texas essay format

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How to Write a Texas Format Essay

Last Updated: February 26, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Alicia Cook . Alicia Cook is a Professional Writer based in Newark, New Jersey. With over 12 years of experience, Alicia specializes in poetry and uses her platform to advocate for families affected by addiction and to fight for breaking the stigma against addiction and mental illness. She holds a BA in English and Journalism from Georgian Court University and an MBA from Saint Peter’s University. Alicia is a bestselling poet with Andrews McMeel Publishing and her work has been featured in numerous media outlets including the NY Post, CNN, USA Today, the HuffPost, the LA Times, American Songwriter Magazine, and Bustle. She was named by Teen Vogue as one of the 10 social media poets to know and her poetry mixtape, “Stuff I’ve Been Feeling Lately” was a finalist in the 2016 Goodreads Choice Awards. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 176,009 times.

A great structure which can be used to help write an essay is the TEXAS format. This is actually necessary in the New Zealand system of qualifications. [1] X Research source It's also a great way to structure an essay. However, many people don't know how to use it. If you've missed a few lessons at school, this article can help you catch up.

Writing Your Own TEXAS Format Essay

Mention your individual points. But try not to describe them. Just briefly mentioning them is fine.
Banter, a brief sentence that is not quite on topic is a must. Don't make your introduction too long. Try to keep to five lines, seven at the most. An essay I wrote about Overcrowded Roads began thus:
"Traffic Jams have become an issue in New Zealand. This is because of overcrowded roads, and is quite a problem in centers such as Auckland. Several government initiatives have been introduced to solve the problem, such as more roads, better traffic management and more public transport. However, I don't think these are the best solutions." Notice how the first line grabs the readers attention. I then go on to elaborate, revealing the actual issue I'm talking about. Then I mention the government initiatives (banter) and then set out my three main points in order of appearance. I tie off the paragraph by expressing my view. Your introduction needs to be a subliminal contents page. The reader has to know where you going before you go there. A common mistake people make in essay writing is saying, "In this essay I will talk about..." You will almost certainly be marked down for this. Be imaginative in replacing this phrase.

T - stands for Topic. Here you state what you'll be talking about in the paragraph. It only needs to be one line, just enough to specify what you're talking about.
E - stands for Explain. Here you will elaborate on your Topic, giving the reader more information about what it is. One line will do here, but two is more beneficial for your mark.
X - stands for Example. This is where your paragraph comes to the crunch. You will have to use a real example. If you're to a Response to Literature, you'll need a real quote. If you're doing a formal writing essay you'll be able to get away with a looser interpretation of the word 'real'. You necessarily be judged on the content of your quote, but more on how you use it to back up your argument.
A - stands for Analysis. Here you discuss how your example backs up your argument. Two lines is a good bet here, the more you show how much you understand your example the better. Feel free to start it off with, 'This shows how..." or "Here we see..." You shouldn't get marked down particularly, but you'll get marked up for a more original link.
S - stands for Summary. This often means repeating your Topic statement with more affirmative grammar. Rearranging the words never hurt either. Put all of this together and you get a TEXAS paragraph. A paragraph trying to prove overcrowding on roads might go:
"New Zealand roads are seriously overcrowded. Everyone owns a car, and everyone uses them.This has lead to crowded streets and more traffic jams. A government report released in 2006 showed a 20% increase in traffic jams over the last 10 years. This is the direct result of too many cars on the road, and the government is concerned about it. If the government is concerned so should we be. New Zealand roads are far too overcrowded." Notice how my example wasn't accurate; I got a merit for this paragraph despite this. The reason I got merit was because I did not use the more complicated paragraph form TEXAXAS. This is simply where you add in an extra example and analysis. TEXAXAS is not a crucial component of getting an Excellence, but it helps. The real reason I got a merit on this paragraph was because I used a generalization in the second sentence. Try to avoid these, the markers don't like them. I'd have been better off if I'd said " Most people own a car..." instead of everyone.

"All in all, success is winning. The two words are the same. And anyway, why would you play a sport if you didn't intend to win? Who would rather lose than win? The derogatory term 'loser' is not showered on the successful. Success is winning, so unless you win, you lose." Despite my 'excellence' grade here, I could have done better. If I'd used examples from earlier in the essay to back up the points mentioned here, I'd have done far better. Note how I used questions. Examiners love this, finishing with a question leaves the reader thinking. Although it may not get you extra marks, it will give the examiner a better opinion of your essay. Also note how I tied off, using a slightly rhetorical statement. This brings the impact of the entire essay home in one hit, leaving the reader knowing what my argument was. Writing a TEXAS essay isn't difficult, anyone can do it. Writing one well is the trick.

Community Q&A

Practice is always good. While revising for an exam, write mock essays under mock exam conditions. The more you succeed at this stage, the more you'll succeed at the actual exam. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 1
Relax while writing. Don't feel that just because it says Formal Writing at the top of the page that you have to be rigid in your language. Formal only means you shouldn't use acronyms, abbreviations or colloquialisms like 'Mate'. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

This guide is just that, a guide. It is not a teaching resource. Trust your teachers before you trust this guide! Thanks Helpful 5 Not Helpful 2

Expert Interview

Thanks for reading our article! If you’d like to learn more about writing essays, check out our in-depth interview with Alicia Cook .

