Many out-of-state and Texas high school students have received disheartening letters from UT in the last couple of weeks. The more than 29,000 high school students who applied to the University were notified by April 1 as to whether they would be given the opportunity to become a Longhorn. And 81 percent of the admitted applicants sit in the top 10 percent of their graduating classes.
However, the University is still making decisions and admitting some students after appeal submissions. Students can file an appeal to the Office of Admissions by writing a letter explaining why their application should be given another look. Special review of appeal cases is ongoing, though Gary Lavergne, admissions program manager, said a successful appeal is rare. A committee of admissions officers accepts or rejects appeals on a case-by-case basis.
"In general, whenever someone makes an appeal on a decision, the burden is on them to show that a mistake has been made," Lavergne said. "The likelihood, quite frankly, is very small."
Lavergne said students often depend on high school counselors, registrars and personnel from the College Board during the admissions process. If an error was made by one of those people, students can write a letter to the committee explaining the mistake.
Lavergne said that with so many applications, the University can also make mistakes. Most applicants tend to "accept the decision and move on," he said. He could not give an estimate of the number of appeals received by the admissions office thus far.
Henry Urick, assistant director of the Office of Student Financial Services, said the office has already offered merit-based scholarships to incoming freshmen, but he could not say how many of those scholarships had been given out. His office is still extending need-based scholarship offers.
The number of students admitted includes athletes, but Lavergne was not able to say how many of those athletes were offered University scholarships.
The scholarship funds from most UT academic departments go to sophomores or upperclassmen, but the Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music uses scholarships to recruit freshmen, said Robert Duke, a distinguished teaching professor in the School of Music. He said the school asks students to respond within two weeks of the offer, but a strict deadline is prohibited by the National Association of Schools of Music.
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