Good information. Frustrated parent here (a former Aggie of course). Daughter attended new College Station High School which we understand was pretty competitive (primary school in WA State, so not really a Texan and definitely liberal). Daughter solely managed her application process, so some of my information I'll state is is not spot on but in general to get the point. No UT Austin acceptance received and expecting rejection today, which we understand is deadline. Here SAT was 1300 something. Not sure about rank, though CSHS weighted Honor classes the same as AP and my daughter took almost all AP classes which were much harder. So kids she knows got in UT by riding the honor class route to get higher rankings. Here GPA was good though. She didn't get in as a Freshman. Ok we accept that. Frustrating part is UT Austin offered CAP program but once got into the discussions, she was told she was in an odd situation and not a good fit, because they say she had too many hours which all came from her AP class credits. Yes she could have still gone CAP but would have had to retake all those classes and be out thousand of dollars to do it. So went to UT San Antonio figuring a good place to transfer from. Made only 1 B her first semester and all As her second in classes (30 hrs total, along with activity film related club) she could take towards her selected future major of Radio Television Film. She is off at a Summer camp in Maine to teach kids Film for two months but still no word from UT if she will be accepted or rejected. As for outside of academics she was Pres Sr year of her film class (2 class period multi year). State winner in Skills USA film competition and went on to compete nationally. Would have had great references. Her writing skills have been her strongest skill, so assume her essays were good. 2 new friends from UTSA who went through CAP program both now accepted and in Film at that. Sigh. From what I've researched, she really doesn't need school to go work in Film as her preferred Cinematographer role. She is good at what she does in that area and dreams of being first Female Oscar "winner" in Cinematography. Her AVP teacher in HS says she has all the skill she needs now to go start trying work in the industry. Okay enough. I assume you get this sort of stuff all the time. Just need to vent to someone and would enjoy your thoughts. Wish my childhood best friend's dad John Henry Faulk (yes of Austin/UT/NY Radio/Film fame) were still alive because I would ask him him to march up to the school and ask WTH!
Hey Glenn thanks for your comment. Sorry to hear the admissions process is proving frustrating a second time around. It sounds like your daughter has a really strong transfer application. I've had many applicants contacting me about when decisions will be released. It seems UT is delayed in releasing their decisions and that at least some applicants will hear sometime after their stated June 15 deadline. There seems to be staffing issues leading to delays in review compounded by their moving offices. Annoying I know. Hopefully she receives good news soon.
Sigh. Denied. Don't understand it but I don't understand a lot today with tuition out of control and Universities growing larger and larger. Maybe a blessing in disguise.
I have some questions I'm hoping you can answer. If you would prefer these get answered privately send them to txbatson at Google mail. As mentioned earlier my daughter received her rejection as a transfer student into UT RTVF this weekend. She is now trying to figure out what to do. These questions have come up with my wife and I as we have talked about the rejections. 1) Are HS details/accomplishments accounted for in the "holistic" approach UT states for admissions review. My daughter went for 1 year to UTSA after HS. If the are looked are they maybe not weighted as much. Most of my daughters accomplishments were in HS (State and Nationals film competitions, President of AVP, etc). At UTSA her focus was mostly academics as to get the best GPA she could for Transfer though she did participate in a film/art club (Creative Collective) and performed tasks as an editor on a friend's brother's podcast he was rolling out. I don't think the pod cast editing got on the admissions because it came later in Spring semester and also she is now teaching kids film at a camp in Maine this summer for two months that didn't go on the admissions for because it was this Summer. 2) Are HS SAT scores evaluated for a transfer student. I think I misspoke about here scores earlier and they were in the upper 1200s. 3) Is one letter of reference not going to cut it? I thought she had two but that was for her Freshman application. Here AVP teacher was her lone reference for transfer application. 