<p>Personally, I think "automatic acceptance" for any college lowers the overall quality; since GPA and course works highly differs between schools, ESPECIALLY in Texas where there are many horrible school districts as well as highly respected schools. </p>
<p>Anyways, with the 10% lowering to 8%, do you think this trend will continue and eventually be dropped all together? I think that will definitely bring UT to a different level. Does UC schools have automatic acceptance? </p>
<p>I go to UT and honestly, I have met so many stupid people that bomb their classes and are not educated. I could have gone to a lot of other schools but chose UT, while I feel I would be in a more overall "intelligent" environment at another top tier school that does not have automatic acceptance. I know UT is a good school, but COME ON!!! There are a lot of smart people but a lot of dumb people as well. </p>
<p>I'm not saying automatic acceptance should not be practiced at every school, but with a school like UT, I do not think it's necessary.</p>
<p>i know what you mean! my school is very rigorous so you have to be smart to get into top ten, but i have met people who are like top 5% at other schools who are complete morons…i see alot of my smart friends be denied just because they are in top 11%…its sad i think ut should look at everything and not just rank. people at my school who are even in top 15% are smarter than kids in top 5% are other schools in the same district. im going into buisness so hopefully ill avoid all the stupid people you mentioned lol</p>
<p>UT statistically has a larger spread in student achievement than most other top publics, so your concerns about “lots of smart and dumb people” may be very well substantial. For instance, of those submitting ACT scores, nearly 34% of freshmen at UT (in 2009) had a 30 or above–which compares very well with UT’s peer publics, e.g., Illinois, UNC, Wisconsin, UCSD–but over 21% had a 23 or below, which is the highest percentage amongst those same schools. UT also has the largest spread in SAT scores relative to this same group (25th/75th percentile scores of 1100/1360). While the top 10% law has an overall negative effect on UT’s student body, it’s made even worse by the fact that nearly 14% of students graduate with a degree in a “non-scholarly” major like Communications whereas at schools like Michigan and Berkeley, 2-3% do. </p>
<p>In spite of the relatively large number of underachieving students at UT, I do believe the school is underrated by USNWR particularly with schools like UCD and UCI ranked above it–those UC schools have students with lower test scores, similar %'s of large classes, etc., but perhaps the one thing really tipping the scales is that they both supposedly have 95-100% of students from the top 10% of their graduating class, whereas UT sits around 77%. Nevertheless, only relatively small changes in the amount of people scoring high on the SAT (or a reduction in % of those scoring low) could change UT’s ranking quite dramatically. Hopefully the revised admissions law can have this positive effect, and get the national perception of UT’s student body back where it needs to be.</p>
<p>Yes. Read my “flame post” earlier if you want to see some about UT’s quality. I have also met “many stupid people that bomb their classes and are not educated”. Though I think that’s a pretty mean way of phrasing it. But remember, some of these “stupid people” aren’t wasting their time partying and going to football games (though many are), they are genuinely working extremely hard to succeed in the classroom, and still not making satisfactory marks in the classroom (even in grade inflated classes). </p>
<p>How strange that UT is the only top-50 institution in the State of Texas while California has 5? All of which are ranked higher (don’t really trust USNEWS that much, but still) than UT? </p>
<p>Again, I think a lot of the top 10% effect is negated, especially in the second year. A lot of students on the inner fringes of the top 10% from weaker high schools drop out, and are replaced by those of the outer fringes of the top 10% from strong high schools who were CAPPED. </p>
<p>I hope that get rid of all % based admissions.</p>
<p>Your (hijacked) flame thread was cute, though I was happy to see–at least on my quick skim–you refraining from drawing any myopic conclusions, e.g., “the ‘dummies’ at UT are a direct product of the top 10% rule.” (I liked the bit on the threshold SAT score to be college-ready.) But, yeah…um, what would you expect at a university with 36k undergrads? Grade inflation, lousy teaching, and underachieving students are par for the course at a big public that emphasizes research. Even Berkeley has an average SAT score of 1360, well below the threshold of what I’d consider “high achievement.” But in return for choosing to attend an inferior institution, you get (got?) to pay (comparatively) little money to get a piece of paper from (in UT’s case) a very highly-ranked program (McCombs), which’ll bode nicely for any future grad school or job applications–especially since you’ll be standing (did stand?) head and shoulders above your peers…right?</p>
<p>With regard to the rankings: I’m not sure they’re “strange;” they’re unfortunate, yes. As I said above, the UC schools get a tremendous advantage from the large fractions of students in the top 10% of their graduating class–which is a poor metric of a school’s quality, just as it’s a poor basis for an admissions policy–whereas these UC schools (obviously excluding UCLA and Berkeley, here) fare roughly equal to, if not worse than, UT for more important measures like SAT/ACT scores, class sizes, graduation rates, etc. Moreover, whether you believe it deserved or not, McCombs IS ranked 6th in the country for undergrads and the engineering school is 9th–only Berkeley can claim better. In short, UT’s probably underrated, but just one school deserving to be bumped up a few notches doesn’t change the notion that Texas is severely lacking in public higher education.</p>
<p>I hope that UT gets rid of all rank-based admissions, too.</p>