"When might I receive my major decision? Does UT have rolling admissions for freshmen?" UT Austin Admissions Waves
Frog at my house in Ubud, Bali
Update #8, Friday, February 23, 2024: A few students have gained admission on appeal, including McCombs, and others offered CAP have been given PACE. I wondered if PACE still existed, and if it was possible to request appeal into it, and evidently both questions are a yes. This is by far the earliest that UT has offered favorable appeals.
Update #7, Monday, February 12, 2024: BHP continues to interview applicants. On February 19, they released some favorable admissions offers.
Update #6, Thursday, February 1, 2024, 8pm: Almost all admissions and rejections have been released for all majors (except some in Fine Arts). It’s unclear how many Honors decisions have been released and how many remain. Honors programs do things on their own timeline. I discuss appeals and transferring in the linked posts.
Here is my video for this year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB8g98phArY
Update #5, January 20, 2024: Forty Acres Scholars Program released their semifinalist candidates. Two of my clients received invitations.
Update #4, January 13, 2024: A small batch of decisions have gone out over the past few days. Still, the admissions offers so far are a small fraction of the eventual total. This cycle seems similar to the previous one where most applicants are likely to hear back at the end of January.
Update #3, December 14, 2023: UT released a larger batch this evening for students across many majors. Plan II has released some decisions.
Update #2, December 11, 2023: A small batch of decisions went out over the weekend for most majors and including Texas residents outside of the top 6%.
Update #1, November 30, 2023: A small batch of decisions were released. It also seems like for the first time ever at least a few students were rejected prior to the February 1 release deadline.
Check out my new book Surviving the College Admissions Madness and Youtube Channel
I receive these frequently asked questions around this same time every year. We can only speculate on how UT might release their admissions decisions. Every year is different, and they often implement changes on a whim without communicating anything either to the public or even behind-the-scenes for high school counselors.
Nobody has a crystal ball and can predict when and who finds out early. Not even UT admissions counselors know.
Lots of charlatans, snake oil salesmen, and QAnon disciples try to predict when decisions come out. Even if their guess is correct, they are totally full of crap. A broken clock is right twice a day. Unscrupulous people love to take advantage of anxious students and families by making false promises. They try to claim some secret or exclusive access or having a “cousin in admissions.”
Don’t listen to the grifters.
Looking at you College Confidential and Carol. Shame on you Carol and “consultants” like you who spread lies and offering false hope. They then capitalize on student grief by offering expensive and worthless “appeals services” following rejection that I refuse to offer and see as unethical. I’ve been watching and commenting UT admissions for a decade, and if I don’t know when decisions come out, nobody does.
We can only look at past data and use “inductive reasoning” to make imperfect forecasts about what may happen in subsequent years. I wish UT was more transparent about this and many other things, but it is what it is. That means the public can only go off unofficial sources like mine. Nevertheless, you can expect to hear back any time between late November and late January. Refreshing email or My Status doesn’t make the release come any quicker.
No student is ever denied their major or to UT overall early - those decisions go out all at once usually at the end of January/beginning of February. In the past few cycles, everyone has heard back by February 1 regardless of whether they applied by the November 1 priority deadline.
International applicants usually hear back on the last day of February or the first day of March. Architecture and Fine Arts students should also expect delays.
For Fall 2021 freshmen, approximately 8,500 enrolled. UT received more than 66,000 freshman apps, 11,000 auto admits. 29,000 apps from non-auto admits. Admit rate for non-top 6% was 13% and OOS/international admit around 8%. The overall admissions rate was 25%.
Here are my posts on appeals, internal transfer, and external transfer.
When did previous UT application cycles hear back?
Fall 2023 applicants heard back on these dates:
December 13, 2022: UT releases a small batch of regular admissions decisions from various majors and a handful for Plan II Honors
January 10, 2023: UT releases a small batch of regular admissions offers from various majors. BHP continues to request interviews
Monday, January 30, 2023: UT releases almost all decisions for all majors and residencies. Some Honors programs like BHP and Turing were yet to be released. I share my thoughts in this video
February 18, 2023: BHP continues interviewing students and doens’t release all of their decisions until the end of the month
Fall 2022 applicants heard back on these dates:
November 18 released a small batch of liberal arts and natural sciences
December 15 UT eleased a small batch of decisions, including non-auto admits and out-of-state for selective majors like CS, Engineering, and Business. Plan II also released a few.
December 22, 2021 a few Plan II and Health Science Scholars Honors decisions trickled out in the past week. BHP continues interviewing applicants. UT did not release any large batches of students in December.
January 14, 2022, UT released some decisions, mainly auto-admitted Texas residents. It seems some non-auto admits have also received their majors, but most auto-admit decisions have not been released. A handful of my top academic auto-admit clients have gained admission.
January 21, UT released their first batch of rejections and a small wave of admissions offers
January 25, UT released a small batch of acceptances, including for Architecture and Fine Arts.