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About This Article

One way to structure your essay is to use the TEXAS format, which stands for Topic, Explain, Example, Analysis, and Summary. For the introduction, write a 5 to 7 line paragraph that tells the reader what you’re going to talk about. The first line should state the problem you’re arguing about, like “Teenage drivers are irresponsible.” Then, spend the rest of the paragraph introducing the main points of your argument. After the introduction, you’ll move on to the body paragraphs, which is where you’ll do your arguing. Each paragraph should be organized around the TEXAS format, so start with your topic for the paragraph, explain your topic, give an example of the issue, analyze the example, and summarize the topic for that paragraph. End your essay with a summary that briefly reiterates your main points. You can also include some examples from earlier in the essay to back up the main points you explored or end with a question to leave the reader thinking about your topic. To learn how to create a rough essay plan, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Apply Texas Essays 2022‒2023

Apply texas essays 2023.

If you live in Texas or plan on applying to schools there, it’s likely that you’ve heard of the Apply Texas portal . At Texas schools, the Apply Texas essays are an important part of the application process. In fact, the Apply Texas essays are the best way to let your personality, experiences, and interests impress admissions teams.

In many ways, Apply Texas—including the Apply Texas essays—resembles the Common Application. So, you can likely repurpose plenty of information from the Common Application as you complete the Apply Texas application.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to tackle each of the Apply Texas essays. We’ll discuss:

General information about the Apply Texas portal
How to respond to each of the Apply Texas essay prompts
Different Texas college requirements
The importance of the Apply Texas essays
More useful essay resources from CollegeAdvisor

Now, let’s start our deep dive into the Apply Texas essays. But first, let’s talk about the Apply Texas application more broadly.

What is Apply Texas?

Apply Texas is a college application portal where students can apply to higher education institutes in Texas. The portal was created in order to allow students to fill out one application for all Texas schools. Students will create an Apply Texas login in order to access their applications.

However, while many of the best colleges in Texas require an Apply Texas login to complete their application, some don’t. So, make sure to check the application requirements for every school.

Apply Texas essay vs. the Common Application essay

You may be wondering, what’s the difference between the Apply Texas essay and the Common Application essay? Well, logically, Apply Texas can only be used to apply to schools in the state of Texas. However, some Texas schools may also accept applications through the Common Application or Coalition Application. If that’s the case, then you can decide which portal to use.

Overall, the Apply Texas essay format is similar to the Common Application essay format. This means that many of the tools you’ve used for your Common Application essay will help you complete your Apply Texas essays. You can also look at Common App essay examples to help you write the Apply Texas essays.

Understanding the Apply Texas essay requirements

Different schools will have different requirements when it comes to the Apply Texas essay prompts. Some schools may not even require an essay at all.

For example, Texas State University applicants will complete their applications using the Apply Texas login. While Texas State only lists their essay as “highly recommended,” you should still complete it. You can also check out some Apply Texas essays examples to bolster your application.

The Apply Texas application also has its own unique Apply Texas essay prompts, which differ from the prompts on the Common App. So, while you might be able to repurpose your Common App essay for one of the Apply Texas essay prompts, you should think carefully about your choice of topic.

What schools use Apply Texas?

Many two- and four-year universities in Texas use Apply Texas. This includes the majority of public universities as well as some private colleges.

However, you should always double-check each school’s admissions site to see which application portal you should use. Each school’s requirements will vary.

You can use Apply Texas to apply to some of the best colleges in Texas , including UT Austin and Texas A&M University. However, Rice University—the top college in Texas, according to U.S. News—does not use Apply Texas.

Understanding the Apply Texas essay format

If you’re planning to apply to multiple Texas schools, you should create an Apply Texas login. However, all schools’ requirements will be different. This means the Apply Texas essay format could slightly vary.

While you’ll find one Apply Texas essay word limit on the application itself, different schools will recommend different word counts. You may also not complete all of the Apply Texas essays for every school.

So, top Texas universities such as the University of Houston , Texas Tech , and TCU will have slightly different requirements, even though you’ll use the same Apply Texas login to access their applications. Use our College Search Feature below to learn more about each school’s unique features!

What are the Apply Texas essays?

Next, let’s check out the Apply Texas essays.

There are three Apply Texas essay prompts. You’ll complete different Apply Texas essays depending on which schools you apply to. For example, some schools may require that students respond to the Apply Texas essay A, while others may let you choose your prompt.

Below, we’ve provided a chart with each of the Apply Texas essay prompts.

Applicants should also note that Apply Texas word limits will vary by school. In this chart, we’ve provided the word limit suggested by the portal itself. However, you should adapt your word count to each university’s requirements.


Essay 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?	~800	Depends on each university
Essay B	Some students have an identity, an interest, or a talent that defines them in an essential way. If you are one of these students, then tell us about yourself.	~800	Depends on each university
Essay C	You’ve got a ticket in your hand – Where will you go? What will you do? What will happen when you get there?	~800	Depends on each university

Remember to consider school supplements

Additionally, note that some universities will require other short essays as well as one of the Apply Texas essay prompts.

For example, the UT Austin application will differ from the Baylor application even though both will use an Apply Texas login. Likewise, the UT Austin application requirements aren’t exactly the same as the UT Dallas application requirements. So, always be sure to double-check the admissions sites for school specifics.

Before tackling your Apply Texas essays, try to read some Apply Texas essays examples. This will give you an idea of the different ways to approach the essay. The Apply Texas essay format can vary, so looking at Apply Texas essays examples can help you think outside of the box.

