Proud home of the Longhorns (and Professor Matthew McConaughey), UT Austin takes to heart its constitutional mandate to be “a university of first class,” a mission that laid the foundation for its standing as a “Public Ivy.” UT is known for carving its own path, from sculpting a sprawling home out of the Texas wilderness, to building some of the world’s fastest computers.
Because it’s Texas-proud, it should come as little surprise that this standard bearer offers applicants the opportunity to apply for admission through ApplyTexas, but you can also apply through the Common App (and the requirements are the same, no matter which platform you use). And to show how serious school officials are about getting to know each of their applicants, the main application requires three essays, plus an option to write a fourth, and an optional (but highly recommended) extended resume. What are those prompts? Glad you asked ...
What are the University of Texas Austin supplemental essay prompts?
Prompt #1
Common App UT Austin Required Essay: Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you’ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design. Please keep your essay between 500–650 words (typically two to three paragraphs).
Prompt #2
Required Short Answer 1: Why are you interested in the major you indicated as your first-choice major? Please limit your response to 250-300 words.
Prompt #3
Required Short Answer 2: Think of all the activities — both in and outside of school — that you have been involved with during high school. Which one are you most proud of and why? (Guidance for students: This can include an extracurricular activity, a club/organization, volunteer activity, work or a family responsibility.) Please limit your response to 250-300 words
Prompt #4
(Optional) Short Answer 3: Please share background on events or special circumstances that you feel may have impacted your high school academic performance. (Maximum 40 lines, or approximately 250-300 words.)
Optional (but highly recommended) Expanded Resume
You may choose to submit an expanded résumé offering additional information about all of your achievements, activities, leadership positions, and student employment.
“That’s a lot of essays,” you say? It is.
And get this: If you’re applying to specific programs/majors or even the Honors College, you’ve got even more essays to tackle.
Before you go to write, you may want to spend some time learning more about what UT Austin values, so you can explore how your values line up and reflect those shared values in your essays. If so, you’ll find an extensive, by-the-numbers look at its offerings, from enrollment and tuition statistics to student life and financial aid information, on its Common Data Set. For deep insights into how this public research university envisions its role and how it wants to grow and evolve, read its strategic plan.
Alright. Let’s get to the fun stuff.
How Do I Write Outstanding Essays for the UT Austin Application?
How to Write the UT Austin Required Essays:
UT Austin Required Essay: Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you’ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design. Please keep your essay between 500–650 words (typically two to three paragraphs).
This essay gives you a chance to share with UT something about who you are beyond your grades and test scores. When you hear people talking about their personal statement or college essay, this is the essay they’re referring to.
If you’re applying to other colleges using the Common Application (or applying to other schools via the Coalition Application), you’re likely already writing this longer essay for your personal statement. (Check that link for a how-to guide.)
If so, you can double that essay here.
“But what if I’m not applying to other schools using the Coalition Application or Common App?”
Then write your deepest story.
What do we mean by that?
There’s so much to say about writing your personal statement that we’ve actually created an entire step-by-step video course about it. Oh, and it’s pay-what-you-can. :)
Or if you want the short version, check out this free one-hour guide. It covers the three core parts of writing a great college essay: brainstorming your topic, structuring your essay, and revising it to make sure it’s doing its job.
How to Write UT Austin Short Answer Essay #1
Why are you interested in the major you indicated as your first-choice major? Please limit your response to 250-300 words.
This is a “Why major?” essay. Many colleges require it, and it generally means that they’re curious to hear about how you’ve prepared for your intended major. But for UT, it’s particularly important. Why?
Demonstrating that you (and your interests and extracurricular involvement) are a clear fit for your first-choice major are super important for UT. As in, more so than at most other schools. UT admits students to the university first, and their major second. So if you want to increase your chances of being accepted into your first-choice major, this essay is a great chance to demonstrate that fit.
You can read our full guide here. Or, here’s the short version:
Step #1: Imagine a mini-movie of the moments that led you to your interest in a specific subject or your intended major, and create a simple, bullet-point outline.
For example:
Why biology?