Friday, January 28 2022, 6:40pm: UT released the main decisions, of which virtually all were CAP/rejections.
Here are my thoughts on that cycle: https://youtu.be/-W-J4XDlXK4
Tuesday, February 1: Many honors decisions went out, including for Turing, Liberal Arts Honors, Plan II, and varied Natural Sciences honors.
Fall 2021 applicants heard back on these dates:
November 20, 2020: UT released a small batch of auto and non-auto Texas residents from a variety of majors. Plan II honors release a handful of honors decisions.
Spring 2021 Transfer: Most applicants who had more than 24 hours completed heard “yes” on Wednesday, December 9. More decisions continue rolling out each day. The remainder heard back in early January.
Thursday, December 10, 2020: UT releases the first major “wave” of the Fall Freshman 2021 cycle with non-auto admits gaining admission across most majors. Ten of my clients received good news including an OOS McCombs. 40 Acres Semifinalists were notified over the weekend of January 3. Fifteen of my clients heard back at this time.
Friday, January 15, 2021: A small batch of admissions decisions went out around 5pm. No students had been rejected.
January 27, 2021: UT publishes their official (heavily downvoted) video.
Friday January 29, 2021 730PM (Central): UT released their final batch of acceptances to OOS and non-autos, around a dozen of my clients got in. I share my thoughts about the piecemeal/non-transparent decision release schedule in this hot take video.
Monday, Februrary 1, 2021 6PM: AllCAP and OOS rejections go out; nobody gains admission. It was a blood bath. I published a video sharing my thoughts.
Some honors programs released admissions offers after February 1 even for students who applied by the November 1 priority deadline.
For fall 2020 applicants, decisions were released on the following dates:
November 22, 2019, was the first release of Major decisions for a very small handful of top 6% Engineering, Business, and other majors.
Thursday, December 5 saw another small release.
Friday, December 13 experienced the first “large” wave of favorable admissions decisions
January 10 to 17 saw smaller batches of releases
The major final wave of favorable decisions went out Tuesday, January 21, 2020, the first time in recent memory the main acceptance batch didn’t go out on a Friday
Last year, admissions managed to review and release all decisions including out of state and December 1 RD applicants.
Nobody knows when, how, or why some students receive their decisions earlier than others. Not receiving a decision doesn’t signal anything substantial. Some of my top clients including honors received admission in January.
In this post, I share what I know from previous cycles and what applicants might expect for Fall 2020 first-time freshman admissions releases. I’m writing this post to hopefully alleviate some of the stress and anxiety of “admissions waves” that will likely unfold beginning early December.
Event invitation marketing blasts
Applicants and families also sometimes read too much into "invite-only" events for honors programs, for example, and misjudge that either being invited to or attending these events will improve their chances. As far as I know, the parameters for event invitations or attending virtual/in-person events do not influence admissions chances or signal anything in particular. They’re used primarily to drive application numbers and share information.
When I worked for UT, we had a flagship invite-only overnight on-campus event that included attending a UT game. The parameters for the program were pretty wide, and although many of those students did gain admission including honors, some didn’t get in at all. UT has a CRM analytics software called Recruiter (unless they’ve moved to a new system) that determines which students are invited to what events, but to my knowledge Recruiter doesn’t play any role in admissions. Recruiter tracks all of your interactions with the university and their messaging flows to you. A few students in Open Records Requests accessed their Recruiter data. So if you're thinking to attend an event primarily because you think it will improve your chances, save yourself the time and don't.
When will UT begin releasing admissions decisions? What about CAP and PACE?
In 2018, UT-Austin released their first “wave” of decisions on Friday evening, December 7, which I discuss here.
I also share in that post when Fall 2018 decisions were released. Almost all colleges/schools released some decisions at this time including for out of state applicants. UT began releasing decisions early about five years ago to have a recruiting edge on most selective universities who wait until the very end to release their decisions.
Universities tend to release their decisions on Friday afternoons to lessen any impacts of gossip at school, releasing decisions during school days, and to help any animosity calm down a little bit before offices reopen the following Monday.
It is possible a small initial batch may come out in mid November or Thanksgiving for truly exceptional applicants. If UT is in keeping with previous years, I’ve got Friday, December 10 marked on my calendar as my best educated guess for the first big wave. There is a small chance they could release some decisions over Thanksgiving break or on random days in between.
There is always a ton of anxiety and stress when the first batch comes out. Students who don’t hear early worry “does this mean I won’t get in???” The answer is no. Not finding out early doesn’t mean you’re denied.
They already begin playing the comparison game “Such and such classmate has THIS rank and THAT score which is WAY lower than mine, why did they hear back and not me?”
Nobody can answer, not even your assigned UT admissions counselor, why some students hear back early while others don’t. This time of year can be frustrating because I can only say “no need to worry,” but of course that does nothing to diminish the doubt and anxiety.
Applicants who hear back this early are presumed to be some of the top students in the application pool and would have almost certainly gained admission whether they applied by November 1 or December 1.
