UT-Austin Leadership Short Answer Examples
Driving around San Andres Island, Colombia
All Fall 2022 first-time freshman applicants must write one long Apply Texas Essay A and four UT-Austin-specific short answers concerning your first-choice major, diversity OR leadership, changing the world, and COVID/academic special circumstances.
“Describe how your experiences, perspectives, talents, and/or your involvement in leadership activities (at your school, job, community, or within your family) will help you to make an impact both in and out of the classroom while enrolled at UT.”
The new prompt combines two previous prompts that required students to discuss in two different prompts Leadership and Diversity. A common misconception students have is that this new short answer prompt requires you to discuss both leadership and diversity, when in reality, you have the choice. In that way, this prompt is broader and easier to address than the two prompts from previous admissions cycles.
I provide many real student examples to help give you an idea of various possibilities for crafting your response with a focus on Leadership. Some students choose to elaborate on one or more activities from their resume while others discuss being a leader within their family or friend group. I discuss Leadership short answer tips and approaches more here.
I share nine responses concerning formal leadership in an organization, founding a club, hosting an event, a school group project, caring for a special needs sibling, STEM activities, business leadership, baseball and boy scouts, and tutoring.
You’re also welcome to consult examples from the previous year for more ideas.
Drum Major
My freshman year, our marching band was one of the best in the district. We routinely made the finals in marching competitions and won the overall title. After another successful year, to our surprise and dismay, our long-time band director resigned. Our school’s administration hired an outside candidate rather than promoting the lead assistant director who subsequently resigned.
Losing two band directors who transformed us into state-level competitors year-after-year lowered morale and fractured the sections. The upperclassmen we counted on for leadership were upset, increasing the division. Many members quit, reducing the band to fewer than 100 marchers on the field. We no longer had the size, strength, or experience to compete with the other marching bands in our district.
Dropping from a perennial powerhouse to not advancing to finals was a bitter pill to swallow. I was disappointed with how the band reacted to the new directors teaching style, which was completely different than before. I stuck with it, determined to step up and make a positive difference.
I auditioned for and was thankful to be chosen for drum major at the end of my sophomore year. As drum major, I maintained the structure and organization under an unpopular director. I’m accountable to our staff for the success of our band as a unit, and I was ready for the challenge.
From the first day of summer band, I led by example. I challenged the section leaders to work together to lift the band’s morale and improve our performance. I embraced the new director’s marching style and focused on helping the band improve. The transformation took time and hard work, but the results came over the long season as the band’s morale and performance improved.
The prior year’s negativity was a distant memory when we got straight 1s at UIL and advanced to the finals in our last competition of the year. As senior drum major, I hope to pass on this legacy for the successive leaders to drive to maintain a new winning culture that was achieved through hard work and collaboration. With this mindset our band will be prepared to tackle any issue brought upon us, now and in the future.
Commentary
Dedicating your entire Leadership short answer to a single activity can be an effective way to develop the context and your commitments more fully than if you divide your essay among three or four themes. In addition to demonstrating their leadership, they’ve also identified an adverse circumstance and how they helped their band become stronger after the leadership transition.
Without these additional details, the relevant resume sections wouldn’t seem quite as impressive even though they had been drum major for two years, which is fairly rare. It’s one thing to be a drum major in a high achieving band with stability and continuity between years and another to occupy leadership roles when morale is low and uncertainty is high. Sticking with the activity when others are quitting suggests resilience and seeing through their commitments.
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Animal Welfare Club Founder
At the beginning of my junior year, I started an animal welfare club that met every Tuesday at lunch. After volunteering with Austin Pets Alive, I wanted to fundraise for them and other environmentally-conscious organizations like the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. When I submitted my club application to my principal, however, I received the disappointing news that fundraising wasn’t allowed. I tried to find a way to get around this rule, but my principal shut every door. I felt discouraged yet undeterred.