4) Does that fact that she was accepted into the CAP program get evaluated for her Transfer application. What is very disheartening is we thought we were following what would have been an acceptable approach. As mentioned earlier she had to many AP classes to participate in CAP without retaking those classes again. We are already helping my daughter pay off 100k in student loans and we just could not afford that be done. Also this seems like just a money grab sort of thing for UT. They are a member of the College Board that does AP so they should accept them as part of CAP. So what added salt to the wound was a best friend she has now made at UTSA was a CAP student. He ended up with a lower GPA that my daughter at UTSA his first year. He has a theater background but not film. I believe he is good at theater but again if you looked at them both as CAP students seems like my daughter might come out ahead. He got into RTVF. 5) Is the fact that she went to a branch school of the UT system a benefit on the application as for say someone who went their first year at something like University of North Texas. Seems like going to branch school should have a benefit during the application review process. 6) Word is that they let more freshman in this year to RTVF than normal. Do you provide any credit to this. Rumor was like 12 spots left over after freshman (I think). Seem really unfair specially if I find out answer to question 1 above was not in her favor. 7) My understanding is a RTVF person does not participate in the admissions process. Or is that wrong and if admissions says this candidate is good enough for RTVF that a representative from RTVF does the review for acceptance into the college? 8) I understand that my daughter has the right to appeal but we sort of feel like it would be useless and it seems to be discouraged. Are any of these grounds for appeal to have her application re-reviewed? a) Your comment on staffing issues and logistical issues with moving, meaning we feel her application was rushed to just end the process. b) Our complaints about the whole CAP scenario. I recognize this is probably not a reason but if stated well enough and pushed could it be c) the additional extracurricular activity that didn't make it in such as pod cast editor and teaching film at camp. Also in this respect she does a lot with her film partner back in CS when she is home that is all production film stuff but since we understand you guys don't look at there film work it never was added in. From his rap album, to web series (WHOLE HOUSE), to other films, Anna plays a critical role in his productions. (th-cam.com/channels/N9gxqMhKAx0-v8d4xUjXLw.htmlvideos). This is where she is passion about Film and related productions and will spend her time on these activities sharpening her skills, even it just means she has the weekend off from school every few months or break to work on it. They also just got back from filming a friends wedding in New Mexico. But again how do you state this and does Admissions see this is fluff. Thing is it is not fluff because it is all part of the skills she needs to be Cinematographer. Sorry I'm ranting. 9) So last one. If she decides to take the semester off and reapply in Spring what does that mean by her taking the semester off. She'll do more film work but again you guys don't evaluate that from what we understand. I'm wondering does Admissions even know what SkillsUSA where she won State and went onto Nationals. Are her Spring chances slim this way meaning she is basically resubmitting same academic stuff with some additional personal film work references. She reluctantly just applied to A&M and got into Communications and I guess could try to take some classes but this seems like a waste of money to me. Or she could go to Blinn and take her foreign languages she needs. Will that look better than her taking the semester off to work on film? So in conclusion I understand this is a lot of information to request and if you don't have time I understand. IT is part therapeutic to write it all out but we would really like to understand also. Again if you want to do this on a private channel just email me at txbatson at Google mail. So one final story that will let you know how frustrating this is. When my daughter applied as Freshman she went to orientation. She found out that the girl leading orientation was a RTVF student and so my daughter was exited and wanted to chat her up. Now I think this girl could been first year freshman or and just accept I don't know but still. She tells my daughter "Ha ha I really don't know anything about RTVF, it just sounded fun." That burns a lot. Wish I had known about your channel way sooner. You provide a great service. I'll leave you along after this. :)
Thanks for your questions. I understand that all of this can be super frustrating for many reasons - financial, educational, political. Especially within the larger context of how non-transparent and speculative it all is. No doubt you are one of many thousands of frustrated parents out there right now. UT will look at any activities going back for five years, so HS accomplishments on her resume were considered. Nothing academic like the rank or test scores is looked at for transfers though. Not participating in CAP wouldn't be seen by reviewers nor is it something considered. If a student is in CAP for example it doesn't give any advantage in the transfer process nor do reviewers consider whether a student attends a UT system school or not. All admissions decisions are reviewed by the Office of Admissions and not the academic units like Communications or RTF. I can see how it may appear that there