June 27, 2004, 02:45 PM
Top 10% rule changes may make it worse, not better
In 1997, the so-called top 10% rule was enacted, after race-based admissions were found illegal under the 5th Circuit. The top 10% rule guarantees students in the top 10% of their High School class admission to a state university in Texas. Governor Rick Perry is currently seeking to reform the rule as it is causing many highly qualified students, not in the top 10% percent, to leave the state for other schools.
The University of Texas, for example, had to enroll 70% of its incoming freshman class under the rule, leaving only 30% for admittance under other qualifications. Many are in favor of a cap on the percentage one university would have to admit and others want to abolish it all together, especially, since the ban on affirmative action programs has been lifted and schools like The University of Texas have started using affirmative action to admit minority students.
The Chronicle has included a number of articles on the subject recently. In Thursday’s, “'10% law' revision plan is opposed”, LULAC and the NAACP were against any changes saying that it would hurt minority enrollment. Friday’s paper included an AP story, “Expert has idea for top 10%” in which an “expert” from Princeton University told a Senate committee on higher education that one fix would be to adopt California’s method of letting the state select a student’s school! Without even going down the argument path of social engineering, socialism, and communism, this would actually punish the student’s for doing well. Having the state determine the university for the top 10% of students takes further decision making away from students and universities. The state government should stay out.
College should be merit based. If you have the right balance of grades, class rank, writing abilities, extracurricular activities, and test scores, then you get in. If not, then try again. There is always a chance to go to community college and transfer in later. Besides, Texas has countless excellent colleges and universities. You can apply to them all. Any rule that guarantees admissions to any student based on one criterion is wrong and state involvement in these equations is wrong. Somebody ranked in the 11th percentile, with a GPA one tenth of one percent lower than the top 10% should not be denied admission because 70 percent of the students being admitted are from the top 10%. Worse yet, somebody from an academically superior school and who is in the top 11% should not be forced out to a student in the top 10% from a school with far lower standards. The solution is not to allow the state to distribute students to the school it chooses nor is it the top 10% rule.
We are a country of competitive markets. Those students in the 11th percentile should not be forced to go out of state, but perhaps those in the top 10 who are not as well rounded should be. This sort of system does not prepare students for the “real world.” What’s next? Everyone who graduates from college in the top 10% is guaranteed a high-salaried job at a top corporation? If too many students choose Dell, then I guess the state could always start distributing jobs among companies.
Again, Texas has so many colleges and universities. No one is entitled. All should compete. What ever it is that makes an individual qualified or an inch above the rest should be considered, not just GPAs. We do not need the state involved in placing students where it chooses like in California and Europe.
When I was studying law in Austria, I met an Austrian Law student and we exchanged stories as to how we became interested in being lawyers. I told him how I chose to become an attorney based on my interests and competed for admittance. He told me that in middle school, students were chosen for different careers thought to be well suited for each of them. Therefore, from that point onward he was assigned a special schooling track all the way into his twenties. I shudder to think what I would be doing now had someone determined my interests for me and taken away my choices based on looking at me in middle school.
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