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What is ApplyTexas?

If you like the ease of applying to multiple schools with a single application (think: the Common or Coalition App), you’re going to love how ApplyTexas makes it easy to apply to more than 60 Texas-based four-year institutions and 50+ two-year institutions. (Okay, maybe love is a strong word, but you’re certain to appreciate not having to type in your address for, like, the millionth time for each new application.)

Even better, you don’t have to be a Texas resident to use this system. And even better better: Some schools let you apply to available institution-based scholarships directly through ApplyTexas. Two birds, one stone (or application). What more could you ask for?

Now, you don’t have to use ApplyTexas when applying to schools in the Lone Star State. Many accept applications through ApplyTexas and other portals. Baylor, for example, also uses the Common App. Texas State also uses the Coalition App. And Rice goes for the trifecta, making its application available through all three platforms.

Worried about which platform to use, if you have the choice? Don’t be. It doesn’t matter which you select (really, admission officers don’t care), so make it easy on yourself.

ApplyTexas is trying to make it easier on you, too. It had a bit of a reputation in the past for being clunky and confusing, so its officials underwent a glow-up during summer 2021 and debuted a new-and-improved (and streamlined) website for new accounts and applications for summer 2022 and beyond.

So if all y’all have been wondering how to apply for college in Texas using the new and improved ApplyTexas, keep reading as we walk you through each step.

Note: For the sake of simplicity, we’re focusing only on freshman applications in this guide, but the process for transfer and international students is similar.

Creating your ApplyTexas account

To get started with ApplyTexas and create your first Texas college application, you’ll have to (no surprise) create an account.

Important Note: ApplyTexas has moved for applicants applying for summer 2022 and after, so make sure you’re creating an account on the correct version of ApplyTexas! Those applying for summer and fall 2021 and spring 2022 will use the old site to create accounts and complete applications. This guide walks you through only the new ApplyTexas.

The initial steps are fairly standard. You’ll start by signing up for a new account—entering your username, email, and password, and clicking Sign up. (Don’t forget to use a professional-sounding email, like JohnSmith2022@provider.com—save your Fortnite4EvahBruh account for friends.)

Once you’ve signed up and confirmed your email, BOOM! You have an official ApplyTexas account, and you’re on your way to submitting your applications.

Pro tip: Bookmark the home page so you can easily navigate to it next time.

Completing the ApplyTexas application

Scene: The calendar turns to July 1. ApplyTexas is open and accepting applications.

You: Sit down at your computer and get ready to tackle the three (major) steps to completing an ApplyTexas application:

Edit and complete your profile.
Start an application to a school.
Submit your application and wait for contact.

Note: You can’t start an application until you complete your profile, so don’t try skipping any steps!

Easy-peasy, right? So let’s get ’er done!

Before you begin

You’re going to need some information handy to complete your applications, so take a few minutes to make sure these are easily accessible:

Essays. ApplyTexas uses its own set of essay prompts, so make sure you’ve got the right essay (or version of your essay) ready to go. We go into a little more detail about the prompts and how to respond to them later in this guide.

You’ll also want to make sure you’ve got all your supplementals in hand, so review each school’s website to find out what they require (if you’re applying to UT Austin, check out our guide to writing those supplementals). You definitely don’t want to be surprised by a school-specific essay that shows up at the last minute once you select the school and see its application requirements auto-populate.
Transcripts. Make sure you have them from both your high school and any colleges where you’ve taken classes for credit. (You’ll also want a list of all your senior-year classes, if they’re not already on your transcript.)
SAT or ACT scores. While you may not submit them, it’s good to have them handy.
Resume or activities list. Your list of extracurricular activities, volunteer work, and employment history is important, so make sure you’ve got your accomplishments thoroughly documented. (That’ll be especially important if you’re applying to programs like UT Austin’s Plan II Honors Program, which requires expanded resumes.)

To make sure your activities list is as awesome as you are, make sure you check out our How to Write a Successful Common App Activities List guide. Here’s the TL;DR version:

Use action-oriented verbs. Not sure which to use? Our Epic List of Activities List Verbs might inspire you.
Be brief. There’s no space for extra, flowery language in the ApplyTexas application (unlike the expanded resume). While the Common App allows you 150 characters to describe your activities, ApplyTexas is not nearly as generous with its 70-character limit.
Be clear, using numbers and specifics. If you raised $50,000 for Meals on Wheels, say so! Don’t just say “participated in fundraiser.”

