Pinthouse Pizza
Top 9? Top 6?
RECEIVED Tue., April 12, 2005
Dear Editor,
In Rachel Proctor May's "Scrap It or Cap It?” [ News, April 8] article, she stated that SB 1546 would turn the "top 10" into the "top 6.” I don't understand her math on this. If 72% of next year's freshman class is top 10 percenters and the bill capped this at 65%, UT would admit 9.7% fewer 10 percenters. Thus, she should have said it would effectively turn the "top 10" into the "top 9,” at least for next year.
In Rachel Proctor May's "Scrap It or Cap It?” [ News, April 8] article, she stated that SB 1546 would turn the "top 10" into the "top 6.” I don't understand her math on this. If 72% of next year's freshman class is top 10 percenters and the bill capped this at 65%, UT would admit 9.7% fewer 10 percenters. Thus, she should have said it would effectively turn the "top 10" into the "top 9,” at least for next year.
Joel Sumner
[Rachel Proctor May responds: I appreciate Joel Sumner's calculations, but the "top 6" percentage – borrowed from several references (alternately, "top 7") in the committee discussion – wasn't intended to be a precise estimate. And the numerical base wouldn't be UT's freshman class, but the total number of top 10 percenters in the state, of whom UT admits only a portion, and which changes year to year. The point is that capping the program will inevitably reduce the percentage of "top 10" admissions, for good or ill.]