After receiving your decision Application Appeals Process
Sometimes students want the university to reconsider or modify something about their application or admission decision. In such cases, students submit an appeal to the university.
How to Submit an Appeal
All appeals are submitted online. During the appeals process, you'll respond to a series of questions about your situation and tell us in writing why you're submitting an appeal.
If necessary, you'll be able to upload supporting documents for your appeal and to tell us about additional documents or items that can't be submitted through upload. Some items, such as test scores and transcripts, must be official and so cannot be uploaded.
Information about Your Appeal
In all cases, it is the student's responsibility to make sure that we have everything we need to make a decision about an appeal.
When you submit an appeal, you should think carefully about the information we will need to make a decision. If your appeal relates to your class rank, for example, you will probably need to submit an official transcript or a letter from a school representative to report your rank to us. Or if you appeal because we determined that your application was late, you must make sure that we have all items needed to complete your application; that way if we approve your appeal, we'll be ready to review your complete application.
All supporting items/documents must arrive in the Office of Admissions by the date that appears in the MyStatus Appeals tab message that indicates you've submitted an appeal. (The date is usually 21 days after you submit your appeal.) After the date shown, the committee will consider your appeal using the information we have on hand—even if some of your items have not yet arrived.
To submit an appeal, use your UT EID and password to log in to the Appeals System:
What Happens Next
After you submit your appeal, the committee will consider and make a decision about your request. Throughout the process, and once a decision is made, you can track the status of your appeal by logging in to MyStatus and checking the Appeals tab.
The time it takes for a decision to be reached can vary a good bit. In some cases, you may receive a decision about your appeal fairly quickly—in a couple of weeks or so. In other cases, decisions may involve questions that are more complex and so may take a bit longer.
There is no guarantee that any appeal will be approved or that any specific factor will increase the odds for an appeal to be approved. As is the case with the admissions process, appeals will be considered holistically and in conjunction with the needs of the university.
Continuing with Other Plans
If you submit an appeal for the summer or fall semester, you should take the steps required to continue with admission and enrollment plans, either at UT Austin or elsewhere.
May 1 is the deadline that many universities have in place for admitted students to accept admission offers and is also the CAP agreement deadline for some UT System universities. It is not a good idea to wait until you hear about your appeal decision to take steps that will assure everything is in place for you to begin your studies should your appeal be denied.
Appeals Questions and Answers
May I speak with someone on the Appeals Committee about my appeal?
No, members of the Appeals Committee are not available to speak with applicants by phone or in person.
Students are encouraged to submit any supporting information that they feel will help the committee to make an informed decision. Anything submitted with an appeal letter will be considered by the committee when making decisions.
Items submitted as part of an applicant’s original application do not need to be resubmitted with an appeal. The Office of Admissions still has the original application materials on hand.
What kinds of situations can someone appeal?
Students appeal about a variety of things, including significant academic or personal achievements that were not available when the student submitted original application items.
At other times students find out that their situation has changed or that something they planned for didn’t happen. Some students write to us to ask if they can wait to enroll for a year (something we call a “deferment”) because a special opportunity has come up for them or their family situation has changed. At other times, students discover that the test scores they requested to have sent to us never arrived or that their request for an official transcript got lost in their school’s office and the counselor discovered it after the deadline.
I was offered CAP, but I’d rather wait to see what my appeal decision is before I start that process. Is that a good idea?
No, many of the UT System universities that participate in CAP enforce May 1 as the deadline by which students must submit their CAP agreements to participate. If you submit an appeal, you should see about submitting your CAP agreement at the same time and before May 1. If your appeal is approved and you are eventually admitted to UT Austin, the Office of Admissions will inform the CAP university you select to attend that you will be enrolling at UT Austin instead.
What is the likelihood that I’ll be admitted if I appeal?
Historically, few admission decisions are changed through appeals. The only appeals (among those that have to do with a decision based on an applicant’s qualifications) that will be given serious consideration are those that do a serious job of presenting new or different information that was not originally submitted.
If I’m admitted through the appeals process, how long will I have to accept admission?
If you’re notified that you’ve been admitted as a result of your appeal, you’ll have until May 1 to accept your offer of admission. Appeals approved after May 1 will have two weeks to accept the offer of admission.