University of Texas at Austin Class of 2024 Admissions / Preparation

Colleges and Universities A-Z The University of Texas at Austin
1041

I completely understand all the frustration and even bitterness. My son is an auto admit who did not get his 1st or 2nd choice major. He worked his butt off in one of the competitive 6A schools with over 700 kids to be in the top 3%. 14 APs, etc., etc. just like a lot of kids who didn’t get in at all. I am an alum, so it stings a lot. He feels rejected even though he’s in. He is in a better position than many, and for that I’m grateful, but it is still disappointing. There are a lot of disappointed kids both in-state and OOS, capped, rejected, auto admits not put in either major, but I’ve also seen a lot of good advice on here.

Once they get over the initial shock/disappointment, carefully weigh all the options–particularly CAP kids who do not want to be in COLA. I remember when I heard about CAP several years ago I thought it was a fantastic option and thought that if one of my kids wanted UT and did not get in that CAP would be a great way to go, but as I’ve learned more about it, I do not think it is a great option for kids who want to major in anything outside the COLA. I believe it was @texmommm who explained it very well in one of the above posts. I do not know if this is true or not, but I read somewhere that only about 33% of the kids who chooses CAP end up at UT Austin. That is for a myriad of reasons including they decide they like the UT campus they are at.

The parent who said their kids was admitted to University of Illinois with in-state tuition–WOW! I don’t even know why you’d want your student to go to UT. lol They will all be ok and many will end up happy their plan did not work out precisely. My kid is waiting to hear from other schools, so UT is not the top choice as I once thought it would be (if he had gotten his 1st choice major, it would be over and he’d definitely be “Gone to Texas”), which is sad for me because I would love him to be at my alma mater and for him because he loves UT and Austin, but he will be fine. He may yet end up at UT, but wherever they all end up, I hope they all thrive, and I’m sure they will. Kids are more resilient than adults, so he will probably get over more quickly than I will.

For the parents of kids who did get in, is there a Facebook group for families of admitted students? I know there is one for the admitted students themselves. My son was also admitted to Purdue and they have a family FB page that is fantastic where the administrators are people from Purdue Admissions who answer questions for parents and give out great information. I must say that Purdue was not super high on MY list for my son to go (since we have absolutely no ties to Indiana)–not that he cares about MY list necessarily, but I have been super impressed with their responsiveness and how I feel like I’m getting a lot of information directly from the school. This has made Purdue climb in my affection if nothing else. I have not yet found anything similar for Texas.

1042

How long will it take to receive the official mail for acceptance? My son got acceptance last Friday, but still not receiving the mail. Thanks!

1043

@JoyceX My son was accepted on January 14 and we have not received it yet either. Idk if it is because he’s AA and got his “acceptance” letter back in October, but we haven’t gotten the “Gone to Texas” banner thing yet.

1 Like
1044

There is a fantastic reddit post from a former CAP student who is now at UT for any of you considering CAP. It’s under UTAustinAdmissions and it’s titled: Advice from a former CAP student now at UT.

1045

D17 OOS from California Rejected today
3.7 UW/4.2 W
33 ACT/34 Superscore
Poli Sci
7 APs, Varsity Lacrosse, State Senator Internship
Hispanic
National Hispanic Recognition Program

I guess she will have to “settle” for a full tuition ride at ASU Honors (we were really impressed), a UC, or one of the other schools that admitted her and threw scholarship money her way. But she’s not that bummed. Don’t mean to sound bitter, because I know lots of even better qualified students were rejected. And it’s expensive OOS.

Congrats to all admitted! It’s a great school.

1046

Accepted!!
-out of state student from VA
-1430 SAT
-4.31 W, 4.00 UW
-9 AP classes total, 3 of them in junior year and took non honors as well
-art focused applicant (president of art club, lots of art awards, art exhibitions, commission artist, ambassador for an art brand, etc.)
-applied to the design major which I had to write three additional essays for and submit a portfolio :slight_smile:

1047

Congratulations @Emma02 !

1048

I dont know how many of you have seen the video from UT Admissions that was sent out this week, but it could help put some perspective on OOS admissions. UT had 57000 plus applications, 28000 plus from out of state. This year they will have a freshman class of 8100 kids so by law they cannot accept more than 810 OOS freshman… that’s under 3% OOS acceptance rate.

Also with UT Engineering and Business being so highly desirable, im guessing that a large percentage of those applicants are looking for one of those spots rather than a COLA spot, making it probably even less likely to gain admission.

Its just such a low probability of acceptance in the first place and unfortunately lots of places show UT having a higher acceptance rate which takes In State into consideration that its easy to think that its actually easier to gain admittance than it really is.

