{"answer":"Texas law automatically admits a Texas resident who finishes in the top 10% of the high school class to any public university in the state. UT Austin is allowed a higher bar and is taking the top 5% for summer and fall 2027 and spring 2028, while Texas A&M admits every Texas resident in the top 10%.","as_of":"October 2026","date":"2026-10-15","dek":"The table holds the state rule and the thresholds the two flagships have published. Automatic admission is a seat at the university, not a seat in a major.","faq":[{"a":"UT Austin's threshold for summer and fall 2027 and spring 2028 is the top 5%, the same as the year before.","q":"What class rank does UT Austin require for automatic admission in 2027?"},{"a":"Texas Education Code 51.803 tells every public university in Texas to admit a Texas resident who graduated in the top 10% of the class.","q":"Which Texas universities have to admit top 10 percent students?"},{"a":"An automatic admit to UT Austin is not an admit to business or computer science.","q":"Does automatic admission get my child into their major?"}],"findings":[{"h":"This is a state law, not one campus policy.","p":"Texas Education Code 51.803 tells every public university in Texas to admit a Texas resident who graduated in the top 10% of the class. The statute calls those schools general academic teaching institutions. The rank has to come from one of the two school years before the year the student applies for. So the top 10% rule is the floor across the state, not a favor from any one campus."},{"h":"UT Austin stops at the top 5% because the law lets it.","p":"The same law lets UT Austin stop early. It does not have to fill more than 75% of its first-year Texas seats this way. UT Austin's threshold for summer and fall 2027 and spring 2028 is the top 5%, the same as the year before. Texas A&M has not capped its rule and admits all Texas residents in the top 10%."},{"h":"Class rank alone does not do it.","p":"A student also has to clear a course rule or a test score. The course route is the distinguished level of achievement under the foundation high school program, set by Section 28.025. The test route is ACT's College Readiness Benchmarks, or a 1,500 out of 2,400 on the SAT scale the law names. The form still has to arrive before the school's own deadline, with a transcript that shows a numeric class rank."}],"license":"CC BY 4.0 \u2014 quote with attribution to Test Prep Gurus (High School Reach)","method":"The rule is Texas Education Code 51.803, quoted from a verbatim reproduction that cites the official statute. The UT Austin rows are the thresholds stated in the Texas Education Agency's letters to the university, and the Texas A&M row is the policy stated on its own freshman application page. The population is Texas residents applying as first-year students, for summer or fall 2027 and spring 2028 in the UT Austin row; private colleges are outside the statute and are not in the table. Rows run statute first, then institution.","question":"Does the Texas top 10 percent rule still get my child into UT Austin in 2027?","related":[{"label":"Texas high schools and the top 10 percent rule","url":"/texas"},{"label":"Which colleges require the SAT or ACT","url":"/test-policy"},{"label":"College application deadlines for fall 2027","url":"/research/college-application-deadlines-2027"},{"label":"Test Prep Gurus explainers","url":"https://www.prepgurus.com/explainers"}],"sections":[{"h2":"A seat at the university, not in the major","paragraphs":["The law admits a student to the university as an undergraduate. It says nothing about a program. An automatic admit to UT Austin is not an admit to business or computer science. At Texas A&M the same gap applies to engineering. Families read the top 10% rule as a guarantee, then meet the major as a second, harder gate.","The paperwork is its own step. Texas A&M asks a top 10% student to report the rank on the STARS Record. It also wants an official transcript with a relative numeric ranking. A high school that does not rank its students puts the family in a different talk with each university on the list."]},{"h2":"What the sources say, and what they do not","paragraphs":["The law quoted here is a word-for-word copy of Texas Education Code 51.803 filed by Sam Houston State University. That filing cites the official state statute page. The official page serves its text through a script and gives a plain reader nothing to quote, so the copy is what this brief uses.","UT Austin's threshold comes from the Texas Education Agency's letters to the university, not from UT Austin's own admissions page, which this brief could not reach. