisd.net/cyridge/profile_cyri.htm)</p>
<p>Since when does someone have to have a child attending a school in order to post? That is absurd. Some parents need to grow up.</p>
<p>kldat1
I am a “she”</p>
<p>perazziman</p>
<p>what exactly are you arguing about? </p>
<p>In your link the first sentence says:<br>
“The suburban, middle-class Cypress Ridge High School …”</p>
<p>In my link if you check previous years
2013 30 students
2012 34
2011 28
2010 29
2009 26 (it was the first graduating class, I presume)</p>
<p>Consistently above average 7.</p>
<p>What’s your problem?</p>
<p>@Ya Ya — Sorry. 
It’s sometimes hard to tell gender on internet forums! :)</p>
<p>@Frankie — The issue is why someone wants to come into a forum and try and downplay a good school and make their choice seem better. Grown-ups would understand that.</p>
<p>Hi Ya Ya, it is just that the other schools you mentioned, such as Seven Lakes, Cinco Ranch etc have less than 20% economically disadvantaged students (suburban middle class). At this one, more than 50% are from economically disadvantaged households. So, I am not sure how that would be considered “suburban middle class”. In addition the demographics suggests 17% white & 10% Asian. Once again that does not scream suburban middle class.</p>
<p>In my opinion, this school and its sister schools Cy Springs and Cy Lakes do not create the type of top 7% that generate high standardized test scores. They also do not create large numbers of NMSFs. These are exactly the type of schools that lower standardized test scores and bring down the number of NM Scholars at UT. For example, how many NMSFs did these three schools combined create in the last few years?</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.cfisd.net/newsmedia/press/2013/0131merit.htm[/url]”>http://www.cfisd.net/newsmedia/press/2013/0131merit.htm</a></p>
<p>I guess it depends on what you mean by downplay. Is it downplaying UT, to suggest that academically it is not head and shoulders above A&M or that it’s students are not the academic equivalent of Rice or some Ivy league schools? Is it downplaying UT to say that some departments at UT are world class, but not all. </p>
<p>I think if this is your opinion of what it means to downplay UT, then I could be seen as downplaying it. Honestly, it is none of my business if you feel this way. However, I am surprised that you think you can hold such views and not expect grown up adults to disagree. </p>
<p>Let me also point out that my child is a freshman at A&M. So, he is at a point where he could transfer to UT if there was some strong rational argument to believe it was much better. So, it is not like I have no reason to be here. I am partly here because I am wondering is there any angle on UT that I have not explored?</p>
<p>kldat1</p>
<p>I believe you thought I was a student in another topic, so let me reintroduce myself</p>
<p>I am a white middle aged female of foreign origin, US citizen, and parent of UT student.</p>
<p>perazziman</p>
<p>We probably have different definitions of “suburban middle class” </p>
<p>Post #4 in this topic
Texas SCHOOL population
African American 12.8%
Hispanic 50.8%
White 30.5%
Asian 3.6%
American Indian 0.4%
Pacific Islander 0.1%
2 or more races 1.7%
Economically disadvantaged 60.4%</p>
<p>Seven Lakes, Cinco Ranch etc are NOT typical Texas schools, inner city schools are NOT typical Texas schools. </p>
<p>Cypress Ridge High School is a pretty typical non inner city/ suburban Texas school.</p>
<p>This is how it works with economic background:</p>
<p>UT accepts top 7% of students
Rank is based on GPA
GPA in the absolute majority of public schools is weighted
The more Honors, AP, IB, preAP, preIB, dual credit classes you take, the higher is the possibility to get better GPA and rank.</p>
<p>Let’s take Cypress-Fairbanks ISD as a typical fast growing suburb. They get new neighborhoods, they have some older neighborhoods, and since they are in unincorporated area they probably have some old farms, and trailer parks. The population is very diverse.
The district builds a new high school, do re-districting to keep diversity, and the new school gets 50% of economically disadvantaged households and 50% of economically advantaged.
Usually only 10-20% of kids in schools like this go to some kind of advanced classes.</p>
<p>Questions:
Who most likely will go to advanced classes starting with elementary school – economically advantaged or disadvantaged kids?
Who will most likely get into AP / IB classes in high school?
Who will most likely have better GPA and rank?
Who will have money to pay for college if they are accepted?</p>
<p>Typical Texas schools usually have very big gap in education that students get in advanced vs regular classes.
In inner city schools AP classes are a joke. Students never pass tests.</p>
<p>I am not sure how to explain the difference between this school and inner city schools to people who probably have some idea what inner city school might be, but have never been in one, so their idea is based on “free reduced lunch” statistics and nothing more.
I’ll just tell a story.
