Op-ed: Corrupt admissions process at UT-Austin hurts poor students most of all

The scandal around the University of Texas-Austin’s admittance of “underqualified” but well-connected applicants continues to snowball as Watchdog.org and now the Dallas Morning News pour fuel on the fire with new revelations about who’s involved, including a former senator and school quarterback.

Writing in The Daily Texan, student Mary Dolan says this preferential treatment for certain applicants is coming at the expense of another kind of student:

Of the 2014–2015 entering class, 32 percent of UT applicants were out-of-state and international. For that minority of students, it is more difficult to find an influential Texas connection for a letter of recommendation. Admitting students based on connections effectively shuts out those unlucky few that aren’t privileged enough to have those connections.

This practice likely hurts low income students most. These students tend to have less educational opportunities before college, which can lead to lower academic performance. Those students would have difficulty getting past UT’s tough admissions process, and it is unlikely that they would have a powerful connection to vouch for them. Meanwhile, students with higher incomes are generally afforded better educational opportunities. Even if one of these students fails to get the grades UT wants, it is much more likely that they will have a state legislator or a former University athlete on their side.

Watchdog.org says that Chancellor Bill McRaven is “still trying to deny what happened, and is still happening with the class entering this fall”:

The difference between our story 14 months ago and the Morning News’ story is that we were looking at all letters of recommendation lawmakers sent to [former President Bill] Powers — they could have all been for exceptional candidates, in theory. The new story confirms many of them were for 73 of the least deserving students UT has admitted in recent years.

Read the op-ed and Watchdog.org report.

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IMAGE: The Texas Tribune/Flickr