Recommendations. Recommendations are important, and while you might not think you have any sway over what your recommender says about you—we’re happy to tell you you’re wrong.
Impress your recommenders (and make their job easier for them) by giving them a copy of your resume (or of the questionnaire we have in our How to Ask for a Letter of Recommendation guide) after they’ve agreed to write one.

Now that you’ve got everything ready, grab a seat, a snack, and a drink, and let’s dig in!

What Is the UT Austin Expanded Resume?

The UT Austin expanded resume is an opportunity for students applying to the Plan II Honors Program to elaborate on their activities outside the high school classroom. UT values information over formatting here, so don’t be shy about taking several pages to share your achievements. In fact, UT Austin states:

“It's very important to emphasize here that your expanded resume should be VERY thorough and detailed, making the activity, your duties, responsibilities and the time you spent at the activity crystal clear. The expanded resume absolutely need NOT be limited to one page.”

(How serious are they? The bold, italicized, capitalized emphasis is theirs, not ours.) In fact, many expanded resumes are 3-4 pages long, with the most heavily involved students having even longer resumes.

While we encourage you to refer to UT Austin for its advice on writing the expanded resume, here are our top tips:

Throw away what you know about traditional resumes, which are generally grouped by categories and organized by date. Put your most important and relevant-to-your-major activities first.
Include participation in every activity in which you are or have been involved in during high school—inside or outside school, paid or volunteer, personal or professional, big or small. Don’t forget to include summer programs, hobbies, interests, community service, religious organizations, volunteer and charity groups, and internships and jobs.
Include all the responsibilities for each role and all contributions within each activity (now is no time for modesty).
Position your accomplishments to demonstrate fit for your first-choice major (if possible).
Describe the activity/organization itself, if it can’t easily be gleaned from the name (e.g., most people are familiar with the Boy Scouts of America, but few likely know about the UPstanders Club and its goal of cultivating empathy and serving as advocates for meaningful causes).
Include participation details like grade level, hours per week, weeks per year, and position titles (and whether they were elected or assigned).

Step 1: Edit and Complete Your Profile

As you start entering in your information, remember to take your time. Entering in the information thoroughly and correctly now will make it so much easier to submit your application later and will give you a better chance of getting an “Accepted” back.

You’ve got 10 pages of information to enter here, so let’s buckle up and get down to business.

To avoid repetition, we’ll say it just once here: After you complete everything on a page, click the right arrow to move to the next page. We also encourage you to click Save often—especially if you step away from the computer. Trust us, you don’t want to experience the frustration of having your session time out and losing everything you’ve painstakingly entered while you step away for a stretch break.

Required fields are generally (but not always) marked with a red asterisk (and mentioned below), and you can’t move to the next page until you’ve completed those fields. If you miss any required fields and try to move on, an error message will display and gently point you in the direction of the missing data.

Under Edit your ApplyTexas Profile box on the ApplyTexas home page, click Start/Edit Profile.
On page 1, enter your name.
On page 2, enter your birth date and your city, state, and country of birth, then click the checkbox to confirm you entered them correctly.
On page 3, enter your citizenship status.
On page 4, enter and verify your permanent address.
On page 5, enter and verify the physical address at which you currently reside, only if that’s different from your permanent address on page 4.
On page 6, enter your preferred phone number and phone type.
On page 7, complete your emergency contact information.
On page 8, enter your high school/secondary school details, including your expected graduation date.
On page 9, document any college courses you’ve taken and colleges you’ve attended and give/withhold your consent of emails and texts from ApplyTexas and its partners.
On page 10, complete the Texas Residency Information section. Residency is important to Texas colleges, with some schools automatically admitting students if they meet certain educational criteria (e.g., Texas A&M offers automatic admission to Texas students in the top 10% of their graduating class).

Click Done and you’re, well, done! (With this section, anyway.) If you need to make any changes to the data, simply click on My Profile at the top of the page, click the Profile Pages button, and then select the page on which you need to make a change.

Step 2: Start an Application

Now that you’ve got those pesky personal details out of the way, now it’s time to actually start completing an application.

Pick one of your schools to start with. Deadlines aside, it doesn’t matter which one.

Good news: Core questions are automatically duplicated and updated among your unsubmitted applications, similar to the Common App, so you don’t have to worry about retyping everything for each new application. But do remember that there will almost always be school-specific application information to complete, so filling out ApplyTexas won’t be a complete one and done (unless you’re applying to just one Texas school).

