On March 11, 2024, UT-Austin announced significant changes for the upcoming Freshman Fall 2025 admissions cycle. As of writing, UT has not updated it’s admissions page yet.

The proposed changes include the following:

• UT-Austin is not test optional. All Fall 2025 freshman applicants must submit an official SAT or ACT directly from the testing agency to be eligible for admission. Applicants do not need to submit the writing section.

• Early Action deadline of October 15 with a guarantee to receive the admissions decision by January 15.

• Changes to the Main Essay and removing one supplement

• Introduction of a waitlist for the first time in many years.

• “Narrowed scope of recommendation letters”

UT-Austin is not Test Optional

This is probably the most significant change and one that isn’t surprising, given that many elite universities, like Brown, Yale, Dartmouth, Georgetown, MIT, and the University of Florida, have returned to requiring the SAT/ACT. Most universities went test-optional during COVID, but many universities are reverting to pre-COVID policies as we exit the pandemic.

What’s peculiar is that each university or public school system that chooses to require exams or remain test-optional examines similar data sets and comes to opposite conclusions. The University of California system, which remains test-blind, where test scores are not considered at all, argues that test requirements decrease access and inclusion.

In contrast, Brown argues that requiring the exam increases inclusion and access: “The data suggested unintended adverse outcomes of test-optional policies in the admissions process itself, potentially undermining the goal of increasing access. The committee was concerned that some students from less-advantaged backgrounds were choosing not to submit scores under the test-optional policy, when doing so could actually increase their chances of being admitted.”

UT-Austin’s press release makes a similar argument to pro-testing universities in general that SAT scores correlate with one’s college GPA and likelihood of graduating on time. From the press release: “Students who submitted standardized scores performed significantly better on those exams and in their first semester of college, relative to those who did not take the test or chose not to have their scores considered as part of a holistic review.”

Conversations around test requirements are extremely polarized along predictable political lines. After four years of widespread test-optional experimentation, I honestly don’t know how to make sense of the data or how I feel about whether a university should or shouldn’t require the exam. It’s all become so muddled that I can’t draw strong conclusions, and I sympathize with both pro-testing and test-optional camps. The issue is I can’t tell what’s true in an objective sense, or maybe somehow both arguments are right for different reasons.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what I think or how you, as the applicant and family, should feel about these policies. Since enough universities have reverted to requiring them, it’s almost certain that you will need to take the SAT. Still, I shared my thoughts in a summer 2020 post, when this movement accelerated, if you wish to read them.

My primary concern is the timing. Fall 2025 applicants only have six months to take the exams, and with the SAT going digital, it presents a study learning curve (or perhaps an opportunity for students without access to test prep to perform better on a theoretically more level playing field?) There is also a big gap between the June 1, 2024, SAT and the one on August 24, 2024, which doesn’t allow for taking the exam over the summer. The ACT has June and July testing dates though.

I would have preferred that UT and other universities require the exam for Fall 2026 applicants to allow more time for families and applicants to adjust to this new reality or at least announce this a few months ago.

As of May 2024, Texas A&M notably remains test-optional.

New October 15 UT Early Action Deadline

In 2017, UT-Austin announced its first official "Priority Deadline” of November 1. Over the past cycles, it was unclear what advantage, if any, applying early offered or whether applying early resulted in an applicant receiving their decision sooner. My suggestion then and now remains the same: most applicants should apply by the early deadline.

The press release states: “This optional deadline will require application submission by Oct. 15, with a guaranteed decision communicated to applicants by Jan. 15. The regular deadline for applications will remain Dec. 1, with a guaranteed decision communicated by Feb. 15.”

Essentially, every university that offers early deadlines, whether non-binding Early Action or binding Early Decision, has a November 1 deadline, which signals a shift from the nationwide consensus. Universities have “collective action” and “coordination” problems that I will discuss in the recommendation letter change section. UT unilaterally changing their early deadline to October 15 without coordinating with other universities or their sister school, Texas A&M, will add stress on families and schools who now have to contend with October 15, November 1, December 1, and early January deadlines.

The only students whom I recommend applying for regular decision on December 1 are those who are taking the SAT/ACT in October or November with the hopes of receiving their scores. If you think you can substantially improve your score, it is always better to wait and apply later relative to whatever unknowable advantage applying early might provide. Although UT has not explicitly said it, I assume that applying by October 15 will not allow you to update your test score after that date.

What remains unclear and that UT has never communicated is how they trickle out decisions “in waves” where small batches of applicants receive favorable admission starting from late November while the vast majority of eventual admitted students do not receive their decision until the end of January. I wish UT would release all decisions in a single batch or at least clarify why some students hear back sooner. Trickling decisions adds substantial stress and anxiety within families, schools, communities, and social media.

Essay Requirement Changes

Since April 2024, UT-Austin has updated their essay requirements. In this post, I speculated that they would eliminate the Change the World short answer while offering a more flexible Main Essay topic. I didn’t expect them to change the Main Essay to “write whatever you want.”

Here are the topics:

• Main Essay (500-650 words): “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.”

• Major Supplement (250-300 words): “Why are you interested in the major you indicated as your first-choice major?”

• Leadership Supplement (250-300 words): “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.)”

That UT couldn’t have just joined the “choose one of seven” Common Application essay topics, one of which includes Option 7, “write whatever you want,” like almost every prominent university, is beyond me. Still, this simplifies the Main Essay in some ways, but in others, it complicates things. I’ve already received emails from concerned families about what “UT really wants to hear” since there isn’t guidance or parameters on the Main Essay topic. Particularly for low-income communities and first-generation families, an overly flexible essay question will have the unintended consequence of confusing students and leading to lower-quality submissions than usual.

