I keep reading that UT-Austin has a 38-40% acceptance rate, with a 27-33 ACT average and 3.78 gpa average. Those are not extremely tough admission standards; however, I also keep reading that it’s nearly impossible to get in. I’m really confused about this. Is it because of the mandatory acceptance of Texas students who may be in the top of their uncompetitive high schools? My nephew had a 33 ACT, 4.0 gpa, varsity baseball, who was rejected from UT business, but he got into Emory and honors programs at other schools. I’m just very confused by it all. My OOS daughter is looking at applying to the business program at UT (my husband has an MBA from McCombs), and the reported acceptance stats put her over the average (33 ACT, 4.4 GPA, top 5% class rank, all state tennis, 500+ hours of community service, various awards) but her cousin’s rejection makes acceptance impossible. The only thing we can figure is that her cousin didn’t take the hardest courses available (she has) and didn’t do much outside of baseball, but still the discrepancy in the reported acceptance stats and the anecdotal reports of rejections is alarming. Any thoughts or answers to this?
UT has to automatically accept the top 6% (not to long ago the top 8%) of students at each individual Texas high school. There are many Texas high schools that are not so great. This brings the average score level down. So a 27 act for a top 6% at a bad school beats a 33 for a top 10% at a good school. This is why UT has been slipping in the rankings.
UT fills up the class with these but they don’t have to give them the major they want. They also can’t over enroll less desirable majors. So the best instate top 6% students usually do get their first choice major. But there are spots being taken by less qualified students, because you can’t turn away all top 6% from their first choice. This makes competition for remaining spots in desirable majors stiff.
So you get this weird effect of high admit rate, low scores, yet hard to get in. It looks this way to a kid at a good school with high scores but not in the top 6%.
90% of students at UT are instate, only 10% are OOS/ international. So it’s very hard to be admitted as an OOS student… and expensive. UT will only offer high achievers from OOS because they want to bring up the scores.
UT will offer good instate students outside of the top 6% their first choice because they know that some of the top 6 students they offer won’t take their second choice major and go elsewhere.
UT gets 40k applicants offers 18k admissions about 2k are OOS.
So is it hard to get into UT as a good instate student? No not really. Is it hard to get the major you want? Yes.
Does your OOS daughter with a 33 have a chance at McCombs?.. better get that ACT up to a 35.
My opinion, UT has a pretty good business program and a decent engineering program. I don’t know why people want to pay the extra expense from OOS. It’s really not cost effective. Austin is nice and all that but UT’s campus isn’t and as OOS the ROI is low. For instate students it a great deal especially if you want to stay in Texas after graduation.
It’s not actually the school that’s the problem, it’s getting into a major that’s employable. If you graduate in the top 5-6%, you can get first pick in your major. If you don’t get in as a freshman, your chances of getting into business or technology drop to around 10%, even if you have a near 4.0. It’s just another way to game the system, otherwise half the students at UT would transfer out and graduation rates would drop like a rock. Ironically, these snooty self-defeating admissions practices have turned the nearby universities into powerhouse schools. UTSA and Texas State have doubled in size in the last 15 years taking UT “throwbacks.”
Well, sure. The anecdotal reports you see here are a self-selected demographic. Those who aren’t admitted, or don’t get their first-choice major, complain and/or fret about it on College Confidential.
Thank you for the replies. I suspected that the forced admission of all top 6% of schools was the reason for the wonky stats. That is a shame for Texas. I would understand if they were compelled to accept 80-90% of the overall highest achieving students in Texas regardless of high school, but it appears that some legislators are helping their hometowns at the expense of the schools’s ranking. My SIL almost regrets moving to a neighborhood with a great school because it put her kids at a disadvantage of getting in UT (she doesn’t really, but it is ironic). I’m not sure a 35ACT will get OOS admission now. My daughter told me last night a boy from a local private school with a 35 ACT, NMF, valedictorian, all state football, president of his class, many volunteer hours, accepted to Vandy, UVA, Emory, etc., didn’t get into UTexas. I think she will save her $70 admission fee. Thank you again for the replies.
