AUSTIN — The University of Texas at Austin will be more difficult for high school graduates to enter, after officials announced Monday the automatic admission threshold is being tightened to 5%, down from the current 6% starting in 2026.
President Jay Hartzell told the university’s faculty Monday that the decision came after UT received 73,000 undergraduate applications this fall. This continues a trend that began in 2017 when UT lowered its threshold from 7% to 6%, after seeing 51,000 applicants.
In a statement, university officials said, “UT Austin is committed to continuing to provide world-class classroom and research experiences for our students, even while we are facing record demand. That demand has been driven both by the success and growth of Texas and by greater interest in UT among the state’s best high school students.”
In 1997, the Legislature passed the “top 10% law,” which guaranteed any high school graduate in the top 10% of his or her class automatic acceptance into a Texas public college. However, in 2009, the law was amended to allow universities to set their own thresholds, as long as 75% of Texas residents in each freshman class were admitted based on high school rank.
This announcement follows UT’s recent decision to establish a satellite campus in Taylor. The expansion was made possible after the Temple College at Taylor Foundation donated a 68-acre tract of land to the university.
