Texas tonight--proof that the college system is broken

[Anonymous]

It's only a large number, if, and only if, they are actually looking at the applications...I wouldn't hold my breath that they do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't put this just on Texas - the common app has broken the system so that kids apply to routinely 15-20 schools. If they had a limit of 10 which is completely reasonable, then kids would only apply to the ones they wanted to. At my kids high school, the number of kids applying to Wisconsin, Boulder, Michigan, Washington is over 50 kids - sometimes as high as 80. Most of those numbers have doubled in the past few years.

It’s not just the common app. It’s also test optional.

It seems like before 2020, students were sorting themselves by the SAT/ACT scores given in school profiles. In other words maybe schools didn’t weigh the SAT very heavily, but students did, and they self-selected out of the applicant pool. When all the schools went test optional at once, admissions became less predictable, which caused students to apply to more schools as a kind of insurance, which caused admissions to become even less predictable, which caused students to apply to even more schools …

Students hate it and schools hate it but I’m not sure there’s any way to put the genie back in the bottle.

UT is test required.

+1

A bunch of PP yapping for naught. At least know the school's testing policy first before the hot take of the week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:As long as they are admitting the very top students from Texas, I think they can do whatever they like. If you live in another state, you should already know that it is very hard to get into Texas-Austin.

Aren't the admissions decisions for Texas kids delayed too though? Imagine being a Texas kid who applied mostly to Texas schools, now in limbo and wondering how many more schools to apply to.

Are you from Texas? It’s really easy to get into other Texas schools. Most UT students could count A&M as a safety, and if they like college towns but are more progressive Texas state is a really nice school too that you can practically walk into. Texan colleges are not hard to get into other than UT.

I'm not (or I wouldn't ask theoretically, I'd be pissed!). I am not sure you are right though, 60% acceptance is not that high. In-state in some state has become increasingly competitive. And kids usually want flagship or one other one level "below".

UT and A&M kinda share the flagship title in Texas (it doesn’t appear that way by stats, but the A&M cult is strong here). The big difference is environment and ideology.

No, they don't really.

i
Another out of state parent who has no idea what they’re talking about^

I have lived in Texas for 46 of my 48 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As long as they are admitting the very top students from Texas, I think they can do whatever they like. If you live in another state, you should already know that it is very hard to get into Texas-Austin.

Aren't the admissions decisions for Texas kids delayed too though? Imagine being a Texas kid who applied mostly to Texas schools, now in limbo and wondering how many more schools to apply to.

Are you from Texas? It’s really easy to get into other Texas schools. Most UT students could count A&M as a safety, and if they like college towns but are more progressive Texas state is a really nice school too that you can practically walk into. Texan colleges are not hard to get into other than UT.

I'm not (or I wouldn't ask theoretically, I'd be pissed!). I am not sure you are right though, 60% acceptance is not that high. In-state in some state has become increasingly competitive. And kids usually want flagship or one other one level "below".

UT and A&M kinda share the flagship title in Texas (it doesn’t appear that way by stats, but the A&M cult is strong here). The big difference is environment and ideology.

No, they don't really.

i
Another out of state parent who has no idea what they’re talking about^

I have lived in Texas for 46 of my 48 years.

We can all make miraculous claims. I lived in North Korea for 52 of my 55.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I thought that universities in places like Texas were going to DIE?!!!!!! That no female EVER would apply to somewhere in that regressive hellhole?

Well my DD and all of her friends would never apply there. Same for my DS and his friends (male or female), because well, they don't want to live in a regressive state where it's challenging to get medical care you or your loved ones want.

Where the heck do you live? I live in DC and my teens and friends (a mix of private and public juniors and seniors) from upper NW would love to live in Austin. They're not making college decisions based on abortion care. I mean, really?

I think pp's attitude is a big part of the reason why schools like UT (and Florida, and South Carolina, and so on) are exploding in popularity. Normal people don't think like that. They want to stay away from that mindset.

YUP.
DC liberals: "Texas is bad. BAD i tell you!!!!!."
Their kids: "Mom, you're nuts"

If I had a dollar for every NW DC kid I PERSONALLY know who applied to Texas I could buy myself a Chipotle burrito for lunch today.

You are completely full of shit. This has nothing to do with politics, but almost nobody from my kid's upper NW DC school applied to Texas...nor did any of their friends at Walls, JR, Sidwell and GDS.

How do parents even know this personal business? Creepy.

What's creepy about it?

Kids talk to each other, and some kids (like mine) tell their parents.

Kids know who went to which college rep visits at their school, and gossip about that. (And our guidance counselor screwed up at one point and sent students a list of everyone who had registered for a particular visit, so there's that.)