Elementary school: Getting my first dinosaur toy and reading dinosaur books
Middle school: Visiting museums, seeing water under a microscope
High school: Doing online research, getting internship where we analyzed brainwaves and dissected a stingray
Step #2: Put your moments (aka the “scenes” of your mini-movie) in chronological order, as it’ll help you see how your interests developed. It also makes it easier to write transitions. Since you’ve got about 250-300 words for this essay, you can probably include one “scene” per every short paragraph or two.
Step #3: Decide if you want to include a specific thesis that explicitly states your central argument—in this case, what you want to study and why. You can put this thesis at the beginning, middle, or end of your essay.
Here’s an example essay that does a great job:
Example 1:
My interest in Gender and Sexuality Studies was sparked in my eighth grade Civics class when we studied topics pertaining to sexual equality. I went into the class knowing I believed women had a right to make choices for their own bodies and that view remained the same, but I discovered the complexity of abortion debates.
I challenged myself by thinking about the disparity between actual and potential personhood and the moral rights of unconscious lives. If pregnancy had the same consequences for men as it does women, how might the debate be different? Would this debate even exist?
A year later, I shadowed an OB/GYN at a nearby hospital. On my first shift, I watched an incarcerated woman receive a postpartum exam after giving birth in her cell toilet with just Advil, and the issues discussed in Civics suddenly became urgent and real.
My school projects have often focused on reproductive rights. I’ve spent numerous hours delving into summaries of Supreme Court cases on abortion and contraception, and am even known as the “Tampon Fairy” at school because I frequently restock the school bathrooms with tampons and condoms.
I’m interested in exploring how Gender and Sexuality Studies connect to Public Health and Reproductive Biology, as well as Public Policy and Law. The interdisciplinary nature of this major will allow me to investigate many other areas of study and create a more nuanced understanding of how this particular field interacts with our world and society. (246 words)
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Tips + Analysis:
Write an outline to organize your essay before you write. We actually advise this for most essays, especially those 200 words and longer. Even if you’re not used to writing outlines, you’ll find that doing this ahead of time will help you organize your thoughts and—bonus—save you some time. What do we mean by an outline? A simple bulleted list would do. For example, here’s this student’s outline:
Why Gender and Sexuality Studies:
Eighth grade Civics class conversations
Shadowing OB/GYN at a nearby hospital and seeing woman receive postpartum exam
Being the school “tampon fairy” (restocking school bathrooms with tampons and condoms)
School projects on reproductive rights
Thesis: Name my major and briefly say why
Pose some thought-provoking questions. Don’t shy away from raising compelling questions in your essay, like those posed by the author in the second paragraph. Demonstrating you know how to ask insightful and critical questions is just as (if not more) important than having all the answers.
Don’t know what you’ll be majoring in? Don’t sweat it. You may be asking: But what if I don’t know what my intended major is? Don’t worry. Even if you’re unsure of your exact major or career path, go with what interests you at the moment. You might research and select 1-2 areas of interest and describe how you became interested in each. If possible, connect them and discuss your interests using an interdisciplinary lens. When it comes time to apply, you’ll still want to select a major on your application, but when writing this essay, the subjects you’re interested in are likely within a single college anyways. It’s often tough to transfer between colleges, say from the College of Liberal Arts to McComb’s School of Business, but it’s typically easier to transfer within a given college, say, if switching from the psychology to the sociology program. If you’re choosing “undeclared” on your application, which you can do for several colleges at UT, that’s okay! Describing several areas of interest is still a good idea for this essay. It demonstrates your curiosity as well as your ability to make connections across disciplines.
To see an example of an interdisciplinary essay, check out the example below. (And below that is another great example for this prompt.)
Example 2: Why Literary Arts or Modern Culture and Media?
