“The Texas problem is a big population, two flagship campuses, and far too few slots,” he says. “What the university system needs to do is figure out ways to make all of the campuses more appealing. Right now, there’s great pressure on getting into the Austin campus and trying to get onto the Texas A&M campus.
“The thing we anticipated [in our 2003 report] is there’s also the side benefit of actually having these outreach activities where the university administrators go to different high schools in places where a big campus administrator has never appeared in person,” he continues. “To some extent, the improvement in enrollment is a credit to the administrators that have done this.”
Dr. Gregory Vincent, the vice president for diversity and community engagement at UT-Austin, says that while the Top 10 Percent program has transformed academic admissions, the campus has also evolved its outreach efforts. He cites the school’s Longhorn Scholars program as one positive example. The program targets roughly 70 Texas high schools that had rarely, if ever, sent graduates to UT-Austin before the Top 10 Percent program.
“Last year, we exceeded our pre-Hopwood numbers. I’m convinced that we will continue with that upward trajectory,” Vincent says.
- Ronald Roach
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