2014 New Apply Texas Essay Prompts 1

2014 New Apply Texas Essay Prompts

Every student applying to the University of Texas-Austin and dozens of other private and public campuses in Texas use the Apply Texas application site. Some also use their own applications or the Common Application, but all of the UT campuses use it exclusively.

For the 2013-2014 school admissions cycle, Apply Texas has changed its essay prompts. Each school requires a different combination of these three-some require all three, some just two, or others make certain ones recommended or optional.

• Essay A: Describe a setting in which you have collaborated or interacted with people whose experiences and/or beliefs differ from yours. Address your initial feelings, and how those feelings were or were not changed by this experience.
• Essay B: Describe a circumstance, obstacle or conflict in your life, and the skills and resources you used to resolve it. Did it change you? If so, how?
• Essay C: Considering your lifetime goals, discuss how your current and future academic and extra-curricular activities might help you achieve your goals.

The Apply Texas site will open this summer. The University of Texas applicants can begin applying August 1. https://www.applytexas.org/

Students using these prompts will find little seeming overlap with the new Common Application prompts. Perhaps they can use Essay A or a version of it as the prompts: “Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again?”

Perhaps Essay B can overlap with “Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what lessons did you learn?”

There is no essay overlap with the UC essays. Students will have to write essays and make sure they are all powerful.

We need to remind kids that they may want to create different essays because these new essays seem to really focus on challenges and obstacles.