UT-Austin Waitlist Tips and FAQs
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Note and PSA: I do not assist with the UT Waitlist academic update essay or Letter of Continued Interest at other universities for non-clients. Do not pay anyone to assist you with these essays - unscrupulous services prey on people’s grief.
I’m understandably receiving many questions about UT-Austin’s new opt-in waitlist for Fall 2025 first-time freshmen applicants. This is the first time UT has used such a procedure. It also appeals they will allow for Waitlist opt-ins for Fall 2025 external transfer applicants. The Waitlist is for students who did not gain admission or who were offered CAP, or those admitted students who did not gain their first/second choice major or want tor request a major change.
I mentioned in my recent decision release video that I welcome UT using the Waitlist. In previous cycles, UT used its “appeals process” like a lottery, except nobody knows how many winning tickets are given. For years, the appeals lottery was a gigantic mess, so I hope this dysfunction doesn’t occur with the Waitlist.
You can read UT’s official page about the UT-Austin Waitlist here. I will share my thoughts about how I think the Waitlist process might unfold, and I will update this post with the results at the end of the summer.
I begin working with external transfers after they’ve completed at least one semester of college courses post-high school. You can read my comprehensive external transfer guide and this internal transfer guide for UT's current student major changes.
TL;DR: there isn’t much to do but opt-in to the Waitlist and make enrollment decisions for Fall 2025. You should assume you will not be offered a spot at UT-Austin.
How might UT’s Waitlist work? Why do universities use a waitlist?
UT and other universities use wait lists to fill remaining spaces, usually after the May 1 National Enrollment Deadline. Waitlists differ somewhat from deferrals, whereby universities that defer students to the Regular Decision applicant pool will release those decisions no later than April 1.
Thankfully, UT is upfront about this when their page reads: “UT Austin makes final admission decisions about an incoming class only after considering all applicants, the needs of the University and its academic programs, and limitations on class size. Therefore, a reverse in admission decision is unlikely.”
We must go down the rabbit hole to understand how and why waitlists work. Your “academic update” essay is unlikely to make any difference, and there is no action to take besides opting into the Waitlist.
A key phrase is “the needs of the university,” which translates into Enrollment Management practices. Many institutions, including UT, have actually shifted away from the bureaucratic language of “admissions offices” to “offices of enrollment management” or subsumed many departments within that broader umbrella. Google almost any “university + enrollment management,” and you might find some interesting result differences.
If admissions staff review and score applicants, enrollment managers attempt to forecast how many admitted students will enroll called the “admissions yield.” The highest yield rates come from schools like Stanford, Harvard, and MIT, which enroll around 80% of their applicants.
UT-Austin’s overall yield is between 45-50% each year, and in recent years, UT has enrolled around 9,000 first-time freshmen students. Consequently, when admissions staff admits 17,000-18,000 students, enrollment managers expect a little less than half to enroll. Some senior admissions staff are also enrollment managers.
Those yield numbers will differ with each major. Presumably, the most in-demand majors, like CS or ECE, probably have higher yield rates than less in-demand ones, such as social work or communications. Enrollment managers must balance many different needs around in-state, out-of-state, international students, spaces in colleges/schools/majors, scholarship athletes, low-income/rural/first generation, and so on. They have a tricky and challenging job, and these stats and numbers are ultimately unknown and unknowable. Like admissions, enrollment management is an opaque black box.
If UT-Austin or other universities have unexpectedly more students enrolled than their yield forecasts anticipated, there could be housing shortages, issues registering for classes, overcrowded classes, dining hall crowds, etc. Moreover, if they hit their enrollment projects just right, there is no need to fill spaces with a waitlist. Undoubtedly, UT and universities use AI and Big Data processing to forecast their enrollment, although I’m unsure whether or to what degree they use AI on the admissions review side.
If universities under-enroll by a few percentage points, they will know that information only after the May 1 enrollment deadline. Then, they use waitlists to fill those remaining spaces.
This helpful blog post shows how some universities regularly admit many students from the waitlist, with others admitting few and often zero. These trends don’t particularly correlate with public, private, or prestige. Universities report this data to the Common Data Sets initiative.
Another factor is “summer melt,” which is enrollment manager-speak for those admitted students who submitted their enrollment deposit but withdrew after May 1 and before classes start in August. Summer melt happens for logistical/financial reasons, family disruptions or extenuating circumstances, getting off the waitlist of another university, or missing tuition payment deadlines. Ivy League and equivalents might experience a few percentage points of melt. UT and other public flagship universities might expect 5-10% of enrolled students to not complete their twelfth day of class for their first semester, which is the technical cutoff for melt.