I sent an announcement to the front office: “Come to Animal Welfare Club in Room 114 today at lunch!” Eventually, we gained twenty members. Over the next few weeks, I brought in guest speakers and also led discussions on factory farming, extinction, animal testing, and other critical problems. After a presentation I gave about the tragedy of puppy mills, our club made posters that said, “Adopt, Don’t Shop” and placed them around the school.
Even though our club was small, I knew it could make a large impact if just one person saw our poster and adopted a pet instead of buying one. Later, we researched how seismic testing harms polar bear migration and hibernation patterns. A few members and I wrote letters to the US Congress through the WWF to alert our representatives about the dangers of testing.
Our club focuses on changing our personal habits and volunteering with worthwhile organizations. It excites me to have a platform to share my interests and connect with others. I’m still working on getting buy-in from other students to fill officer positions so that more members can feel empowered to share their ideas and lead causes that are important to them. When I first started my club, I felt upset I couldn’t fundraise, but now I understand that simply spreading awareness can have a large impact. At UT, I intend to join Students Against the Cruelty of Animals and to continue speaking up for animal welfare.
Commentary
This Liberal Arts Sustainability Studies applicant dedicated their entire Essay A to discussing fostering kittens and serving extensively at their local animal shelter. Their Leadership Short Answer complements their long essay very well because they communicate how they’ve applied their interests in animal welfare and ecology to wider environmental issues. It’s obvious to the reviewer that they’re committed to a variety of social causes and are willing to speak out on challenging problems.
Like the first example, they focus solely on a single activity. This allows them to fully develop and provide context to how they originated the club, initial issues with setting it up, and a few tangible projects like the letter-writing campaign to Congress. It’s also a good idea to identity relevant UT student organizations or Austin-area efforts that align with activities that you’ve already committed time to in high school. Even if you choose not to continue your activities in college, demonstrating that you’ve done even a little bit of research in your essays helps convey your fit for UT.
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Choreographing Diwali Celebration
Within seconds, the crowd rushed to its feet. My heart pounded to the rhythm of the audience’s claps. I looked over to the other dancers, each one of them with beaming smiles, knowing we had done an excellent job.
As the lead choreographer volunteer for our community’s annual Diwali celebration, I spent day and night listening to every beat, crafting each step, and rehearsing every transition. It never felt like work because I love what I do.
At the end of our performance, friends’ parents embraced me with open arms and broad smiles, enthusiastic about our show. My friends raced from the auditorium to the backstage. They shouted congratulations on a successful performance. It wasn’t until Josh, one of my dancers, expressed his sincere gratitude that volunteering as the choreographer felt worthwhile.
From the very first class, I noticed him in the background, too timid to speak up. Because most dancers are female, I could tell that he was worried his friends would make fun of him for participating in a predominantly girl’s sport. Not being able to feel the rhythm of the music, he forgot nearly half the steps. He worried about his first large-crowd performance.
I’m not usually one to step in, but when I saw him struggling, I talked with him after our first practice. After every class, I went over the steps and answered any questions. First, I performed the entire dance. Usually, when dancers watch someone else perform, they can pick up choreography better. Then, to make each step less intimidating, I broke them down. I first tackled the feet. Once he found his rhythm, I added the upper body. I also made dance videos to help Josh and the other dancers learn and practice the steps.
Over time, Josh became more comfortable and didn’t hesitate to ask other dancers for help. He caught on quickly. Soon, he positioned himself in the front of the room and didn’t miss any opportunities to dance his heart out.
Choreographing has helped foster respect for other choreographers and changed my perspective on the hardships faced by many choreographers. Choreography expands my leadership skills in the classroom and other activities. I envision myself within UT’s cultural arts community by participating Saaya Dance Company and Nach Bailye dance team, eventually running for officer and choreographer positions.
