What is the Texas top 10% rule, and how does it work at UT Austin?

For almost three decades, Texas has boasted the “Texas Top Ten Percent Law” as a way of expanding access to state institutions no matter the high school that students graduate from.

The law gives any Texas resident who graduates from a state private or public high school in the top 10% of their own class —  not the top 10% of all Texas high schoolers — eligibility for automatic admission into almost any state-funded university.

At the University of Texas, it’s a bit different.

Thanks to a 2009 exception, UT can admit a thinner slice of top high school graduates as long as it gives notice of the percentage and enrolls 75% of its student body through auto-admissions. For applicants in the 2026-27 school year, the Austin flagship will only accept the top 5% of high school students, citing population growth and greater demand for UT as reasons to cut the threshold from 6%.

Importantly, the Top 10% law doesn’t guarantee students will get into their specific program within the university. At state flagships, students still have to apply for competitive programs like computer science and engineering.

Students must also apply to the institutions, even if they know they will be auto admitted.

Where does the 10% rule come from?

State lawmakers proposed the top 10 percent rule as a race-neutral approach to achieve diversity after a 1996 court ruling said a student’s race could not count as admissions criteria, according to a 2021 coordinating board report.

Historic barriers limited Black and Hispanic populations’ access to higher education — for instance, the first class of Black undergraduate students at UT didn’t enroll until 1956. After the 1996 ruling, enrollment of Hispanic students at the University of Texas dropped by 15%, and Black student enrollment dropped by 25%, reversing what progress Texas had made in creating a more racially diverse student body.

Lawmakers proposed the race-neutral strategy in 1997 to ensure all high-performing students in Texas could access state-funded institutions regardless of their geographic or socioeconomic background.

Does it work differently depending on the size of the school?

The Top 10% rule does not apply differently to schools depending on size or prestige.

Each school district is charged with calculating class rank for at least the top 10 percent of students, and students can find their class rank on  transcripts or by asking their high school counselor.

Under a 2015 state law, non-traditional students are assigned a percentile rank based on a standardized test score. At UT, that’s a 1570 on the SAT and an ACT score of 36, calculated off of a weighted average of test scores for its last auto-admitted class, the university’s website states.

Has the law been successful?

A 2021 study by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board concluded that UT, while successful in enrolling a greater share of diverse and low-income students under the top 10% law — despite its exception — did not enroll as many students from small high schools or from high schools where a smaller percentage of graduates go on to college. The study suggested UT and other flagships can do more to engage with small high schools.

Authors of a 2023 University of Houston Education Research Center study similarly said the 10% rule “alone is not sufficient to achieve educational diversity,” citing data that shows Black and Hispanic students are still less likely to graduate with a professional degree than are white students. Some fear the loss of diversity, equity and inclusion support for students under a 2023 state law will hurt educational attainment for historically marginalized students.

But at large, the success of Texas higher education in increasing access speaks for itself. Texas public universities increased enrollment of auto-admitted students across all races and ethnicities and nearly doubled admission of economically disadvantaged students from 2009 to 2019, the coordinating board found. UT and Texas A&M, which the study measured separately, also increased enrollment of economically disadvantaged students but by a smaller percentage.

In 2025, Texas public higher education institutions hit an all-time record for enrollment at 1.6 million students enrolled, with 550,000 students graduating annually.

What if I’m not in the top 10%?

Many Texas four-year schools admit a greater percentage of students than the top 10% through holistic review or expanded admission practices. A Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board direct admissions tool helps students see what four-year schools will accept them based on test scores, class rank and grade point average.

UT will also holistically review Texas candidates who are not enrolled through auto-admissions. This year, 80.5% of students were from Texas — 5.5% more than its exception mandates.

At the University of Houston, assured admission is given to students in the top 10% with no minimum test score students in the top 11% to 25% with a 3.4 GPA and 1080 SAT and students in the top 26% to 50% with a 3.45 GPA and 1170 SAT.

Texas State University expanded its assured admissions to include students in the top 25% of their class without test scores and students in all percentiles with certain test scores, according to the university’s website. Both Texas State and the University of Houston also offer holistic review to other students.

Students can apply now for fall admission at universities through ApplyTexas or other platforms.

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