My whole life, storytelling has shaped me. When I lived in London, my parents would read me The Lion King every night until I’d memorized the whole book. In elementary school, I would curl up in my bed, warm lamplight making my room golden, listening to my dad bring to life classics like Wilderness Champion and Tom Sawyer. Later, I found audio storytelling, laughing hysterically at Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me on the car ride to school and connecting to a radio network of humanity through This American Life. It wasn’t long before I got hooked on visual narratives, mesmerized by the cinematic intensity of Whiplash and the whimsical world of Moonrise Kingdom, alternate realities I could explore as if they were my own. By high school, I was creating my own array of stories through satirical school newspaper articles, analysis of mise-en-scene in film class, podcasting, and my own locally-broadcasted radio series.
A concentration in the Literary Arts or Modern Culture and Media is the next step in my life of storytelling. The dynamic world of connection and vulnerability a well-told story can create is what continues to fascinate me. At Brown, I would explore how engaging narratives have been told in the past and can be innovated in the future through new digital platforms. Whether researching radio’s historical impact on public opinion during World War II or the Vietnam War, developing screenplays, producing my own documentary or learning from Writers-In-Residence, I hope to pioneer networks of connection. (250 words)
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Example 3: Why Neuroscience?
Imagine all the stars in the universe. The brain has a thousand times the number of synapses, making neurological errors a near certainty. I learned this fact firsthand as a 14 year-old, when I suffered from sleepless nights because of an uncomfortable, indescribable feeling in my leg. It took months of appointments and tests to be told it was a condition called cortical dysplasia. Even after the diagnosis, there is no cure.
I am lucky. My condition does not severely affect my quality of life. However, I know this is not the case for everyone. After this experience, I took AP Biology and attended a neuroscience program, which reinforced the subject as my future calling. One of the most impactful lectures discussed the plight of healthcare in developing nations. Newborns with extreme neurological deficits are common, but finding treatments is not. Without prenatal care, this is becoming a growing epidemic, leaving millions of children helpless.
With a degree in neuroscience, I will gain a strong understanding of neural tube development and neuronal migration in infants. I will then become a neurologist, specializing in pediatric care. I hope to work for humanitarian organizations, such as Doctors Without Borders, in Africa, where HIV and polio are rampant, as are numerous other diseases.
Imagine the stars once more. From across the world, I will look at the same stars in the future, as I help children secure the ability to not only look at the stars, but do much more. (247 words)
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How to Write UT Austin Short Answer Essay #2
Think of all the activities—both in and outside of school—that you have been involved with during high school. Which one are you most proud of and why? (Guidance for students: This can include an extracurricular activity, a club/organization, volunteer activity, work or a family responsibility.) Please limit your response to 250-300 words.
If you’re applying to UT, you’ve likely already made an impact on your school, family, and community. And if we know you like we think we do, your involvement has made a pretty big impact on your own life, too. UT wants to hear all about that impact here, so let’s give it to them.
While this prompt is new to UT for 2024, it’s a prompt you might see on several other applications. In fact, so many schools want to get at the heart of what you do and why that we’ve made a whole guide about writing this extracurricular activity essay (and you can check it out here).
Deciding what activity to write about can be hard, but here are some tips to help you narrow the field:
Which activity are you most passionate about? Have you been delivering Meals on Wheels with your mom for the last two years and you’ve developed relationships with the people on your route (and maybe one of them now comes to your house for holiday dinners)?
Which activity have you learned the most from? Maybe you’ve never been the Home Depot-lovin’ type, but after being taught to frame and drywall a wall as part of a Habitat for Humanity project, you’ve realized you have a knack for construction.
Which activity has had the most impact? This impact might be on you—perhaps being the social media manager for band has led you down a rabbit hole of learning about digital marketing, and you’ve started your own business to help local businesses leverage their online presence. But it can also be on others—like seeing the smiles on children’s faces when you deliver a truckload of bagged lunches to an in-need elementary school for the students to take home for the weekend.
Now that you’ve got an idea in mind, you may be wondering what the essay itself should look like. Wonder no more, my friend.
Here’s an example essay (written for a similar prompt for Stanford) that can illustrate the direction to head:
Example #4:
72% of students in the Sacramento City Unified School district qualify for free or reduced lunch. This is 46,000 students. As a Teen Advisory Board member at my local public library, I’ve seen first hand the prevalence of socioeconomically disadvantaged students in my community. Many students are unable to access technology for educational purposes or even participate in high school activities like prom. Socioeconomic disadvantages force students to settle for less when it comes to their education.
