The Paper Trail

University of Texas Has 'Lost Control' of Admissions Policy

By Alison Go

January 8, 2009 RSS Feed Print

The president of the University of Texas says the institution has "lost control" of its admissions process and wants to amend the state law that automatically admits the top 10 percent of every high school graduating class into the UT system's flagship college, the Houston Chronicle reports.

President William Powers said 81 percent of entering freshmen are admitted through the program, which was instituted in 1998 after a federal appeals court rejected Texas's affirmative action policies for college admissions. But the 10 percent law leaves little room to admit students who do not meet that standard, Powers said: "We've lost control of our entering class because we don't have any discretion on the admissions." He suggests that the school focus its energies on transferring more students from community colleges.

Tags:
University of Texas,
college admissions,
colleges

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I recently went to a new student orientation at UT and they stated that homeschooled, out-of-state, and international students didn't compete in the pool of "top 10%" kids. Homeschoolers were competing with the other homschoolers, out-of-state kids were competing with the other out-of-state kids, etc. So that being said, the top 10% rule in no way hurts homeschool, out-of-state, or international applicants. My daughter is homeschooled and and is working on raising her SAT scores and putting together a really great resume complete with outstanding essays. Last year (2010) UT accepted about 180 homeschooled students out of about 300 applicants. That's more than half!

christy of TX 2:17PM August 13, 2011

My daughter, at the 12th percentile in a highly competitive, private college prep school, with a 4.0+ GPA and 35 ACT composite, does not qualify for automatic admission to UT. She has been offered substantial scholarships from schools in other states. These schools LOVE the Texas Top 10 rule because top-notch students are applying to their schools in droves. Many will not come back to Texas - brain-drain??

Jan of TX 6:35PM November 18, 2010

Hi

Can you tell me what Junior Colleges in Austin are good schools to attend? thanks

02Mambo 8:27PM June 23, 2009

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