Kids run into each other on college visits, especially Columbus weekend, Veteran's Day weekend, and spring break. Literally every visit we made, including schools as far away as Colgate and Wake, my son ran into classmates who were also visiting.

Chatty college counselors drop info from time to time. E.g., my son's GC told him that he was one of 12 classmates applying ED1 to a particular school. I think she did it with good intentions (so he would know how competitive it is).

Finally, parents chat. It was our main topic of conversation in the bleachers at hockey games from December to March.

This isn't normal.

Which part? All normal at our HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought that universities in places like Texas were going to DIE?!!!!!! That no female EVER would apply to somewhere in that regressive hellhole?

Well my DD and all of her friends would never apply there. Same for my DS and his friends (male or female), because well, they don't want to live in a regressive state where it's challenging to get medical care you or your loved ones want.

Where the heck do you live? I live in DC and my teens and friends (a mix of private and public juniors and seniors) from upper NW would love to live in Austin. They're not making college decisions based on abortion care. I mean, really?

My kids are not making college decisions based on specifically abortion care. They are making it on the fact they have no desire to live in a Red state, where outside of some people in Austin, most are gun loving, right wingers. So just like they have no desire to take a permeant job there after college either. The would like to live somewhere where everyone has more choices in life.

Cause your child is totally going out into rural areas of Texas while living in Austin. Surely, she just NEEDS to be in random small towns, rather than big cities like Dallas Austin or Houston.

Shhh. Let them poo poo Texas and whatever other states. UT is exploding in popularity, as is the state of Texas as a whole. One of, if not the, fastest growing states in the US over the past decade or so. The growth is crazy - it's becoming crowded and more expensive. And UT is getting an insane number of apps, going up every year. I'm glad when people say they'd "never" want want to move here/apply to UT! Better odds for the rest of us.

Have fun without electricity during the cold snap this weekend. I wonder where your senator will jet off to this time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought that universities in places like Texas were going to DIE?!!!!!! That no female EVER would apply to somewhere in that regressive hellhole?

Well my DD and all of her friends would never apply there. Same for my DS and his friends (male or female), because well, they don't want to live in a regressive state where it's challenging to get medical care you or your loved ones want.

Where the heck do you live? I live in DC and my teens and friends (a mix of private and public juniors and seniors) from upper NW would love to live in Austin. They're not making college decisions based on abortion care. I mean, really?

My kids are not making college decisions based on specifically abortion care. They are making it on the fact they have no desire to live in a Red state, where outside of some people in Austin, most are gun loving, right wingers. So just like they have no desire to take a permeant job there after college either. The would like to live somewhere where everyone has more choices in life.

Cause your child is totally going out into rural areas of Texas while living in Austin. Surely, she just NEEDS to be in random small towns, rather than big cities like Dallas Austin or Houston.

Shhh. Let them poo poo Texas and whatever other states. UT is exploding in popularity, as is the state of Texas as a whole. One of, if not the, fastest growing states in the US over the past decade or so. The growth is crazy - it's becoming crowded and more expensive. And UT is getting an insane number of apps, going up every year. I'm glad when people say they'd "never" want want to move here/apply to UT! Better odds for the rest of us.

Have fun without electricity during the cold snap this weekend. I wonder where your senator will jet off to this time.

I remember when Californians made fun of Texas because they were without power for a few hours...only to later watch an entire city burned overnight near the Pacific Ocean. Glass houses and all of that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't put this just on Texas - the common app has broken the system so that kids apply to routinely 15-20 schools. If they had a limit of 10 which is completely reasonable, then kids would only apply to the ones they wanted to. At my kids high school, the number of kids applying to Wisconsin, Boulder, Michigan, Washington is over 50 kids - sometimes as high as 80. Most of those numbers have doubled in the past few years.

It’s not just the common app. It’s also test optional.

It seems like before 2020, students were sorting themselves by the SAT/ACT scores given in school profiles. In other words maybe schools didn’t weigh the SAT very heavily, but students did, and they self-selected out of the applicant pool. When all the schools went test optional at once, admissions became less predictable, which caused students to apply to more schools as a kind of insurance, which caused admissions to become even less predictable, which caused students to apply to even more schools …

Students hate it and schools hate it but I’m not sure there’s any way to put the genie back in the bottle.

UT is test required.

It’s not enough for UT to be test required. The market was stable when nearly all schools were test required. But now that most schools are test-optional, applications are increasing everywhere. The increase in applications is driven by high-scoring students. Returning to test-mandatory will not deter high-scoring students. To the contrary, high-scoring students have every reason to increase their applications to test-mandatory schools, where they expect their test scores will help them more. That is probably what happened to UT this cycle.

