Overheard at a high school game Friday night

K

KevinC

100+ Posts
"My son is at Arkansas because he just thought Texas was too big for him. My daughter is at TCU because she wanted to stay closer to home and she thought Texas was too big and impersonal."
Simple English translation...My kid didn't have the grades or test scores to get into the best university in the state. (With a nod to Rice academics)
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When I graduated from high school in the 1970's, you could get in Texas as long as you had a pulse. Now, Texas has become the school you go to if you can get in, otherwise you go to A&M, Tech, TCU, etc. (Exception: If your parents attended one of those schools.)

This has greatly enhanced the rivalry between A&M and Texas...because aggy loathing of "sips" is fostered by their rejection by UT and their deep-seated yearning for the 40 Acres.

The bottom line is that Texas students and A&M students have one big thing in common...they both applied to Texas.
 
It's understandable ... aggy's jealousy/inferiority complex ...

It's established in the State Handbook/Constitution.
The Link

After the war, the 1862 Morrill Act facilitated the creation of what is now Texas A&M University, which was established in 1876 as the Agricultural & Mechanical College of Texas.[16] The Texas Constitution of 1876 mandated that the state establish a university "at an early day," calling for the creation of a "university of the first class", styled "The University of Texas."
 
I completely disagree with the post. I'm betting you don't have a kid that's a senior in high school applying to college right now.
 
I agree with Wesser's comments that it's an inequitable rule, but I just wanted to point out that it's actually a top 8% rule at the University of Texas. It's top 10% everywhere else.
 
jeez. Could it possibly be translated literally?

Texas is a big school. Texas can feel impersonal to some people. And shocker.. some people do stay closer to home go to school.

There a whole number of reasons why Texas might not be the right fit for someone even though they qualify academically to come here.
 
Yes, alumni need to wake up. UT has a racist admission policy as it considers race and it is allowed because we live in world of alumni cowards that are afraid to speak up. The top ten percent rule is fine, it simply needs a sat/act qualifier.
When race and other factors such as first in family to attend are given weight over a kid that has worked hard to achieve class ranking and do not get the same consideration because of their race and parents that graduated from UT, there is a significant problem. Admit 8,000. Start with the top 20% (in Texas only)with a 1200 sat/ 28 act qualifier for the first 7,200 and allow UT to choose the remaining 800 for special entry for special ability students such as National Merit Scholars, athletes, concert pianists etc. Forget out of state students until every one of the 7,200 slots are filled.
 
SMWHORN...You are right I do not have a senior applying to college right now. Do have a junior and senior at UT. So we went through the drill 3 and 4 years ago respectively.
 
My kid got a 31 on his ACT, but won't get into UT because he's barely in the top half of his class with a 3.475 GPA.

But the notion that UT is NOT impersonal is absurd. That's what makes it great, in fact. You can fly completely under the radar and never have to sit in a professor's office even once in 7 years.
 
I love Texas. I hope my kids go somewhere else. It worked well for me, but I would rather my kids take a look at out of state schools.
 
The UT experience is like life experience. No one is gonna hold your little hand and prod you to work hard. You are on your own, it is impersonal. That is what makes it great!! You must focus on your own goals and reach for them. You will not be spoon fed anything.
 
When did they change from the 1600 on the SAT? I only scored a 1460 but it was on the old system apparently.
 
Unless you are a "Longhorn Scholar" and are being socially promoted by taking classes not available to the general student body. Classes that could probably be passed by eighth graders. I
 
My understanding is that it isn"t a top 8% rule, either. But, rather, that the percentage of incoming freshman who get in under the rule is capped at a percentage and that it effectively works out to 8%.

I'm not going to spend much time worrying about how things work because the bottom line is that my kid, who has a 31 ACT and a 1400 SAT (I don't wknow what it is with writing because none of the colleges apparently care about that number unless it is wildly out of whack), he is an Eagle Scout with bronze, gold and silver palms who led a trek at Philmont (led the adults), is captain of the water polo team that swam in the State Championship tournament, swimmer at the State Championships, head of the school spirit organization, doesn't drink or smoke anything, been to Uganda and Mexico on humanitarian missions, etc. and he (according to our sources) won't get into UT because he didn't take a **** ton of classes that give you extra grade points. (How can a legitimate high school have more than 50% that have over a 92 average?)

If my son doesn't go to UT, it's NOT because he's not qualified. It's because of a numbers problem that exists for a good reason. I don't think the system is terribly well conceived, but I haven't heard of any other solutions that are better suited to the problem where children "who go to crappy schools" through no fault of their own can not go to the STATE school.