Commentary
This is a pretty cool short answer approach because they storytell and build a narrative throughout. You can imagine that an expanded version of this could form the foundation of their Essay A. One advantage of focusing on a single theme or experience is it allows more opportunities for illustrating your leadership rather than simply restating and telling what the reviewer already sees on the resume. Committing to one issue in your essay also signals to your reviewer which activities or interests are most significant to you. Certainly, choreographing an event will help strengthen your resume, but as always, the context is always key.
Dedicating most of their essay to helping a timid student become more comfortable and confident moves some of the focus away from a nuts and bolts discussion about their roles and responsibilities and more about the leadership traits of the applicant that are less obvious. This essay is also a variation on identifying/solving a problem, in this case comforting Josh and breaking down the dance movements into ways that are easier to digest and train. UT also has many South Asian dance communities, so nodding towards a particular one signals to reviewers how they see themselves as a leader on campus.
Solving Mr. Agee’s Puzzle
In my Principles of Engineering class, our amazing teacher Mr. Agee assigned the marble sorter project. In groups of three, he gave us the task of designing, building, and programming a machine that would sort four different types of marbles (out of the five available) at the push of a button. My group and I had no idea where to begin. Do we start building stuff? Which type of marbles do we want to sort? These are all the same size, how is that gonna work?
I suggested that we list the characteristics of each type of marble and to design our sorter around that information. It seemed like the logical first step, but all of our groups struggled to look beyond the daunting task and get to work. I’m usually the guy that my classmates look to when we’re confused, but I couldn’t see any solutions either.
Soon, my teammates were asking me to choose which marbles to sort. That was a few steps ahead in the process, and we weren’t ready. Instead, I considered several ways to take advantage of the physical properties of each marble we had listed earlier. Steel was the heaviest, so I proposed a weighted lever that only tips with the steel. Glass was the biggest, so I modeled a ramp where everything would fall through but glass. Lastly, plastic was translucent while wood was opaque, so I knew we needed some type of light sensor.
When I presented these ideas to my team, I saw their eyes light up. We all connected the dots almost immediately and incorporated these features into a single machine. I delegated specific tasks so that we could finish on time and put it all together before the deadline. Our final product worked like a charm and included features from each of us. I took pride in creating a process that allowed others’ ideas and mine to take shape and complete a task that seemed impossible at first. It also felt great to solve one of Mr. Agee’s riddles.
Commentary
This Mechanical Engineering applicant had few STEM activities or engineering experiences on their resume, so they needed to do a little bit more work to demonstrate their fit for their major. Many students take non-honors engineering electives, but unless you flag a course on your transcript by discussing it in an essay, your reviewer may not notice it nor understand whether and why it was important to you. In addition to identifying and solving an engineering problem, their example highlights how they work well in groups. “I’m usually the guy that my classmates look to when we’re confused, but I couldn’t see any solutions either.”
Acknowledging that they don’t always have the answers but are willing to reevaluate initial assumptions without getting too ahead of themselves suggests that they’re critical thinkers willing to approach problems from different angles. Discussing Leadership doesn’t have to be some grand gesture or impressive, credentialed experience. Their essay illustrates how solving a group problem in class can make for an excellent showcase of character and personality.
Special Needs Brother
I am the youngest of four boys. My oldest brother is married and living in Seattle. My youngest brother is a UT freshman, but my other brother, Nicholas, still lives at home with me. Nicholas has severe quadriplegic cerebral palsy. Since birth, he hasn’t been able to speak or move his arms and legs.He requires around-the-clock care. When I was old enough, my parents left me at home with Nicholas. I’m not the stereotypically spoiled youngest child forgiven from chores. When I’m needed, I have to watch after Nicholas, carry him out of bed, or meet his needs when he gets uncomfortable. Although caring for Nicholas is a joint effort for my family, I serve as caretaker for my older brother since my oldest brothers live away from home.