How long should Apply Texas essays be?

As you tackle the Apply Texas essays, you should keep the word count in mind. According to the Apply Texas application portal, you have 800 words for each of your essays.

However, when it comes to the word limit, you’ll want to see what each university requires or recommends. Every school’s requirements will be different.

Let’s check out a couple of schools in Texas and compare their approach to their Apply Texas essay word limit.

The University of Texas Austin requires its applicants to respond to Apply Texas Essay A if using the Apply Texas application. Their word limit is 500-700. Additionally, students will complete three required short answer essays with word limits of 250-300 words. They can also choose to complete a fourth optional essay (also 250-300 words).

Alternatively, Texas Tech does not require applicants to complete an essay. However, the essay is “highly recommended.” So, as usual, consider this optional essay a requirement. If using the Apply Texas application, Texas Tech gives students the option to respond to Apply Texas Essay A or B. They have placed a 500-word limit on this essay. Check out some tips from Texas Tech admissions to write your Apply Texas essays.

Texas Christian University

The TCU admissions office requires applicants to complete one essay. However, which of the Apply Texas essays students write is up to them. The word limit is 300-500 words, so you’ll need to impress TCU admissions with a concise, authentic, and passionate essay.

As you begin your Apply Texas essays, check out Common App essay examples and Apply Texas essays examples to help you prepare.

Apply Texas Essay 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.

The Apply Texas Essay A seems to be the overwhelming favorite among universities using the Apply Texas essays. This prompt asks students to “tell us your story.” Simple enough, right?

Of course, a prompt this broad can feel overwhelming. However, it’s a great opportunity to show admissions who you are. This is your chance to really make your application stand out by sharing something that you haven’t yet revealed (or expanded upon) in other parts of your Apply Texas application.

This prompt is quite similar to one of the Common Application prompts. So, if you want some inspiration, you can check out Common App essay examples.

Which Texas colleges require it?

Surprisingly, many universities in Texas do not require applicants to submit an essay. However, if a school includes an “optional” essay requirement, you should still submit one. The Apply Texas essays are a great way to stand out and enrich your application narrative.

That being said, some universities in Texas do require applicants to submit Apply Texas Essay A. For instance, Texas A&M requires applicants to respond to Apply Texas Essay A. And, as we mentioned, the UT Austin application also requires Apply Texas Essay A.

Remember, while going through the Apply Texas application, double-check the essay requirements. They will vary depending on each school.

How to write Apply Texas Essay A

Like many college essays, Apply Texas Essay A asks you to share experiences that have made you who you are. Whether you have a million ideas or are drawing a complete blank, don’t worry. We’re here to help.

Let’s check out the best way to respond to Apply Texas Essay A.

You could probably tell many stories. Apply Texas Essay A asks you to share just one. This leaves a lot of room for interpretation.

So, think about significant moments in your life. It could be easier to focus on the last few years, as you’ve probably grown a lot throughout high school.

Make a list of moments that have changed or shaped you as a person. No moment is too small to include. As long as it shows some growth—and you can write authentically and passionately about it—then it’s a good topic.

Answer the prompt completely

Now, the prompt mentions an opportunity or challenge. Don’t blatantly point out this in your draft by stating “this was a huge challenge/opportunity.” Most likely, if you’ve chosen a story that shows your personal growth, then it’s probably an opportunity or challenge. And, if you tell your story well, this will come through.

You will need to clearly show how that moment that you’re sharing has shaped who you are today. For example, let’s say that you want to discuss the day you went to your first protest. From that moment forward you’ve been passionate about activism. That clearly shows how pivotal this moment was in your life. Maybe it’s even shaped what you’d like to study or your future career.

Remember to research your school, too. Well-written Apply Texas essays will be specific to each individual school. For example, if writing an essay for Southern Methodist University , check out their specific programs and offerings. Even though this isn’t a “why school” essay, you can still link your interests and growth to the school.

Write passionately

This isn’t the time to write vague statements that could apply to any high school student. Your story should be unique to you. Make sure to choose your topic wisely to highlight your passion and authenticity.

Don’t be afraid to get creative. Set the scene. Remember that it’s much more impactful to show rather than tell when writing. If we continue with our protest example, you might open your essay by describing the atmosphere using descriptive language that puts the reader right there with you. Then, you can reflect back on how this moment has affected you to date.

Apply Texas Essays – Topic B

While a few schools require applicants to answer the Apply Texas essay A, some may ask you to choose which essay to respond to. Let’s review the second of the Apply Texas essay prompts:

Some students have an identity, an interest, or a talent that defines them in an essential way. If you are one of these students, then tell us about yourself.

Again, the goal of this prompt, like all of the Apply Texas essays, is to let you show each school what makes you unique. You should also aim to relate it back to your aspirations. For example, how does who you are shape what you want in your future?

Approaching Apply Texas Essay B

Topic B asks you to explore a part of your identity. Is there something you can point out that shows your values, character, and personality?

For example, maybe you’ve been dancing ballet since you started walking. Maybe it’s become a form of meditation or a way for you to express yourself. Perhaps it’s taught you discipline. It doesn’t matter how it’s shaped you (although it should be in a positive way)—you just need to show how it has impacted you.

If you decide to focus on an “identity” instead of an “interest,” then you’ve got even more options to choose from. You can choose to highlight your background, experiences, family, values, or other key features.