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board also writes about the rule. That is not part of this brief. The law and the agency letters answer the question on their own."]},{"h2":"What a family should do with this","paragraphs":["Start with the transcript, because the rule runs on how a school reports rank. Some Texas high schools print an exact numeric rank. Some print only a decile. A few do not rank at all. Each of those puts a student in a different lane with the same form.","Then plan for the major, not the campus. A student aiming at UT Austin should build the list as if the top 5% bar applies. Keep Texas A&M and a second public university on it. File ahead of the earliest deadline, not the last one. The course route is a four-year plan, so it is not a senior-year fix."]}],"slug":"texas-top-10-percent-2027","sources":[{"label":"Texas Education Code Sec. 51.803, Automatic Admission: All Institutions (reproduced verbatim, cites statutes.legis.state.tx.us)","url":"https://sacscoc.shsu.edu/Support%20Docs/10.5/57.%20TEC_UniformAdmissionPolicy.pdf"},{"label":"Texas Statutes, Education Code, Chapter 51 (official statute site; JavaScript-rendered, not machine-fetchable by this tool)","url":"https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/ED/htm/ED.51.htm"},{"label":"Texas Education Agency letter: The University of Texas at Austin Automatic Admission Policy (Dec. 18, 2025, for Summer/Fall 2027)","url":"https://tea.texas.gov/taa-letters/university-texas-austin-automatic-admission-policy-2"},{"label":"Texas Education Agency letter: The University of Texas at Austin Automatic Admission Policy (Oct. 24, 2024, for Summer/Fall 2026)","url":"https://tea.texas.gov/about-tea/news-and-multimedia/correspondence/taa-letters/taa-2024-10-24-the-university-of-texas-at-austin-automatic-admission-policy"},{"label":"Texas A&M University Admissions, Freshman apply page (In-State: Top 10% Admission)","url":"https://admissions.tamu.edu/apply/freshman/index.html"}],"tables":[{"columns":[{"fmt":"str","key":"institution","label":"Institution"},{"fmt":"str","key":"policy","label":"Policy"},{"fmt":"pct","key":"threshold_percent","label":"Class-rank threshold"},{"fmt":"str","key":"year","label":"Applies to"},{"fmt":"url","key":"source_url","label":"Source"}],"h2":"Automatic admission, by institution","intro":"The statutory rule first, then what each flagship has published.","note":"Thresholds are what each institution has published for the application year named in the row, and they move: UT Austin resets its percentage each year under the capacity cap, so the 2026 figure is not a 2027 promise. The statutory row is the floor every Texas public university works from. Private colleges in Texas are not covered by the statute and are not in the table.","rows":[{"institution":"All Texas general academic teaching institutions (statutory baseline)","policy":"Automatic admission for top 10% of high school graduating class","quote":"each general academic teaching institution shall admit an applicant for admission to the institution as an undergraduate student if the applicant graduated with a grade point average in the top 10 percent of the student's high school graduating class in one of the two school years preceding the academic year for which the applicant is applying for admission","source_url":"https://sacscoc.shsu.edu/Support%20Docs/10.5/57.%20TEC_UniformAdmissionPolicy.pdf","threshold_percent":10,"year":"statutory rule, ongoing"},{"institution":"University of Texas at Austin","policy":"Automatic admission, capped at 75% of first-time-resident enrollment capacity under TEC 51.803(a-1)","quote":"automatically admit all eligible summer/fall 2027 and spring 2028 freshman applicants who rank within the top 5%","source_url":"https://tea.texas.gov/taa-letters/university-texas-austin-automatic-admission-policy-2","threshold_percent":5,"year":"Summer/Fall 2027 and Spring 2028"},{"institution":"University of Texas at Austin","policy":"Automatic admission, capped at 75% of first-time-resident enrollment capacity under TEC 51.803(a-1)","quote":"automatically admit all eligible summer/fall 2026 and spring 2027 freshman applicants who rank within the top 5%","source_url":"https://tea.texas.gov/about-tea/news-and-multimedia/correspondence/taa-letters/taa-2024-10-24-the-university-of-texas-at-austin-automatic-admission-policy","threshold_percent":5,"year":"Summer/Fall 2026 and Spring 2027"},{"institution":"Texas A&M University","policy":"Automatic admission for top 10% of high school graduating class (not capacity-capped under 51.803(a-1))","quote":"Texas residents who rank in the top 10% of their graduating class qualify for automatic admission to any state school in Texas. ... Texas A&M automatically admits all students in the top 