Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

AUSTIN — High school students with achievements beyond superior academics will have at better shot at getting into the University of Texas — assuming House lawmakers agree to limit automatic admissions in changes to the top 10 percent law.

The Texas Senate already has passed a bill that would allow universities to cap admissions under the top 10 percent law to 60 percent of an incoming freshman class. The university would have discretion over the other 40 percent of admissions.

Now, the issue rests with the Texas House, where lawmakers are likely to suggest restricting automatic admissions to 50 percent.

The change, if it becomes law, would primarily affect UT’s main campus, which projects that 86 percent of its fall 2009 freshman class will be admitted because they ranked academically in the top 10 percent of their high school class.

Texas A&M University and UT’s Dallas campus both admitted close to half of their freshmen under the law last fall.

Admissions officials at UT-Austin have been seeking relief from the 1997 law for years. Kedra Ishop, associate director of admissions, said the change will allow for decisions on a variety of factors rather than filling spaces based solely on class rank.

“For high school students not in the top 10 percent, but who excel in academically rigorous high schools, who excel in extracurricular activities, who excel in their civic and leadership activities, all of those factors could be used,” she said.

The UT admissions office recently finished reviewing about 31,000 applications for 7,200 slots. Each file is read by one of more than 40 employees, who examine high school transcripts, SAT or ACT scores, resumes, essays and other information.

“We read a lot of files but at the end of the day we didn’t have a lot of space for those non-top 10 percenters,” Ishop said.
Softening the blow

The bills being debated also would mean that some of those top-ranked students would not get into UT, although they would be guaranteed admission to other state universities. The Senate tried to soften that blow by adding a provision to provide full scholarships to lower-income students who graduate in the top 10 percent.

The top 10 percent law was passed in 1997 as a way to boost minority enrollment after a court ruling temporarily prohibited admissions officials from considering students’ race.

The U.S. Supreme Court later ruled that public institutions of higher education could use race as a factor in deciding which students to admit.

Critics, including Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, say it has led to a “brain drain” of well-qualified students who choose to go to school out of state because they can’t get into UT.

Supporters of the current law say it has leveled the playing field for students from inner-city and rural schools. Hispanic enrollment at UT’s flagship campus has grown by 7 percent, and African-American enrollment is up by 3 percent, while Anglo enrollment is down 13 percent.

“Because of our current policy, Texas universities have seen a greater share of geographic and ethnic diversity,” said Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston.

He said a UT study reported that students admitted under the top 10 percent sustain better grade point averages and maintain higher graduation rates than their peers.
A matter of timing

Keshav Rajagopalan, student government president at UT, wasn’t eligible for automatic admission four years ago because he attended a private high school, St. John’s in Houston.

“What allowed me in was my extracurricular activities, being editor-in-chief of my high school newspaper and an Eagle Scout,” said Rajagopalan, an honors student.

At the time he applied, automatic admissions made up about 67 percent of the freshman class. Rajagopalan said he might not have made the cut last fall, when automatic admissions reached 81 percent.