Your Guide to the UT Austin Application

The University of Texas at Austin is a top public research university that many Empowerly and nationwide students have on their college list. Founded in 1833, the university is known for its strong undergraduate business and engineering schools—students based in Central Texas can get a head start with our Austin college counseling team. It's also known for having many prestigious graduate programs. Applications are due November 1st for the priority deadline and on December 1st for the regular deadline so let's dive into the application process! Read on for your guide to the UT Austin application.

To get started, let's look at the facts and numbers around UT Austin admission:

Acceptance Rate: 40.4% (48.5% in state, 25.9% out of state)

Application Deadline: December 1st

SAT Middle 50%: 1170-1410

ACT Middle 50%: 27-33

Average GPA: 3.68

Percent in top 10% of HS Class: 74.4%

Application Fee: $75 - $90 for international students

Application Method: ApplyTexas application or Coalition for College application

Essays: 1 essay (500-700) words, 3 short answer 250-300 words, optional additional short answer

The online Empowerly Portal has more information about the most important admissions factors, typical student life and housing, and examples of accepted college essays. If you're looking for additional information with your guide to the UT Austin application, our counselors can also help!

The UT Austin application has:

• 1 college essay,
• 3 short answer questions,
• and one optional short answer question as well.

The longer essay asked students to tell their story; specifically about any opportunities or challenges that helped shape who you are today. This topic is incredibly broad. Therefore, it gives students a lot of room to show their unique character in how they represent themselves. Like all college essays, it's important to make sure you tell a unique story and emphasize the effect or main takeaway of the story you tell. Readers want to know why this story is important for them to hear. They also want to know how you'll use this growth to continue on your journey while in college.

The first short answer asked students why they chose the particular major they're applying for. Students should think carefully about their choice, and draw on experiences with related topics or classes as justification.

The second short answer question asks for a story demonstrating leadership. You want to make sure your responsibilities in this position are clear and also mention the impact the experience had on you.

Next, the third and final required short answer asked students to share how who they are as a person can contribute to the overall community at UT Austin. This gives students the opportunity to talk about how they can enrich the student body environment, contribute to important research, or offer differing insights than their classmates.

Lastly, the optional short answer gives students to opportunity to share any special circumstances that may have affected their high school performance. If a mental/physical health issue, big family move or similarly disruptive event took place during your high school career, this is the place to talk about it.

In 1997, Texas passed a law that granted Texas students in the 10% of their high school class automatic admission to UT Austin. Over the years this law has changed slightly and now for the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 applicants, that number has changed to the top 6% of their high school class. This class rank much be attained by the end of junior year in order to be automatically admitted. All automatically admitted students are then subject to a holistic application review to determine the major that the student will be admitted for.

The business school at UT Austin has the 6th best undergraduate business program according to US News & World Report. Our college counselors in Austin know this school inside and out and can help you craft a competitive application. When filling out your application, list 'Unspecified Business' as your first choice major to be admitted to this school. The admissions rate is approximately 22.8%. There is also the Canfield Business Honors Program within the McCombs school that students can apply for with separate requirements.

The engineering school at UT Austin has the 9th best undergraduate engineering program according to US News & World Report. When applying specifically to the engineering school, students need to pass the calculus readiness requirement offered by the university. There are then 11 different engineering majors offered within the school. There is also the Engineering honors program which has its own additional application.  

Since Empowerly's founding in 2016 we've helped multiple students with the UT Austin application, from both in state and out of state. Each year about 70% of our Empowerly students who apply to UT Austin are admitted, compared to the 40% nationwide. We have Texas-based admissions counselors familiar with the high school landscape who've attended UT Austin, specifically the business school. If you're interested in learning more about how Empowerly can help you with the UT Austin application or other universities please schedule a free consultation with our enrollment team.