The University of Texas at Austin, informally UT Austin, UT, University of Texas, or Texas in sports contexts, is a public research university and the flagship institution of The University of Texas System.
The University of Texas at Austin is one of the most selective universities in the region. Relative to other universities in the state of Texas, UT Austin is second to Rice University in selectivity according to a Business Journal study weighing acceptance rates and the mid-range of the SAT and ACT. UT Austin was ranked as the 18th most selective in the South. As a state public university, UT Austin was subject to Texas House Bill 588, which guaranteed graduating Texas high school seniors in the top 10% of their class admission to any public Texas university. A new state law granting UT (but no other state university) a partial exemption from the top 10% rule, Senate Bill 175, was passed by the 81st Legislature in 2009. It modified this admissions policy by limiting automatically admitted freshmen to 75% of the entering in-state freshman class, starting in 2011. The university will admit the top one percent, the top two percent and so forth until the cap is reached; the university expects to automatically admit students in the top 8% of their graduating class for 2011. Furthermore, students admitted under Texas House Bill 588 are not guaranteed their choice of college or major, but rather only guaranteed admission to the university as a whole. Many colleges, such as the Cockrell School of Engineering, have secondary requirements that must be met for admission.
For others who go through the traditional application process, selectivity is deemed "more selective" according to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and by U.S. News & World Report. For Fall 2014, 38,785 applied and 15,381 were accepted (39.7%), and of those accepted, 47.4% enrolled. Among freshman students who enrolled in Fall 2014, SAT scores for the middle 50% ranged from 570-680 for critical reading, 600-710 for math, and 560-680 for writing. ACT composite scores for the middle 50% ranged from 26-31. In terms of class rank, 69.4% of enrolled freshmen were in the top 10% of their high school classes and 90.3% ranked in the top quarter.
UT Austin is consistently ranked as one of the top public universities in the country. Nationally, UT Austin was ranked tied for 52nd among all universities, and tied for 16th place among public universities, according to U.S. News & World Report's 2016 rankings. Internationally, UT Austin was ranked tied for 30th in the 2016 "Best Global Universities" ranking by U.S. News & World Report, 37th in the world by Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) in 2015, 46th worldwide by Times Higher Education World University Rankings (2015–16), and 77th globally by QS World University Rankings (2015-16).
UT Austin is considered to be a "Public Ivy" – a public university that provides an Ivy League collegiate experience at a public school price, having been ranked in virtually every list of "Public Ivies" since Richard Moll coined the term in his 1985 book Public Ivies: A Guide to America's best public undergraduate colleges and universities. The seven other "Public Ivy" universities, according to Moll, were The College of William & Mary, Miami University, The University of California, The University of Michigan, The University of North Carolina, The University of Vermont, and The University of Virginia.
