A public R1 research university in Austin, TX, admitting 26.64% of applicants with in-state tuition of $11,688.
Austin, Texas
The University of Texas at Austin is a public R1 research university in Austin, Texas, founded in 1883, the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. It enrolls 42,855 undergraduates and 10,699 graduate students across eighteen colleges and schools, including the McCombs School of Business, the Cockrell School of Engineering, the College of Natural Sciences, the College of Liberal Arts, and the Moody College of Communication.
Social sciences, engineering, communication, and computer science account for the largest shares of bachelor's degrees. UT Austin holds a Doctoral University: Very High Research Activity (R1) Carnegie classification and is accredited through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). UT Austin is test-optional; submitting SAT or ACT scores is not required.
Official website: utexas.edu
UCD scores every college on four pillars: Outcomes, Value, Affordability, and Selectivity. Within peer group A (four-year selective institutions), UT Austin scores 85.78 overall, rated Strong. Outcomes (95.77) reflects an 88.90% six-year graduation rate and broad career placement across Texas and national markets. Value scores 80.52. Affordability scores 41.68, driven by in-state tuition of $11,688 and an average net price of $19,857. All scores use verified federal data only.
UT Austin admits 26.64% of applicants overall, though admit rates vary considerably by college and program. UT Austin is test-optional; submitting SAT or ACT scores is not required. Students who submit scores typically average 1,395 on the SAT, with the middle 50% scoring between 27 and 33 on the ACT. Texas law requires public universities to automatically admit Texas residents who rank in the top percentile of their high school graduating class; UT Austin currently applies this rule to approximately the top 6% of Texas high school graduates.
Students who do not qualify under the automatic admission rule apply through holistic review. The application deadline is December 1. Students apply directly to a specific school or college within UT Austin; McCombs and Cockrell Engineering are the most competitive and have meaningfully lower admit rates than the campus average.
Acceptance rate over the last five admission cycles. The trend tells you whether The University of Texas at Austin is getting harder, easier, or staying about the same.
For Texas residents, UT Austin charges $11,688 in tuition and fees plus $14,828 in room and board, bringing the estimated total cost of attendance to approximately $30,000 before aid. For out-of-state and international students, tuition is $44,908, bringing the estimated total cost of attendance to approximately $63,000 before aid. The average net price across all enrolled students is $19,857. For families earning under $30,000, the average net price is $12,553. For families earning between $30,001 and $48,000, the net price averages $14,297. For families earning between $75,001 and $110,000, the net price averages $24,406. For families earning above $110,000, it averages $30,082.
Published cost of attendance, the sticker price before grants and scholarships. Most students underestimate room & board and other expenses.
Application fee: $75 (one-time, due at submission)
Aid is need-based, so net price varies by family income. Here's what each bracket typically pays after grants and scholarships.
Cumulative federal-loan debt across the full borrowing distribution. The 10th and 90th percentiles bracket the typical range; the median sits in the middle.
Median federal-loan debt at graduation broken down by demographic. Each slice's size is proportional to the dollar amount that group typically borrows.
UT Austin completes most of the students it enrolls. The six-year graduation rate is 88.90% for full-time, first-time bachelor's-seeking students. The four-year rate is 76.72%, consistent with large public flagships where program-capacity constraints and the scale of the student body extend degree timelines for a portion of students. First-year retention stands at 96.43%.
UT Austin graduates earn above the national median for public research universities. Median earnings are $60,896 six years after first enrolling and $75,121 at ten years. At the ten-year mark, 88.36% of former students earn more than a typical high school graduate.
UT Austin's federal loan rate of 27.27% and median debt of $20,500 are notably high, suggesting that a large share of enrolled students are borrowing to cover costs, particularly out-of-state students and those who do not qualify for substantial grant aid. Engineering, computer science, and McCombs graduates typically earn well above the institutional median.
Median annual earnings 6, 8, and 10 years after students first enrolled.
Mean annual earnings 10 years after entry, segmented by demographic. Reveals gaps the headline median can't show.
Median earnings for female grads ten years after first enrolling here.
Median earnings for male grads ten years after first enrolling here.
Earnings of grads from the bottom-third of family incomes at entry.
Earnings of grads from the middle-third of family incomes at entry.
Earnings of grads from the top-third of family incomes at entry.
Share of completer-cohort borrowers paying down at least $1 of principal at the 1-, 3-, 5-, and 7-year mark. Climbing rates show graduates settling into careers and managing debt; flat or declining rates are a warning.
UT Austin enrolls 42,855 undergraduates in Austin, the capital of Texas, a city of approximately 1 million people and one of the fastest-growing technology and entrepreneurship hubs in the country. Hispanic students account for 28.31% of undergraduates; white 30.36%, Asian 25.65%, and Black 4.63%. Twenty-six percent of undergraduates receive Pell grants, and 27.52% are first-generation college students. Austin's technology industry, anchored by companies including Apple, Dell, Tesla, Google, and Meta, gives students direct access to major employers, and the city's growth has accelerated internship and full-time placement in tech and entrepreneurship.
Undergraduate student body composition reported to the US Department of Education.
Where students live, learn, and connect at The University of Texas at Austin. The campus setting, housing profile, and signals that shape day-to-day life here.
The University of Texas at Austin offers an extensive catalog of programs: 242 distinct programs across 26 majors. Below are its strongest majors, each with flagship programs and typical earnings. Open a major to explore it in depth, or browse the full program catalog.
UT Austin operates at an 18:1 student-to-faculty ratio, reflecting its large enrollment. 84.19% of instruction is delivered by full-time faculty. Instructional spending per full-time equivalent student is $20,294 per year, lower than at peer flagship universities. The endowment stands at $6.18 billion, supported separately by the Permanent University Fund (PUF), a state fund generated from oil and gas revenues on state lands that provides additional resources to UT campuses beyond the endowment.
2,828 instructional faculty across 6 ranks. The rank mix shows how many senior faculty are teaching versus contingent or junior staff, with average salary equated to a 9-month contract.
| Rank | Faculty Count | Share | Avg Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full Professors | 979 | 35% | $200,201 |
| Associate Professors | 485 | 17% | $139,468 |
| Assistant Professors | 415 | 15% | $121,486 |
| Instructors | 41 | 1% | $64,545 |
| Lecturers | 905 | 32% | $83,735 |
| No Rank | 3 | 0% | $65,832 |
UT Austin's core strengths are its Austin location in one of the country's fastest-growing tech and business markets, the McCombs School of Business, Cockrell Engineering, and an in-state tuition of $11,688 that is among the lowest of any major research university in the country. The UCD score (85.78 Strong) reflects a solid overall profile.
The data also shows real challenges: a federal loan rate of 27.27% is among the highest in this peer group, median debt of $20,500 is high, and the average net price under $30K of $12,553 is higher than at Michigan ($1,043) or UF ($1,982), suggesting the aid program for low-income students is less comprehensive than at comparable flagships. Best fit for Texas residents who qualify for the Top 10% admission path, who target McCombs, Cockrell, or Moody, and who have access to the Austin market for internships; out-of-state students face competitive costs without the financial aid depth of private peers.
The questions below address what students and families most commonly search about UT Austin: how the Texas Top 10% Rule works, what test-optional means for UT Austin, how cost compares for in-state vs. out-of-state students, and what McCombs and Cockrell graduates earn.
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