Is UT Austin or Ohio State harder to get into overall?

The biggest practical tradeoff is that UT Austin is usually tougher to access, especially if you are applying from out of state, while Ohio State is more accessible overall even though it is still a well-regarded, selective public university. UT Austin gets extremely high demand, has limited space for non-Texas residents, and some majors there are much harder to enter than the university as a whole. Ohio State is competitive, but in an overall admissions comparison, it is typically less difficult to get into than UT Austin.

A lot of the confusion comes from how public university admissions work. UT Austin has a major in-state focus, and Texas policies plus capacity limits make the out-of-state pool especially tight. On top of that, programs like business, engineering, and computer science can be significantly more selective than the general university.

Ohio State also attracts a large applicant pool and has strong programs, but it tends to be less restrictive overall. For many applicants, especially those applying broadly without targeting the most capacity-constrained programs, Ohio State is the more attainable admit.

So in the broad, overall sense you asked about, UT Austin is harder to get into than Ohio State. That gap is most noticeable for out-of-state students and for applicants aiming at UT Austin’s most sought-after majors.