UT and A&M do take into account where you went to highschool and the rigor of the curriculum. In my son's class, there were a number of kids in the top 1/4 who got into UT (2007) with great test scores and extracurriculars. Many had to do the summer program, but they happily did to go to UT.
Many kids in the top 1/3 or so get into A&M, but if you are in the top 1/2, it is almost assured that you can get into the A&M/Blinn Team, and many choose to do that.
As for OU and pledging. My son has 8 friends who are either tri delts or chi-o's at OU (for whatever reason they all pledged the same houses) and none of them were 4.0 (un-weighted) students. They are all great girls with great attributes, and had no problems with recruitment.
At UT there are plenty of girls who are pledging with less than 4.0's unweighted.
A 4.0
unweighted would mean you never got a B, and while there are alot of valedictorians at UT, the student body is not made up with 100% of them, and I doubt OU's student body is either.
edited to add: My son's roommate last year was from Indiana, and he got into UT. He
was a valedictorian, NMF though, but I don't think all OOS kids are.
Here is how UT does admissions for NON-top 10% kids (for those who might be interested - from the UT website)
Quote:
The UT Austin admissions routine for students not automatically admitted is elaborate and entails a broad concept of merit. Beginning with the entering class of 1997, for those not automatically admitted, the idea of merit was expanded from class rank and test scores exclusively to the inclusion of the following factors:
The Academic Index (AI)
High School Record:
o Class rank
o Completion of UT required high school curriculum
o Extent to which students exceed the UT required units
o SAT/ACT score
The Personal Achievement Index (PAI)
o Scores on two essays
o Leadership
o Extracurricular Activities
o Awards/honors
o Work experience
o Service to school or community
o Special circumstances:
- Socio-economic status of family
- Single parent home
- Language spoken at home
- Family responsibilities
- Socio-economic status of school attended
- Average SAT/ACT of school attended in relation to student's own SAT/ACT
- Race (addition approved by the UT Board of Regents in 2003)
Thus, merit includes the ambition to tackle rigorous high school coursework, the production of quality prose, and the desire to make a difference in one’s school, home, or community. Evidence of employability (work), and some sense of having excelled in any number of areas are also considered. Moreover, admissions officials place these attributes in the context of the circumstances under which the student lived.
The Academic Index (AI) is determined by a multiple regression equation utilizing a high school percentile derived from an explicit class rank [1-(class rank/class size)]*100, and verbal and math test scores from the ACT Assessment or the SAT I: Reasoning Test. The equation produces a predicted freshman year grade point average.
After a review of the high school transcript, an applicant can be “awarded” a tenth of a point if he/she exceeded UT’s required high school curriculum. Thus, AI values range from 4.10-0.00.
The Personal Achievement Index (PAI) is UT Austin’s holistic approach to admissions. Admissions officers are trained each year to conduct comprehensive reviews of every application from students not automatically admitted. All applicants are required to submit two essays. Each are read and scored on a scale of 1-6. The application itself, and any attachments an applicant chooses to include, is then reviewed. A “personal achievement” score on a scale of 1-6 is then assigned to the application.
From the three scores, two essays and a personal achievement score, a PAI is computed. The equation reflects a 1997 faculty decision to give slightly more weight to the personal achievement score than the essays:
PAI = [(personal achievement score * 4) + (mean essay * 3)] / 7.
AIs and PAIs of applicants not automatically admitted are then plotted on an admissions decision grid.
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