What are UTSA's admission requirements? While there are a lot of pieces that go into a college application, you should focus on only a few critical things:
In this guide we'll cover what you need to get into UTSA and build a strong application.
School location: San Antonio, TX
This school is also known as: University of Texas at San Antonio, UT San Antonio, UTSA
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If you want to get in, the first thing to look at is the acceptance rate. This tells you how competitive the school is and how serious their requirements are.
The acceptance rate at UTSA is 88.5%. For every 100 applicants, 89 are admitted.
This means the school is lightly selective. The school will have their expected requirements for GPA and SAT/ACT scores. If you meet their requirements, you're almost certain to get an offer of admission. But if you don't meet UTSA's requirements, you'll be one of the unlucky few people who gets rejected.
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Many schools specify a minimum GPA requirement, but this is often just the bare minimum to submit an application without immediately getting rejected.
The GPA requirement that really matters is the GPA you need for a real chance of getting in. For this, we look at the school's average GPA for its current students.
You've got the stats for this college, but does your narrative make you stand out?
Work 1-on-1 with our college admissions consultants to craft a college application that gets you admitted.
The average GPA at UTSA is 3.3.
(Most schools use a weighted GPA out of 4.0, though some report an unweighted GPA. This school did not officially report its average GPA, but we've estimated it here using data from over 1,000 schools.)
With a GPA of 3.3, UTSA accepts below-average students. It's OK to be a B-average student, with some A's mixed in. It'd be best to avoid C's and D's, since application readers might doubt whether you can handle the stress of college academics.
Each school has different requirements for standardized testing. Only a few schools require the SAT or ACT, but many consider your scores if you choose to submit them.
UTSA hasn't explicitly named a policy on SAT/ACT requirements, but because it's published average SAT or ACT scores (we'll cover this next), it's likely test flexible. Typically, these schools say, "if you feel your SAT or ACT score represents you well as a student, submit them. Otherwise, don't."
Despite this policy, the truth is that most students still take the SAT or ACT, and most applicants to UTSA will submit their scores. If you don't submit scores, you'll have one fewer dimension to show that you're worthy of being admitted, compared to other students. We therefore recommend that you consider taking the SAT or ACT, and doing well.
Many schools say they have no SAT score cutoff, but the truth is that there is a hidden SAT requirement. This is based on the school's average score.
The average SAT score composite at UTSA is a 1120 on the 1600 SAT scale.
This score makes UTSA Competitive for SAT test scores.
The 25th percentile SAT score is 1008, and the 75th percentile SAT score is 1200. In other words, a 1008 on the SAT places you below average, while a 1200 will move you up to above average.
Here's the breakdown of SAT scores by section:
| Section | Average | 25th Percentile | 75th Percentile |
| Math | 555 | 490 | 590 |
| Reading + Writing | 570 | 510 | 610 |
| Composite | 1120 | 1008 | 1200 |
The Score Choice policy at your school is an important part of your testing strategy.
UTSA has the Score Choice policy of "Contact School."
This means that the school wants you to contact them to learn more about their Score Choice policies. Keep reading - we may have extra notes about this from our own expert research.
Download our free guide on the top 5 strategies you must be using to improve your score. This guide was written by Harvard graduates and SAT perfect scorers. If you apply the strategies in this guide, you'll study smarter and make huge score improvements.
Just like for the SAT, UTSA likely doesn't have a hard ACT cutoff, but if you score too low, your application will get tossed in the trash.
The average ACT score at UTSA is 22. This score makes UTSA Moderately Competitive for ACT scores.
The 25th percentile ACT score is 19, and the 75th percentile ACT score is 26.
If you're taking the ACT as opposed to the SAT, you have a huge advantage in how you send scores, and this dramatically affects your testing strategy.
Here it is: when you send ACT scores to colleges, you have absolute control over which tests you send. You could take 10 tests, and only send your highest one. This is unlike the SAT, where many schools require you to send all your tests ever taken.
This means that you have more chances than you think to improve your ACT score. To try to aim for the school's ACT requirement of 19 and above, you should try to take the ACT as many times as you can. When you have the final score that you're happy with, you can then send only that score to all your schools.
By and large, most colleges do not superscore the ACT. (Superscore means that the school takes your best section scores from all the test dates you submit, and then combines them into the best possible composite score). Thus, most schools will just take your highest ACT score from a single sitting.
We weren't able to find the school's exact ACT policy, which most likely means that it does not Superscore. Regardless, you can choose your single best ACT score to send in to UTSA, so you should prep until you reach our recommended target ACT score of 19.
Download our free guide on the top 5 strategies you must be using to improve your score. This guide was written by Harvard graduates and ACT perfect scorers. If you apply the strategies in this guide, you'll study smarter and make huge score improvements.