So, summer melt explains why UT publicly broadcasts that waitlist offers may come as late as the end of July. They may want to fill those remaining students for students who have withdrawn their enrollment offer.
Do I need to opt-in ASAP? Is the Waitlist first-come, first-served?
No. I highly doubt UT’s Waitlist is first-come, first-served, partly because of their page’s explicit language: “The waitlist is not ranked, and we do not know if any space will become available or how many students will be accepted via the waitlist.”
Since it “isn’t ranked,” that also means they’re unlikely to consider or reconsider the credentials or review scores of the original application. Why some students get admitted off the waitlist and others do not will never be known. If you are lucky enough to get in, be gracious in your reward.
Since they’re unlikely to even release offers before May 1, and they definitely won’t in February, it isn’t important or urgent to send it in. However, there’s also no reason to wait. So, you may as well opt-in sooner than later.
The most important thing is that you make an enrollment decision for Fall 2025 so that you can continue your studies. DO NOT wait for your UT Waitlist offer before making a decision.
If you are offered admission off the UT Waitlist, withdrawing from the institution you have enrolled isn't a big deal. As mentioned above, “summer melt” is fairly common.
What about appealing?
Thankfully, it seems UT has moved on from the Appeals Lottery system of recent cycles. There are only very narrow instances where a student can submit an appeal, and none of them are “I really want to go to UT!”
Appealing for a late application to be considered on time (for applicants only).
Changing your Freshman/Transfer status (for applicants only).
Requesting to defer admission to a later semester (for admitted students only).
Requesting to reinstate an offer of admission that you previously declined (for admitted students only).
Requesting to change a chosen Coordinated Admission Pathway Institution (for CAP students only).
One interesting case is “changing your status from freshman/transfer” because this was a loophole many years ago for early college high school students who earn many college credits and might graduate high school with a community college associate’s degree. I’ll be curious if this bullet point implies UT has re-opened this side-door to admission.
They are also explicit that you should not call, email, or show up on campus to show how you really, really want to enroll at UT. The Waitlist page explicitly states, in bold: “Additional materials, such as letters of recommendation, continued letters of interest or other items, submitted by you or on your behalf will not be accepted or reviewed.”
Should I request a major change?
Sure, may as well. Spaces in high-demand STEM/Business majors are likely more likely to fill up, so requesting a major in a non-STEM program may be a good idea.
However, it is very difficult to change into a STEM/Business major at UT if you did not gain direct admission. I strongly caution against enrolling at UT for a non-STEM major if you desire business or most STEM majors. I discuss UT student internal transferring/major change in this post.
If you were a top 6% applicant who did not gain admission to their first-choice major, you should strongly consider enrolling at a university where you have a predictable pathway to earn your preferred degree.
Is it possible to request PACE or other pathway programs?
No.
Does opting into the UT Waitlist negate or influence pathway programs like CAP?
No.
If you want CAP, especially at Arlington or San Antonio, you and all of your family need to be on phones and devices to refresh the screen like they are buying Beycone concert tickets. Those spaces fill up within five minutes. If you accept your CAP offer, and you eventually get admitted off the UT Waitlist, you will withdraw from CAP and enroll at UT.
How should I approach the UT-Austin Waitlist “academic update” essay submission?
There isn’t really a strategy. It’d honestly be better if UT didn’t give an option at all because it and Letters of Continued Interest, like at Michigan, give applicants the illusion of control.
Waitlists depend entirely on the needs of universities and have little or nothing to do with individual applicants. It’s purely an economics game around the supply of spaces and hitting enrollment management targets. At least UT is transparent about this through the new Waitlist rather than the previous Appeals Lottery process that gave students hope that their essay would make a difference.
I appreciate that UT specifics “academic updates,” which I interpret as concerning only fall semester senior year grades or changes in rank/GPA. I suppose if you want to provide resume, extracurricular, achievement, or special circumstances updates with your 200 allotted words, go for it. Do not send in any supporting documents like a resume or rec letter.
If your rank improved into the top 6% after your fall senior year grades, this will not qualify you for automatic admission. The automatic admissions cutoff is based on the rank given by the December 1 deadline.
So, write a few “stick to the facts” sentences, send in your essay, and move on with your life without an expectation for success.
UT-Austin Waitlist outcomes for Fall 2025
I will update this post at the end of the admissions cycle.