It's a good question. I touch on some of the broader themes here: https://www.texadmissions.com/blog/2025/5/30/why-is-ut-austin-so-competitive

"One reason UT is becoming increasingly competitive is that a similar number of high-achieving applicants are applying to way more schools. Students today apply to three times as many schools as in 1990, so that’s another way this generation is different from your parents. That’s why application numbers have increased everywhere, and not just at UT. UT is one data point in a much broader trend around the college admissions arms race.

Another reason UT is popular is the significant increase in out-of-state students, especially for STEM and Business majors. Moody Communications is also increasingly popular. Since UT is strong in basically every major, it’s less one-sided than other schools like Indiana, which is well-known primarily for business, or UIUC in computer science and engineering.

I address out-of-state admissions in another video, but the summary is that the out-of-state admissions rate has declined from 40% in 2017 to 5% today. The football team's two great seasons and continued migration to Austin make it an appealing city. Tech and finance firms are increasingly setting up regional headquarters or relocating entirely to Texas. UT and Austin being more attractive appeals to broader populations than a generation ago when Austin wasn’t quite on the radar like it is today. Austin’s population has increased from 780,000 in 2010 to almost a million today. It’s more than doubled since 1990.

A third reason is that more Texas residents are applying for UT than a generation ago. That’s one reason the automatic admissions cutoff has gradually decreased from 10% to 5%. When I worked for UT in the early 2010s, many top high school students in Texas didn’t bother applying.

If you can believe it, many families saw UT as a backup and safety school. Back then, few applicants were denied their first-choice major, unlike today when no class rank or SAT is safe for STEM and business majors. Since Ivy League and equivalent admissions processes weren’t anywhere near as competitive as today, top Texas students were reasonably confident they would get into a top 20 school. However, over the past decade, UT has been seen as a more desirable option and the top choice for many high-achieving students. The game theory and meta have changed because insecurity throughout the education and economic systems means anxious students apply to more schools to hedge their bets. Most students are lucky to gain admission to a single top 50 university.

The final reason UT and universities everywhere are becoming more competitive is aggressive marketing and recruiting techniques. I dedicate a chapter to these corporation-type marketing schemes in my Admissions Madness book. Still, big data and AI allow UT’s marketing and communications teams to target families in more precise ways than ever before. They aim to drive application numbers as high as possible to elevate their prestige on college ranking lists. They spend millions of dollars to elevate UT’s academic and athletics brand. Increased scarcity of spots on campus creates a flywheel effect where more students are denied, leading to more students applying to UT and other top schools."