TexasAggie81 said:

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Oogway said:

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Back when there was a discussion (it might have been in the Politics forum) regarding the Top 10% rule, I was and still am in favor of it. I know some folks are not. While I agree with you that GPA and class rank should be computed using a uniform metric, there were folks that were arguing about schools graduating students who were not capable of matriculating at A&M* and therefore the Top 10% rule should be abolished. I have a problem with that.

A&M already draws a significant amount of its student body from urban areas and urban high schools, which does reflect the changing nature of the state itself. Students from small rural ISDs where the curriculum is solid but lacks access to the breadth and depth that a 6A high school can offer should not be denied the same opportunity to attend as a student from St. Marks or Highland Park. Otherwise, all of the tradition that A&M was built upon would be meaningless. However, with the Top 10% rule, there are students from all over the state and almost every county who apply, are accepted, and enroll at A&M. The mission of A&M as a state school is to give the taxpayers of the state higher educational opportunities to students who have ties to the communities from which they come and to which they will return, perhaps not always to live permanently, but to further the investment which the taxpayers have made in their education.

If you graduated from this university or any other state school in the US, then you have been a beneficiary of that investment as well (as was I). Granted, the student is asked to shoulder a lot more of that expense than in the past, so in some ways students from earlier years were subsidized at a higher rate by the taxpayers than as individuals.

As far as the process being more subjective, that will be true, but it may allow for some of the outstanding applicants who we have read about in other threads (who attended schools that didn't really rank, etc) to shine and be admitted.

*As far as students attending that should not be admitted, a lot of the examples people were listing were anecdotal. To really know, one would have to delve into the data. A&M, like many universities, has worked diligently toward increasing student retention. This is important most especially if a student comes from a school where the exposure to college level classes may have been minimal. Living Learning Communities, groups for first generation students, help desks, and mentors are some of the resources that universities have that simply did not exist when I attended college many many years ago. These aids cost time and money but so does a college education, and I believe that the University, former students and current students working together can continue the trajectory of A&M as an institution of excellence.

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What you DON'T see published from A&M is how many top 10% admits from the crappiest inner city schools flunk out after the first or second semesters. I think you might be shocked to see those numbers. Or maybe most of us wouldn't. The 10% rule doesn't do anything but give otherwise marginalized kids one shot. After that, they're on their own.

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