The University of Texas is one of the premier state flagship universities. High ranking officials there pull strings so that the children of rich and famous Texans can attend and getting in is so important that we’ve had legal battles over it.

But is the university so great academically? In this new SeeThru piece, Ron Trowbridge points out an inconvenient truth. Based on Collegiate Learning Assessment data, UT is down in the 23rd percentile. “The chief advantage to attending UT is that image matters,” he writes. “UT does project a good image, but its academic achievement and ranking demonstrably are weak by comparison.”

Undoubtedly, many of the students who go to UT learn a lot from their work. The school admits many sharp students and has many good departments. So how can it be that overall the student body doesn’t do well? I think that the most obvious explanation is admission preferences. UT gets many “cream of the crop” students, but in order to keep those rich and famous Texans happy and to placate the “diversity” zealots, it also admits numerous weak students who drag down the average learning gains.

Most of those preferred students probably are content with the prestige of a UT degree, but if they are interested in optimizing their educations, it seems that they should look this gift horse in the mouth.