As a TAB volunteer, I worked with my local library to host a prom for these students, while raising money and hosting a drive for prom dresses and resources such as Chromebooks for students in the Sacramento area. For multiple years, I spent time promoting our prom drives through social media and conversations with my peers. As a group, we raised hundreds of dollars and collected prom dresses from all size ranges to distribute to students who were unable to afford these luxuries. Students in my community were able to participate in an experience that many students remember long after high school.
This work was meaningful for me as I have seen firsthand the issues that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic such as the decrease in educational resources for students at home. Having the ability to collect and provide resources to support the educational needs of numerous disadvantaged students in Sacramento has allowed me to make an impact in their educations and their experiences.
Tips & Analysis
Show your actions. Details are such a strong way to convey impact and pride. From just the first paragraph, we see the scope of the community the student is involved in and their reason for getting involved.
Show your values. It’s clear that this student values equity, inclusion, and empathy, among other values. How do we know that? The way they clearly describe their involvement in minimizing socioeconomic disadvantages among students in their district by raising money for Chromebooks and hosting drives for prom dresses.
Show (specifically) your pride. Because UT really wants to know “Which [activity] are you most proud of and why?” don’t forget to add that. If it fits your voice, you might go straight into saying “I’m proud of…”. This student tweaks that wording slightly by saying “This work was meaningful for me as …” and then sharing their pride at closing the socioeconomic gap in their community.
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Craving more? While this example was also written as a response for Stanford, it’s another great model for how to convey your interests, activities, and impact.
Example #5:
Whether it’s painting for a teenager getting out of rehab, dissecting the anti-war meanings behind Banksy’s street art, or dancing a Bharatnatyam piece that communicates how we’re all one and the same, I’ve seen first-hand art’s power to persuade, influence, and urge people to act.
My next project is a multimedia piece that speaks to an issue of utter importance to me: suicide prevention. My brother, a peer, and I are working on a campaign, with support from the national mental health organization SAVE and our school, with a call to action— share one reason worth living for each day.
To support the campaign, my piece will be centered around a dance choreographed to two poems focusing on the little beauties of life: “People Should Fall in Love More” by Courney Peppernell and “And In Wonder And Amazement I Sing” by the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore—sung in Bengali. Since those with suicidal tendencies often have racing thoughts, I want our piece to calm them with the steady beat of the tabla playing in the background. With each line, I plan to use hand gestures like Alapadma and Hamsasya, to wordlessly communicate the poems’ important messages of life, love and purpose.
I hope this audiovisual experience will inspire my audience with hope, so that they see the beauty in even small things. Using my art for action gives it meaning through impact.
Tips & Analysis
Give us a glimpse into your life. To describe in what ways art has influenced this student, they mention painting for a teenager getting out of rehab, analyzing Banky’s anti-war street art, and dancing a Bharatnatyam piece. Just in the first sentence alone, we not only learn about what things this student might dedicate some of their time to, but we also learn that art seems to be a fundamentally important part of their life.
Connect to you + your values. In the second paragraph, this student writes about how their next art project, a multimedia piece, deals with an issue that is important to them: suicide prevention. We start to see here that the student is combining their love of art with an issue they’re passionate about, and how they hope to create change through this art piece. Whether or not these activities showed up on their activities list or additional info, the student weaves together two topics of interest to create a cohesive narrative.
What are your plans? With the way that this essay is written in the third and fourth paragraphs, the reader can tell that this student’s multimedia piece is not yet finished, or has not happened yet. It’s OK to write about things that haven’t finished yet, since readers know that your senior year is still in progress. As long as you can clearly outline your intentions, plans, and what you hope the impact will be (as this student did), it still gives the reader a good idea of what the event would look like, as if it already happened. By writing about something that hasn’t happened yet, we ultimately get to see this student’s attention to detail in planning this piece.
