Houston area's top students find reasons to stay at UTSA

[Alamo Boy]

By MATTHEW TRESAUGUE
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

SAN ANTONIO - It wasn't long ago that almost every student at the University of Texas campus here came from a neighboring high school.

But in a relatively short period UT-San Antonio has transformed from a little-known commuter college into a favorite destination of talented students from the Houston area.

The reason: the 2001 launch of the Coordinated Admissions Program, which bootstraps students into the highly selective and popular UT-Austin if they earn good grades as freshmen at another UT campus.

The San Antonio campus is particularly popular among students from some of Houston's most competitive high schools who didn't qualify for automatic admission to UT-Austin by graduating in the top 10 percent of their classes. Of those who entered UT-San Antonio in fall 2004, about 400 students transferred to Austin under CAP.

The program has lured thousands of students to the San Antonio campus since 2001, with many of them taking a back door into UT-Austin after one year. But some stay, finding an unexpected home at a school that wasn't their first choice.

Ruth Kovner, a Katy Taylor High graduate, enrolled last fall at UT-San Antonio with plans to be in Austin for her sophomore year. But she turned down the transfer, because she prefers the pace and is part of the honors and pre-med programs.

"It is a good fit for me," Kovner said.


Plenty from Houston
She has plenty of hometown company. Houstonians make up nearly 11 percent of the student body, up from 3.7 percent the year before CAP began. Last fall the campus enrolled roughly 1,000 first-time freshmen from the Houston area, an eightfold increase over five years.

Only Bexar County, where San Antonio is located, sends more students to the university than Harris County.

All UT campuses but Dallas participate in the transfer program, and the Arlington and Tyler campuses also have seen a rise in the number of students from the Houston area. But their growth has not kept pace with that of UT-San Antonio.

Campus leaders point to CAP as the initial reason for the surging enrollment, which is to reach 28,000 students when classes resume this month and could grow to 35,000 by 2015.

"It put UT-San Antonio in front of students in a very different way," said admissions director George Norton.

UT-San Antonio's newfound popularity is evidenced by construction around campus. The university is in the middle of a $350 million building blitz, including $35 million for more on-campus apartments and $84 million for a science building. There are plans for an $82 million engineering building and a $46 million expansion of the recreation center built just two years ago for $20 million.

The construction and the addition of top-notch professors, such as state demographer Steve Murdock from Texas A&M University, inspire a feeling that the campus is going places, said university President Ricardo Romo.

Many students apparently agree.

"I am fully confident that my education at UTSA will be just as good if not better" than at UT-Austin, said Jessica Lindsey, an English major from Clear Brook High School, who decided to stay after enrolling as a CAP participant.

In one way, however, UT-San Antonio may be a victim of its own success. Six years after entering the San Antonio campus, only 29 percent of freshmen will have earned bachelor's degrees, well below the national average of 54 percent.

According to the U.S. Department of Education's formula, each student who transfers counts against the graduation rate, even if that student earns a degree at another university. So UT-San Antonio falls behind early, considering nearly 10 percent of freshmen transfer to UT-Austin.

The rate is important, because many lawmakers believe the state's financial support should be tied to a university's ability to graduate students.

"It's not good for our graduation rates if we're just a step on the way to somewhere else," Romo said.

Houston-area students arrive with better academic records than their classmates from other parts of Texas. Those from Houston had a median high school grade point average of 2.76 and two-part SAT score of 1060 last fall, compared with 2.54 and 1010 for everyone else, according to the university.

The infusion of strong students has helped create a pipeline into the previously ambivalent Gulf Coast region.


Making an impression
Rob Linder, planned to attend the University of Houston after two years at San Jacinto College. But some friends raved about UT-San Antonio, and he decided to follow them.

"San Antonio has been the best of both worlds for me," said Linder, from Friendswood. "I get away from home to start my life. But it's a big city where I have opportunities for internships and other things."

UT-San Antonio now employs a full-time recruiter in Houston. More than 2,100 Houston-area students, a record for the university, have been admitted into this year's freshman class, but it's uncertain how many will enroll.

Romo attributes the interest in part to parents' fears that students can't get into UT-Austin unless they're exceptional.

About two-thirds of last fall's freshmen were guaranteed a spot by state law because they finished in the top 10 percent of their graduating classes.

Against that backdrop, Romo wants UT-San Antonio to follow the University of California campuses at Irvine and San Diego, relatively young schools that emerged from the shadows of the state's two flagships, UC-Berkeley and UC-Los Angeles, on the quality of their students, faculty and research.

matthew.tresaugue@chron.com

[austin_spurs_fan]

great article, i hope UTSA continues to grow academically. I know they are trying to be an R1 university, hopefully they make it soon.

[Clownbaby]

I hate CAP students with a passion. The majority of them piss and moan about how horrible UTSA and the city of San Antonio is in comparison to Austin. Good to see not all of them are like that. After graduating HS, I had the choice of going to UT-Austin but I declined it. I went to St. Mary's for 2 years and transferred to UTSA, and sure enough I'm glad I'm finishing up at UTSA. The education is comparible to most state institutions, although I think UT-Austin has better liberal arts programs than does UTSA. My science/engineering friends who were cap students say that the two schools are about the same in those departments.

[Pizbo]

engineering?

[Clownbaby]

Originally Posted by Pizbo

engineering?

mechanical.