Also a law in Texas regarding the automatic admission in state higher education institutions (§ 51.803 of the Education Code. Automatic Admission: All Institutions). It works like this: if you graduate in the top 10% of your high school class, you can get automatic admission to any state university in Texas. This law is stupid, because it fills the universities with people who ordinarily would not have gotten in. The people who would have, but did not graduate in the top 10% have to duke it out for spots. It would be far wiser for them to be offered admission into one institution instead of all.
You can read the full text at:
http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/statutes/ed/ed005100.html#ed154.51.803