Quote:
Originally Posted by epchick
That's the reason I liked the 10% rule, it gave students from "less fortunate" school districts a chance to go to a good college.
Lets be honest---I was in the top 10% and I think i'm darn smart (along with the other 28 people who were in the top 10% w/ me) but I don't know if we could compete with people at more fortunate school districts in Austin, Dallas, etc.
But I know that when my cousin was a senior in HS (which was 2 years ago) the counselors told the seniors that they would no longer be accepted because they were top 10% that it was taken away.
Well the medical school in Houston is SOOOOOOO crowded and so hard to get into. What gets me mad about this idea, is that there have been plans for soo long to start medical schools in other places (Like El Paso) and the buildings were built and then the board, or whoever is in charge, kept taking away the funding. The medical school should have been opened in Fall '07 or fall '08 (i should have been part of the first class).
I know a lot of people got upset here, because the person who they put in charge of the medical school hired some AWESOME doctors from around the country---very well respected doctors in their field. Then he was fired and the doctors were told that if they came to El Paso they wouldn't have a job.
The reason the funding was taken away? Because they didn't think El Paso was "worthy" of having a medical school.....they wanted the med school in Austin or some place "better." I know El Paso isn't Austin, but I don't think its a bad place and we are a unique city. The medical school would benefit b/c they would see problems here that you wouldn't really see elsewhere.
Now we were told we got funding again, so we'll see what happens.
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It's true that at really good schools in Dallas, Houston, Austin, etc., that most of the graduating student body is probably qualified to enter UT. At the same time the University is supposed to serve the entire state, not people who happen to live in a rich school district (let's face it, good school districts are often rich ones).
In my time as an instructor I've only met one person who was admitted under the top 10% rule who seemed blatantly unqualified to attend UT. I think overall the quality of the student body is pretty high. I know they're aren't as intellectually motivated as the students I knew in undergrad, but I think that's partly something to do with the state university/liberal art college divide.
Sucks about the El Paso situation. I haven't been following it. I don't really have a strong opinion on a med school in Austin. People from other UT med schools can do their residencies at Austin hospitals anyway. I actually think UT is somewhat indifferent to the whole thing overall. Administrators are concerned about the startup costs taking away from other institutional goals. I know people involved in biology/biomedical engineering really want a med school because it would allow a lot of cross-pollination in terms of research opportunities, grant funding, etc.
Sorry to keep going back to the "third flagship" proposal but that was another thing that somewhat irked me about the proposal. It seemed a way to excuse not funding or building up schools like Tech or UTEP in under-served areas of the state in exchange for building a new school closer to the Texas population centers.
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