1049

Wow. With an OOS acceptance rate that low and holistic review, decisions can start to seem arbitrary from the outside. As has been pointed out by many, you can’t just look at an SAT/ACT score and say “people with lower scores are getting in.” Holistic review means so much more.

We live in a state with a very highly ranked public flagship that openly states it does not take residency into account in admissions. OOS admission rates have fluctuated between 13-21% over the past few years. And that drives our instate alumni crazy as we see a school grow in national prominence and rise in rankings, knowing a large number of our kids won’t be able to go. So love or hate Texas’ system it benefits the state residents and I can see the value in that.

1050

@ohdeanor Yes! My husband went to U Michigan back in the 80s as an instate resident and at the time it had a 40% OOS population. It was maddening to the locals. He lucked out and was one of the very few students from his working class high school accepted to attend. They were competing with upper class kids from all over the country.

1051

Daughter rejected (CAP)

  • 1460, 1410, 1410 SATs
  • In-state
  • 23 hours of college credit: 14 through CLEP, 9 through dual enrollment
  • Homeschooled
  • Ballet
  • Presumably good letters of recommendation
  • Presumably good essays
1052

Here’s a guess about what may have factored into the rejection. Until recently she thought she wanted to do an Associate’s Degree in a health-related field, and we made some curriculum decisions with that in mind. While she took Chemistry 2 and did great on the CLEP, she didn’t take Physics. And her math beyond Algebra 2 was dual-credit Statistics, not Pre-Calculus or Calculus. So looking at it holistically, they may have felt her coursework was not comparable to other applicants. Fair enough, I expect. We made decisions about coursework that made sense at the time, and this may be a consequence. No regrets.

1053

So, about 7k more applications over last admission cycle (2018-2019), and a 10% reduction in the number of available enrollment spots for the incoming freshman class. Wow!

So, with about a 46% yield (guesstimate based on actuals from the last few years), UT will need to admit about 17,608 students to get to a class of about 8100. Unless they make adjustments to their selection process to increase their yield (reducing the number of students that need to be offered admission).

1054

“UT had 57000 plus applications, 28000 plus from out of state. This year they will have a freshman class of 8100 kids so by law they cannot accept more than 810 OOS freshman… that’s under 3% OOS acceptance rate.”

So, extrapolating fom that, does that mean only about 150 out of state kids were admitted to engineering? Give or take a little.

1055

@AustinDad2 What wash she wanting to major in? My son is technically homeschooled as well and he was very lucky and gained admission.

1056

@BurOak They release those numbers every year, so within 18 months there should be an exact number available somewhere.

1057

Based on the video here are some numbers. First the video does not give exact numbers, but uses the term “more than” a lot. So all of the numbers you hear will be estimates. Also, I am not sure how the 28,000 OOS applications came about because I did not hear that from the video., and if you add up the numbers in the video 28,000 is not a number you would arrive at. Another note, the percentage rules only apply to those who are accepted, not to the number of people enrolled.

In State Top 6% - 11,000 applied - 11,000 accepted.
In State Non top 6% - 25,000 applied - 2,200 accepted (8.8% acceptance rate)
OOS/International - 21,000 applied - 1,467 accepted (7% acceptance rate)
Total - 57,000 applied - 14,667 accepted - 25.7% acceptance rate)

The admitted class will be about 8,100 which means there is expected a 55% yield of those accepted. Two things I think about the yield stat: 1) the yield for the Top 6% probably is lower then that of the in State non top 6%. The top students from a high school theoretically have more choices from other universities and/or scholarship money available from other institutions. 2) In State non 6% are more likely to see UT as a reach school and will have a higher percentage attend if accepted.

As for OOS, they are more likely to be applying to an impacted major at UT and therefore already have an uphill battle to differentiate themselves from the other qualified applicants. Also, those who are accepted probably also have been accepted to other top programs that may reduce their yield.

With the rules the way they are the best way to increase opportunity for non top 6% and OOS is to encourage those within the top 6% that have no intention of going to UT to apply, be accepted, and not attend. If 1000 more top 6% students applied then that would mean an additional 150 spots for non top 6% and 100 spots for OOS and International students. At least until they change the numbers.

Note: There are a little more than 353,000 High School Seniors in the State of Texas. This means that, in theory, about 21,000 students are in the top 6%. That is about 10,000 more auto admits available that did not apply to UT.

1058

So my son’s application still says “in review”, but according to this everything is done???

1059

Not all acceptances have been released. All that is known at this point is that anyone who applied before Nov 1 will find out on or before Feb 1 and those who applied later will find out on or before Mar 1.

They have only released the rough application numbers which because of the legislative mandate has allowed for us to know approximately how many people in each category have been/will be accepted.

1060

Does anyone know when BFA Theatre and Dance majors find out about acceptance?