To get the ball rolling on your application:

Under Apply to a few schools on the ApplyTexas home page, click Start/Edit Applications.
On the My Applications page, click Start a New Application.
Choose whether you’re applying to a two-year community or junior college or a four-year college or university.
From the drop-down list, choose the institution to which you’d like to apply.
From the new drop-down lists that appear, select your application type and then your semester.
If required, select your first- and second-choice school and major.
A box (in the school’s colors, no less) should appear on your My Applications dashboard with the school, start date, major, application ID, status, deadline, and application fee.

Note: Once you select your school, core application questions, custom questions, essays, and any available scholarship options will automatically appear in your application and on your dashboard.
Click on the + in the box to expand each section and view the different parts of the application.

Completing the U.S. Freshman Questions

Now that you’ve got the application on your dashboard, it’s time to start filling it out. There are seven pages of questions to be answered for the application for freshman prospects.

As you make your way through the application, a checkmark will indicate the section is complete, while an exclamation point means it’s incomplete. Remember: If you have multiple unsubmitted applications, answers to these core questions are automatically shared and updated among those applications. (We do encourage you to confirm they’ve transferred correctly.) You may, however, notice that not all schools require the same information (e.g., Baylor doesn’t ask applicants to complete the Extracurriculars page).

Note: While most required questions are marked with a red asterisk, not all are. To avoid error messages, complete all fields as thoroughly and accurately as possible.

1. On your My Applications page, find the school whose application you want to complete, and click on Admissions application, then U.S. Freshman questions (Page 1 of 7).

Note: As you complete each section, don’t forget to click Save at the bottom of the page.

2. On the Biographical Information page, complete information about your parents/guardians.

3. On the Education Information/Test Information page, answer questions related to standardized testing, homeschooling, and previous college experience.

4. On the Senior Courses page, complete information about the courses you’ll complete senior year.

5. On the Extracurriculars page, list (in priority order) the organizations you’ve participated in during high school (maximum of 10 organizations/activities) and the below details about those activities. Click the I have more extracurricular activities to enter checkbox to add more activities.

Tip: Save often, and don’t use special characters, other than what’s noted in the instructions.

    Field
    Response Allowed
  
    Organization/Activity
    40 characters
  
    Description
    70 characters
  
    Activity Level
    National, State, Regional, Bi-District, 
District, City, Local
  
    Grades In Which You Participated
    Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior
  
    Position(s) Held
    40 characters
  
    Were You Elected?
    Yes, No, n/a
  
    Hours per Week
    2 characters
  
    Weeks per Year
    3 characters

6. On the Community/Volunteer Service page, list (in priority order) other organizations in which you’ve participated during high school that highlight your service and work (maximum of 8 experiences) and the below details about that service. Click the I have more volunteer services to enter checkbox to add more activities.

    Field
    Response Allowed
  
    Place of Service
    40 characters
  
    Description
    80 characters
  
    Service Experience Total Hours
    5 characters
  
    Dates Service Started/Ended
    MM/DD/YYYY
  
    Position(s) Held
    40 characters
  
    Were You Elected?
    Yes, No, n/a
  
    Hours per Week
    2 characters
  
    Weeks per Year
    3 characters

7. On the Honors/Awards page, list (in priority order) your talents, honors, and awards (maximum of 8 entries) and the below details about those honors. Click the I have more talents/awards/honors to enter checkbox to add more honors and awards received.

  
    Field
    Response Allowed
  
    Award, Honor, Distinction
    40 characters
  
    Description, Basis, Sponsor
    80 characters
  
    Level
    National, State, Regional, Bi-District,
District, City, Local
  
    Grades In Which You Participated
    Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior

8. On the Employment/Internships page, list your employment, internships, and summer activities (maximum of 8 activities) and the below details about those activities. Click the I have more employments/internships/activities to enter checkbox to add more employment.

    Field
    Response Allowed
  
    Specific Role/Job Title
    80 characters
  
    Employer
    40 characters
  
    Hours Per Week
    2 characters
  
    Dates Employment/Internship/Activity Started/Ended
    MM/DD/YYYY

9. Click Done when finished.

Completing School-Specific Questions

Once you’ve completed the freshman questions, it’s on to the school-specific questions, which will vary widely by school and may include yes/no responses, whether you’ve progressed to National Merit Semifinalist, criminal background information, a roughly 560-word optional response, and/or additional personal information (personal challenges, hardships, COVID experiences, etc.).

Note: Not sure what to put in the Additional Personal Information section? Read our guides on How to Use the Common App Additional Information Section and How to Write About Coronavirus/COVID-19 in Your College Essay & Application.

