Resource Center

Research Relating to Measures that Would Limit the Texas Top Ten Percent Plan
Submitted by the Intercultural Development Research Association
March 11, 2009

See also Testimony on HB 52 Relating to the
Texas Top Ten Percent Plan

If a 40 percent cap is placed on Top Ten Percent Plan student admissions, thousands of academic performance-based admission slots at the University of Texas at
Austin will be eliminated in the upcoming year. Thousands more will be lost as the cap is applied at other state universities in the future.

* Based on data provided that include students who are White, African American, Asian or Hispanic, which  represent 98 percent of Top Ten Percent Plan students at UT Austin.

Among the total of
Texas
’ Top Ten Percent Plan students admitted to the University of Texas at
Austin from 2000 to 2007, only about 60 percent of those students actually enrolled at the university in each of those years. Applying a cap to admission of students will reduce the pool of Top Ten Percent Plan student applicants and will result in deeper reductions in Top Ten Percent Plan students than the cap implies.

* Based on data provided that include students who are White, African American, Asian or Hispanic, which  represent 98 percent of Top Ten Percent Plan students at UT Austin.

If the number of Top Ten Percent Plan students who are admitted is capped at 40 percent of applicants, the percentage of enrollees who are Top Ten Percent Plan students will be cut to 25 percent of the University of Texas at Austin
’s incoming freshmen in subsequent years.

* Based on data provided that include students who are White, African American, Asian or Hispanic, which  represent 98 percent of Top Ten Percent Plan students at UT Austin.

* Based on data provided that include students who are White, African American, Asian or Hispanic, which  represent 98 percent of Top Ten Percent Plan students at UT Austin.