is some collusion between College Board and UT not using AP credits for CAP students, but it has more to do with how the program was created more than twenty years ago. Principally, the automatic transfer agreement is such that the main campus wants to see how students do in actual college courses. That means students with a lot of Dual Credit or AP are often not good fits for CAP. It wouldn't surprise me at all if UT overenrolled first-time freshman students this year. There's something called enrollment management where all universities, even Harvard, admit more students than will eventually enroll. At UT, historically about 45-50% of admitted students enroll. In 2012 I believe they overenrolled by about 1,000 students. So if say 55% of admitted students enrolled for Fall 2018, it's highly likely there were less spaces for transfers. Moreover, as less students drop out or change majors at UT, there are less spaces open for external transfers. My best advice is that your daughter focus on her next steps presuming UT-Austin won't be an option for Fall 2018. She should only take time off from her studies if there are larger questions about life or finances that are going on. If she has less than 90 hours by March 1, 2019, she should consider submitting an application again for Fall 2019. If that doesn't work out, it's best to finish her studies. Finally, it is important if she does attempt another transfer that she applies to other universities to offer options. Hope that helps! You may also be interested in this video to see how transfer admissions works in more detail: th-cam.com/video/UmnUI5yRFi0/w-d-xo.html
I hope this is the last one but I wanted to know if my daughter decided to forego an appeal and try again for the Spring, how would it be received if she asked for a meeting with a Senior Admissions staff member to help her understand why she didn't make it into RTF this Fall and more importantly what can she do between now and Spring application to enhance her chances. She would like to meet in two months after her job is up teaching Film at a camp in Maine but prior to needing to make class decisions for enrollment at A&M for the Fall. Hopefully by this time things will have slowed down for Admissions more so than right now. Also how do you think it would be received if she made the same request to the head of RTF knowing that they don't make the decisions but they must provide input to the admissions process and could provide her some direction. In the requests she can also make a "small/short" case that she doesn't want to give up on getting into UT and the reasons why. Thank you for all the time you have put in responding to me.
Good information. Frustrated parent here (a former Aggie of course). Daughter attended new College Station High School which we understand was pretty competitive (primary school in WA State, so not really a Texan and definitely liberal). Daughter solely managed her application process, so some of my information I'll state is is not spot on but in general to get the point. No UT Austin acceptance received and expecting rejection today, which we understand is deadline. Here SAT was 1300 something. Not sure about rank, though CSHS weighted Honor classes the same as AP and my daughter took almost all AP classes which were much harder. So kids she knows got in UT by riding the honor class route to get higher rankings. Here GPA was good though. She didn't get in as a Freshman. Ok we accept that. Frustrating part is UT Austin offered CAP program but once got into the discussions, she was told she was in an odd situation and not a good fit, because they say she had too many hours which all came from her AP class credits. Yes she could have still gone CAP but would have had to retake all those classes and be out thousand of dollars to do it. So went to UT San Antonio figuring a good place to transfer from. Made only 1 B her first semester and all As her second in classes (30 hrs total, along with activity film related club) she could take towards her selected future major of Radio Television Film. She is off at a Summer camp in Maine to teach kids Film for two months but still no word from UT if she will be accepted or rejected. As for outside of academics she was Pres Sr year of her film class (2 class period multi year). State winner in Skills USA film competition and went on to compete nationally. Would have had great references. Her writing skills have been her strongest skill, so assume her essays were good. 2 new friends from UTSA who went through CAP program both now accepted and in Film at that. Sigh. From what I've researched, she really doesn't need school to go work in Film as her preferred Cinematographer role. She is good at what she does in that area and dreams of being first Female Oscar "winner" in Cinematography. Her AVP teacher in HS says she has all the skill she needs now to go start trying work in the industry. Okay enough. I assume you get this sort of stuff all the time. Just need to vent to someone and would enjoy your thoughts. Wish my childhood best friend's dad John Henry Faulk (yes of Austin/UT/NY Radio/Film fame) were still alive because I would ask him him to march up to the school and ask WTH!
