The University of Texas at San Antonio

Public · Moderately Selective · TX

Photo: Billy Hathorn (CC BY-SA 3.0)

School data & stats

TypePublic

LocationTX · South

SettingUrban

Undergrads30,580

Student:faculty24:1

Outcomes

4-yr grad rate32.3%

6-yr grad rate52.6%

Drop-out rate20.2%

Study abroad—

Cost

In-state tuition$9k

Out-of-state tuition$22k

Application fee—

Community

Racial diversity81.7%

Gender diversity51%

International1.4%

Identity—

Overview

UTSA is a large, fast-growing public research university and Hispanic-Serving Institution in San Antonio, with a national reputation built substantially around cybersecurity in a city sometimes nicknamed 'Cyber City USA' for its concentration of military and intelligence cyber operations. It combines an access-oriented mission with genuinely competitive standing in a high-demand technical field, and has recently achieved top-tier national research-university status.

Academics

Cybersecurity is UTSA's clearest national strength, run partly through a designated National Center of Academic Excellence and closely tied to San Antonio's dense concentration of military and federal cyber-defense employers, including nearby Air Force cyber units and NSA Texas. The Carlos Alvarez College of Business, engineering, and the sciences form a broad academic base beyond cybersecurity, spread across the university's main campus and a separate downtown campus near the city center. The university has grown quickly in research activity and enrollment, recently earning top-tier research classification, reflecting an institution still actively building out its research-university identity rather than one that has settled into it.

Campus & student life

UTSA's multi-campus footprint — a large main campus plus a downtown campus near San Antonio's historic core — means student life is somewhat more decentralized than at a single-campus flagship, with a significant commuter population alongside on-campus residents. The Hispanic-Serving Institution designation reflects a student body deeply connected to South and Central Texas communities, and that regional identity shapes campus culture as much as any single tradition. Roadrunner football, a relatively young program by Division I standards, has grown quickly and given campus a newer but increasingly real athletic and game-day culture in the American Athletic Conference.

Getting in

Admission is generally accessible, consistent with UTSA's access-oriented mission and its role serving a large, diverse South Texas population. Cybersecurity and competitive engineering tracks draw stronger applicant pools and sometimes additional program-specific requirements. The process is credentials-based rather than essay-heavy, typical of large Texas public universities, and UTSA's rapid growth in research standing has started to pull in a somewhat more competitive applicant pool than its historical reputation alone would suggest.

After graduation

Cybersecurity graduates have direct pipelines into San Antonio's dense cluster of defense, intelligence, and private-sector security employers, a genuine local advantage that's hard to replicate at universities outside a similar military-tech hub. Business and engineering graduates find solid placement across the broader San Antonio and Texas job markets, and the university's rising research profile is starting to translate into stronger graduate-school placement for students pursuing further study.

Worth knowing

San Antonio's status as a major hub for military and civilian cybersecurity work is a genuine, practical advantage for UTSA students in that field — internships and entry-level jobs are close at hand in a way they aren't at most universities. Prospective students should know UTSA is still actively building its national reputation and campus traditions, which can mean fewer long-standing rituals than an older flagship but also a sense of an institution visibly on the rise.

utsa.edu ↗

Admissions

Acceptance rate86.8%

Enrolled mid-50%SAT 1000–1220 · ACT 19–25

Test policyoptional

Rec letters0

Deadlines (2026–27 cycle)

AdmissionRolling

Applying (2026-27 cycle)

Apply through ApplyTexas or Common App.

Priority / scholarshipJan 15

Freshman applicants admitted by the January 15 priority deadline get automatic consideration for merit scholarships like the Distinguished Presidential Scholarship. UTSA keeps accepting domestic freshman applications after that, through June 1 (with until June 15 to submit any missing documents).

Verified from the school’s admissions pages ↗