With over 26 undergraduate programs ranked in the top 10 nationally, a 73% graduation rate and a seventh place ranking among public universities nationally, the Longhorn legacy grows more prestigious each year. 

Almost every UT student has been striving to be the best since high school. With the recent change in the automatic admission quota from top 6% to 5%, the standards continue rising. 

Last year, UT received 73,000 undergraduate applications, breaking all prior records. The high interest comes as no surprise given UT was recently dubbed a “Public Ivy” by Forbes and recognized as the top public school in Texas, in addition to sporting a boiling hot athletics program. 

“The prestige of UT is kind of crazy,” said Leah Huerta, a communication and leadership sophomore and auto-admit. “I forget that it's one of the best universities in the country and that's just such a crazy concept to me. People know UT worldwide, and the amount of international students here at UT is crazy, and it's a little bit intimidating to be, like, ‘I'm a UT student.’”

The Moody College of Communication holds the nation’s top ranking for its advertising program. Other programs including RTF and journalism receive top 10 rankings. UT is ranked second in the country and fourth globally for studying communication and media studies, according to the 2024 QS World University Rankings.
“When you find people who love UT and who care about the university and have an immense, deep, abiding concern for their students — for their craft and for what they study — it's amazing how the alchemy of all that comes together,” said Natalie Tindall, director of the Stan Richards School of Advertising & Public Relations. “You get people who want others to succeed, and we're happy for you. We want you to have these wonderful experiences.”

In September, President Jay Hartzell announced the threshold change for automatic admission amid a nearly 10% increase in applications from fall 2023. The automatic admission rule was created in 1997 for all Texas public universities to diversify student bodies and ensure that students have an equal chance of getting into schools. Universities must allow 75% of each class to be from automatic admission and 25% from out-of-state or regular admission. With more applicants each year, the automatic admission rate must decrease, Hartzell explained. The new automatic admission rule will go into action in Fall 2026.

The competition for getting into UT starts on the first day of high school, as every course affects one’s rank. Students aiming for automatic admission often take rigorous courses, including Advanced Placement and dual credit options to maintain their ranks. 

“I was constantly stressed,” Huerta said. “By the end of junior year, I was super burnt out, because I was constantly doing work. I was taking more AP classes than ever, (and) the workload was more. Junior year was notoriously bad, and I was under all this (pressure).” 

Journalism sophomore Maia Thomas, who received her acceptance through regular admission, said the ranking system can feel dehumanizing. According to Ivy Scholars, students who are accepted based on holistic admissions and not class ranks have around a 10% chance of acceptance if they are in-state students and 8% chance if out-of-state.   

“I had a lot of my peers who were fighting to be in the top 6% who had a lot of family that were putting pressure on them,” Thomas said. “My close friends in high school (placed) third internationally for the science fair for a biochemistry project about curing Parkinson's disease. It was crazy. I think that rankings are not a great way to measure (these) things.”

For those not accepted, there are two alternative programs that first-year students participate in: the Coordinated Admission Program, or CAP, and Path to Admission through Co-Enrollment, or PACE. CAP started in the early 1980s, and PACE began in the fall of 2013. More than a thousand students every year are offered admission into CAP, which allows first-year students to take college courses at a University of Texas System campus. If they complete the CAP requirements, these students are guaranteed transfer admission to UT the following year. PACE  is a smaller program with only a few hundred students, and if the PACE requirements are met, students will also be admitted into UT the next year. These students take 12 hours at Austin Community College and three hours at UT. They can still live on campus, sit in the student section at football games and receive the same benefits as any other UT student. Both programs ensure enrollment in the College of Liberal Arts, but students may not receive their major of choice.

“CAP students (have) an imposter syndrome, like, ‘Oh, I didn't get the same form of admittance that a lot of my fellow students did,’” said undeclared freshman Abby Vandiver, a PACE student. “You think of yourself differently, but at the end of the day, you're still a Longhorn and you're still at UT. You're still getting to experience what everyone else does.”

As one of the 9,210 students in the class of 2028, the second-largest class in UT history, Vandiver said she feels lucky to have a seat on the Forty Acres. 

“I just love being surrounded by people who are doing great things and are just so ambitious,” Vandiver said. “I love that feeling. That's what I was chasing in high school. I wanted to be somewhere like this, where everyone around me was pushing so much toward a goal. I just love being here for that reason.”