Is UT Austin harder to get into than Vanderbilt for undergraduate admissions?

No. For most undergraduate applicants, Vanderbilt is harder to get into than UT Austin. Vanderbilt runs one private, highly selective process for everyone, while UT Austin has a major in-state preference and a separate automatic admission policy for many Texas students, which makes overall access easier for a large share of applicants.

The biggest differentiator is residency. UT Austin is a Texas public university, so Texas residents have a substantial advantage, and students near the top of their Texas high school class can qualify for automatic admission to the university under the state policy, though not necessarily to their first-choice major. Vanderbilt does not have an in-state track or any automatic admission pathway, so every applicant is competing in the same very selective pool.

The second difference is how hard it is to get the specific program you want. At UT Austin, admission by major matters a lot, and some programs, especially in business, engineering, and computer science, are significantly tougher than the university overall. That means UT can feel extremely difficult for certain applicants even if it is not harder than Vanderbilt across the board. Vanderbilt is also selective by school and program, but the public-flagship-by-major dynamic is especially important at UT.

For an average applicant building a college list, Vanderbilt should be treated as the more difficult reach. UT Austin can range from relatively attainable to very difficult depending on whether you are a Texas resident and which major you choose.