<p>Ho Hum ...... not this again.</p>
<p>yea they should definately scrap the top 10% rule to keep people like the OP out of the school</p>
<p>UT should adjust the policy to top 10% automatically admitted to the UT system...not a specific campus (like the UCs). This would force more academically stellar students to the lower tier campuses and raise their profile...Texas population is growing fast...they'll probably have to do something like this in the near future.</p>
<p>Texas could make the UT system comparable to the UC system.</p>
<p>"UT should focus on building socio-economic diversity and not thrusting race into the spotlight. "</p>
<p>Right, so the 10% rule is superior to any other form of affirmative action, because it only differentiates between people at a "low income school" vs. a "rich kid school" as opposed to a black applicant vs. a white applicant. Your point should be that this legislature is NOT racist. How is it that race is "thrust into the spotlight?"</p>
<p>guys i'm thinking jmanco just wants flame threads. he just joined CC and has already made another thread for people to fight over his belief that Harvard is horribly overrated, and Rice kicks Harvard's butt. Dont pay any attention to him.</p>
<p>Its not racist... It just helps out smaller schools and poorer communities...
If you don't make the top 10... sorry... I don't see how its racist....</p>
<p>I do think UT will eventually have to do something, if not they over flow of top 10-ees will over flow into A&M, UTD, UTSA, and such...
UT is on the rise fast, but the top 10% law will only get it so far...</p>
<p>"For you to say that the top 10% rule allows "black kids with bad grades" to get into UT over someone at a more competitive high school (white or black) is ridiculous."</p>
<p>Clearly, though, it does have that effect...(although I would say "low scores" rather than bad grades). In fact, that is exactly the effect it is supposed to have--it admits people who would not be able to get in if objective criteria of high school achievement were compared. This issue isn't really the effect, which is pretty obvious, but whether it's a good idea or not. I would like to know more about what the results have been at UT. Have they had to create a bunch of remedial courses? Has the drop-out rate increased?</p>
<p>I don't think everyone in America wants society to be color blind, or to ignore everyone's differences. They'd like to eradicate prejudice based on those differences, but not the differences themselves.</p>
<p>I challenge the allegation that schools like UT are somehow obsessed with race or are necessarily perpetuating racial divides by wanting a diverse student body. Colleges want diversity of race and background because they believe the learning environment is better when they have it. You might reject that notion, but it's a little too simplistic IMO to frame their actions as being fixated on skin color.</p>
<p>We live in Texas. Do you really think those rural congressman would have ever let this pass if there wasn't something in it for them? While you choose only to focus on one very limited side of the issue, (UT has about 1700 African Americans out of about 37k UG's) you limit the scope of your argument by not even acknowledging the fact that it helps other groups -- some maybe even more than AA's. </p>
<p>I honestly don't think you're really racist. I just think you need to think before you speak. Criticize the rule itself.</p>
<p>I'm just tired of people like you *****ing about the what -- 400/9300 spots that are filled by AA's every year at UT? Of course let's just chalk them all up to some stupid little rule and that'll make up for our own shortcomings. </p>
<p>Make yourself better. Stop finding excuses.</p>
<p>I don't need to make myself better I could go to UT if I wanted to.</p>
<p>As a former Texas resident, but native Minnesotan, I was shocked to see the differences between schools in the same community. We're not talking rural vs urban, but one side of Interstate 10 vs the other side. It was really sad. Something has to be done to level the playing field, but I'm not sure this top 10% is the best way to do it. Many students from "the rich side of town" attend private schools. If they aren't in the top 10%, they transfer to one of the public schools for their senior year if they really want to go to UT.</p>
<p>jman-
With all due respect, I think what Bourne was referring to when he/she said "make yourself better" was not a reference to your academics, but perhaps to your diplomacy.</p>
<p>don't feed the troll</p>
<p>So you're saying that the top 10% of a high achiveing school with average SAT of 1800 automatically qualifies for UT (let's say those top 10% have SAT ave. of 2100), while the top 10% of an under achieving school with average SAT of 1500 (lets say top 10% has ave. SAT of 1800) equally qualifies for admission to UT? And that applicants not in the top 10% from the high achieving school (let's say SAT of 2050) are not admitted, while applicants with SAT of 1800 are admitted from under achieving schools?</p>
<p>That seems strange.</p>
<p>In California, for the nine University of California campuses, they use a combination of --</p>
<p>a) rigid curriculum requirements in core courses + having taken SAT + SAT II
b) GPA cutoff -- I believe it is 3.3 this year (it is a moving target to maintain approx. top 12.5% qualification rate)
c) not sure if there is an SAT cutoff, but I think not.</p>
<p>Then there is a back door called "eligibility in the local context" where students failing to meet the normal top 12.5% standard are admitted if some other criteria are met -- school is underachieving, and a combination of test scores + GPA meet a standard lower than the general standard. I believe this was a non-racial work-around to the approx. 2003 ruling that race could absolutely not in any circumstances be used as a reason to accept an applicant who did not qualify under normal standards.</p>
<p>That's exactly what we're saying.</p>
<p>If Obama gets elected president (with an extremely modest resume) by getting millions of votes from white people, will even one bleeding-heart lib tone down the racism-is-the-root-of-all-evil rhetoric, or will it be business as usual?</p>
<p>Stop criticizing Obama; having good judgement is far more more important than having "experience." Obama has good judgement.</p>
<p>Political discussions belong in one of the cafe sections of the forum; go over there for your smackdown.</p>
<p>Yeah it's REALLY hard to get in to UT if you're not in the top 10%. And by REALLY, I mean nearly impossible. And there are some racial implications to the 10% admissions rule. In Dallas, for example, the public school system is nearly 95% minorities, while private schools mostly are mostly white. </p>
<p>I go to a private school that is very difficult. Also, to be in the top 10% at my school you have to have above a 96 GPA (we don't use the 4-point scale). I know of public schools in Dallas (which are generally easier than the school I go to) where an 88 GPA would place you in the top 10%.</p>
<p>Definitely Racist!!</p>