@tmeg01, yes it’s a shame. My family started attending UT in the late 1920s, when my grandmother went there for her graduate degree in chemistry. After many members of three generations graduated from UT, it appears that no one in the next generation will. 
(My son did get accepted as OOS in Biomedical Engineering and went there for one year, but he fell ill with a serious mental illness and had to withdraw.)
Because they exaggerate.
Here in Texas, moving your family to a worse school district on purpose is a real thing. This improves your kids chances of being in the top 6%.
UT System Enrollment 2015
The University of Texas at Arlington 37,008
The University of Texas at Austin 51,313
The University of Texas at Dallas 24,533
The University of Texas at El Paso 23,397
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley 29,045
The University of Texas at San Antonio 28,628
The University of Texas at Tyler 8,862
The University of Texas of the Permian Basin 5,560
It deterred out son from applying at A&M for this very reason. He was top 11% of a highly competitive hs. So he wasn’t guaranteed his major and he just said “He%^ No!” and chose to look OOS. A lot of good students look elsewhere because of this if they can afford it.
@Greymeer That’s a big misconception about rankings. Rankings are based on way more than ACT/SAT stats and class rank of the incoming class. Rankings put higher weight on the amount of research done on campus, the amount of highly awarded faculty, graduation rates, funding, endowment size, community involvement, student/teacher ratio, innovation on campus … it’s so much bigger than the incoming freshmen class stats
Since you are familiar with the situation, please explain why UT has been slipping in the rankings.
If your daughter has her heart set on McCombs, she may try going to another UT campus (UTSA, UTA, UTEP, etc.) and transferring. Her transfer to the business program is definitely not guaranteed, though. Also, I have friends who have transferred, and the process is apparently very long and confusing.
It’s definitely worth it to look at though!
Your child should not be discouraged. oos admissions for mcccombs and bhp is holistic. My oos daughter had excellent grades and superior extracurriculars and leadership. Her ACT was a 32, which is competitive but not tippy top. She got an interview for Bhp within two weeks of applying, was accepted to McCombs in November and to Bhp in January. I’m sorry about your nephew but it certainly shouldn’t discourage your child.
They claim it because they’re not in the 40% that got in.
Don’t worry about stories as those are about auto-admit, even if you don’t even make it, take admission for another major or another campus and next year transfer. Its not that difficult to get into UT or even Mccombs.
just out of curiosity - how hard is it to be in top 6% of a texas HS grad class? and how do schools deal with GPA? does UT use weighted or un-weighted GPA? how do honors/AP/IB classes count? Do kids with more credits from taking zero hour classes or credit accrual during summer school get a boost? Is it Do PE classes count the same as hard core academic classes? Is there a game to play?
and @MaineLonghorn - i liked hearing about your grandma in the 20s. That was an accomplishment
As far as being in the top 6%, it depends on your HS. Some are extremely competitive, some not as much. There is not a consistent state wide method for determining GPA. Each school district sets its own rules. The school my kids went to did give extra points for AP courses and all courses counted. The problem with the competitive schools, to get into the top 6%, you start taking preAP in middle school so you can take as many AP courses in HS as possible. If you are doing band, sports, choir w/o the bump for AP, it puts you at a GPA disadvantage. The problem our school saw was not a lack of hard core academic classes but an excess of them not allowing the kids to enjoy some other areas.
Wonder what % of texas high schoolers still get accepted to UT even if they fell our of the top 6%?
@bgbg4us Our kids went to a very rigorous private school where the top 6% is extremely competitive. Only one of our Longhorns was an auto-admit. (The only one to get a merit scholarship actually.) We had to wait and see with our other kids.
Our highschool stopped ranking it’s graduating class because the students are all great college candidates. They were already sifted academically when they applied to the private school. So yes, that top 6% is a very high bar to get over. (The highschool did note the rank percentage only for UT and only if a candidate for auto-admission)
We have friends that kept their kids in a not so great public school in order to increase their chances. One of theirs probably would have been auto-admit in any circumstances. The Mom admitted to me that their second UT kid likely only made the cut because of the highschool she graduated from.