Nicholas and I spend much more time together. I sit in his room next to his bed. I turn on his favorite TV program and switch to a new episode when he starts complaining. I readjust his head on his pillow. When my parents need my help, I lift him out of bed into his wheelchair and roll him to the living room or our handicap van.
Assisting Nicholas and watching my family care for him shows me how much effort, time, and love is required to care for another person. In some respects, I have matured faster because of Nicholas. I don’t take my health for granted, so I make sure to remain active, eat right, and appreciate each moment.
I sympathize with other families who struggle with their loved one’s health and quality of life. When I see other families where a member is disabled, instead of giving a funny look, I think about Nicholas’s strength and see his love and courage in other families. I focus on the important things in life and rather than dwelling on small problems. After a day with Nicholas, I’m reminded how lucky I am to go where I want when I want and express my thoughts so effortlessly. Living with my brother forces me to take on a role unfamiliar to any of my friends, but I wouldn’t trade our time for anything.
Commentary
It’s fairly common for applicants to discuss living with special needs siblings. Like essays about service projects, I would dedicate an essay only if you’re confident that you can strike a healthy balance between discussing your sibling and yourself. Universities are admitting you, not someone else.
Finding the right tone and style is also more challenging than with other topics. Indeed, I’ve reviewed essays where it’s fairly obvious the applicant is trying to get a leg up on the competition by elevating their special needs sibling by possibly exaggerating the impacts on their daily life. Being the youngest in the family and needing to step-up with their older siblings away also provides important context.
My advice generally is to proceed cautiously and deliberately. The severity of the illness or disability also matters. This applicant and I considered a few different approaches before landing on this topic because they truly are close to Nicholas, caring for him consumes a lot of their free time and requires complete family efforts, and sharing this story is less obvious than other themes they could have discussed.
Outlining the responsibilities and detailed efforts needed to care for Nicholas provides context to their relationship beyond their condition. This applicant had an extensive resume, so there were a lot of different leadership experiences as possible responses. Sharing how they care for their brother at home provides a different dimension to their application that wouldn’t have worked in other essay topics.
This essay is effective because it balances their brother Nicholas with how it shapes the worldview of the applicant. “I don’t take my health for granted, so I make sure to remain active, eat right, and appreciate each moment.” Their final paragraph provides specific examples and situations that demonstrate how they’re grateful and appreciative even if many of their friends may not understand this aspect of their home life.
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Volunteering, Entrepreneurship, and Women in STEM
Before I moved to North Carolina, I attended Indus International School in Bangalore, India. Every year we went to a leadership camp in the mountains to spend a few days with our classmates and learn about leadership and team building. In seventh grade, I led our group on a five hour trek for five hours. We also connected with a community school for underprivileged children. Every week, I spent an hour with Chandana, a girl who was just as bright as the rest of us but wasn’t given opportunities or resources to apply herself. I helped her with English and math homework. Her smiles each time she understood a new concept felt extremely rewarding.
Last year, I founded an entrepreneurship club supported by LaunchX, an organization that provides a curriculum and platform for students to start a club and teach their peers how to launch start-ups. Unfortunately, the organization shutdown, so I decided to continue leading the club by modifying their curriculum and designing my own framework for this year. I’ve recruited over fifty members while assembling a leadership team with designated responsibilities.
I am proud to be a woman in computer science. I encourage women participation in STEM fields every day by giving back to the community. An activity where I connect with other women in STEM is robotics. Local companies like Cisco and SAS reached out to my team, eager to generate the participation of women in varied technological fields. I served as a guest speaker at Cisco’s Girls Power Tech Event, presenting to a group of middle school girls and hopefully inspire their passion for computer science. I also helped a girl scout troop earn their robotics badge by introducing them to programming and robots. My robotics team and I participated in a SAS event that introduces elementary schoolers and their parents to STEM pathways.
This year, I was honored to receive the National Honorable Mention at the 2019 National Center for Women and IT(NCWIT) Award for Aspirations in Computing for my efforts to encourage girls in computer science, and I would love to continue this at UT Austin.
