The Challenge of Admission to UT
As I write this, UT is updating the admissions status for many of the more than 31,000 students who applied for the 2010-11 academic year. Applicants still awaiting a decision can check their status on the Be A Longhorn website, and most of the remaining admission decisions will be posted during the next few days.
About 14,000 applicants are going to receive good news. Congratulations! But I know it will be difficult for the rest of our applicants. And for every student who is declined admission, there’s a mother, a father, grandparents, and other family members who are equally disappointed. I think about those students and their families during this time.
As a father of five, I know it’s hard to see our children work hard to achieve a goal and then be disappointed by the outcome. I also know that there are thousands of families who have strong UT affiliations—some going back generations—who are going to ask why their children were not admitted.
I don’t have the words to express my regret that we cannot make room for all the highly qualified young people who applied. But we have a capacity problem. There’s only one University of Texas at Austin, and we are now approaching the highest enrollment in our history. Texas needs more national research universities, but that’s a conversation for another day. For now, I’ll share some information about our admissions process and what options exist if you or your family member did not receive an offer of admission.
Here are some numbers: We received about the same number of applications as last year. Of the 31,000 applications, we have admitted slightly more than 14,000 to yield a freshman class of 7,200. If our projections hold true, about half of the admitted students will choose to go elsewhere. Meanwhile, our student body this fall was 50,955, and next fall it could exceed 52,000. Our largest enrollment was 52,261 in fall 2002. When we exceed 50,000, we aggravate a serious shortage of undergraduate laboratory space for classes our students need to graduate.
What can students do if they didn’t get accepted? For Texas residents who completed their applications on time and met the admissions requirements, we offer a place in the Coordinated Admission Program (CAP). In this program, students must complete 30 hours of college with a grade point average of 3.2 at one of the eight other UT System campuses. They can then transfer to UT for their sophomore year—without having to apply for transfer admission. Thousands of students have enrolled in the CAP program and successfully earned degrees from UT Austin. While the program offers a different freshman experience, it is a path to automatic admission to UT. Most highly selective universities offer no second chances.
Welcome to our new students. We look forward to seeing you on the campus next fall.
To Clete (below),
It’s always unfortunate to hear of someone being denied admission who would have otherwise been a great addition to the university. As you’re likely aware, this isn’t an issue of having an overabundance of qualified applicants, however–it’s a problem of policy. It’s a disgrace and an outrage that the university automatically admits thousands of students with SAT scores in the 60th percentile and below–these students have no business at a flagship public like UT Austin. Those with low test scores (specifically, below 1100 SAT M+CR) take longer to graduate (if at all) and force classroom standards to be lowered. You can examine the enormous disparity in the test score averages of “top 10%” and “non-top 10%” students at the link below:
http://www.utexas.edu/student/admissions/research/HB588-Report12.pdf
Clete, until the university gets serious about reform of its admissions policy (e.g., by instituting an SAT/ACT threshold for automatic admission), the President can only offer empty words of sympathy, the quality and political engagement of the student body will continue to deteriorate, and well-prepared students like your son will be forced to compromise their freshman year experience or will even choose to attend out-of-state altogether.
As a UT graduate, I am thrilled that our daughter did get the word of acceptance! To say the least, our family is ecstatic. I can only imagine how different we would be feeling right now if she had not been accepted. However, I do have several friends who took the CAP option and I do encourage it.
As to the admissions process, I have been following President Powers for several months and know how much he dislikes the 10% rule, as do I. It not only prevents the University from selecting their own freshman class, but it quickly diminishes the number of non-Top 10 applicants. Let’s keep in mind that UT does not necessarily like this process but has to follow the law. I know the Legislature has made adjustments to the Top 10 rule effective fall 2011 and I would encourage all Texans to contact their State Senators and Representative to encourage them to change this law further so that automatic admission does not take so many of the freshman class spots.
The day admission letters arrive is extremely exciting, despite being a bit nerve wracking. The University of Texas is undoubtedly a great place, and as a longhorn I congratulate all future longhorns and strongly suggest the CAP program. I have several friends who transferred successfully to UT Austin after spending a year at UT Arlington and they’ve thoroughly enjoyed their time at both universities!
President Powers,
First off, after reading the response above from Colonel Sublousky, I would let his child into UT in a heartbeat. Secondly, I don’t find a lot of solace in your message because I know kids that got in last year after their parents made financial moves that suddenly paved the way ( not to mention a lot of your athletes–how many of them come close to my son’s test scores?) . My son had test scores that were higher than the average business student currently at UT and is a well rounded person from a good high school. It seems like every other school in the country wants him to attend–except for UT, where he really wants to go.
A recent ALCALDE article asked why the students of the 1980′s seemed less involved in UT than other decades. Well, I can tell you one reason–we can’t get our good kids into the school.
I guess he needs to make a call on the CAP program.
Clete Madden
UT Alum, Class of 1982, BBA with High Honors
President Powers,
While your words offer solace for the majority of students not accepted, they do not explain how your admissions programs neglects thousands of military children who endure multiple family moves over their high school careers and still maintain UT’s standards and even exceed your admissions requirements for a Texas resident. I have been a proud Texas resident since 1977 and graduated from SWTSU in 1986, however, due to the fact that I joined the USAF to defend our country and have done so over the last 24 years when and where the USAF sent me, my child suffers one of the most devastating decisions imposed on her in her short life. Yes, she was one of the 17,000 who received word she was not selected. I find it hard to believe that if I would have stayed in Europe for her last two years of high school (she attended DoDDS) or even been assigned to Texas for her last 2 years of high school, she would have been automatically accepted to UT. I do not understand why my daughter is penalized for my willingness to go where ever my country needed me. Please reconsider her application and contact me to discuss should you need more clarification. This is a travesty and must be addressed for all military children who most times fall into the seams of policies that should protect them.
Sincerely,
Joseph A. Sublousky, Col, USAF
Dear Col. Sublousky,
Thank you for your comment. With regard to admissions decisions, UT treats graduates of Department of Defense (DOD) high schools who have Texas residency the same as Texas residents graduating from Texas high schools. That is, a student graduating in the top 10% of his or her DOD class who is also a Texas resident is automatically admitted. You make a valid point that a Texas resident who is a top 10% graduate of either a DOD high school or a Texas high school is automatically admitted to UT, while a student from a military family who graduates from an out-of-state school is not entitled to automatic admission under the Texas top 10% law.
We hope your daughter will consider the Coordinated Admission Program.
All best,
Geoff Leavenworth
Office of the President
Great post! Candor is important, even when the news is not great!