On January 15, senior Grayden Warmink sat anxiously in his car, waiting to see if he had been accepted early into the University of Texas. He received an email stating that there had been an important change in his UT decision. He then proceeded to check his status in the UT app, where he was informed that his application was still under review and that he would receive his final decision and regular admissions on February 15.
“They said, your application is still in review, thank you for meeting our early action deadline, the Office of Admission is thoroughly reviewing your application for your selected major and we need some additional time, your decision has been deferred to February 15, and no further action is required on your part,” Warmink said. “That’s what it says now but the original day the word “deferred” wasn’t even there.”
A leaked email sent from the UT admissions office, written by Miguel V. Wasielewski, confirmed that the university received a total of 91,00 applicants and only accepted 5,000 of these students as of January 15. As stated on the public UT office administration website, their deferrals are due to the competitiveness and limited space in high-demand programs.
“I am more nervous now because instead of being in a smaller pool with all the early action you’re with everybody else in regular decisions, so it feels even more competitive,” said Warmink.
With the record number of applicants and deferrals this winter, UT has announced that to be a part of the auto-admission pool for the fall of 2026, students will have to be in the top 5% of their class instead of the current 6%. This decrease in the auto-admission percentage also occurred back in 2017 when UT lowered its auto-admission form from 7% to 6% to combat the extensive number of applicants, confirmed by UTNEWS. As UT acts in preparation for upcoming years, current seniors continue to stress.
“With the number of students who apply to UT, there might have been an overwhelming number of applicants and not enough people to review applications,” Luna said. “Now, I do not think this is an excuse but this might have been one of many factors.”
Early action students like senior Josh Henling are confused about why there are so many deferrals, even for those who meet the automatic admission requirements. According to Henling, the UT deferrals made his friends anxious with the possibility that they wouldn’t get into their top school or preferred major.
“I was in the middle of a run when I called my friend up and he just sounded so sad,” Henling said. “He is one of the smartest kids at our school and I’m just wondering how he didn’t get in.”
Senior Noah Pannaell has decided to give UT grace for this unfortunate situation, considering a 24.3% freshmen admission increase in applicants compared to November 2023, as reported by UTNEWS. However, Panaell and his friends feel the school could’ve been more prepared and transparent with student’s applications.
“I applied to a few different schools and one that stood out was Georgia Tech, they were very open about when they were deciding and what each admission response meant; I wish UT did something similar,” senior Noah Pannell said. “ I do feel like UT is getting a lot of hate now and I don’t think it is necessarily warranted because they had 91,000 applications, I just wish they were more transparent about what the messages meant, what they were doing, and if they were overwhelmed they should’ve just said that.”
Georgia Tech, which has a 20% deferral rate, has a section on its website guiding students who get deferred on recommended steps next. This type of guidance and transparency is appreciated by students like Panaell, who says he feels restless with being recommended by UT to do nothing further than wait until February 15 for their final decision.
“I want to advise seniors that this deferral is not a denial, it just means you have to wait until they have reviewed your application to make their decision; I can see the frustration with applying earlier and wanting a decision when you were told that it would be ready,” Luna said. “I know college admissions can be overwhelming and I am right there with you and I am here for students if they want to talk about it.”
