How hard is it to get admitted to UT Austin compared with Texas A&M?

UT Austin is typically harder to get into than Texas A&M overall, especially for students applying to the most in-demand majors. UT Austin gets a very large applicant pool, has limited space in popular programs like business, engineering, and computer science, and is especially tough for out-of-state applicants. Texas A&M is still selective, but admission to the university as a whole is usually more accessible than UT Austin.

For a student targeting highly competitive majors, UT Austin is often the tougher admissions climb. At UT, getting into the university and getting into your intended major can feel like two separate hurdles, since some colleges and majors are much more constrained than others. That matters a lot if you are looking at programs such as McCombs, Cockrell, or CS.

Texas A&M can also become quite competitive in areas like engineering, and major placement matters there too. But many students who might be borderline for UT Austin are still realistic candidates for A&M, either through direct admission, an alternative pathway, or admission to the broader university with later internal processes depending on the program.

For a student in Texas, one reason people get confused is that both schools have policies and practices that can make admission look different depending on class rank, residency, and major choice. So the answer is not just about the school name. A top-ranked in-state applicant may have a very different experience from an out-of-state applicant or someone applying to a capped major.

In plain terms, if you are comparing overall selectivity, UT Austin sits a notch above Texas A&M. If you are comparing certain majors, that gap can become even more noticeable at UT.