Texas A&M: To rush or not to rush?

[HQWest]

^^^^
Or if you were at one of those competitive schools or an elite private school, you could try for one of those scholarships at Alabama or Arkansas or Auburn and take advantage of their top notch Honors college programs.

[TXGreekMom]

Originally Posted by HQWest

^^^^
Or if you were at one of those competitive schools or an elite private school, you could try for one of those scholarships at Alabama or Arkansas or Auburn and take advantage of their top notch Honors college programs.

This was our experience. Out-of-state honors programs showed real interest, and Univ of Texas did not. (Disappointing because TXGreekDad and I were both Longhorns, but in the end you want your kid to be happy, so we are learning how to be SEC parents!)

Friends of mine who are either NPC advisors or admissions staff at schools outside of Texas say their campuses and Panhellenics are all taking advantage of the influx of competitive Texas applicants. It will be interesting to see what the impact to the state is, in 5-10 years when fewer of these kids bring their educations home.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by TXGreekMom

It will be interesting to see what the impact to the state is, in 5-10 years when fewer of these kids bring their educations home.

I hope it leads to more diverse hiring in Texas companies.

[TXGreekMom]

Am not a regular, DeltaBetaBaby, so please forgive me if I am missing some context here, but...

Is your implication that the Texas students leaving en masse because there are more opportunities at out-of-state schools, thanks to the automatic admissions law at TX public universities (which ranges from top-10% up to top-7% depending on the campus), are disproportionately white?

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by TXGreekMom

Am not a regular, DeltaBetaBaby, so please forgive me if I am missing some context here, but...

Is your implication that the Texas students leaving en masse because there are more opportunities at out-of-state schools, thanks to the automatic admissions law at TX public universities (which ranges from top-10% up to top-7% depending on the campus), are disproportionately white?

Yes, that is my assumption.

[TXGreekMom]

This study actually reviewed a large urban school district over six years of graduates, and found that students eligible for automatic admission under the Texas law are more likely to be white and female, and less likely to be low-income.

Other findings: "eligibility for automatic admission appears to have little effect on college enrollment and choice for the most-disadvantaged urban high schools."

The point they appear to be making is that socioeconomic and diversity impacts aren't presenting, and that the only clear result is that more top-ranked kids (many of whom already have their choice of schools) are choosing state over private/out-of-state. There doesn't seem to be a demonstrated result of increasing matriculation among under-represented students. That's just my read.

But the effects on flagship enrollment are concentrated in the district’s most-advantaged schools. Indeed, when we calculate effects by the percentage of students at a high school who attend college, we find no evidence of effects on college choice in the schools with the lowest college-sending rates. Although the college-sending rates of the highest-performing high schools in the sample are low relative to Texas as a whole, our findings suggest that offering eligibility for automatic admission may not be effective at accomplishing even the narrow goal of increasing access to the top public universities for students in the most-disadvantaged settings.

All this is only to say: I am no higher ed expert, but it seems counter-intuitive to me that we can know that automatic admissions is keeping more non-white students "at home" in Texas public universities, or that we can assume that it will create a more diverse Texas workforce.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by TXGreekMom

This study actually reviewed a large urban school district over six years of graduates, and found that students eligible for automatic admission under the Texas law are more likely to be white and female, and less likely to be low-income.

Other findings: "eligibility for automatic admission appears to have little effect on college enrollment and choice for the most-disadvantaged urban high schools."

The point they appear to be making is that socioeconomic and diversity impacts aren't presenting, and that the only clear result is that more top-ranked kids (many of whom already have their choice of schools) are choosing state over private/out-of-state. There doesn't seem to be a demonstrated result of increasing matriculation among under-represented students. That's just my read.



All this is only to say: I am no higher ed expert, but it seems counter-intuitive to me that we can know that automatic admissions is keeping more non-white students "at home" in Texas public universities, or that we can assume that it will create a more diverse Texas workforce.

It looks like TTP is indeed putting more low-income students and students of color into the flagships, but they are students who would have gone on to a University anyway, just a different one. So it is meeting the goal of increasing diversity at UT and TAMU, but we don't know who, if anyone, actually benefits from that.

[HQWest]

I believe the original idea (during Bush's stint as governor) of Texas's law was to encourage minority participation. It happened to occur at the same time as a down turn in the economy and more qualified students decided to stay in state. I think I remember reading that overall UT has seen small increases in minority participation but larger increases in accessibility for students from rural areas (which tend to have a higher percentage of first generation students). These students are also the students that are less likely to have had college prep Or AP classes or to know how to deal With a 450 person Chem 101 class?

(And unfortunately not all AP classes are created equal?)