You may also see a Freshman Application Checklist of required documents (including the Self-Reported Academic Record, required essays, and processing fee) that the school must receive by the application closing date. Other schools will direct you to check your email for additional required documents.

In this section, you’ll also find any school-specific (and major-specific) essays to complete. While we can’t cover all the supplemental essays here, we can do the next-best thing: refer you to our College Application Hub, where we offer step-by-step instructions for completing the most common supplemental essays.

Submitting essays

Speaking of essays … you’re on the home stretch of your application, and you get to this: the main admission essay. And you look at it and think, “Topic A? B? C? What the heck?” To which we respond, “Deep breath. You’ve got this.” And we mean really—you might already have this essay.

If you’re applying to other colleges using the Common App or Coalition App, you may already be writing (or have written) this longer essay. If you’re just getting started, we suggest you write your ApplyTexas essay so it answers the same question as you will for the other two application portals.

The good news? This is totally doable, as these prompts are so broad that just about any topic or story will fit. And the reason you want to make this doable is so you have to write and refine only one main essay—giving you more time to make sure this essay and the rest of your application are great.

You may notice that, for some Texas schools, the essay is listed as optional. But if you really knew us, you’d know we don’t view “optional” essays as truly optional. After all, why would you not want to take advantage of any opportunity to showcase who you are and what you’ve accomplished? These schools really do want to know more about you, like how you see yourself integrating into the campus community or how they’ll make you a better person (even how your experience will make them better schools). So give it to them.

Schools using ApplyTexas do prefer you submit your essay electronically, along with the application. If you’re unable to do so, many offer the opportunity to upload it through their applicant portal system.

We go into more detail on how to write the ApplyTexas essays below. But first ...

Watching ApplyTexas deadlines

After all the hard work that’s gone into completing your applications, the last thing you want to do is miss submission deadlines. ApplyTexas makes it easy to see when applications are due: Just click My Applications at the top of the page and confirm deadlines in each school’s box.

We always recommend getting your applications in well before the deadline. Computer glitches and internet outages always seem to happen as the clock ticks closer to midnight on deadline day.

Completing Scholarship Applications

If the school has scholarship opportunities tied to the application, you can click Scholarship Application in the school box on the My Applications page to apply for them.

You’ll be taken to the scholarship application, where, depending on the school, you may be asked to answer a number of questions and submit several short-answer responses, like these for Texas A&M University:

Please explain any special circumstances that could affect your family's ability to pay for your college expenses.
Why have you chosen to apply to this university?
Why have you chosen this major?
Describe any educational plans you have beyond earning your bachelor's degree.
What are some of your life goals? Your answer may include educational, professional, or personal goals.

These A&M responses range in length from two 80-character lines to six 80-character lines, so they’re short but important.

The scholarship section is truly optional, and you can complete or rescind your scholarship application at any time before submitting your admission application, simply by selecting the appropriate button for the first question: Would you like to apply for scholarships?

Submitting Your Applications

When you’ve completed all the sections, you’re ready to submit!

You’ll have yet another set of questions to review and answer, ranging from confirming you’ve read bacterial meningitis information to certifying that your application is accurate.

Finally, enter your selected method of payment, click Submit, and exhale. You’ve done it!

If you realize you’ve made an error in your application or you’ve forgotten to include something, you’ll need to contact the university directly to correct the error or provide forgotten information. (Have your application ID number, which is available on the My Applications page, handy when you do so.)

Writing the ApplyTexas Essays

Whether you’re starting with writing an ApplyTexas essay to fit into the Common or Coalition App, or vice versa, it’s important you pay attention to the prompt. The ApplyTexas essays, while somewhat open-ended, do ask specific questions—so make sure your essay answers those questions.

ApplyTexas suggests your essay be 500-750 words, but those are only suggestions—you’re not penalized in any way for going over or under the suggested word budget. Still, we recommend you spend only the amount of words necessary to tell your story in a concise, complete, and compelling manner, without going to extremes one way or another.

One thing to keep in mind: If you’re also writing essays for the Common or Coalition App, whose word count maximums (or for Coalition App, the recommended maximum) are 650, you'll want to consider keeping your ApplyTexas essay in that same range.

There are three prompts you might be asked to respond to in your essay:

Topic A (U.S. freshmen and international freshmen) for applicants applying through Spring 2022. Tell us your story. What unique opportunities or challenges have you experienced throughout your high school career that have shaped who you are today?

