Texas A&M Out-of-State Acceptance Rate: 41.3% for Fall 2025, the Top 10% Rule and the Fall 2027 Deadline

What is the Texas A&M out-of-state acceptance rate?

Texas A&M admitted 41.3% of out-of-state first-year applicants for fall 2025, the most recent year with published residency counts. Its Common Data Set 2025-2026, published by the Office of Academic and Business Performance Analytics, splits fall 2025 applicants, admits and enrolled students by residency, which it assigns by “known physical address at time of application.”

Out-of-state applicants made up 17.3% of the fall 2025 pool and 13.8% of admitted students, but 5.1% of the students who enrolled, by our calculation. The gap comes partly from yield: 43.9% of admitted Texas residents enrolled, against 14.1% of admitted out-of-state students. Of the 12,484 first-year students who enrolled, 93.7% were Texas residents, 5.1% came from other states and 1.3% were international.

How does the top 10% rule affect out-of-state applicants?

The top 10% rule applies to Texas residents. Texas A&M states that “Texas residents who rank in the top 10% of their graduating class qualify for automatic admission to any state school in Texas,” provided they attend a Texas high school, report the rank, satisfy the state Uniform Admission Policy and complete the file by the deadline, and that “Texas A&M automatically admits all students in the top 10%” (Texas A&M Freshman Admissions). For out-of-state students, the same page says: “Most Out-of-State students are admitted through the holistic review process.” A Texas resident finishing high school in another state may still qualify for automatic admission after submitting a residency questionnaire.

Automatic admits take a large share of the class. According to The Battalion, the Texas A&M student newspaper, citing A&M data, automatically admitted students made up 41.8% of enrolled students in fall 2025; Texas A&M has not published that figure on the pages we reviewed. In the Common Data Set, Texas A&M rates class rank as very important and state residency and geographical residence as important. Of fall 2025 enrolled students who reported a class rank (72.2% of the class), 71.6% were in the top tenth and 93.1% in the top quarter.

UT Austin works differently: state law there requires the university to “automatically admit enough students to fill 75 percent of available Texas resident spaces,” and its threshold for summer and fall 2027 applicants is the top 5% (UT Austin Review and Decision Process). Our UT Austin out-of-state acceptance rate guide covers the other Texas flagship.

What does Texas A&M look for in holistic review?

Texas A&M says holistic review weighs academic factors, including “all high school courses attempted and grades earned, rigor of coursework, GPA and class rank,” and non-academic factors, including “involvement in extracurricular activities, community service, leadership, employment and summer activities as well as extraordinary opportunities, challenges and hardships experienced during high school career” (Texas A&M Freshman Admissions). In the Common Data Set 2025-2026, the rigor of the secondary school record, class rank, academic GPA, extracurricular activities and talent or ability are very important; the application essay, first-generation status, geographical residence and state residency are important; and test scores, recommendations and character are considered.

Every applicant writes a required essay of up to 750 words (“Tell us your story”), a 250-word short answer about a life event that has prepared the student for college, and four 100-word answers, including one that asks why the student chose to apply to Texas A&M. Letters of recommendation are optional, and Texas A&M considers the first two it receives. In our experience, an out-of-state applicant should use the 100-word answers to show a specific academic reason for choosing Texas A&M and its major, because the applicant is competing for a small share of seats without the automatic route.

Engineering applicants follow a separate path: “All applicants to the College of Engineering will be reviewed for placement into General Engineering including students who qualify for Top 10% automatic admission,” and the fall timeline lists engineering pathway offers from January. Our guide on how to get into Texas A&M for engineering covers that process.

When is the Texas A&M application deadline for fall 2027?

