Transferring To Another TX High School To Make It Into UT/Texas A&M (Austin: student loan, job market)

[Considering Coming Back]

Originally Posted by justme02

^^^Im not sure people are talking about Wilson or Hillcrest when taking this approach. One of the guys (in the article I read) was sending his kid to Molina as opposed to Plano West. Talk about culture shock!

Do you have a link to that article?

Also, it's always Woodrow, never Wilson (and Bryan Adams, not 'Adams').

[PISDstudent]

Originally Posted by Lakewooder

W.T. White, Hillcrest and Woodrow are some of comprehensives Dallas high schools with the appropriate AP and IB (Woodrow only) courses, but it's not as easy to crack the top 8% as some might have you believe...I don't have figures for the percentage but we have a 'top ten graduates' dinner every year where the previous top ten dines with the new top ten. Since we usually have around 250-300 graduates, it would be top 3 to 5%. Most of them are not going to UT or A&M, they go out of state and/or private. We have more going to UT than A&M and some are in Plan II Honors.

On the other hand, at Plano West, about three to five percent of seniors are Merit Semifinalists. Although those top ten students at Woodrow I'm sure are quite strong, it's still signifigantly less difficult to be in that position in your graduating class there. To be in the top 10% at Plano West, you need about a 4.15 weighted GPA for my graduating class when it's calculated at the end of junior year. For reference, a 4.1 is equal to 90-92 in an honors class. So even if you had all 90s and never took a class that wasn't Honors, you still wouldn't make top 10%, let alone top 8%, at West.

Of course, I think transferring is silly. UT knows which high schools are tough, and which aren't. As others have said, the competition in high school prepares you well for college. At the same time, I'm not entirely opposed to to the rule- if it's a state school, I think it's reasonable for it to be representative of the entire state, geographically. I think it should sure be a lower cutoff though.

[pepper131]

Padcrasher - don't totally discount your kid's ability to get a merit based scholarship from a LAC (liberal arts college) since it sounds like that would be more or less their interests. Even though you want to bank on UT or TAMU, your kid could get a really nice offer from SMU, TCU....my son had a great offer from Hendrix. Of course a merit based scholarship would be based on grades, leadership (what activities is he/she participating in) and course rigor....plus other factors like essay writing. You might take a look at some LAC application requirements to get a heads up on high school course selections, activities, etc.

[TXNGL]

Originally Posted by padcrasher

If you are in the top 8% of your HS graduating class you get automatic acceptance to these schools. 75% of the freshman class is admitted this way. Apparently the other 25% have higher qualifications.

Is anybody aware of a students from very competitive high schools, unable to make their 8% cut off, transferring in their last year, to a lower rung HS where they can make the 8% cut off?

Not last year, but we have some private school students here in Dallas that will transfer to a DISD school (albeit one of the better ones) around junior year for that reason.

[Spree]

What GPA are we talking about that would be the cut off for top 8-10%? I know it would vary by school. Must be over a 4.0 on a weighted scale.

[joqua]

The first two years of an undergrad degree program might be best spent in a community college that offers classes that will transfer to the 4-yr institute of choice. That's the route I chose when I entered UT Austin. Of course it doesn't mean you'll be accepted if your GPA isn't up to requirements for admission. Going via community college allows marginal high school graduates to adjust to the more rigorous requirements of college.

[Considering Coming Back]

Originally Posted by Spree

What GPA are we talking about that would be the cut off for top 8-10%? I know it would vary by school. Must be over a 4.0 on a weighted scale.

Every school is different. They don't even all use a 4.0 scale. I would ask your local babysitter for that kind of gossip.

[TXNGL]

Originally Posted by joqua

The first two years of an undergrad degree program might be best spent in a community college that offers classes that will transfer to the 4-yr institute of choice. That's the route I chose when I entered UT Austin. Of course it doesn't mean you'll be accepted if your GPA isn't up to requirements for admission. Going via community college allows marginal high school graduates to adjust to the more rigorous requirements of college.

I agree with this. Also saves $$$. For some reason this suggestion seems to freak out some of the parents in my area.

[cinnamon_toast]

If your child can qualify for financial aid, it might be hard to believe but often a private university or college can be a better deal than in-state tuition. If your child doesn't qualify for financial aid then suck it up and pay like the rest of us. And/Or have your son help by applying for loans and scholarships.

Also, Plan II at UT has different admission requirements than general undergrad. They do not look solely at class rank.

[Spree]

>> Every school is different. They don't even all use a 4.0 scale. I would ask your local babysitter for that kind of gossip.<<

One high school in the area, the top 10% of the 2012 graduating class had a 4.2+ GPA, which was about 50 kids of the graduating class. Leaving the kids with 4.0 - 4.2 sweating out admissions to UT as it appears they are admitting the top 8%.