Overall, your topic should be unique to you. And, again, don’t be afraid to get creative in writing this essay. Your Apply Texas essays shouldn’t read like a resume; they should be engaging while still answering the prompt.

Apply Texas Essay Prompts – Topic C

You’ll be hard-pressed to find a university that requires students to respond to the last of the Apply Texas essays. However, you may be given the option of which Apply Texas essay prompts you’d like to respond to. So, let’s check out Essay C.

You’ve got a ticket in your hand – Where will you go? What will you do? What will happen when you get there?

You may notice that this essay seems quite different from the other Apply Texas essays—it gives you a lot more freedom. So, you can really dive into the creativity of this topic. However, remember to not get too carried away and forget that, in the end, you’re still writing a college essay. The main goal, like the other Apply Texas essay prompts, is to show who you are as a person and an applicant.

Crafting a response to Essay C

For Essay C, your process doesn’t have to be wildly different than it was for the other Apply Texas essay prompts. First, decide what you’ll write about. Start by brainstorming options if nothing comes to mind right away.

Maybe you have a topic in mind immediately. That’s great! If you can write passionately about your ticket destination and activity, then that’s the topic for you.

Once again, get creative. You could go to a magical land, back in time, outer space, or to a remote island. The ticket and the destination don’t matter—it’s what they show about who you are.

Most importantly, make sure to tie in your career goals or future aspirations. How will this trip impact you and your future? What experience will you have that will shape you?

Exploring Texas college’s essay requirements

When it comes to factors such as the Apply Texas essay word limit or Apply Texas essay prompts, requirements will vary by school. While the general Apply Texas application will be the same, the Apply Texas essay format will be different. Namely, each school will request different Apply Texas essay prompts.

Let’s look at some of the essay requirements for the best colleges in Texas:


UT Austin	Topic A required 500-700 words	3 required and 1 optional short answer essays 250-300 words
Southern Methodist	1 essay (topic of your choice) 250-650 words	2 required short answer essays 250 words
Texas A&M	Topic A required 500-700 words	No additional essays
Baylor University	1 essay (not specified) 500-700 words	1 supplemental essay 450 words
TCU	1 essay (topic of your choice) 300-500 words	No additional essays
UT Dallas	1 optional essay (topic of your choice) 500-700 words	No additional essays
University of Houston	Not required	1 short admissions essay if applying test-optional
Texas Tech	1 optional essay (Topic A or B) 500 word max	Optional additional essay (Topic A or B) 500 word max

As you can see, while the Apply Texas application is uniform, the essay requirements vary greatly by school. For instance, you’ll see the Apply Texas essays for the Baylor application vs the University of Houston application are not the same. So, always double-check with your university’s admissions sites for all requirements.

And, don’t forget, when it comes to “optional” essays, treat them as though they are required. While Texas A&M admissions requires an essay, Texas Tech does not. However, strong essays will impress both Texas Tech and Texas A&M admissions. After all, Apply Texas essays are the best way for schools to get to know you better.

How important are the Apply Texas essays?

When it comes to the admissions process, the Apply Texas essays are extremely important. In general, college essays let applicants share a part of their personality that they haven’t highlighted elsewhere in their application.

Additionally, most schools use a holistic admissions approach when evaluating students. That means that they review all parts of the application: GPA, essays, extracurricular activities, recommendations, and more. In fact, with more schools going test-optional, essays are an even more significant piece of your application puzzle.

All to say: strong Apply Texas essays can make a huge difference. So, give yourself ample time to write them.

5 Tips to Make Your Apply Texas Essays Stand Out

Since the Apply Texas essays are so important in the admissions process, you’ll want to do everything you can to make yours stand out.

5 tips to write Apply Texas essays that impress

1. meet the requirements.

This may seem obvious, but you need to make sure that you understand the requirements for each school. Double-check the word counts and requirements for each to make sure that you hit all targets.

2. Choose a topic carefully

Your topic is the most important part of the process. If you choose a topic that you aren’t authentically passionate about, it will show. Don’t think about what admissions wants to hear. Instead, choose a topic that you can easily write about. Then go back and fine-tune your essay to answer every aspect of the prompt.

3. Get creative

Your Apply Texas essays should be engaging and unique. Don’t feel like you need to stick to a certain format. Set the scene and capture your audience. This is your opportunity to show who you are as well as your writing chops. So, as long as you answer each prompt fully, get as creative as you’d like!

4. Show personal growth

Your Apply Texas essays should show how you’ve evolved. Ideally, you should connect your personal growth to future aspirations in college and beyond. No matter the prompt, this is your opportunity to shine. These are college essays, so you want to show what you’ll bring to campus with your responses.

5. Start early!

The last thing you want to do when it comes to your Apply Texas essays is wait until the last minute. Creating impactful essays will take time. You’ll brainstorm, draft, edit, and redraft. You should also leave enough time to have someone else proofread your essay for mechanical errors. Likewise, if they don’t understand the narrative, you’ll want to rework your story and message so that it makes sense to a reader.

Apply Texas Essays & More Essay Resources from CollegeAdvisor

Writing the Apply Texas essays can feel overwhelming. That’s why we’ve compiled many essay resources to help you create your best essays. While admissions requirements and essay prompts will change, the overall goal of your college essays stays the same: show admissions who you are and why you belong at that university.

