Is UT Austin or Carnegie Mellon harder to get into?

Carnegie Mellon is harder to get into than UT Austin for most applicants. CMU is a smaller private university with a more uniformly selective applicant pool, while UT Austin has a larger class and a public-school admissions structure that changes the picture a lot depending on whether you are an in-state or out-of-state student. Even without focusing on a specific major, CMU is typically viewed as the tougher admit overall.

That said, UT Austin can feel especially difficult in certain situations. Texas residents have a unique admissions landscape because state policy shapes who gets automatic admission to the university. So for a non-Texas student, UT Austin may be more selective than people expect, even though CMU still tends to be the more consistently hard school overall.

CMU tends to attract students with very strong academic records across the board, and its admissions process is especially intense because the school is small and highly sought after. The level of competition is high even before you get into specific programs.

UT Austin is also highly competitive, but it is less uniformly selective across the entire university because of its size, public mission, and Texas-focused enrollment priorities. In other words, UT Austin’s difficulty varies more by residency status and program, while CMU’s selectivity is more consistently elevated across the institution.