Topic B (U.S. freshmen and international freshmen) for applicants applying through Spring 2022. Most students have an identity, an interest, or a talent that defines them in an essential way. Tell us about yourself.
Topic C (U.S. freshmen and international freshmen) for applicants applying 8 through Spring 2022. You've got a ticket in your hand. Where will you go? What will you do? What will happen when you get there?

Answering Topics A and B

Topic A: (U.S. freshmen and international freshmen) for applicants applying through Spring 2022. Tell us your story. What unique opportunities or challenges have you experienced throughout your high school career that have shaped who you are today?

Topic B: (U.S. freshmen and international freshmen) for applicants applying through Spring 2022. Most students have an identity, an interest, or a talent that defines them in an essential way. Tell us about yourself.

Consider these written questions (and your responses) to be almost like in-person interviews. In both cases, the goal is for admission officers to learn something about you they don’t already know. We emphasize that for a reason. We know it might be easy to focus your essay on something already in your application (e.g., COVID, challenging courses, leadership opportunities).

We advise you to go deeper.

As we mentioned earlier, chances are good (like, really, really good) that if you’re applying to other colleges using the Common or Coalition App, you’ll already be writing (or have written) one of these essays. But if your essay canvas is blank and you haven’t yet gotten started with either, we suggest you brainstorm topics so that your ApplyTexas, Common App, and Coalition App essays answer the same prompt.

And those prompts are delightfully broad (you can’t get much broader than “share an essay on the topic of your choice”), which means almost any topic you choose (within reason, of course) can work for all three systems.

“But that doesn’t necessarily make writing it any easier,” you sigh. Luckily, you’re reading this, and we’re going to make it blow-your-mind simple to write your main personal statement with three (count ‘em, three) can’t-miss approaches:

We’ve created an entire step-by-step video course (bonus: it’s pay-what-you-can) to get you writing. It covers all the steps that go into writing a great college essay—including brainstorming, structuring, and revising.
Time (and money) on the short side? Check out this free one-hour guide. It covers much of the same great information but in a condensed version.
Want to keep it even more casual? Bookmark our College Application Hub, and pay particular attention to the Application Pre-Work and Personal Statement sections.

Any (or all!) of these resources will help you write a killer ApplyTexas essay that will be just as effective for your other applications in other application systems.

Topic A Essay example

Want to read a great Topic A essay from a student applying to UT Austin? Here it is.

Topic A: Tell us your story. What unique opportunities or challenges have you experienced throughout your high school career that have shaped who you are today?

I am fascinated by the ways that microscopic biomolecules like proteins, fats, sugars, and nucleic acids come together to create an incomprehensibly complex organism. The systems of the body are vast and intricate, and yet, one tiny mistake can be the difference between health and disease. Biology is about searching for that one small missing piece, the single A out of 3 billion, swapped with a T, that can mean the difference between normal hemoglobin and single-cell anemia, a disease that comes with a lifetime of complications.
From the little boy hunched over his science kit to labs in AP Bio, my search for that special missing piece has continued to drive me down the many important avenues of my life.
My mom signed me up for my first acting class when I was 4, and I jumped right into my role as a male Glinda the Good Witch, complete with sparkly pants and vest. I was hooked. On the day of the show, racked with nerves, I stood in front of the crowd of parents as I did my best to remember what seemed like a bajillion lines. I fell in love with the cheers of proud parents and bored siblings. Afterwards, I ran over to my parents and begged them to sign me up for another show. Although my initial performance was not exactly what one would call moving, as I grew, so did my dedication to discovering how to portray a realistic emotional arc of a complex character. Acting, to me, is about finding the missing, hidden piece and unlocking the mystery of a character's dreams and motivations.
Another mystery I’ve come to marvel at is the complex, intricate ways that numbers can model situations. I love looking at a confusing question, seemingly unrelated to anything I’ve learned, and stripping it down to its basic concepts. For example, the limit as x approaches 1 of (4(-2+x)-4)/(x-1) is just asking for the slope of the line y=4x-8, where x is -1. From Algebra I to AP Statistics and AP Calculus BC, math has become a game, as I scavenge for the missing pieces that can turn a dataset of 100 heights into the probability that a randomly selected person is 5-feet tall.
When I discovered the world of politics, I became engrossed in the moral dilemmas, ethical trade-offs, and the profound effects the people we elect can have on society. I watched with disgust as same-sex couples were denied the right to marry, migrants were locked in cages, cops shot unarmed Americans, and mass shooters massacred hundreds while politicians offered little more than “thoughts and prayers.” Searching for the missing pieces of justice, I have turned my outrage into action—organizing and attending protests, educating friends and family on current issues like climate change and presidential abuse of power, and leading a voter registration campaign at my high school.
From the newsie Davey's righteous anger, to the DNA double-helix, to local linearization, to gun reform, my search for the missing pieces in the world around me comes together to assemble a portrait of the person I am today. But, like the world around me, my portrait is still missing pieces, especially when I try to sort out the puzzle of my future career.
Will I be a lawyer, crafting complex arguments, defending the civil liberties of the neglected and abused? Or a lawmaker, working to create a more just system of laws that benefit the masses, not just the top one percent?
I’m not sure, but one thing’s for certain: My search for the missing pieces of my life has taught me to look beyond the easy, obvious answers, and instead work to devise multifaceted solutions to intricate world problems
As I continue my quest, the question is: What other pieces will I find along the way?
— — —