Before writing essays, you’ll also want to research specifics about the school. We have college pages that outline acceptance rates, enrollment, majors, and more to give you some quick facts on different schools in Texas. To jumpstart your research, check out the Baylor University , Texas A&M University , and University of Texas Austin pages . However, make sure to also do a deep dive into each university’s website to learn more about specific programs and campus life.

Essay guides and other resources

Follow up by checking out our essay guides. These guides are specific to individual universities. You may even find it helpful to look at past essay guides such as our Baylor , Texas A&M , or UT Austin essay guides. Again, while prompts may change, the end goal of the essays stays the same.

Additionally, check out the most recent guides such as this 2022-2023 Texas Christian University guide for the most up-to-date tips on making your essays stand out to TCU admissions. Looking at example essays can also help you get inspired.

CollegeAdvisor has a wealth of resources to help you on your college journey. No matter if you’re trying to create the best Baylor application or impress Texas A&M admissions, our team can help. For expert guidance on the Apply Texas essays and more, schedule a meeting with our team here .

This essay guide was written by Sarah Kaminski. Looking for more admissions support? Click here to schedule a free meeting with one of our Admissions Specialists. During your meeting, our team will discuss your profile and help you find targeted ways to increase your admissions odds at top schools. We’ll also answer any questions and discuss how CollegeAdvisor.com can support you in the college application process.

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Communicating information: paragraph writing

Page 1 – introduction, a texas paragraph.

T - Topic Sentence: Answers the question in one short sentence.
E - Explanation: Explains the concept(s).
X - eXamples: Gives evidence that your answer is correct.
A - Ask Yourself: Read your paragraph: have you answered the question? [Don’t write anything; just proofread.] Then Add more Explanation or eXamples if you need to.
S - So What? : Why is your answer important?

T - Topic sentence

Tip: Rewrite the question as an answer.

Q. How did X fight for their rights?

Topic Sentence: Women in New Zealand fought for their rights by writing a petition.

E - Explanation

Tip: Explain the concept word(s) in your topic sentence.

Many women in New Zealand wanted the right to vote in the 1890s. Having this right means that you can participate in the government of your country and have a voice.

X - eXamples

Tip: Use specific names, dates and places. Use quotes if you can. [Aim for at least three points here.]

The Suffrage Petition was presented to the New Zealand parliament on 28 July 1893 and had 25,519 signatures on it. [ETC…]

S - So What?

Tip: Write about why this is/was important:

“This was important because…” / “This shows us that…”

The fight for the right to vote shows us that a group of people can change a country if they are well organised and determined.

Combining concepts

Look at the question and pull out the concept word(s)
Write down the concept word(s)
Make a mind map adding concept words; put evidence next to the concept words

For example:

Why did X fight for their right?

Rights = Women’s rights to vote, NZ, 1893

To end discrimination e.g. By 1881 all men could vote
To gain political empowerment e.g. Two-thirds of women who could, voted in their first election in 1893

Steps to follow:

Now combine your concept words in the topic sentence
Explain the concept words in your explanation
Use your concept words to talk about your examples
Explain what all this tells us about the importance of the concept words
Women in New Zealand fought for their right to vote to gain political empowerment and end discrimination .
In the 1880s in New Zealand women were discriminated against in many areas including the right to vote which gives people a voice in their government, and politically empowers them: they can influence what laws are made or changed.
An example of discrimination was...
This shows us that discrimination can be ended by a group of determined people, and that over time political empowerment can lead to women rising to the position of Prime Minister of New Zealand

Being persausive

Being persuasive is not about 'tricking' people or winning a debate (even though you actually believe the opposite point to be true). It is about being effective in putting forward what you believe to be true based on evidence.

There are three things that can help you with this:

Look for examples outside the context
Deal with counter arguments
Spend time getting the best possible evidence

1. Look for outside examples

Use concept words to reach out to examples from different places and times. If you are arguing that the right to vote leads to political empowerment then look for multiple examples. You could include South Africa at the end of Apartheid for example. This makes your point stronger because you can show it is true in many situations.

2. Deal with counter arguments

Find someone who disagrees with you. Read their view. Introduce their view into your paragraph and then show how it is wrong (with evidence). For topics in the past look at what the opponents at that time said. Plenty of men were against female suffrage in 1893. Why? Did their fears come true? Why not?

3. Get the best possible evidence

This is the evidence that proves the point you are making, and not evidence that is just about names and places and dates. If you are saying that getting the vote was politically empowering for women in New Zealand then look for evidence that shows that this was true. This takes longer, but it is much more powerful.

Building an argument

At this point you have so much to say that your paragraph is about two pages long.

This is the point where you can start to write an essay. An essay allows you to answer the question at length but keep your points clear and organised.

Make your mind map of the concepts and include your evidence.
Each of the points out from the centre will be a paragraph by itself.
Write a Topic Sentence and Explanation as you usually would and stop. This is your Introduction.
Start a new paragraph using the TEXAS structure, but base it around your first concept word. Leave out the So What.
When you have completed this paragraph move to a new TEXAS paragraph with the next concept word. Again, leave the So What.
Now write your conclusion as a separate short section. This is the So What?
[Intro] Women in New Zealand fought for their right to vote to gain political empowerment and end discrimination . In the 1880s in New Zealand women were discriminated against in many areas including the right to vote which gives people a voice in their government, and politically empowers them: they can influence what laws are made or changed.
[Para 1 Topic Sentence] Women in New Zealand fought for their right to vote to end discrimination .
[Para 2 Topic Sentence] Women in New Zealand fought for their right to vote to gain political empowerment .
[Conclusion] This shows us that discrimination can be ended by a group of determined people, and that over time political empowerment can lead to women rising to the position of Prime Minister of New Zealand.

