The automatic admissions process seems to be a problem for Texas. It gives them so little room to work with to allow others in — especially with so many outstanding applicants to choose from. They are looking for a certain mix of talent and academics and with such a large percentage getting in automatically, there’s not much left of the pie for everyone else who wants to get in.
this does nootttttt make sense to me. my application was not impressive (29 act, 1310 sat) and I got cap but the fact that there are people who were supposed to get auto admission that got capped? and people who got 36 act scores and didn’t get in? idk what UT is doing this year but I am so mad for you guys lol. I’m going to a college fair today and there is gonna be someone from UT there so I’m gonna try and talk to him about this because I am soooo annoyed rn. I am accepting my fate of UT not being for me, and with my anxiety, it wasn’t going to work anyways. but I am very very annoyed with their process and how this is working. I’m really sorry about those who didn’t get straight away admission. appeal it!! or, try for somewhere better (:
Everyone got CAP last night. Texas residents with 1400s SAT, friends who is a National Merit Scholars, others in the 1500s, another friend with a 1030 who is eligible to attend only one campus, UT Tyler in the CAP. Strange pool of applicants grouped in the CAP release.
Sorry that your daughter did not get in, it’s very disappointing. So many kids we thought were top applicants were CAPed last night. I’ve also heard that kids with one or two siblings already at UT were also CAPed. With your daughter’s great stats, I’m sure many schools will be happy to have her.
Is CAP only for in-state applicants?
From the Campus to Counselor page:
CAP. Many Texas applicants will be offered the opportunity to participate in the Coordinated Admission Program (CAP) during the 2019-2020 academic year. CAP provides a path to transfer to UT Austin after an initial year of study at another UT System university.
https://sites.utexas.edu/admissions-news/2019/01/update-about-fall-2019-admission-decisions/
We are excited to report that as of today we have offered about 80% of our admission spaces, which is about 8,000 more admit decisions compared to this time last year.
https://sites.utexas.edu/admissions-news/2019/01/update-about-fall-2019-admission-decisions/
I think the whole auto-admit process is creating a lot of complications for UT Admissions. 75% of the freshman class will come from auto-admits but they still have to field a football team, basketball team, etc. (yes, I know some of the athletes are in the top 6% of their class). On top of that, they need to fill specific slots for different majors. Makes me wonder if I would have been accepted if I had chosen a less popular major like Art History or Anthropology (mine were 1. Biology, 2. Bio-Engineering).
To be fair, UT would have had to come up with some spectacular financial aid package to get me to commit so I wanted it more for the satisfaction of knowing I could get in than anything else.
UT: Cap’d
Accepted: Boston College (full tuition scholarship), Colorado School of Mines ($14k scholarship), UMN, Texas A&M, Texas Tech ($6.5k scholarship)
Still pending: Rice, Duke
Rejected: Vanderbilt
Top 10% (very competitive Texas HS), 32 ACT, GPA 3.8 UW 4.9 W, 12 AP’s, 3 5’s on AP tests so far, Latina, Trilingual, Karate Black Belt, National winner for art, no HS sports)
Out of State and I haven’t heard anything yet! I saw on the campus to counselor page they are also starting to release denials. Extremely nervous because I’m applying to CS with a 30 ACT/ 4.1WGPA
PACE is awesome. I have a child who did it. Lived on campus from day 1. Treated like a full student. No one knows/can tell the difference. It’s a little inconvenient for them to commute, but the college experience is excellent.
DS got capped last night too. 36 ACT/1510 SAT/4.0 unweighted/5.33 weighted. 4 years of engineering and comp sci all 5s and one 4 in 100% AP schedule. Shocked! Seriously - who gets in? Is it bc we are in Austin already? nationality matter? Was going to Cmp sci or eng but seriously!? Thankfully it wasn’t his first choice…
Last year, 19,482 were accepted out of 50,576 applications.
With 80% of admission spots filled according to https://sites.utexas.edu/admissions-news/2019/01/update-about-fall-2019-admission-decisions/ we can use last years data to find out how many students will get in next week.
19,482*.80=15,585, this is how many have been admitted this year so far.
So that means around 3,897 applicants that will be accepted from this point.
Last year they accepted 89.2% from Texas, 8.4% OOS, and 2.4% International.
