Is UT Austin harder to get into than the University of Wisconsin-Madison?

Yes. For most applicants, UT Austin is considered harder to get into than the University of Wisconsin-Madison. UT Austin draws a very large applicant pool, is especially competitive for out-of-state students, and some of its most popular majors can be much tougher than the university overall. Wisconsin-Madison is selective too, but it is usually seen as more accessible than UT Austin at the campus-wide level.

A big reason is how UT Austin handles admission for Texas residents. On top of that, UT Austin admissions can vary a lot by major, with programs like business, engineering, and computer science standing out as especially difficult.

Wisconsin-Madison is still a strong, well-known flagship and not an easy admit, especially in sought-after programs. But it does not have the same combination of state policy constraints, sheer national demand, and major-by-major pressure that makes UT Austin feel tougher for many applicants. In practice, a student who is competitive for Wisconsin-Madison may still find UT Austin, especially certain colleges within it, noticeably harder.

If you are looking at this purely in terms of selectivity, think of UT Austin as the more difficult admit overall, with the gap becoming even larger for out-of-state applicants and for highly selective majors.