There are wealthy people who would love to buy their kid's way into UT and that money could benefit others. The biggest problem with the rule is its inflexibility.

The boy and I spent spring break in the car (he with the swine flu and me with a severely compromised immune system) touring Tulane, Millsap. Ole Miss, Rhodes, Alabama (yes, I know), Ga Tech, Georgia and Auburn. I couldn't bring myself to put Arkansas in the mix when the boy wan't interested either, but I think the point had been made that there are a ton of kids who sound great on paper that will not be going to UT and it doesn't mean they aren't qualified.

With respect to being cold and impersonal, I think UT ranks up at about a 10 on that meter. That is what attracted me. It could easily put off parents and children who want a more personal experience.
 
NickD, Your son sounds like a great kid and will be successful wherever he enrolls, hopefully at Texas.
NEISD in San Antonio was probably worse on determining class ranking a few years ago. They had a crazy system in which a student accumulated points for class rankings rather than GPA.
A regular student could take two regular math classes and make a 74 average in each of them and have 148 cumulative points.(2 periods) A Honors student could take an AP calculus class play a sport and have a 90 average and have 115.2 cumulative points.(2 periods) The regular student would have more points for class ranking. Kids with 97 gpas were behind kids with 92 gpas in class ranking. So, I know your frustration. Also, apparently obtaining Eagle Scout is only worth a 5 out of 6 leadership rating by UT admissions.
 
I got a 1560 and cringed when I saw the numbers listed above. Yikes, my score sucked. Then I remembered they did indeed change the test.

1200 was a pretty good score back then. Not so much now it seems.

Side note: In the house I lived in while in D.C. I had 4 roomies with little change out. Two were 1580's, 2 of us were 1560's, one missed two or three questions on the ACT and another never disclosed but he got a full ride to Stanford and graduated with honors. The brother of the 1580 got a perfect 1600. He is, um, smart. Scary smart.
 
There is no good way to do things when you're choices are

A)Keep growing and have a hard time keeping things under control and have rankings drop just b/c you're doing a better job of providing an education to a greater number of students

B)Put a tight cap on the number of incoming freshmen, making it insanely difficult to get in b/c so many people are competing for limited spots.

In reply to:
Click to expand...
 
The "personality" of a school is purely a matter of perception. There are people who legitimately fear the idea that UT doesn't even know your name - only an ssn or id number. It doesn't work for everyone.
 
The desire to finish in the top 10% in order to qualify for Texas compels high school kids to make strange curriculum choices. AP classes are worth 115, and pre-AP classes are worth 110, so the GPA's of the top kids are over 100. As a result, high schoolers are afraid to take non-AP classes (like choir or jazz band) because even a 100 will lower their GPA. That's nuts.
 
UT was too big for me honestly. I went to a large HS of about 2500 students, about 700 in my class, but didn't have interest in attending UT because it overwhelmed me. I was on a trip to Austin with my mom in 8th grade and we drove through campus during a class change and it literally scared me. Yeah, I was young when that happened but it stuck with me. I also wanted to stay close to home due to health reasons but UNT still seemed too big for me so I went to TWU (big mistake). I made a run through CC and eventually graduated from UTA where I loved it but was older and more ready for the experience. 22,000 and 50,000 really aren't that different but at 18 I wasn't even looking at the numbers. I just saw that crowd and had no idea how I would ever make friends or know where anything was, etc. I was very naive and my parents didn't explain college to me in any way. They didn't even go on any if my campus visits with me. So, yeah, the size of a school can be overwhelming.
 
I don't know the answer to the question, Statalyzer, but are they really keeping a tight cap on incoming freshman numbers?

Btw, I've chimed in with a couple of posts and probably seemed like I was a typical delusional parent. I actually would prefer my kid go to a smaller school, but I'm walking a tightrope that hangs between what a parent thinks is best and allowing a young person to grow up on his own.

It's not as easy as saying what the OP said.
 
When did they change from the 1600 on the SAT?
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When the public schools got tired of the criticism for falling test scores and changed the tests to boost numbers.
 
I kind of liked it in the late 80's when it was sink or swim. They seemed to let everyone into UT and that was near the peak of the admission numbers. I'm pretty sure the statistics were about 50% of the freshman class failed out the first year.

It was impersonal and sink or swim but that's where you were weeded out. Then, UT knew whether you were a viable college student based on actual UT classes. In the end, only about 25% of freshman class graduated from UT in 4-5 years.

Under the new system, I wouldn't have had a snowballs chance in hell of getting admitted. But I graduated UT and have done pretty well since then (i.e. in medicine).
 
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