I’m an OOS student considering applying to UT Austin. I think I would be considered a legacy applicant but I’m not sure, so I have a couple questions:
My dad went to this school for grad school (PhD). Does this give me legacy status (or is that only for if a parent went somewhere undergrad)? If so, does UT give special preference to legacy applicants?
Since I am OOS, is there any early action program or anything I would need to apply to to get legacy consideration? I haven’t found anything that talks about an early admission program for OOS so far.
Any information anyone has would be helpful. Thanks!
The short answer is no they don’t consider legacy status. It is just too big and there would be too many legacies. In fact, first gen college students probably get a bump in the personal achievement index calculation.
The longer answer is that a letter of recommendation from the right person could get you admitted even if you were not qualified. It has been an ongoing controversy and is the subject of litigation between the university and one of the regents. But we are talking a legislator, congressperson, big donor type of right person and we are talking a handful of students a year.
There is no early decision. It is considered rolling admission. Admissions come out in waves starting in November but the biggest group happen in February. They encourage applying by October 15 and I would think that might help with getting an earlier decision but looking at last year’s posts some students in more competitive majors waited quite a while to hear regardless of when they applied.