How to cite this page

Communicating information: TEXAS, URL: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/te-akomanga/skills/communicating-information-paragraph-writing, (Manatū Taonga — Ministry for Culture and Heritage), updated 12-Jun-2024

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What’s With TEXAS Paragraphs

It wasn’t until I arrived at my current school that writing was streamlined across the middle school with a specific format for introductory paragraphs, body paragraphs, and conclusions. We follow a TEXAS format for the body paragraphs of argumentative and literary essays. TEXAS stands for:

T opic Sentence

textual e X ample

The body paragraphs are the meat of an essay. Body paragraphs must include specific textual evidence to support a claim and provide analysis of the textual evidence describing how it supports the claim. Stating “This quote proves . . . “ is not enough. Analysis needs to hold the reader’s hand and walk them through the connection between the textual evidence and the claim. At the eighth grade level, students are required to include three or more examples (2 direct quotes and one indirect example) per paragraph to really prove a claim is valid.

The hardest part for my students is the analysis after finding the strongest evidence to support one’s claim. What is good analysis? And how do students know what to say in the ANALYSIS? I tell my students to get rid of the word “proves” and begin with the words “This shows that” following the quote. This will forces students to EXPLAIN and elaborate on their thinking without summarizing the connection between the evidence and the claim.

Let’s look at a student exemplar.

So to help students write off of a quote and practice analysis, I created this graphic organizer

It is not enough to find valid evidence, because evidence itself doesn’t support an argument. What supports an argument is the way students UNPACK or EXPLAIN evidence. Students need lots of opportunities to help articulate their understanding of a text. Explaining and elaborating is a skill students build throughout schooling to help unpack the layers of a text.

How do you help students analyze and articulate their understanding of a text? Share your ideas in the comment section of this blog. I am always interested to know what is working for other teachers and students.

How to Write the 2021 University of Texas Application Essays Part 1

My hook for this post is the University of Texas application for 2020-2021, but I am also going to take a look at reusing essays selectively in your other applications, which can save a lot of time and work. There are a couple of venues for applying to the University of Texas, and in discussing these I will introduce (briefly) and compare several important application portals used in Texas, but also nationally. Lesson one: to write a great University of Texas essay, you actually start by taking a look at the alternative of using either the Texas application site or the Coalition Application site.

Like the University of California, Texas runs its own college application portal . But in addition to the Coalition and UT/Apply Texas portals, the good news is that you can write a great University of Texas essay and turn around to reuse it for some of the 800-plus colleges using the Common Application portal, with little or no reediting–if you watch your word counts and choose your prompts wisely.

Different Application Portals: Apply Texas

Goal #1 for applying to college in 2020-2021 is to look for ways to reuse essays. Which brings us to those application portals.

Apply Texas is the foundation of all Texas applications, but universities determine which prompts to use. Assuming you are applying to the University of Texas, you could go directly to the UT website, which shows a single prompt fo the longer personal essay. This prompt is also up as the “A” prompt on the Apply Texas portal, and it is the Apply Texas system that handles all the data and that stands behind the various Texas public university applications–it’s a bit like the way the University of California is set up as a single portal, but there is more variation in the application requirements for Texas. Technical and state colleges are included in Apply Texas, whereas in California, the Cal State university system has a portal that is entirely separate from the University of California system.

For an example of how the Apply Texas requirements can vary from school to school, UT Austin requires a full set of the Texas application essays, including using option A for that longer essay and several shorter essays of about 250 words. In contrast, Texas Tech “strongly suggests” that you write at least one of the required essays but does not require it.

Of course, if you are a serious applicant to Texas Tech: write all of the essays. When offered the chance to do more, you want to do more. It demonstrates commitment.

And this year, in particular: if you did not take the SAT or ACT before the Covid rules came into play, or want to retake because your scores are below the mnidle 50%, but don’t end up getting one of the limited seats available before apps are submitted (or you just don’t want to risk your own or your family’s health for another test) you will want as much positive material for that holistic application evaluation as possible, to make up for missing data from standardized tests.

The Next Portal: The Coalition Application

Next portal: That longer essay prompt for UT Austin, which is Prompt A for Apply Texas is actually shared with the Coalition Application . “ Coalition ” is the short name for The Coalition for College Access .This might seem odd until you look at the UT Austin site, where it tells you that you can use the Coalition portal to apply, and skip the UT/Apply Texas portal.

To clarify: you only use one portal to apply–you will apply either through the UT portal, which is supported by Apply Texas or you will apply to UT through the Coalition App portal, which also allows you to apply to other schools listed on the Coalition portal, both inside and outside of Texas. So the Coalition is accepted by UT but is not limited to Texas schools. The question then, is whether it covers all or most of the colleges you want to apply to.

How to choose? See if all the colleges you want are among those listed on the Coalition App–if they are, you will save a lot of time by filling out all that basic data from name and personal information through activities only once, instead of using diferent sites and pasting in and tinkering with the same basic information, data and short responses over, and over. Using a more national portal like the Coalition Application offers efficiency. But the Coalition Application itself is not the biggest of the portals available.

A Comparison to the Common Application

A big drawback of the Coalition App is its relatively short list of participating colleges. The Coalition has 151 schools participating for 2020-2021. Compare this to the Common Application, which will be used by 884 universites . Sadly, the Common Application is not accepted by UT, among many others, but the Common App’s reach does make it a portal you are likely to use at some point this year.