Currently, only the ACT has an optional essay section that all students can take. The SAT used to also have an optional Essay section, but since June 2021, this has been discontinued unless you are taking the test as part of school-day testing in a few states. Because of this, no school requires the SAT Essay or ACT Writing section, but some schools do recommend certain students submit their results if they have them.
UTSA considers the SAT Essay/ACT Writing section optional and may not include it as part of their admissions consideration. You don't need to worry too much about Writing for this school, but other schools you're applying to may require or recommend it.
You've got the stats for this college, but does your narrative make you stand out?
Work 1-on-1 with our college admissions consultants to craft a college application that gets you admitted.
Because this school is lightly selective, you have a great shot at getting in, as long as you don't fall well below average. Aim for a 1008 SAT or a 19 ACT or higher, and you'll almost certainly get an offer of admission. As long as you meet the rest of the application requirements below, you'll be a shoo-in.
But if you score below our recommended target score, you may be one of the very few unlucky people to get rejected.
We can help. PrepScholar Admissions is the world's best admissions consulting service. We combine world-class admissions counselors with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies. We've overseen thousands of students get into their top choice schools, from state colleges to the Ivy League.
We know what kinds of students colleges want to admit. We want to get you admitted to your dream schools.
Learn more about PrepScholar Admissions to maximize your chance of getting in.
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Every school requires an application with the bare essentials - high school transcript and GPA, application form, and other core information. Many schools, as explained above, also require SAT and ACT scores, as well as letters of recommendation, application essays, and interviews. We'll cover the exact requirements of UTSA here.
We did more detailed research into this school's admissions process and found the following information:
If your class rank and test scores don't meet the minimums for automatic admission, it is highly recommended you submit an essay from the Texas application as well as two letters of recommendation for committee review. You can apply to the Honors College at any time but must apply by February 15th to be considered for the scholarship competition, which you can learn about here. To be considered for merit scholarships, you must apply and submit the General Scholarship Application by December 1st. Learn more about that process here.
If you're interested in UTSA, you'll probably be interested in these schools as well. We've divided them into 3 categories depending on how hard they are to get into, relative to UTSA.
These schools are have higher average ACT scores than UTSA. If you improve your ACT score, you'll be competitive for these schools.
| School Name | Location | SAT Avg | ACT Avg |
|---|---|---|---|
| Temple University | Philadelphia, PA | 1241 | 28 |
| University of Oregon | Eugene, OR | 1253 | 27 |
| University of Alabama | Tuscaloosa, AL | 1225 | 26 |
| Colorado State University | Fort Collins, CO | 1178 | 26 |
| University of Oklahoma | Norman, OK | 1220 | 26 |
| Ohio University | Athens, OH | 1174 | 25 |
| University of Arizona | Tucson, AZ | 1245 | 25 |
If you're competitive for UTSA, these schools will offer you a similar chance of admission.
| School Name | Location | SAT Avg | ACT Avg |
|---|---|---|---|
| California State University Long Beach | Long Beach, CA | 1145 | 23 |
| Florida Gulf Coast University | Fort Myers, FL | 1110 | 23 |
| University of North Texas | Denton, TX | 1110 | 23 |
| Washington State University | Pullman, WA | 1130 | 23 |
| University of Texas at Arlington | Arlington, TX | 1160 | 23 |
| Texas State University | San Marcos, TX | 1080 | 23 |
| East Carolina University | Greenville, NC | 1120 | 22 |
If you're currently competitive for UTSA, you should have no problem getting into these schools. If UTSA is currently out of your reach, you might already be competitive for these schools.
| School Name | Location | SAT Avg | ACT Avg |
|---|---|---|---|
| University of Texas at El Paso | El Paso, TX | 1008 | 20 |
| University of California, Merced | Merced, CA | 1080 | 20 |
| California State University Northridge | Northridge, CA | 1020 | 19 |
| California State University Sacramento | Sacramento, CA | 1035 | 19 |
| California State University East Bay | Hayward, CA | 992 | 19 |
| Kean University | Union, NJ | 1030 | 18 |
| California State University Los Angeles | Los Angeles, CA | 985 | 18 |
Data on this page is sourced from Peterson's Databases © 2024 (Peterson's LLC. All rights reserved.) as well as additional publicly available sources.
We can help. PrepScholar Admissions is the world's best admissions consulting service. We combine world-class admissions counselors with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies. We've overseen thousands of students get into their top choice schools, from state colleges to the Ivy League.
We know what kinds of students colleges want to admit. We want to get you admitted to your dream schools.
Learn more about PrepScholar Admissions to maximize your chance of getting in.
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