Hey Glenn thanks for your comment. Sorry to hear the admissions process is proving frustrating a second time around. It sounds like your daughter has a really strong transfer application. I've had many applicants contacting me about when decisions will be released. It seems UT is delayed in releasing their decisions and that at least some applicants will hear sometime after their stated June 15 deadline. There seems to be staffing issues leading to delays in review compounded by their moving offices. Annoying I know. Hopefully she receives good news soon.
Sigh. Denied. Don't understand it but I don't understand a lot today with tuition out of control and Universities growing larger and larger. Maybe a blessing in disguise.
I have some questions I'm hoping you can answer. If you would prefer these get answered privately send them to txbatson at Google mail. As mentioned earlier my daughter received her rejection as a transfer student into UT RTVF this weekend. She is now trying to figure out what to do. These questions have come up with my wife and I as we have talked about the rejections.
1) Are HS details/accomplishments accounted for in the "holistic" approach UT states for admissions review. My daughter went for 1 year to UTSA after HS. If the are looked are they maybe not weighted as much. Most of my daughters accomplishments were in HS (State and Nationals film competitions, President of AVP, etc). At UTSA her focus was mostly academics as to get the best GPA she could for Transfer though she did participate in a film/art club (Creative Collective) and performed tasks as an editor on a friend's brother's podcast he was rolling out. I don't think the pod cast editing got on the admissions because it came later in Spring semester and also she is now teaching kids film at a camp in Maine this summer for two months that didn't go on the admissions for because it was this Summer.
2) Are HS SAT scores evaluated for a transfer student. I think I misspoke about here scores earlier and they were in the upper 1200s.
3) Is one letter of reference not going to cut it? I thought she had two but that was for her Freshman application. Here AVP teacher was her lone reference for transfer application.
4) Does that fact that she was accepted into the CAP program get evaluated for her Transfer application. What is very disheartening is we thought we were following what would have been an acceptable approach. As mentioned earlier she had to many AP classes to participate in CAP without retaking those classes again. We are already helping my daughter pay off 100k in student loans and we just could not afford that be done. Also this seems like just a money grab sort of thing for UT. They are a member of the College Board that does AP so they should accept them as part of CAP. So what added salt to the wound was a best friend she has now made at UTSA was a CAP student. He ended up with a lower GPA that my daughter at UTSA his first year. He has a theater background but not film. I believe he is good at theater but again if you looked at them both as CAP students seems like my daughter might come out ahead. He got into RTVF.
5) Is the fact that she went to a branch school of the UT system a benefit on the application as for say someone who went their first year at something like University of North Texas. Seems like going to branch school should have a benefit during the application review process.
6) Word is that they let more freshman in this year to RTVF than normal. Do you provide any credit to this. Rumor was like 12 spots left over after freshman (I think). Seem really unfair specially if I find out answer to question 1 above was not in her favor.
7) My understanding is a RTVF person does not participate in the admissions process. Or is that wrong and if admissions says this candidate is good enough for RTVF that a representative from RTVF does the review for acceptance into the college?
8) I understand that my daughter has the right to appeal but we sort of feel like it would be useless and it seems to be discouraged. Are any of these grounds for appeal to have her application re-reviewed? a) Your comment on staffing issues and logistical issues with moving, meaning we feel her application was rushed to just end the process. b) Our complaints about the whole CAP scenario. I recognize this is probably not a reason but if stated well enough and pushed could it be c) the additional extracurricular activity that didn't make it in such as pod cast editor and teaching film at camp. Also in this respect she does a lot with her film partner back in CS when she is home that is all production film stuff but since we understand you guys don't look at there film work it never was added in. From his rap album, to web series (WHOLE HOUSE), to other films, Anna plays a critical role in his productions. (th-cam.com/channels/N9gxqMhKAx0-v8d4xUjXLw.htmlvideos). This is where she is passion about Film and related productions and will spend her time on these activities sharpening her skills, even it just means she has the weekend off from school every few months or break to work on it. They also just got back from filming a friends wedding in New Mexico. But again how do you state this and does Admissions see this is fluff. Thing is it is not fluff because it is all part of the skills she needs to be Cinematographer. Sorry I'm ranting.
