Same here. SAT 1490, varsity swimmer, debate, Deca, volunteering, AP and IB courses, GPA 3.9UW/5.4W, 12% class rank out 650 students high school, rigorous academics - rejected by UT. Frustrating!
At S18’s school, which typically has about 15-20 percent of the senior class accepted at UTA, starting last year the counselors advised EVERYONE outside the top 7% to consider UTA a reach. Many of this year’s juniors (my S’s class) who are within the top 7% but planning to major in CS or engineering are also being advised to consider UTA a reach. My S, who is top 1% with 1560 SAT, likely NMF, and multiple ECs including several CS-related, was told to think of UTA CS as a match/likely but even he was warned that it’s not guaranteed and he should be sure to apply early to avoid getting waitlisted for CS. So at a high school with ~20% of the class accepted to UTA even a top 1% student is not advised to consider UTA CS a safety. Due to the caution advised by the counselors, I think most students at the school have a realistic outlook about chances at UTA. It sounds as if other posters on this thread have not heard the same things that S and his classmates have heard, and still think the holistic review will work out fine for popular majors. Hopefully the counseling departments around Texas become more vocal in helping students understand how difficult it has become to get into certain majors at UTA.
No true Texan calls the flagship UTA. UTA refers to UT Arlington. 
@traveler98, at my DD’s HS, the counselor’s have also been saying that about UT for the last few years. BTW, UTA is UT Arlington.
@patsychad, I know it is disappointing about UT. I hope with your stats and accomplishments that you have some other good choices. Again, I think it is UT’s loss.
@itsgettingreal17 and @GTAustin, thx, sorry for the confusion. “True Texan”? Nope, definitely just a transplanted Yankee.
@traveler98 , no problem. I am also a transplant and it took me a while to get all the initials.
GTAustin My daughter also chose UTD over UT Austin and does not plan on transferring. Honors business and happy with the size and the quality. She was top 2% so auto admit and was accepted to UT in honors business but went to UTD with top level AES. I often hear when is she going to transfer.
@txsparty, I’m glad it is just not me. My daughter is very happy at UTD, both academically and socially. They really wanted her vs just accepting her. What is even better, they have honored every commitment made to her and continue to be interested in her even after she committed. I think more of the students of Texas need to understand that there are some great opportunities on these other campuses both academically and financially.
@GTAustin, UTD blew my son away during our visit and it’s currently his number one choice. UT is still on the list but it’s sitting at a distant fourth despite its stellar reputation for CS. At one point S suggested he might not even bother applying to UT. I know Texas has other gems like UTD, and hopefully they will start to gain in reputation so that we don’t see as many “UT/TAMU or bust” sentiments from students and parents.
@traveler98, I have been a fan of UTD for numerous years now and it just keeps getting better. My daughter could do CS as well as fine art there and recently she is starting a second bachelor’s in cognitive science. UTD allows her flexibility that UT/TAMU could not because of the demand for their seats. Again, I hope more students look to these other schools for opportunities.
UT Arlington is also a great UT school for some students denied admissions into UT Austin. I see a lot of UT Dallas this, UT San Antonio that but again UT Arlington is a worthy investment. It’s less expensive than UT Austin, great location between two major cities Fort Worth and Dallas, Tier 1 research university, very diverse (more reflective of the world around us), larger enrollment than UT Austin if you count online students, the campus is improving each year, and houses many ranked (rankings usually matters a lot to people on CC) and respected programs.
UT Arlington is a rising star in Texas and I’m impressed with how quickly they’re becoming a force to be reckon with.
I agree with you @NuScholar. I know UTA has a great nursing and engineering programs, and I’m sure there are many more that I am not aware of.
@GTAustin Right, nursing and engineering are the most talked about ones. But business, architecture, social work, and the hard sciences are well respected and competitive too.
This thread has been interesting as I’ve never heard much about the Dallas, San Antonio and Arlington* branches. I noticed no one’s brought up UTEP. What are the academics there like?
*I didn’t even know Arlington had a University of Texas branch until tonight.
Arlington has a large campus, I think about 39,000 students, in downtown Arlington. Great for pro sports fans and Fiesta Texas is right down the road. They offer many majors, more so than UTD, like architecture, nursing, aeronautical engineering. It is definitely worth checking out.
My DH got a masters degree from UTEP, many years ago. He was the first masters in CE from UTEP and it served him well. The campus has very interesting architecture, Tibetan. I haven’t really kept up with it since we moved from that area but it did give my DH a good education.
It is truly funny for those who say that only 9 percent of UT funding is from state sources. Who do you think gave them the land grant status that allowed for the oil revenues they have had for 100 years? The oil revenue given them was from the State of Texas folks that is us. They do have a very large responsibility to educate Texas residents first and they are failing in that if you compare them to Texas A&M.
@calgal99, how is UT failing? It prioritizes Texas residents the same way TAMU does; TAMU just has more spots available and isn’t as popular as UT (probably because UT is higher ranked and many people care about that sort of thing), so TAMU hasn’t had to drop below 10% for auto admit. TAMU also has limited majors (e.g. most engineering majors) so even auto admit students are not guaranteed their choice of major. Both schools are excellent and both follow the same laws regarding priority for Texas residents; UT certainly isn’t “failing” to educate Texans first.
Its funny because my DD felt UT Arlington was too large for her as was UT. UTD was her choice due to the "nerdy"vibe when we visited. The Jindall School reputation certainly was a factor as well as the merit $$. UT Arlington is also as very good school and it does offer Major sports which is unfortunately not the case at UTD.
UT could learn from TAMU’s automatic academic admission guidelines. By auto-admitting students based on test scores AND gpa they are insuring a much more well-rounded student body, not going blindly by rank.
Rank is used to get a more diverse class, not the smartest class.