To be very clear: though the Common Application is indeed the most commonly used app portal of all, its not an option for Texas public colleges (e.g. Texas Tech, UT Austin, et al). Outside of the University of California system, however, most of the big-name colleges that might come to mind do use the Common Application.

This is why you want to look at it now, and another reason: the Common Aplication essay prompts are up, so you can compare them, to the UT main essay. And there are other good schools in Texas among the Common App’s 800-plus clients, including Baylor, Rice, and TCU, not to mention those dozens of schools you have heard of and likely want to apply to outside of Texas.

So our focus on the Common App in this post is aimed at the possibility of reusing an essay on two or more portals.

Why You Should Look at Reusing Essays

The typical person applying to 10 colleges will generally use at least one main, longer essay of 550-650 words, and a series of supplementals. This means that you could easily write 20 essays for 10 apps–or 30. Most of these supplemental essays will be shorter than the 550-650 word main essays, but still–the more chance you have to reuse material, the more efficiently you can move through the work. And the workload, once school starts, can be quite extreme. With all the variables up in the air for this year, saving some labor on essays is a good idea.

I want to add before you go on to the rest of this post, and taking a look at the essay prompts, that there is one caveat–the various essay checking software programs, like Turnitin, will flag repeat uses of essays, and the use of such software is becoming more widespread–either through the adoption of Turnitin or other options, like in-house algorithms at some schools. Noting that it’s not really possible to plagiarize yourself, the focus here is on being sincere in your appeal to your target schools, and crafting the majority of supplemental essays carefully to suit your targets. But you need to balance this with the knowledge that, in the contemporary application scene, most students applying to selective and super selective colleges apply to ten or more universities, and they almost all reuse some degree of material. I will discuss fine tuning strategy on this in a later post.

Pay Attention to Word Count Limits in Essays

In addition to looking at the essay prompts, you should note that there are some differences in the word counts allowed–if you use the Coalition site, they suggest no more than 550 words; the Common Application allows no more than 650 words , and that is a firm limit; and for U Texas, I suggest 550 to no more than 650 words. (I’ve seen essays of up to 700 plus words accepted through the UT section of the Apply Texas application portal in the past, but suggest shooting for 550 as your max in your Texas main, which of course is the max word count suggested on the Coalition App.)

Many Application Essay Prompts Will Be The Same As Last Year

Whether they have reached perfection or just can’t get a revision done in this Covid-disrupted year, all three of the portals we have discussed will be using the essay prompts they had up last year. Please don’t take this as a green light to imitate your older sibling’s essays from last year, however–that essay scanning software I discussed is one reason. Being yourself and doing your own thing is another.

Let’s take a look at Texas first, then I will compare Texas prompt A to the current Common Application prompts to show you how to save a lot of work by reusing an essay or two–

2020 through Spring 2021: University of Texas Essay Prompt A

ApplyTexas Essay Prompt A

Guidelines for Essay Topic A—350-ca. 750 words, recommend aiming for 550 words.

Texas Essay Topic A (For U.S., applicants, as well as Transient, Readmit, and Transfer International applicants) : Tell us your story. What unique opportunities or challenges have you experienced throughout your high school career that have shaped who you are today?

This is the definition of a “personal” essay question , and it overlaps with a range of essay prompts required by other universities. It also overlaps with most of the Common Application prompts, depending on the angle you take–and when you can use one essay for two applications, that is a must-do opportunity. Just take a look at the Common Application prompts, which in the main define a more specific angle on the same broad prompt for how your experience has shaped who you are .

You just want to be sure your focus is on the last few years/high school, but keeping the focus on ongoing and recent experience is a rule of thumb in college essays anyhow–as opposed to writing about that deeply felt experience in elementary school. Generally skip those, unless they initiated or motivated activities that are still ongoing in high school, particularly if they continue today.

A Few Words About Social Justice Topics

One specific comment on topics at this point: Most college counselors advise against putting controversial, editorial-page topics at the center of college essays, but in my opinion, this year is different. Social justice, a perennial but undervalued subplot in American life, has come to the fore as the main focuses in recent months for most of you, for reasons I do not need to review here.

If you are genuinely engaged in the movement for equality and social change, this could be a good topic. Just be sure this is a real commitment for you personally, with some roots, as no doubt quite a few people will choose to write about this as the challenge or experience they faced, or the belief (system) they challenged in college essays in 2020-21. This is a challenging topic, and you need to avoid preaching to the converted (as well as the unconverted) and you really want to be wary of name calling and oversimplification, particularly of solutions. And of course, eschew cynicism. Click my tag for Social Justice at either the top of bottom of this post to see some other discussions of social justice topics over the years.

Now let’s take a look at how closely the Common Application overlaps with the focus of the Texas main essay.

Comparing the University of Texas and Common Application Essay Prompts

In addition to the quick comparison of prompts below, I have recently posted on how to brainstorm/start the Common Application Prompts for 2020-2021 . I have also looked compared the Common Application Prompts to the Coalition Application, here: Coalition App Versus Common App Essays.

Common Application Prompts for 2020/2021–compare these with the U Texas Essay A–

1. Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story. Note that you would put the majority of the focus on your high school experience, with some background or lead-in, and this prompt is a match for the UT application essay A.