9) So last one. If she decides to take the semester off and reapply in Spring what does that mean by her taking the semester off. She'll do more film work but again you guys don't evaluate that from what we understand. I'm wondering does Admissions even know what SkillsUSA where she won State and went onto Nationals. Are her Spring chances slim this way meaning she is basically resubmitting same academic stuff with some additional personal film work references. She reluctantly just applied to A&M and got into Communications and I guess could try to take some classes but this seems like a waste of money to me. Or she could go to Blinn and take her foreign languages she needs. Will that look better than her taking the semester off to work on film?
So in conclusion I understand this is a lot of information to request and if you don't have time I understand. IT is part therapeutic to write it all out but we would really like to understand also. Again if you want to do this on a private channel just email me at txbatson at Google mail. So one final story that will let you know how frustrating this is. When my daughter applied as Freshman she went to orientation. She found out that the girl leading orientation was a RTVF student and so my daughter was exited and wanted to chat her up. Now I think this girl could been first year freshman or and just accept I don't know but still. She tells my daughter "Ha ha I really don't know anything about RTVF, it just sounded fun." That burns a lot.
Wish I had known about your channel way sooner. You provide a great service. I'll leave you along after this. :)
Thanks for your questions. I understand that all of this can be super frustrating for many reasons - financial, educational, political. Especially within the larger context of how non-transparent and speculative it all is. No doubt you are one of many thousands of frustrated parents out there right now.
UT will look at any activities going back for five years, so HS accomplishments on her resume were considered. Nothing academic like the rank or test scores is looked at for transfers though. Not participating in CAP wouldn't be seen by reviewers nor is it something considered. If a student is in CAP for example it doesn't give any advantage in the transfer process nor do reviewers consider whether a student attends a UT system school or not. All admissions decisions are reviewed by the Office of Admissions and not the academic units like Communications or RTF.
I can see how it may appear that there is some collusion between College Board and UT not using AP credits for CAP students, but it has more to do with how the program was created more than twenty years ago. Principally, the automatic transfer agreement is such that the main campus wants to see how students do in actual college courses. That means students with a lot of Dual Credit or AP are often not good fits for CAP.
It wouldn't surprise me at all if UT overenrolled first-time freshman students this year. There's something called enrollment management where all universities, even Harvard, admit more students than will eventually enroll. At UT, historically about 45-50% of admitted students enroll. In 2012 I believe they overenrolled by about 1,000 students. So if say 55% of admitted students enrolled for Fall 2018, it's highly likely there were less spaces for transfers. Moreover, as less students drop out or change majors at UT, there are less spaces open for external transfers.
My best advice is that your daughter focus on her next steps presuming UT-Austin won't be an option for Fall 2018. She should only take time off from her studies if there are larger questions about life or finances that are going on. If she has less than 90 hours by March 1, 2019, she should consider submitting an application again for Fall 2019. If that doesn't work out, it's best to finish her studies. Finally, it is important if she does attempt another transfer that she applies to other universities to offer options.
Hope that helps! You may also be interested in this video to see how transfer admissions works in more detail: th-cam.com/video/UmnUI5yRFi0/w-d-xo.html
I hope this is the last one but I wanted to know if my daughter decided to forego an appeal and try again for the Spring, how would it be received if she asked for a meeting with a Senior Admissions staff member to help her understand why she didn't make it into RTF this Fall and more importantly what can she do between now and Spring application to enhance her chances. She would like to meet in two months after her job is up teaching Film at a camp in Maine but prior to needing to make class decisions for enrollment at A&M for the Fall. Hopefully by this time things will have slowed down for Admissions more so than right now. Also how do you think it would be received if she made the same request to the head of RTF knowing that they don't make the decisions but they must provide input to the admissions process and could provide her some direction. In the requests she can also make a "small/short" case that she doesn't want to give up on getting into UT and the reasons why.
Thank you for all the time you have put in responding to me.
Do you read comments?