What are you proud of? Since this essay was written for Stanford’s old prompt, “What’s meaningful to you and why?”, we suggest tweaking the language slightly so it matches UT’s prompt better. For example, if it fits your voice, you might go straight into saying “I’m proud of…”. For this example essay specifically, you could tweak the last sentence to say that they’re proud of the impact they’re able to make through art, for example. When revising, make sure to ask yourself: am I 100% answering the prompt?
How to Write UT Austin Short Answer Essay #3
(Optional) Please share background on events or special circumstances that you feel may have impacted your high school academic performance. (Maximum 40 lines, or approximately 250-300 words)
Here, you can focus on anything that “impacted your high school academic performance,” including any COVID-19 impacts. Though if you’re applying via the Common App, you’ll also have a box there you can use to address COVID, which we discuss how to use here. And because this section functions similarly to the Additional Info section, you can check out our full guide to the Additional Information section here.
Check out an example of what that looks like.
Example 5:
Over the past 14 years, I’ve eaten 2,800 servings of peanut butter (PB), equal to 67.3% of my bodyweight. PB reflects who I am.
JUSTIN’s is the consistently gentle and cobbled PB. Providing a sweet but natural taste, Justin’s taught me to do the same in my interactions with others. Through participation in programs like UTeach Outreach and Alternative Breaks, I will become a better community member while growing into a leader and forming friendships.
JUBILIU is the imperfectly yet naturally perfect pebbled sesame PB. Non-homogenized in texture, it requires a big stir, but its natural taste is sustaining like its 600-year-old history. On one of my first days in China, my host mom and I ventured to Chinese Walmart, Wumart. Standing in the condiment aisle, she chose Jif for me, but I asked if there was a Chinese version. During my junior year immersion in China, I strove to be stirred around in the Chinese culture, adding to the depth of my own flavor, so I could purposely expand my worldview. Through UT’s Chinese Student Association, I look forward to immersing myself in and supporting the culture that taught me to purposely exert effort in my actions, seeking depth to lead a more sustaining life.
SUNBUTTER is the unpredictably necessary non-PB PB. SunButter taught me to embrace what is hard, understanding it will enrich my life journey, or better yet, someone else’s. Pursuing my passion for finance and broadening my understanding of the world, I’m excited to join the Global Macro Team.
Crafted by other PB brands, I’m a continually evolving PB brand. I’m Ella. My PB brand is nowhere near shelf-ready; I’ve more experiences to be had, Longhorns to interact with, and 14,600+ servings of PB left to savor. (294 words)
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Tips + Analysis
Consider building off your responses to Essay #2. To answer the previous prompt, you thought about what’s important to you based on what you’ve been involved with. Now, consider what needs you’ve filled and what values you’ve gained from that involvement. How is that steering (Longhorn pun intended) what you’ll continue to do and how you’ll choose to get involved in the future?
It’s OK to not write about your career. You don’t have to change the world through your 9-to-5. (Although if you are pursuing a field of study or career that could effect positive change on the world around you, this is a great place to discuss it.) Plenty of people satisfy their desire to do social good outside their job. So maybe it’s your extracurriculars, not your major, that’s helping you be the change you want to see. And that’s great! This student did a nice job of showing how her past experiences will help her contribute at UT—with the UTeach Outreach and Alternative Breaks, the Chinese Student Association, and the Global Macro Team. But had she been writing to this version of the prompt, she might have imagined how those experiences would help her change the world as a UT alum. So, likewise, make sure you take the longer view and focus on post-graduation activities.
Show you care about others. UT wants to make sure you’re the kind of person who’ll do good long after it’s something that looks good on a resume. How will you care for others with your UT education and your unique combination of skills and be the kind of Texas Exes the school is proud to call its own? Again, had this student been addressing today’s prompt, she might have gone into more detail on how she’s going to use finance and an expanded worldview post-UT.
Be specific, but not generic. Many of us would love to cure cancer and other diseases, or leave the world a little better than we found it by expanding sustainable energy sources. Clear, lofty goals for sure, but they’re probably not going to help you stand out as a changemaker. So how can you frame your potential contributions in a way no one else can? By sharing what drew you to UT and how that’s going to help you achieve your end goals. Again, this student may have served this prompt better by being more clear about how her UT experience would help her be the change.