No students are ever rejected earlier, so CAP and PACE goes out no later than February 1 for priority applicants and March 1 for regular decision applicants. You can view the CAP rank and test score parameters here. UT has never disclosed how they decide PACE.
My Fall 2019 client notification dates:
Friday, December 7: 12 clients heard back including 1 OOS, 3 Business, 3 Computer Science, 2 Communications, and 3 Engineering.
Friday, January 11, 2019: 3 clients (2 Business and 1 Engineering) received word on January 11 in a smaller “second wave” discussed here.
Friday, January 18, 2019: 6 clients received admission to Business, CS, Communications, UGS, and Liberal Arts.
Friday, January 25, 2019: All clients who applied by November 1 received their admissions decision. 8 gained admission and 11 received CAP, 2 OOS rejections, and 1 PACE. 3 more OOS applicants received rejections on February 1. 3 gained admission on Appeal later on.
There were, evidently, some smaller batches that went out in the Fridays in between, but for the past few years, UT has released decisions in three or four big batches before the final one at the end of January. International applicants received word all at once at the end of February (they are not eligible for the November 1 priority deadline). This calls into question what constitutes a “wave” based on the batch sizes. How many decisions must be released for it to be a “wave?” Who knows, and it doesn’t really matter.
You can read more about my Fall 2019 client outcomes here.
Does UT have rolling admissions? When will I hear back if I completed my application by November 1?
I still don’t have a clear definition of what “rolling admissions” means when people ask me because I suspect they themselves aren’t completely sure what rolling admissions entails. It’s then complicated to answer whether UT-Austin has rolling admissions other than to say “no, they don’t.”
Princeton Review provides a nice working definition that checks out with my experiences.
“Colleges with rolling admissions evaluate applications as they are received versus waiting to evaluate all applications after a hard deadline. Schools will continue to evaluate applications until they’ve filled all the slots for their incoming class.”
I define rolling admissions in practice as, within a week or two after applying, the university notifies you of whether you gain admission or not. All Texas public universities practice some rolling system EXCEPT for UT-Austin.
UT-Dallas and Texas A&M and definitely less selective schools begin release their favorable decisions “on a rolling basis” as they receive their applications. Related, people often ask, “UTD and Texas A&M admitted for Engineering already. Why does UT-Austin take so long to tell me my major?”
UT-Austin takes so long because they receive thousands of more applications from a generally-speaking much more talented applicant pool. It simply takes much longer for UT’s bureaucracy and admissions review machine to process, reviewer, and render their decisions.
That’s why whether you apply in August or October, the earliest possible date you will find out is early December. All November 1 applicants will hear back by February 1.
Just because you haven’t heard back in December or through mid-January does not mean you are rejected. Again, many of my clients gained admission Fall 2019 came in the last wave on January 25.
What if I’m in the top 6%? Does that change my decision notification?
No. Top 6% only guarantees a space at the university and not your first choice major, so you’re in the same boat as a non-top 6% student or a non-Texas applicant.
A few days after completing your application, you should receive a notification, “Congratulations! You’re admitted based on your high school rank.”
This DOES NOT mean you receive your major especially if you’re applying for anything outside of Liberal Arts. Moreover, accepting your top 6% notification and submitting your enrollment deposit DOES NOT increase your chances for receiving your desired major.
What about Honors admissions decisions and Canfield Business Honors Program (CBHP) interviews?
Honors programs each release their decisions at their own discretion. I discuss Honors admissions in detail here.
Plan II and Liberal Arts Honors each released decisions in the first wave in early December last year. Engineering Honors always waits until all admissions decisions are released before making their decisions at the end of February into early March. Natural Science Honors programs don’t usually release any early decisions and instead wait until February.
Business Honors begins offering phone interviews generally in mid-November on a rolling basis. They will interview around twice as many applicants as they intend to admit. I discuss BHP admissions in detail here.
It seems that they offered interviews through mid-January last year to account for those who completed in December 1. BHP might release some decisions early, but you can also expect them to release the bulk of their decisions at the end of January through February. Again, programs can change their policies on a whim, so there’s no way to tell for sure what will happen this year.
I haven’t started my application yet and worry I can’t complete by the priority deadline. Am I at a disadvantage if I complete my application by December 1?
It is always preferable to submit your best effort rather than rushing to meet an early deadline. I don’t have any statistics on applying by November 1 versus the final regular decision deadline December 1.
If you’re asking yourself this question in late October, it’s probably best to consolidate your resources, take a deep breath, and focus on December 1. It is almost certainly true that there are less spaces available for December 1 applicants because a few waves have already been released for November 1 applicants.
Even with the formal November 1 deadline that UT started in 2017, it is almost certainly the case that the majority of all applicants still procrastinate and wait until the last two weeks to complete their application.
For those of you waiting to hear back, I wish you all the best! Even if things don’t work out with UT-Austin, I’m sure there are other universities that will love to have you join.