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Future students will face new standards

Incoming freshmen will face new test score requirements since the Board of Regents approved changes to admission requirements in May. | Wiki Commons

The UH System Board of Regents approved new freshman admission standards last month for first-time students.

Beginning fall 2012, students graduating in the top 15 percent of their class will gain automatic acceptance. By 2014, automatic acceptance will be given to incoming freshman who graduate in the top 10 percent.

These students would also not be required to provide SAT or ACT scores for admittance, as most applicants would.

Provost John Antel said the main reason for this is to ensure more students graduate on time.

“We wanted to make sure we took students who are prepared and that have a chance to graduate,” Antel said.

This is the first step in a progressive process to become a more competitive research institution.

The SAT and ACT score requirements have also changed. UH will require high school graduates in the top 26 to 50 percent to have a score of 1100 or 21 respectively, while the top 16 to 25 percent will need a score of 1000 or 21.

The requirements differ from other Texas schools, but by 2014, when the top ten percent rule takes effect, UH will match other schools’ freshman requirements.

For students who do not fall in the top 50 percent of their graduating class, other requirements will be taken into consideration for admittance.

“The test scores are one indicator of ability to do college work but so are a lot of things, so we look at class rank and individual reviews,” Antel said.

Environmental science sophomore Andrew Alleman said he likes the changes made to the admission requirements.

“It would be harder to get in,” Alleman said. “But there would be less students that would be put on academic probation or risk being kicked out because they were unable to keep up with their grades.”

Education senior Marnita Johnson said it is best for the students, as well as the school, that standards are raised, because one way to measure the status of a school is by the number of students who do not gain acceptance.

“Academics are way more important than anything else,” she said.

“I see a lot of high school students who are not prepared and it will help them focus on academics. If they don’t get in they can go to HCC and do what I did.”

Many students fall into this category, which Antel and the other regents considered when they voted on the new standards.

“Individual reviews are very important. Let’s say you have an applicant who did not test very well, but worked full time during high school or maybe the student has great talents in other areas,” Antel said. “The individual reviews allow you to look beyond the test scores to other factors. One size does not fit all.”

7 Comments

      • How about renaming it “Welcome Center and Financial Aid Office” and putting a huge sign higher up the wall so that people don’t ask me where the building is when they’re one street away.

    • I’m commenting on the absurdity of asking for help when the sign is visible from the asker’s point of view. This is common sense, no?

  • Nothing wrong asking for direction. Maybe he/she are unsocial individual. lol. My wife changes her admission from UH to TSU because of the problems…etc. Her grade point average is 3.9…so she picks TSU? I need a Vodka….I will give them credit the line seem shorter.

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