The College Station application deadline is December 1, 2026, and Texas A&M offers no Early Decision or Early Action for fall entry. The Common Data Set lists December 1 as the fall closing date with no priority date. Its early action item answers “Yes” but lists only “October 15th,” which matches the spring application deadline, and gives no fall early action dates. Texas A&M says that “Students applying for fall admission may receive a decision within a month of file completion,” that “applying early does not guarantee an early decision,” and that “Most students applying for fall admission will receive a decision between January 1 and late March” (Texas A&M Freshman Admissions).

Does Texas A&M require the SAT or ACT for fall 2027?

No. Texas A&M states that it “is test optional and will not require ACT or SAT scores for freshman applicants,” and for applicants who submit, “Your highest total score from a single test date will be considered for admission” (Texas A&M Freshman Admissions). It also says its Office of Admissions “intends to reinstate the requirement for standardized test scores (SAT or ACT) starting with applicants for Spring or Fall 2028,” that “This proposed change is not yet final and must be approved by the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents,” and that “Spring/Fall 2027: Applicants are not affected.”

Among fall 2025 enrolled first-year students, 76.7% (9,605) submitted the SAT and 18.7% (2,339) the ACT. The middle 50% was 1160 to 1390 on the SAT (median 1280) and 24 to 32 on the ACT (median 28), according to section C9 of the Common Data Set 2025-2026. These ranges cover all enrolled students, most of them Texas residents, so they do not describe out-of-state admits on their own.

What do out-of-state students pay at Texas A&M?

For the 2026-2027 academic year, Texas A&M lists first-year tuition of $8,886 for Texas residents and $36,877 for nonresidents, with $3,970 in required fees and $12,944 for on-campus food and housing, in section G1 of its Common Data Set 2025-2026. Books, transportation and personal costs are not included.

The difference in tuition is $27,991 a year, by our calculation. Some nonresidents can pay resident rates through the Competitive Scholarship waiver, which Texas A&M describes as “authorized under Texas Education Code 54.213a.” Undergraduates “must be awarded and maintain competitive scholarships of at least $4,000 per academic year,” no single qualifying scholarship may be less than $1,000, and the student “must have applied for and competed with other students (including Texas residents).” Students “may receive this waiver at the discretion of the University and in compliance with the limit on the number of waivers allowed by the State of Texas” (Aggie One Stop, Competitive Scholarship Non-Resident Tuition Waiver). University scholarships are applied for through the admission application, which “opens August 1, and closes December 1” (Aggie One Stop, Undergraduate Scholarships).

How should out-of-state applicants approach Texas A&M?

The view of Oriel Admissions is that Texas A&M is a realistic target for strong out-of-state students at a 41.3% rate, and that the December 1, 2026 deadline carries extra weight because it also closes university scholarship consideration, and a competitive scholarship of at least $4,000 a year is one route to resident tuition, at the discretion of the university. A nonresident family should also decide in advance how it would treat an alternative offer. The fall timeline lists waitlist offers in February, notes that “Waitlist offers require students to indicate preference for full admission and/or Blinn TEAM consideration,” and that “Students selected from the waitlist may be asked to select a new major due to capacity limitations,” and lists TEAM, Gateway and PSA pathway offers from February. The Common Data Set 2025-2026 had answered “No” to having a waiting list policy for fall 2025 admissions, so families should read the current timeline rather than older data. For fall 2025, Texas A&M admitted 3,417 of 6,622 transfer applicants, 51.6% by our calculation (Common Data Set 2025-2026, section D2), a figure that covers all transfer applicants, not only pathway students. Our out-of-state acceptance rates guide compares Texas A&M with other public flagships.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Texas A&M Out-of-State Acceptance Rate

Sources: Texas A&M Common Data Set 2025-2026 (Academic and Business Performance Analytics), Texas A&M Office of Admissions, Freshman Admissions, Aggie One Stop, Competitive Scholarship Non-Resident Tuition Waiver, Aggie One Stop, Undergraduate Scholarships, UT Austin Admissions, Review and Decision Process, The Battalion, April 1, 2026 (student newspaper). All read November 4, 2026.

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