As many of you are aware, the State of Texas has a law where the top 10% of students in their high school class get automatic admission to any state school, and in the case of the University of Texas at Austin, it’s raised to 7%.

This law puts students at highly competitive schools (such as Cy Woods) at a disadvantage, which makes sense as it was put into place to increase the rate that students at less competitive high schools attend college. This sounds good at first, but basing admissions on one arbitrary statistic about a student isn’t doing anyone any good at all, and it makes it very easy for students to play the system to their advantage.

This law has led many qualified students to not even apply to the University of Texas at Austin, or in more disheartening situations, qualified students are rejected because there isn’t enough room for them, while less qualified students who played the system are accepted without any problem.

It also creates a hyper competitive atmosphere where stress and envy can overcome students, creating a less than ideal atmosphere for students to prosper and grow.

I feel like college admissions should be based on a holistic process that takes into account multiple factors about your accomplishments both academically and extracurricularly, and to me, this rule is just a slap in the face to that. Class rank is probably one of the most arbitrary determinants of academic success in high school. It just all depends on the nature of your high school.