If the data is similar to last years, that means they have this many spots left for acceptance
Texas: 3,897*.892=3,476
OOS: 3,897*.084=327
INT: 3,897*.024=93
There were more than 53,000 applications for Fall 2019 according to the article. That means that on Feb 1, the remaining 3,897 acceptances will be sent to a pool of 37,415 (53,000-15,858), it will likely be less due to CAP.
Regardless, the numbers show that on Feb 1, most of the decisions that will be received are going to be rejections.
They have said only 17,000 will be admitted this year…
Son and almost all of his friends Capped. Many top 10% with amazing ECs and test scores.
Question re being Capped: does anyone have info on the enrollment rate of students capped versus normal enrollment? Assuming it is substantially lower …
@AustinInTexas how is your son not top 6% with those numbers? doesn’t make any sense …
Accepted to Deans Scholars, CNS
I know that UT’s admissions process can seem frustrating, especially when applicants see or hear other candidates with lower test scores gain admission. I’d like to explain how that can happen. Stated succinctly, UT admissions score a candidate’s application to get both an Academic Index (AI) and a Personal Achievement Index (PAI).
The AI is based solely on these factors: (1) class rank; (2) test scores; and (3) the extent to which an applicant has exceeded UT’s required high school curriculum. Much of the discussion on this forum has focused on the AI. However, equally important in determining whether an applicant will be admitted is the PAI which includes various factors such as essays, leadership; extracurricular activities; awards/honors; and work experience; service to school or community; and a variety of special circumstances including “Average SAT/ACT of school attended in relation to student’s own SAT/ACT.”
UT then takes the AI and PAI scores and plots them on an “admissions decision grid” with the AI being the horizontal axis and the PAI being the vertical axis and in UT’s own words the “most-qualified candidates are located in the cells closest to the upper left corner.” See Appendix D to UT Best Practices in Admissions Processes for Undergraduate and Professional Programs. https://www.utsystem.edu/sites/default/files/documents/Best%20Practices%20in%20Admissions%20Processes%20for%20Undergraduate%20and%20Professional%20Programs/ut-system-admissions-best-practices-2014-07.pdf
The main takeaway here is that the PAI score accounts for 50% of an applicants admission chances. Academic credentials such as test scores and class rank are no more than 50% determinative of whether an applicant is admitted. Moreover, as stated above the PAI includes a factor that can ameliorate the difference between test scores based on the relative scores of an applicant’s high school. Thus for example, a poster in this forum complained that an applicant with a SAT score in the 1200 who attends a small rural high school was admitted to McCombs when the poster was offerred CAP. Assuming the student who was offered CAP attends a “competitive suburban” school where the average SAT score is 1300, and the CAP applicant received a 1400 score, the PAI would award greater points to the applicant from the small, rural school district if the average student at the at school had say a 1000 SAT score. Under those circumstances the student from the small rural high school exceeded her peers SAT score by twice the difference than the poster. In other words UT is trying to evaluate merit within the context that it occurs.
Also, knowing that the PAI is 50% determinative of whether an applicant will be accepted likely means that submitting a resume is not optional, but rather required if the applicant is applying for the most competitive majors. The majority of the applicants to those majors are going to have strong AIs and thus admission is likely gonna come down to the PAI score and there simply may not be enough space on the Apply Texas app to provide the detail necessary to get a competitive PAI score for those majors. Both of my sons were non-auto admits who were accepted into Liberal Arts Honors (Class of 2020) and now McCombs (Class of 2023) and they submitted detailed resumes that were several pages in longs with copies of awards and certificates attached thereto. Here’s an example of what the resume should look like: http://diversity.utexas.edu/schoolpartnerships/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Expanded-Resume.pdf
Just to be clear, I’m not defending UT’s admissions practices just offering an explanation for why some of you may have received the results that you did. I think that UT does themselves no favors by not being more transparent about how important it is to document, in detail, things like the PAI during the application process.
Regardless, for those of you with amazing academic stats who did not make it into your preferred major, or were offerred CAP, I’m certain you likley have a wealth of other great options available to you. My eldest son who grew up with UT being his dream school didn’t even end up there and instead took a full-ride to a Big 10 school and he’s been very happy there. I’m certain you guys will find happiness wherever you end up.
@atxmomof2 I am so sorry to hear this. That seems like an error. Good luck to you.
@yaleivyleague Congrats! Do you mind sharing stats?