The only thing that will deter high-scoring students from applying to 20 schools is a perception that they can count on admission to certain schools. But because test scores remain only a small part of the equation even at test-mandatory schools, and the AOs at the test-mandatory schools are overwhelmed by the increase in applications, uncertainty continues to escalate. More applications will be filed at more schools because of this mess at UT.

The sudden turn to test optional kicked off this instability, but a return by some schools to test mandatory seems insufficient to end it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Texas A&M is a better option.

Gig 'em, Aggies!

Shhhhhhh. Our DC’26 is interested in College Station. Now if only they’d consider the Corps…..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought that universities in places like Texas were going to DIE?!!!!!! That no female EVER would apply to somewhere in that regressive hellhole?

Well my DD and all of her friends would never apply there. Same for my DS and his friends (male or female), because well, they don't want to live in a regressive state where it's challenging to get medical care you or your loved ones want.

Where the heck do you live? I live in DC and my teens and friends (a mix of private and public juniors and seniors) from upper NW would love to live in Austin. They're not making college decisions based on abortion care. I mean, really?

I think pp's attitude is a big part of the reason why schools like UT (and Florida, and South Carolina, and so on) are exploding in popularity. Normal people don't think like that. They want to stay away from that mindset.

YUP.
DC liberals: "Texas is bad. BAD i tell you!!!!!."
Their kids: "Mom, you're nuts"

If I had a dollar for every NW DC kid I PERSONALLY know who applied to Texas I could buy myself a Chipotle burrito for lunch today.

You are completely full of shit. This has nothing to do with politics, but almost nobody from my kid's upper NW DC school applied to Texas...nor did any of their friends at Walls, JR, Sidwell and GDS.

How do parents even know this personal business? Creepy.

What's creepy about it?

Kids talk to each other, and some kids (like mine) tell their parents.

Kids know who went to which college rep visits at their school, and gossip about that. (And our guidance counselor screwed up at one point and sent students a list of everyone who had registered for a particular visit, so there's that.)

Kids run into each other on college visits, especially Columbus weekend, Veteran's Day weekend, and spring break. Literally every visit we made, including schools as far away as Colgate and Wake, my son ran into classmates who were also visiting.

Chatty college counselors drop info from time to time. E.g., my son's GC told him that he was one of 12 classmates applying ED1 to a particular school. I think she did it with good intentions (so he would know how competitive it is).

Finally, parents chat. It was our main topic of conversation in the bleachers at hockey games from December to March.

This isn't normal.

Which part? All normal at our HS.

Same here at a large public RoVA HS. Kids and parents talk. I never ask..just listen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This makes no sense. It ucks. UCLA gets 120k apps, NYU and Northeastern get 100k. Other colleges can manage, but not Texas?

Incompetency at its finest.

Do you work? If you had a 30% increase in your workload, would you be able to maintain the same deadlines for projects?

It's not just the failure to meet deadlines. It's not sending out factual emails. It is having a computer glitch that told all of the 86,000 deferred students that they were ineligible for honors (that has since been fixed, apparently). It is admitting RD kids before EA kids. It is having an auto-admit system with a kid who applies August 1 and not being able to tell them if they got their major by January 15 - and if not, go ahead and let them in their second, third of undeclared liberal arts. Any of these things would have been an improvement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This makes no sense. It ucks. UCLA gets 120k apps, NYU and Northeastern get 100k. Other colleges can manage, but not Texas?

Incompetency at its finest.

Do you work? If you had a 30% increase in your workload, would you be able to maintain the same deadlines for projects?

It's not just the failure to meet deadlines. It's not sending out factual emails. It is having a computer glitch that told all of the 86,000 deferred students that they were ineligible for honors (that has since been fixed, apparently). It is admitting RD kids before EA kids. It is having an auto-admit system with a kid who applies August 1 and not being able to tell them if they got their major by January 15 - and if not, go ahead and let them in their second, third of undeclared liberal arts. Any of these things would have been an improvement.

1) UT should have let applicants know they may not get a firm answer on Jan 15. They should have told them that as soon as they knew, not on the notification date yesterday.

2) Admission of RD kids before EA kids has always happened at UT, though in very, very small numbers. Usually super high stats kids/interesting kids they want to keep before they get an ED or something. Or athletes.

3) The auto-admits are all very aware they won't get their major information until Jan or February. This was not and never has been a surprise.

[Anonymous]

The latest on Reddit is that the February 15th date is probably not going to happen either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The latest on Reddit is that the February 15th date is probably not going to happen either.

Reddit is massive. Do you mean someone from the school or just random kids on the Applying to College page?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The latest on Reddit is that the February 15th date is probably not going to happen either.

Reddit is massive. Do you mean someone from the school or just random kids on the Applying to College page?

Kids/parents on the "University of Texas at Austin admissions" board who called the university today.