quote:
I think you missed the point of that law for Plano. The goal was to increase the slots for those below the top 10% by capping the fraction of automatic admissions in the freshman class. When you do that while holding enrollment constant, the top X% has to use a smaller value for X. I think the Plano rep wanted to cap automatic admits at something like 50%.
Shifting top 10% to a smaller fraction also helps kids from areas like Plano because a) the absolute numbers are smaller, leaving more room for other admits that use the criteria favored by the suburban parents, and b) the very top kids from other districts are more likely to have offers from other schools, which makes them less likely to take a slot.
I think it would really only work out that way for a Plano student that was also "diversity" (and specifically not Asian)
when it comes down to it even very good students from Plano are probably not all on a large scale going to be scoring a high enough SAT to be able to squeak into the limited slots available from the movement of 10% to 8% or 7%
there will be a great deal more Plano students overall that would have been in that 7% to 10% that would have gone to UT Vs students that are now outside the 8% or 7% and yet have all the metrics to qualify for those limited number of slots freed up
UT is looking for "diversity" in some of those slots and they are looking for top out of state students like students in the top 5% of their HS class with a 1350 SAT that will pay a full ride because they want to come to UT or Austin for some reason or a student they can give a partial scholarship to and still have pay slightly over in state tuition
it is not going to result in a net gain for Plano students because after the 7% or 8% are met they are not simply looking for "next up" with "next up" being 8% to 10% with a pretty good SAT or 11% to 25% with a really good SAT
lets look at it a different way
for A&M if you are outside the top 10% you need a 1,300 SAT to get in automatically
the average SAT for UCLA in 2011 (last data available from the CMUP) was a 1,300 and UCLA is highly competitive to get in to as much or more because of the desired location than academics (though academics of course is a MAJOR factor)
Illinois was a 1,280
BU private AAU member 1,275
UC San Diego again academics AND location make it very desirable 1,270
UMN 1,240
UNC was a 1,305
UC Davis 1,210 (Same as A&M that year)
so the point being a 1,300 is pretty darn high and a good score that gets students in line with a lot of top public and even some top private schools
UT was a 1,250
so the point being a politician was taking quite a risk to do a supposed "favor" (or looking out for her voters and their kids) by cutting back on 2% to 3% of high school classes that number in the 1,200 range at several Plano high schools getting into UT automatically and believing that more students would actually be admitted based on a holistic review and being able to crank out an SAT somewhere in the 1,280 to 1,310 range which is in line with the average at top public universities
if the HS class is 1,200 at 3 Plano schools and 2% fewer are auto admits that is 72 students losing that auto admit now you need at least 72 of them to pull probably a 1,300+ because now they are outside the top 8% and they are being judged on a "holistic" process that looks at a lot more than just class rank or even SATs
even if there are a lot of them cranking out that 1,300+ I am not sure UT is looking to get 72 more students strictly from the Plano area in particular with those open slots or even the DFW area
UC schools admit the 9% (well that is a starter) and then they do it by campus now to spread the load equally (something A&M and UT need to move towards and they improve OTHER system schools) and UCLA is probably the most popular and UCLA has program specific admissions
so in California a state larger than Texas by a fair amount of people with some pretty damn good high schools at one of the most selective and popular schools in the state and country a 9% HS class rank and 1,300 SAT would get you right at average for UCLA so it is quite a gamble that there will be a ton of Plano students outside of the top 8% of their HS class cranking that kind of score out AND having things like GPA, AP classes, extracurricular activities, (race wrongly in my opinion) (and race NOT being Asian) and getting into UT when the goal of UT having those extra slots is getting students with extremely high GPAs, out of state students, race based "diversity" (right or wrong) and pretty much anything other than "more common Plano Students with good or even great metrics"
because really with a super high GPA and not that high of a class rank (UC students being 9% or higher and 1,300 SAT average) I think UT would have to ask "were they ****ing off in class and pulled a great SAT and is that for us" and I think the answer would be "no" especially coming out of Plano
so I understand your concept, but I feel it is not a great risk on the part of that politician if that was her purpose and I feel it will not work out as intended if it was her purpose
and really I feel her purpose was more to allow UT to simply admit better students overall, get GPAs up and not be hamstrung by the 10% rule that has never worked as intended
the only possible way I could see it working for Plano is if they have a lot of black or Mexican students that are outside the top 10% by a 1% or 2% and that can crank out a 1,250 or better SAT with some AP classes and a lot of extracurricular activities as well and a lot of letters of recommendation and I am not sure they have that enough to offset the 72+ students that now are not getting in because they were in the 8% to 10% of HS class