10%.","source_url":"https://admissions.tamu.edu/apply/freshman/index.html","threshold_percent":10,"year":"Fall 2027 and ongoing"}]},{"columns":[{"fmt":"str","key":"claim","label":"Rule"},{"fmt":"str","key":"value","label":"As stated"},{"fmt":"url","key":"source_url","label":"Source"}],"h2":"What the statute and the universities say","intro":"One row per published rule, with the document that states it.","note":"Each row is one statement from Texas Education Code 51.803, from a Texas Education Agency letter to UT Austin, or from Texas A&M's own application page. The value column is the rule as the document states it, not our reading of it.","rows":[{"claim":"The statute's rule applies to every Texas general academic teaching institution, not just UT Austin","fetched":"2026-10-15","quote":"Sec. 51.803. AUTOMATIC ADMISSION: ALL INSTITUTIONS. (a) Subject to Subsection (a-1), each general academic teaching institution shall admit an applicant","source_url":"https://sacscoc.shsu.edu/Support%20Docs/10.5/57.%20TEC_UniformAdmissionPolicy.pdf","value":"top 10 percent, all general academic teaching institutions"},{"claim":"UT Austin's automatic-admission threshold for Summer/Fall 2027 applicants is top 5%, unchanged from 2026","fetched":"2026-10-15","quote":"automatically admit all eligible summer/fall 2027 and spring 2028 freshman applicants who rank within the top 5%","source_url":"https://tea.texas.gov/taa-letters/university-texas-austin-automatic-admission-policy-2","value":"top 5%"},{"claim":"Automatic admission is to the institution as an undergraduate student, not to a particular major or program","fetched":"2026-10-15","quote":"each general academic teaching institution shall admit an applicant for admission to the institution as an undergraduate student if the applicant graduated with a grade point average in the top 10 percent","source_url":"https://sacscoc.shsu.edu/Support%20Docs/10.5/57.%20TEC_UniformAdmissionPolicy.pdf","value":"admission to the institution, not a major"},{"claim":"An applicant must still submit an application before the institution's filing deadline and provide a transcript/diploma documenting coursework to qualify","fetched":"2026-10-15","quote":"To qualify for admission under this section, an applicant must: (1) submit an application before the expiration of any application filing deadline established by the institution; and (2) provide a high school transcript or diploma that satisfies the requirements of Subsection (d).","source_url":"https://sacscoc.shsu.edu/Support%20Docs/10.5/57.%20TEC_UniformAdmissionPolicy.pdf","value":"application deadline and documentation required"},{"claim":"An applicant must also meet a curriculum requirement (the distinguished level of achievement, or its equivalent) or an alternative test-score benchmark, not GPA rank alone","fetched":"2026-10-15","quote":"(A) successfully completed: (i) at a public high school, the curriculum requirements established under Section 28.025 for the distinguished level of achievement under the foundation high school program; ... or (B) satisfied ACT's College Readiness Benchmarks on the ACT assessment applicable to the applicant or earned on the SAT assessment a score of at least 1,500 out of 2,400 or the equivalent","source_url":"https://sacscoc.shsu.edu/Support%20Docs/10.5/57.%20TEC_UniformAdmissionPolicy.pdf","value":"distinguished-level curriculum OR ACT College Readiness Benchmarks / SAT 1500-of-2400 equivalent"},{"claim":"By law, UT Austin need not offer automatic admission beyond the number needed to fill 75% of its first-time-resident undergraduate enrollment capacity","fetched":"2026-10-15","quote":"The University of Texas at Austin is not required to offer admission to applicants who qualify for automatic admission under Subsection (a) in excess of the number required to fill 75 percent of the university's enrollment capacity designated for first-time resident undergraduate students in an academic year.","source_url":"https://sacscoc.shsu.edu/Support%20Docs/10.5/57.%20TEC_UniformAdmissionPolicy.pdf","value":"75% capacity cap"},{"claim":"Texas A&M automatically admits Texas-resident top-10% applicants and requires them to report rank via the STARS Record before the deadline","fetched":"2026-10-15","quote":"Texas residents reporting a Top 10% ranking must submit the STARS Record with their rank and also provide verification of ranking by submitting an official high school transcript with a relative numeric ranking via TREx or the upload feature in AIS.","source_url":"https://admissions.tamu.edu/apply/freshman/index.html","value":"top 10%, STARS Record required"}]}],"title":"How Texas automatic admission works in 2027 and what UT Austin requires","updated":null,"url":"https://highschoolreach.com/research/texas-top-10-percent-2027"}