>Additionally on the education front, admissions to the state's flagship schools is guaranteed for students in the top 10% of their high school. This is also t

>Additionally on the education front, admissions to the state's flagship schools is guaranteed for students in the top 10% of their high school. This is also technically true for the University of California. Top 9% of your local school = get into the UC. The rub (and a pretty big one) is that the UC considers all of it's campuses as one, giant, single University. Thus you are guaranteed a position at a UC, but not a position at your CHOICE of UC. Practically, this means that you will be assigned to UC Merced. Top tier UCs (Berkeley, LA, San Diego) are pretty much out of reach because the competition and prestige means there will be no open space. And, frankly speaking, UC Merced isn't looked upon too favorably by the most desirable employers... How does Texas get around this? Are all their campuses equally strong in reputation and rigor? Did they instead actually open up spaces for 10% of top in-state high school students at even the flagship campuses?