Top 6% and Automatic Admissions Doesn't Matter For Most Applicants
With so much focus on UT-Austin’s top 6% law, it may be paradoxical when I say that ranking in the top 6% for Texas residents doesn’t matter very much.
What? How could being guaranteed admission not matter very much? I thought it was THE most important thing about UT admissions?
Although it is true that 75% of enrolling Texas residents must be automatically admitted per State Senate Bill SB 175, only a handful of less-selective colleges and schools are guaranteed: Liberal Arts, Education, Social Work, Undergraduate Studies, and, I believe but am not 100% confident, most or all majors in Moody Communications.
If you rank in the top 6% by the application deadline and want one of these programs as your first choice, great! You’re in.
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I have top 6% students applying for these majors worry that they’ll somehow get denied. I tell them that your essays and resume and SAT can be awful and it won’t make a difference. But you’re not guaranteed Honors programs, and since a lot of applicants, especially in Liberal Arts, apply for Honors, top 6% offers you only the peace of mind that you have a slot at the university. Conversely, spaces in these non-STEM programs for non-top 6% students ARE more competitive because automatically admitted students take up many of the spaces. So be wary if you’re outside the top 6% and want Communications or Liberal Arts, for example.
However, most students aren’t applying for these less-selective programs as their first choice. Nobody is guaranteed admission to high-demand programs like Computer Science, Engineering, Business, and Natural Sciences, among others. They’re competitive for everyone regardless of residency or your SAT. Top 6% means nothing for these programs, and students with high-ranking and strong SAT applicants are routinely denied.
STEM and Business applicants denied admission to their first and second choice majors are unlikely to enroll at UT-Austin where there isn’t an assured pathway for them to earn a degree in their preferred area. Even if a student as a space at UT in undeclared or Liberal Arts, they’re much more likely to enroll at their second or third choice university that offered them their major, and perhaps honors or scholarships.
Top 6% could make a difference for students open to enrolling at any program and whose number one priority is UT-Austin. On balance, it seems that students prefer to begin their students in their desired major where they have a pathway to graduation than potentially be stuck in limbo during their sophomore year at UT. Changing your major or “internally transferring” at UT is a highly uncertain process.
Moreover, just because 75% of enrolling students must be automatically admitted, that doesn’t mean each individual major or college/school needs to have this same breakdown. In fact, I’ve seen data suggesting that some of the most in-demand programs are slightly over-represented by students ranking outside the top 6%.
Consequently, top 6% doesn’t matter for most applicants most of the time.
The primary area of confusion is that crossing the top 6% threshold imbues the applicant with some super special advantage. It doesn’t.
I spoke with a family a few weeks ago who were stressing out because their son was top 7% rather than a percentage point higher. They reasoned incorrectly that their CS admissions chances were hopeless despite a great SAT score and STEM-heavy resume. I said over and over that top 6% doesn’t matter, but the point wasn’t sticking. At the end of the call, they were still lamenting the near miss.
The difference between ranking in the top 7% versus the top 5% is only two percentage points. It’s an obvious arithmetical point that seems to trip people up. There’s no difference in the “Academic Index” algorithms between ranking in the top 9% versus 7% other than two percentage points. A student ranking in the top 1% with a 1200 has a worse chance of getting into Computer Science than a student in the top 8% with a 1550. Crossing the top 6% threshold isn’t some magical way point.
The singular thing top 6% means is you’re guaranteed a space at UT-Austin, but only to programs which are not appealing to most applicants who are aiming for STEM or Business.
Belaboring the point matters because high school teachers and counselors routinely tell otherwise excellent students who rank outside the top 6% that they have “no chance” at UT. On the other hand, students ranking in the top 6% fail to realize most majors aren’t guaranteed, so they’re shocked when they’re rejected from Biomedical Engineering or Business.