The automatic admission policy carries a stigma with it that causes some prospective students to have low confidence about their applications, Stojcic said.
The University follows Senate Bill 175, which requires 75 percent of the University’s in-state admits be automatic acceptances, according to the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost website.
Miguel Wasielewski, executive director of admissions, said the annual decision on whether to revise the auto-admit threshold is based on application data.
“The University of Texas at Austin annually assesses historical application and enrollment rates to determine the automatic admit percentage that will result in 75 percent of the University’s Texas resident population being automatically admitted,” Wasielewski said in an email.
Wasielewski said the University is expecting a similar number of Texas resident applications. Last year, a total of 51,033 freshman applied, according to the Texas Admissions website.
“The University is anticipating a similar number of Texas resident freshmen admission applications, and this contributed to our decision to maintain the same automatic admission criteria,” Wasielewski said.
Sydney Simmons, a former Texas resident, applied to UT even though she knew she was not going to be in the automatic admission threshold.
Simmons said if she had gotten into UT, she would have come to the University.
Stojcic said sometimes the automatic admission causes more anxiety for students who do not qualify for it.