Is UT Austin or Boston College harder to get into?

Boston College is harder to get into for most applicants overall, though UT Austin can be just as tough or tougher in certain cases because of Texas residency rules and highly competitive majors. BC has a more uniformly selective private-school process, while UT Austin’s admissions landscape changes a lot depending on whether you are in-state, out-of-state, and what program you want. So if you are asking for a broad, national comparison without those extra variables, BC is the safer answer.

One big reason is that UT Austin reserves a large share of its class for Texas residents, including students admitted through the state’s automatic admission policy. That means UT Austin is not equally selective across the board. A strong in-state applicant may have a clearer path to admission than a similar out-of-state applicant, while Boston College evaluates applicants in one private-university pool rather than through a state-driven system.

Another difference is major-level competition. At UT Austin, admission difficulty can swing sharply depending on what you apply for, especially in programs like business, engineering, and computer science. Students sometimes get admitted to the university but not their first-choice major. Boston College also has selective programs and schools, but the overall admissions process is typically more consistent and less shaped by one specific major bottleneck.

The applicant pool also works differently. Boston College draws a national and international group of applicants all competing for a relatively small class, which keeps selectivity high across the board. UT Austin is extremely selective too, but the experience of applying there is more variable and policy-driven, so it is harder to summarize with one simple difficulty level.

In practical terms, a Texas resident with strong grades may find UT Austin more attainable than Boston College, while an out-of-state applicant to a top UT major may find UT Austin every bit as difficult, if not harder.