You’re in! Key Facts about Texas College Auto Admits

For incoming seniors who will apply to Texas public colleges, you should know by now that each school has "automatic admission" policies based on Texas state law. (If you don’t know, pay close attention!) In many cases, students who are in the Top 10% of their classes at the end of junior year can be automatically admitted to public colleges in Texas. However, colleges may add additional requirements, increase the required rank percentage (to 15%, for example), or even lower it (to 5%, for instance).

You may also notice on different college websites that there is the “Automatic Admission” and the “Assured Admission.” In essence, the two terms automatic and assured mean the same thing: you are admitted to the college as long as you submit and complete the application correctly. So why have the two terms? “Automatic Admission” usually means the state-mandated “Top 10%” admission (or whatever class rank the university sets as the limit) whereas “Assured Admission” often refers to an automatic admission based on other academic criteria, such as high SAT/ACT test scores.

Listed below are the auto/assured admission policies at some of the major Texas public campuses:

UT Austin:

UT Dallas:

UT SA:

A&M College Station:

Texas Tech - Lubbock:

Texas State - San Marcos:

Keep in mind that these auto admission policies ensure admission to the university but not necessarily to your intended major. For your major, the college will review your application holistically; hence, your application and essays are still very important (and B2A can help you improve and organize them!).

Many of these colleges also have scholarship packages based on test scores, so even if you qualify for auto admit, you should try to improve your SAT or ACT score one last time this fall to get the maximum scholarship package possible. Why do colleges care so much about these test scores? Colleges want to attract students with high SAT/ACT scores to improve their university rankings (UT Dallas in particular has been giving out a lot of these scholarships, even full rides, to attract top students), so they often offer great scholarship packages based on certain SAT/ACT scores students achieve. Consequently, improving your current scores (by just a 100 points on the SAT and by just 1-2 points on the ACT) might save you and your parents literally thousands of dollars!

Incoming seniors, since your rank percentile is already determined, you can't do anything to change it, but you still have time to improve your SAT/ACT scores to qualify for some of these auto admissions and scholarships. How do you improve your scores? Join B2A’s test prep courses or register for tutoring to get ready for Sept ACT or Oct SAT. Don’t miss out!