Protect the nose

It's almost time to start taking your 'cedar fever' meds, Central Texas allergist says

"Cedar fever" seems to be closing in early this year.

Pollen from mountain cedar is on its way to Central Texas to cause problems for allergy sufferers. KVUE spoke with a local allergist to learn more about what causes "cedar fever" and what steps you can take to prevent the symptoms.

Cedar fever – the name people give to their reaction to an increase of cedar pollen in the air – happens around this time of year, typically around when we see our first freeze. And this year, we may see a spike earlier than normal.

Dr. Scott Oberhoff with Austin Diagnostic Clinic said based on our weather pattern, this season will be heavy on the cedar pollen. He said the best way to be proactive is to avoid being out on cold, windy days with high pollen and to take allergy medication consistently and early.

"Oftentimes, your symptoms will be much better controlled than if you wait until symptoms start to be problematic," Oberhoff said. "If you wait until then ... you're trying to play catch up and, oftentimes, it cannot be as effective as if you had started before the season."

He also said a good rule of thumb is to start taking your allergy medicine by Thanksgiving. However, this week has been cold, so we could experience the effects earlier.

Read the full story and watch the video at KVUE.com.

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HIGHER EDUCATION

UT Austin toughens automatic admission rules as applications skyrocket

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Texas students aiming to enroll at UT Austin during the fall 2026 semester will face a higher hurdle. During a UT Faculty meeting on September 16, university president Jay Hartzell announced that students will soon need to be in the top five percent of their high school graduating class to be guaranteed admission.

The change comes as enrollment demand continues to rise among Texas students. UT continues to be one of the most coveted universities in the state, spurred by reports like a May Forbes ranking listing the Austin campus and Rice University as the state's two "new Ivies."

Currently, UT grants automatic admission to the top six percent of Texas high school classes, a detour from a 1997 law requiring public universities to admit the top 10 percent of Texas high school graduates. A 2009 rework of the legislation gave UT some latitude, mandating that 75 percent of its first-year classes must be automatically admitted.

Since then, UT has tweaked the threshold based on overwhelming applications while maintaining the 75 percent rule. In 2017, the school changed the threshold from seven percent to six. Applications continue to set records. UT received approximately 73,000 undergraduate solicitations for the fall 2024 semester.

In a statement, A UT spokesperson said the change was needed given the unprecedented demand.

"UT Austin is committed to continuing to provide world-class classroom and research experiences for our students, even while we are facing record demand," the spokesperson wrote. "That demand has been driven both by the success and growth of Texas, and by greater interest in UT among the state's best high-school students. We see no signs that our demand will substantially fall and revising our auto-admit percentage to 5 [percent] will allow us to continue to meet the state's requirement that 75 [percent] of the Texas residents in each freshman class are admitted based on high-school class rank."

More information about automatic admissions is available at utexas.edu.

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