Some years ago when I worked for HISD, and being an immigrant I mostly worked in slums, I visited one elementary inner city school. There was a young gorgeous woman who volunteered there every day. She did everything, helped everywhere her help was needed, decorated the halls, did lunch duty, helped on playground with discipline (and it was not easy). She was the only one, there were never any other volunteers. I got curious, of course, and asked about her. I was told that she was the only woman in neighborhood who did not have infants in cribs and was rich enough not to work because her husband supported the family. I asked what her husband did for a living. I was told he was a drug dealer, some kind of boss in one of local gangs.</p>
<p>Your article about “Cypress Ridge rated ‘dangerous’ by state” was actually interesting to read.
Here is a suburban Cypress Ridge where parents and students got concerned about drugs, made a big deal about it, reported crimes being good citizens, and as a result what happens? The school is rated “dangerous”. Because citizens cared. </p>
<p>On the other hand there is “Westbury High School in Houston, where there was a rape and riot this year” but nobody actually cared, nobody made big fuss, nobody complained. Rape and rape, no big deal, it probably happens on the regular basis. Everything was neatly swept under the rug. The school is not ranked “dangerous”.</p>
<p>That’s the main difference. I hope you understand.</p>
<p>I don’t believe UT Austin is on a decline as much as TAMU is on an ascent. Both are fine universities with many strengths.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes you are quite right. </p>
<p>so when Dad2013 suggested that since her D’s school had 50 nmsfs, UT should have more than 57 NM Scholars, I was trying to explain to him that his D did not attend a typical TX HS. The typical are Cy Springs, Cy Ridge and Cy Lakes that between the three of them produced one nmsf. I was looking and noticed that Cy Springs has not produced one in a half a dozen years. So, what I was trying to explain to Dad2013 was that when the cut off drops to 7% then the kid who made 8% at his D’s school with a 2200+ SAT and 5s in 8 AP courses gets rejected but the kid with the 1700 SAT with 3s in 4 AP courses from Cy Springs gets accepted. In addition, its very likely that the top 2%, National Merit Scholar with a 2350 SAT and 5s in 10 AP from his D’s school ends up at Rice, so not as many of National Merit Scholars actually end up enrolling at UT. This is why it is hard for UT stats to compete with Rice and other tippy top privates.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>UT enrolled 57 Corporate/NM sponsored Scholars, A&M enrolled 23. Large numbers went to Harvard, Duke, Columbia, Princeton, MIT, etc. The top NM Finalists are the ones awarded the NM sponsored scholarships and they get into the tippy top private schools.</p>
<p>My daughter was a NM Finalist. If she had chosen to go to A&M, she would have received a NM scholarship from them and would have been designated a NM Scholar. Since she chose UT, she is designated as a NM Finalist, not a Scholar, so she is not one of the 57.</p>
<p>National Merit</p>
<p>[Plan</a> II Honors Program](<a href=“Plan II Honors Program | Liberal Arts | UT - Austin”>Plan II Honors Program | Liberal Arts | UT - Austin)
(scroll down to National Merit"</p>
<p>“UT Austin no longer awards institutional scholarships to new students based solely on their status as National Merit Scholars; however, this does not mean the University has abandoned merit-based aid” </p>
<p>Also, A&M admits 67% of all applicants, about the same percentage as Texas State’s. UT’s admit rate is about 46%. And A&M’s 75th percentile of SAT scores is about 20-40 points lower per section than UT’s. You can check common data sets for proof. And Rice has less than 3,000 full time students, so that’s not really a fair comparison.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This is flawed logic. Kids don’t automatically get rejected because they are not top 7%. I know at our HS that kids in the 8-25% range get admitted to UT and attend. Every year. Along with kids that are in the top 10 students. </p>
<p>For the class of 2013 two of our top 10 graduates chose UT. Others chose Stanford, U-Chicago, Georgetown, Rice, etc. We are the competitive suburban school with a class of about 700.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Which is exactly what I was saying, top kids from top schools (who are NM Scholars) end up at privates such as these you have listed. So what I am saying is that as class rank requirements rise, auto admit at UT is heading into a range that sends kids to private schools. The top 6%, 7% down to top 25% with SAT above 1300 (M+V) will be forced look to schools such as A&M. So, who will go to UT? Basically the top 5% that do not usually attend the top privates i.e. graduates from weak urban schools. I am not saying this has happened already. I am saying this is the direction things seem to be moving. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Considering it is a 46% admit rate vs top 67% admit rate and top 7% v top 25% auto admit class rank, one would think UT would be much more competitive than A&M. However, there is not a major difference in SAT scores. So, what is going on? I have shared what I think is going on.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Actually we are not in disagreement. You are saying that 80% of the top 1.5% of you tippy top high school went to privates. This is what I am saying too, a greater percentage of the top 5 to 10% from top high schools attend UT than the top 1 to 5%. My point is that as UT’s auto admit cut off rank rises to top 6 and 5%, fewer and fewer kids from your top schools will attend UT because UT will only accept those who traditionally attend privates. The 6,7,8 and 9% who historically attended UT will no longer be auto admitted. Since many of them may not get into privates, they will look towards schools such as A&M. I believe this trend is already taking place.</p>