How to Write the UT Austin Short Answer Essay #4:
(Optional): Please share background on events or special circumstances that you feel may have impacted your high school academic performance. (maximum 40 lines, or approximately 250-300 words)
Here, you can focus on anything that “impacted your high school academic performance,” including any COVID-19 impacts. Though if you’re applying via the Common App, you’ll also have a box there you can use to address COVID, which we discuss how to use here. And because this section functions similarly to the Additional Info section, you can check out our full guide to the Additional Information section here.
Check out an example of what that looks like.
Example 6:
Health Issue
My fingertip was amputated in a tubing accident during the summer after junior year, which resulted in me having to relearn how to type and take extra time on tests and note-taking. However, I was able to adjust by mastering the hunt-and-peck typing method with my left hand and learning how to manipulate objects with only 9 and ⅔ fingers.
Dropping AP French IV
I became overwhelmed with my amount of advanced classes and coursework, including 3 hours a night from AP French homework. I made the choice to drop AP French in order to balance my coursework in my other classes and my mental health. I learned to respect and honor my limits as well as how to stand up for myself when I am feeling overwhelmed and unhappy.
2020 Spring Quarter Grades
Before my school switched to pass/fail as a result of online learning, we completed our 3rd quarter grading period, which is not included on my transcript. I received the following grades:
AP Physics 1: 91
AP Statistics: 99
Peer Coaching: 100
AP-GT English III: 93
Pre-AP Precalculus: 96
AP US History: 93
(154 words)
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Tips + Analysis
Consider using bullets and section titles for easier scanning. The UT admission team already has a bunch of essays to read (and you’ve got plenty to write). Make it easier on them, and you, by bulleting out the main point you want to convey and organizing them under section titles (like Health Issues and Dropping AP French IV). A great/convenient benefit of this approach is that you don’t have to use full sentences, to save space (especially since, topping off at 300 words, UT’s version is less than half the 650 words the Common App accepts).
Explain any red flags. Do you have gaps in your transcript? Poorer grades you want to explain? This is the place to do it. And it will help give UT admission counselors context as they review your application. A couple words of caution, though: a) try to put a positive spin even on something negative, like a bad grade, perhaps by sharing what you learned from the experience, as this will show maturity and perspective (and will help you avoid sounding like you’re whining), and b) don’t overly explain why, say, you got an A- instead of an A. It may make you seem like a perfectionist obsessed with grades, and that’s not a great look.
Use this space for achievements that wouldn’t fit anywhere else in your application. Like how this student shared the high grades he got before his classes went to pass/fail in the online learning environment during the pandemic. Because those scores are no longer being reported, UT wouldn’t know this otherwise, and it’s a pretty cool thing to share.
Optional (but highly recommended) Expanded Resume
You may choose to submit an expanded résumé offering additional information about all of your achievements, activities, leadership positions, and student employment.
Your résumé should include all your achievements, not just those that didn’t fit on the ApplyTexas or Common Application. That said, if you’re able to list everything on your admissions application, there’s no need to submit a separate résumé.
Here’s what UT Austin says on its site:
“Your résumé should include all your achievements, not just those that didn’t fit on the ApplyTexas or Common App application. That said, if you’re able to list everything on your admissions application, there’s no need to submit a separate résumé.
If you submit a résumé, you should include:
- Details about what each activity involved rather than a general description
- The number of hours per week and weeks per year you spent on each activity”
This expanded resume connects back to what we talked about earlier (in the section on short essay #1 regarding UT Austin’s focus on fit: Because the school places such emphasis on how you fit with your first-choice major, the expanded resume offers another great chance to show the admission team why you belong at their school, and how you fit in the program you want. This is particularly important for impacted majors, such as engineering, but we recommend submitting an expanded resume regardless of your major, and use it to further highlight why you and UT are a great match.
Head here for UT Expanded Resume Tips, including a sample resume/template.
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