Answering Topic C

Topic C: You've got a ticket in your hand. Where will you go? What will you do? What will happen when you get there?

Topic C is most definitely the option that gives you the most creative freedom.

While many students will automatically gravitate to a plane ticket in their response, we encourage you to think bigger (or smaller). Maybe the courtroom you went to in order to fight a parking ticket was right next to the family law court, and seeing foster families waiting outside piqued your curiosity in law and revamping the foster care system. Or after using your ticket to get into Six Flags, you become enamored with roller coasters and travel the country in search of the “perfect” thrill ride. And when you couldn’t find it, you decided to design your own.

Whether it’s a ticket to travel, to taste, to experience, or to meet, the possibilities are almost endless.

Even with the flexibility the prompt affords you, remember that admission officers want to learn about more than just the ticket and what it was for. So don’t get so lost in the creativity of your response that you forget to address the subtext of the prompt. They want to see what’s important to you (our Values Exercise can help you nail that down), what your goals are (from majors to careers to impact), what’s shaped you, and how you’ll shape the world.

Tips for Writing the Topic C Essay

Try to tie the ticket back to a specific value in your life. Rather than just describing what the ticket is for and what you’ll do with it, make it resonate for the reader by connecting it to some aspect of what makes you, well, you. That could be some essential quality of your personality, or it could be a connection to your dream career. In other words, don’t focus on the what so much that you neglect the why.
Build in the imagery. When you think of Willy Wonka’s Golden Ticket, you don’t imagine some 5” x 7” piece of white printer paper, do you? No. You see the gold foil ticket with embossed writing and scalloped edges. Be that descriptive throughout your essay to really take your reader on that literal (or figurative) journey with you.
Indulge the creativity the prompt allows you. While many (if not most) essay prompts focus on the real and the logical (what you’ve done, what you want to do), this prompt gives you the chance to throw yourself into the hypothetical. The fantastical (it’s a real word—we checked). The unbelievable. So make up a wild story about your ticket. It’s allowed. Just remember: Even in an essay that journeys into the make-believe, keep ties to who you are, demonstrate your fit, and show your ability to think critically.

Deleting an Application

If you start an ApplyTexas application for a school but decide not to submit it, you’ll find that there’s no way to delete your application and remove it from the My Applications page. A pesky detail, but one not worth worrying about. Applications that have been started on ApplyTexas but not submitted will be deleted 180 days after the last save date.

Checking Your Application Status

Just because you’ve clicked Submit doesn’t necessarily mean you’re done. Once ApplyTexas transmits your application to the school, that school may reach out to assign more action items (which often includes setting up your applicant portal) or to request supporting documentation.

You can check the status of your applications at any time in ApplyTexas by clicking My Applications at the top of the page. From there, you can filter your applications by:

All my applications
Submitted applications
In-progress applications

While you wait, breathe. It’s out of your hands now. But we’re sending all the good vibes.

It can sometimes take the school a few business days to actually receive the application after you’ve submitted it through ApplyTexas. And then it can take a few days after that for you to receive a confirmation letter or email. And then it can take weeks or months to receive your admission decision. In the meantime, check your applicant portal regularly and celebrate that you’re done! Yee-ha!

Additional Resources

Special thanks to Julia for contributing to this post.

Julia published her first “book” on the elusive Pika in elementary school and has been writing fervently ever since. She’s thrilled to unite her quirky love of grammar and master’s in psychology to help students tell their most meaningful stories. Her favorite punctuation mark is the apostrophe because, in the words of Imagine Dragons, it’s “a symbol to remind you that there’s more to see.”

Top values: Collaboration | Family | Productivity

How to Apply to College in Texas

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