You were able to get into UT and you chose UH instead? I dont know what's worse... UT for accepting you as a non 10%er or you being a non 10%er and declining UT over UH. I guess it all evens out in the end.
Sorry if my sense of humor on the issue is broken. I couldn't afford to go to UT and I get ridiculed incessantly for not going. Kind of takes a lot of the fun out of it.
The top 10 percent rule is terrible. I went to a competitive private high school and ended up in the top 25%...with my SAT and resume, I ended up going to one of the top schools in the country. Yet, I would have had a hard time getting into my state school.
I know lots of kids from last year and this year that were top 25% or better with 2100 SAT and got rejected. I knew I was going to get rejected with top 23% & 1970 SAT. I came from a competitive HS and was angry at the top 10%/top 8% law. I had to settle for Texas A&M (backup school) instead of UT. At least with A&M, it's easier to get (all you need is a 1300 Math/Critical reading SAT + top 25% for automatic acceptance). I just wish the legislature would do away with the top % law. I'll be transferring to UT next year, but it was pretty hard work to get there. :/
Guess I'm wrong. 2100 is equivalent to the 1400 on the old scoring system, right? It's just wild that you could score that and not get accepted.
I like UT being more selective. I still like students from any school having a chance but It should really be the top 5% rule. Those students show potential to excel and maybe when challenged they will succeed. You MUST give them that chance. It is FAR worse to be left out while being elite at a mediocre school than it is to be left out while being average at a great school. If you're from Houston you can stay with your parents and avoid room & board and the classes are often at convenient times for full time employees.
Yeah, that's really unfortunate. Just too many top 10% applicants lately. Yeah 2100/2400 would be equal to a 1400/1600. Yeah, but most students who score that high anyways would probably get into a really good schools (top 20 schools).
Do any of you people poo-pooing the Top 10 percent program know what UT admissions classes looked like before the rule? To me, it seemed like over percent of the people I went to school with during the late 90s--Top 10% passed in 97, but didn't really have a perceptible affect on admissions for several years--were from either Houston or Dallas. Urban and suburban schools were WAY overrepresented. I was admitted in 1997 outside of the top 10 percent, and I was from a small town. We were a rare breed. Everybody else who left home for school in my senior class went to A&M, Tech, or SWT. The rest of the state pays taxes, they should get access too. Not everybody gets to be a Longhorn just by being in the right school district and doing the right extracurricular activities and hiring the right SAT prep tutor.
Work hard and succeed. A good GPA is a good GPA. Granted if your high school has 100 people and less resources, your 4.0 will mean less than someone who went to a 5000 student mega school and got a 4.0. And then of course there's the SAT, which is not relative. But that's why the admissions process is holistic and NOT driven by some arbitrary numbers game or 10% cutoff rule. I went to a crappy high school. I worked my ass off. I contributed. I was a great student and active in my community. My resume was good. I got in. Do the same and you will too. Probably.