However, the most critical complication to this new essay topic is that UT has changed it unilaterally and without coordination with any other Texas university. Prior to 2017, UT and Texas A&M traded off every two years in choosing the Apply Texas essay topics. That required them to coordinate and also standardize essay submissions so that what works for UT could apply to A&M. The State of Texas used to have a somewhat centralized application system that saved families time and energy. Since UT pivoted to the “Main Essay + supplements” system for Fall 2018 applicants, and since UT joined the Common App in 2022 but not the Common App essay requirement, Texas universities no longer coordinate.

As of May 12, 2024, Texas A&M still requires the previous “Tell Us Your Story” Main Essay. A former colleague who works at a Houston-based charter school took his students to visit College Station. Along with an email I sent to A&M for clarification, it seems they are not changing their essay topics this year. Since almost every Texas resident applies to both UT and A&M, and since UT, as of now, requires you to write Tell Us Your Story, that necessarily means that everyone will need to write Tell Us Your Story.

I advise writing Tell Us Your Story for Texas A&M, UT-Austin, and all of your Common Application schools.

You shouldn’t ever need to write multiple Main Essays, as in a totally different essay for UT, A&M, and, for example, Michigan Ann Arbor. That is an unnecessary waste of time and will certainly not increase your admissions chances. Submitting your single best effort rather than multiple essays or versions is always advisable.

In conclusion, UT has the right idea in simplifying their essay requirements, but by not coordinating with the other major Texas public university, the change is apt to cause more confusion than clarity.

For the supplements, I was deeply critical of UT’s Change the World supplement implemented in 2022. It’s arguably the worst supplement of all time. It seems they will get rid of this topic, which I support. In general, I deride almost all supplement questions besides “Tell us why you want your major” and “Discuss an activity or extracurricular that matters to you.” In my Surviving the College Admissions Madness, I call for simplified and fewer essay requirements, and this change is a step in that direction.

The Major supplement remains the same, and the Leadership short answer is mostly the same as in previous cycles. The primary difference is specifying that the applicant should write about a single activity. I welcome this change because it will force applicants to write more in-depth about a meaningful pursuit by supplying anecdotes and examples rather than students submitting a glib and underdeveloped “here’s a summary of my resume with a few sentences on each activity” sort of response that Admissions likely received in previous cycles.

Here are examples of the Major and Leadership short answers that still apply.

A Waitlist

Like the essay change, I support this modification. UT has announced an “Introduction of a waitlist. Applies to students who are not automatically admitted. Most students will be notified as early as March 1 if they are admitted from the waitlist.”

As I’ve written and videoed for many years, the Appeals process has become an absurd, farcical lottery in which UT fills the remaining spaces to make its enrollment class. I hope introducing a waitlist will bring some transparency and diminish the aggregate anxiety and stress that admissions rejections around “what families can do.”

Recommendation Letter Suggestion Changes

This change has a positive intention but will miss the mark in practice. The press release reads: “Narrowed scope for letters of recommendation. Applicants submitting letters of recommendation will be strongly encouraged to provide those letters from sources outside of their high school. This reduces the burden of this work on high school teachers and counselors and allows University staff to better leverage other materials.”

Thankfully, the official Admissions page has clarified that the letters can come from teachers.

You can submit up to two letters of recommendation with your application or after you’ve submitted your application. These letters may be from mentors or people who know you well, and can include teachers, although we encourage you to provide letters from sources outside your high school.

Nevertheless, I’m deeply critical of the recommendation letter requirements in my Admissions Madness book. I argue that they’re a waste of time for students, recommenders, and the universities who must read them. I estimate a few million human hours are wasted each year on them. Of all the college application items, besides perhaps interviews, rec letters are the most energy for the least help evaluating applicants.

UT seems to agree, but they’ve taken a half-measure of adding ambiguity to an already muddled practice. Since universities do not coordinate their policies nor act collectively, UT’s suggestion will make zero difference in practice since almost every applicant applying to UT is also applying to other universities where they will either be required to submit a recommendation letter from a high school official or core subject teacher. Suppose even a single university on a student’s college list requires letters, and almost all top 50 private universities require them, including Rice. In that case, students will submit them everywhere, including UT, where they have always been optional.

If a critical mass of universities made the same change, this change could make a difference. Unilateral changes will not produce UT’s stated intentions to reduce school staff workloads. If UT were sincere about its care for school communities and staff workloads, it would have forbidden recommendation submissions, as the University of California has for many years. They have the chance to start a collective movement away from removing recommendation letters from the nationwide American admissions landscape, but I doubt they’ll take the initiative.

Even though the admissions site specifies that letters can include teachers, by emphasizing a seeming preference for “outside sources,” this equivocal recommendation will add more stress for applicants because now they will scramble to get recommendation letters from non-school sources under the mistaken assumption it’s now a requirement or “strongly recommended.” I hope UT clarifies its policies because this will cause a giant mess. One consequence is elite families will badger UT-affiliated staff to submit rec letters on their behalf since they’re not high school affiliated. Get ready for a mountain of crappy letters from “family friends” or supervisors at non-substantive internships or random UT alum. It’s obvious to me UT hasn’t thought through their modification.

My suggestion is and will remain not to go out of your way to acquire rec letters. If you’ve already secured teacher letters for other universities, still submit them to UT. Still, they do not make a difference for 99% of applicants.

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