After receiving a record number of applicants for the 2025 admissions cycle, the University of Texas at Austin (UT) deferred a majority of applicants after initially promising to release decisions on Jan. 15 for all Early Action (EA) applicants. The university offered a new promise for a response by Feb. 15.
“I was pretty mad at first because a lot of really qualified people on my [robotics team] were getting deferred,” senior Sydney Slack said. “In response to the first person [getting deferred] I was like, okay, that’s strange, you should have gotten in. Then someone else got a deferral as well, and I was thinking, that’s not just a coincidence, who screwed up?”
UT offered no advanced notice of this change and little explanation of the reasoning behind doing so other than stating that they simply “need some additional time.” This ambiguity left students such as senior Selena Xu questioning the fate of her application.
“The first thing I felt when I saw the deferral in my portal was just really sad,” Xu said. “I opened it up before anyone was really talking about the issue online so my gut reaction to seeing it was ‘Oh, I suck.’ Even when I did realize that most people were getting a deferral, my mindset didn’t change. Honestly I kind of thought why wasn’t I good enough to be part of the first release.”
According to the Houston Chronicle, only 5,000 of the 91,000 applicants received a response on Jan. 15, none of which included any rejections. This number constitutes approximately 25-30% of all acceptances that UT will release.
“To be honest, I was just really annoyed,” senior Celina Yang said. “I felt like I had put in the effort to get my application done by Oct. 15, which was like three months ago, and they couldn’t even get a decision out to 95% of applicants.”
The UT EA deadline fell on Oct. 15, 2024, a month and a half before the Dec. 1 final deadline.
“It doesn’t feel fair,” senior Ryan Choi said. “When I first got in I was hesitant to tell my friends because I felt like I hadn’t done anything special to get my acceptance back. We all applied EA but I ended up getting lucky, so it just felt weird and awkward.”
UT offered no explanation as to why some students received their decisions and not others, as a mix of both EA and Regular Decision applicants received their decisions on Jan. 15, even though Regular Decisions were not set to release until Feb. 15.
“I don’t really feel any nerves regarding Feb. 15 now,” Xu said. “I got into Purdue the same day so while I got deferred from UT, at least I have another option.”
In order to cope with the shock and stress that UT’s inaction caused, students such as Xu simply blocked out any thought of UT.
“When I found out that most people were getting deferred it didn’t ruin it, but it basically ruined the feeling of getting in,” senior Jason Panoff said. “I remember distinctly telling my mom ‘Today is a great day and a horrible day at the same time.’”
UT’s inability to release all EA decisions on time resulted in problems for those accepted as well, shifting the mood of what should have been a celebratory day for students such as seniors Ryan Deelstra and Choi.
“Being part of a small group of people isn’t necessarily as cool as one thinks,” Deelstra said. “It’s typically more fun and enriching to celebrate with your friends and family. I find no happiness in being like ‘I got in and you didn’t,’ and I would find much more happiness with me and my friends all celebrating together, rather than being jealous of another.”