Commentary
Here is our first example of an applicant spreading their word economy around to three different activities that have similar underlying themes regarding STEM and mentorship. Leading with a short yet detailed anecdote establishes how they perceive themselves as a leader. It’s also okay to shift abruptly into a different activity. Sometimes, writers will have an unnecessary transition sentence to signal the change in topic. It’s okay sometimes to move directly to another experience without pause.
Throughout, they cite specific ways and quantities of how they’ve improved or contributed to their various projects. Their third paragraph about assisting a Girl Scout troop’s robotics team also connects well with their introductory story about tutoring when they were younger. They demonstrate a strong fit for their first-choice major, especially as a woman in male-dominant computer science. Forgoing a “let me sum up what I’ve already told you” conclusion, they supply specific details from start to finish that signal the varied ways that they embody leadership.
FBLA and Young Investors Society
I joined Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) and ran immediately for the freshman representative. As the chosen ambassador between the more than 100 combined novices and upperclassmen, I established a buddy system of shared resources and partner feedback options across the age groups that helped a record thirty students qualify for the national competition.
I noticed that FBLA was too broad and didn’t completely capture my interests in finance, so I founded an investment club. In the after-school financial topics discussions, many members expressed an interest in determining stock valuations and components of a diversified investment portfolio. Consequently, I secured a comprehensive financial curriculum by initiating contact with the Young Investors Society (YIS) organization. With access to a valuable educational tool, we jointly learned the specialized methods of the investment field, such as the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model.
After serving as the school representative and liaison to integrate the array of financial literacy programs, such as student brokerage investing and conceptual objective tests, I was elected to a national officer position at YIS. I’m responsible for sharing investment strategies and ideas during our investment seminars to develop proficiency in the fundamentals of stock pitches. Since I’ve received mentorship as a freshman and now serve as mentors for younger students interested in business and finance, I’m excited to connect with the older Business Honors peer mentors when I arrive on campus. Moreover, I look forward to returning the favor when I’m a junior and senior to help incoming Longhorns acclimate to the Forty Acres.
Occupying leadership roles in FBLA, Investment Club, and YIS helps me build collaboration and public speaking skills that will add value to college classroom discussions and campus life. At UT, I intend to join the University Securities Investment Team (USIT), so we can host portfolio discussions and share stock pitch ideas. I hope to transfer my communication skills in the quarterly conference calls with the YIS Executive and Operations team to the class discussions in the BHP core accounting, finance, and management courses.
Commentary
I like this example because it blends the single theme approach by discussing three related activities that fall under the same umbrella. Sharing how early participation in FBLA segued into founding their school’s Investment Club and occupying leadership positions in YIS demonstrates one aspect of leadership: deep involvement over a long period of time. Another effective approach is identifying an activity that didn’t resonate with them fully (FBLA) and how they charted their own course to launch a club and attract similarly-minded students.
They also slide in a less-discussed advantage of BHP, the mentorship program. “Since I’ve received mentorship as a freshman and now serve as mentors for younger students interested in business and finance, I’m excited to connect with the older Business Honors peer mentors when I arrive on campus.”
One criteria reviewers use is “has this student maximized the resources in their environment?” Its clear that they’re looking for resources outside of their high school environment by pursuing a national officer position with YIS. They have a very strong resume, and dedicating an essay developing a few of their most significant commitments that also relate to their first-choice major is a straightforward approach to answering the question.
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Baseball, Boy Scouts, and Sunday School
Leadership means balancing serving others and not becoming too domineering. I act as a servant leader as captain of my school’s varsity baseball team. As a freshman, I played second-string catcher for the varsity team behind a senior. Although I felt like I had the skill to succeed in the position, I had to prove myself to my coach and gain the confidence of my teammates.
