The policy, called the Top Ten Percent (TTP) rule, was implemented in 1998, the year after the state’s universities were prohibited from using affirmative action in admissions. The University of Texas System reinstated race-conscious admissions in 2005.
TTP pulled in many students who wouldn’t have gone to college otherwise or who would have attended an out-of-state or private institution, the paper notes. And it gave them greater access to more selective universities, including the state flagship, the University of Texas at Austin.