After a few games, it became evident that the senior catcher was a better outfielder because he’s quicker with a strong arm. Playing catcher is cerebral, and I have enough skills and a high “baseball IQ,” so coach promoted me to starting catcher as a freshman. I’ve since served as captain as a junior and senior. My teammates look up to me to be a leader.
As a member of the Boy Scouts, I have learned both to lead and to be led. I joined later than most at the age of 14. I relied on older scouts to help me catch up and to stay on track for earning merit badges needed for advancement. After three years and serving as scribe and quartermaster, I am on track to make my Eagle Scout rank this winter. I now mentor younger students just as older scouts helped me when I started.
I also was given an opportunity to teach a first and second grade Sunday school, a great environment to continue practicing servant leadership. I’ve been teaching for over a year, but even after my first day, I could see that they looked up to me. I enjoy sharing scripture with younger students. Knowing that they depend on me encourages me to maintain accountability for my actions and always be intentional when communicating.
Commentary
Here is an example of choosing three rather unrelated activities and splitting up the essay into thirds. Each activity appears on their resume, so there aren’t any surprises to the reviewer. They touched on a few STEM-related activities in other essays to demonstrate their fit for engineering, freeing up this essay to share some of their favorite activities. It provides more context and details that aren’t easily read on the resume. This is also a straightforward approach to responding to the topic.
Lacrosse Mentor and Tutor
When I first started playing lacrosse, I was unbelievably bad, and I knew it. I snuck to the back of the line during drills to avoid embarrassing myself. I started playing at ten and probably wouldn’t have continued to my next birthday if not for Sebastian, a HS junior who came to all our practices and saw that I was struggling. He offered small, specific areas for improvement and encouraged me to keep playing. “Lift your elbows up” is much a much more achievable goal than “pass the ball ten yards.” A dozen cues and hundreds of repetitions later, I managed to pass the ball cross-field.
When I became a junior, I became a Sebastian for a middle school team as their volunteer head coach. None of the players seemed quite as bad as me at their age, but they needed refinement of the basics and introductions to more advanced techniques. We all struggle playing sports full-time while maintaining our grades. Anxiety in school leads to poor play on the field.
They all complained about their math and science classes because they’re hard, and their test days conflict with lacrosse practices. I lobbied to move our practices to non-test days, so my players didn’t need to choose between sports and school. Additionally, I coordinated weekly small-group tutoring sessions. We looked over missed questions on quizzes and tests and helped with homework. Not only did their grades improve, but they practiced with more focus and fewer complaints. Everyone earned A’s and B’s, and we still placed second in the league.
Providing progressive tips like Sebastian helped me improve on our previous debate captain’s approach. Before, newbies presented a speech in front of varsity members on their first day. Most felt too embarrassed to attempt a second. Now, novices present their first four speeches alone with only a camera watching. Varsity members anonymously review the footage and provide constructive criticism linked to time stamps. Novices feel more comfortable practicing, and experienced members improve their feedback. Morale is high, we practice more cooperatively, and we’ve found more success at tournaments.
Commentary
Here is an interesting case of an applicant that discusses two superficially unrelated activities - lacrosse and debate - and highlights the underlying leadership and mentorship themes. It’s also effective to discuss being a follower and receiving mentorship within the broader context of maturing and developing into a leader later on. Leaders aren’t created in vacuums. Providing some backstory introduces more nuance to an essay rather than stating without context your leadership roles.
This example is also very detail-oriented, offering the reader exactly which tips and advice he received when he was younger and how he implemented similar techniques in later years. It demonstrates to their reviewer that they learn and grow from trial and error. It’s preferable to be as specific as possible to avoid vagueness and generalities. Supplying details also substantiate your leadership characteristics.
Their solution to assessing young debaters is especially clever and worth noting. “Before, newbies presented a speech in front of varsity members on their first day. Most felt too embarrassed to attempt a second. Now, novices present their first four speeches alone with only a camera watching. Varsity members anonymously review the footage and provide constructive criticism linked to time stamps.”