2. The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience? If your high school experience included a challenge or setback you had to overcome, bingo. Also a match for the Texas application essay, option A.

3. Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome? If this challenge occurred during your high school years, even it it did not happen on campus, just connect it the the person you are or have become and link it to some reference to your high school experience, and you are set.

4. Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma – anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution. Notice that this offers you an opportunity to look at the past or the future. For UT you’d need to background the essay in the past, but then you could always turn from that past experiene to the future, to how your education will be shaped by this and what you plan to do with that education–which is a nice way to wrap up an essay–you never want to repeat or restate your introduction in the conclusoin of a college essay–that is formulaic writing, and frowned on. Not to mention that it does not fit in a pesonal essay format.

5. Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others. This overlaps not only with some of the other Common Application prompts, it also matches UT’s prompt A, again if you focus on this occuring during your high school years.

6. Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more? Again, if you discovered a passion in high school, or discuss one that grew during high school (usually academic, and tied to whatever you want to major in or focus on in college, for the best effect) , this also ties in well with the University of Texas essay.

7. 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. Since anything goes here, any Texas essay should also fit.

Contact Me for Editing and Essay Development

Texas has three additional, short essay responses required, and there is some variation in these (e.g. a prompt for Art and Architecture majors) and I will come back to these in the next week or two. Let me know if it was useful for you to look at comparing and reusing essays–I may look at the UT system short essays in comparison to those used by other systems if y’all hare enthusiastic about this approach. You can leave a comment, or if you are looking for essay development and essay editing, and you want the best, hands-on assistance, Contact Me . This link takes you to my business portal.

I do all the editing and coaching myself, so if you do want to create your best possible essays, contact me soon, while I still have some space available.

The Eyes of Texas

Oh, and of course, here is your bonus for this post, the University of Texas, fight song :

“The Eyes of Texas”

I once did know a president

A-way down South, in Texas.

And, always, everywhere he went,

He saw the Eyes of Texas.

The Eyes of Texas are upon you,

All the livelong day.

You cannot get away.

Do not think you can escape them

At night or early in the morn —

The Eyes of Texas are upon you

’Til Gabriel blows his horn.

Sing me a song of Prexy, *

Of days long since gone by.

Again I seek to greet him,

And hear his kind reply.

Smiles of gracious welcome

Before my memory rise,

Again I hear him say to me,

“Remember Texas’ Eyes.”

* “Prexy” refers to a President, particularly a college president, and dates back to the early 19th Century, so yes, it does predate UT Austin and in fact predates the state of Texas.

(To be sung at UT football games and after a few too many fermented beverages on sundry occasions. Of course, that won’t likely happen this year, but we can hope for the 2021 season, when you will likely be arriving on campus.)

How to Write the Apply Texas Essay

Let professional writers deal with your paper, quickly and efficiently.

If you’re a student looking for a great opportunity to pursue a rewarding undergraduate education in the state of Texas, it could be very helpful to know that there are over 150 four-year universities at your disposal.

The process of applying for these universities includes using the ApplyTexas application platform. Prospective students can use the Apply Texas platform to accomplish the following tasks:

Apply for admission to any of the 150 public university institutions in the state of Texas, including private colleges and participating communities.
Apply for graduate, international and undergraduate admission.
Take a submitted application to another university.
Submit your ApplyTexas essays online (get college essay help).
Find all necessary specific and general information regarding universities.

The 2022-2023 application season is about to knock on your door, and you’ll have to do everything in your power to pass the admissions committee.

Our college admission essay writing service felt like helping out prospective students develop a good strategy. Go through the ApplyTexas application process easily with our list prompts, as well as some topics and great Apply Texas essay examples.

About ApplyTexas Platform

The Apply Texas Platform is a direct result of a collaboration between a wide range of private and public universities from around the state, and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board .

This platform ensures that both Texans and non-Texans get an integrated means of applying to various post-secondary educational institutions. Prospective students can take their compelling application and use it to apply to multiple universities around the state.

Instead of submitting applications for each school, students can use only one application that’s valid in all the 150 public university institutions in the state of Texas. The platform allows students to apply for admission to all private colleges and participating communities as well.

Students can use this platform to find all necessary information about the platform, the process of application and requirements, and college essay topics according to their preferences, answer prompts, and more.

It’s a great, actionable and very informative platform that helps students make their way to the school of their choosing. More importantly, students can use their ApplyTexas application to submit it to any other institution on the Apply Texas list of institutions.

Apply Texas Application Process and Requirements

The Apply Texas application uses a standardized form that allows students to use one application for several universities at once. Before you start your application process, make sure you verified that the school you want to get into is featured on the platform.

ApplyTexas is accepted in all public universities in the state of Texas. This platform offers a comprehensive range of tools students can use to determine whether a university of their liking is featured in the platform.

Aside from ApplyTexas, students also use the Common Application. It’s essential to determine which type of application suits your college list the most. ApplyTexas is just like an ordinary college application. There are some requirements, components, and materials you’ll need to consider before getting started.

Here’s a list of what you’ll need to get started:

One copy of your high school transcript
Your standardized test results
Evidence of any extracurricular activities
Contact information for your guidance counselor and guardians
Evidence of your parents’ employment
A personal statement
Letter of recommendation

Just like any other application system, Apply Texas application is divided into sections that deal with your interests, background, and personal information. These sections are:

Biographical information
Educational background
Educational information
Test scores
Residency information
Extracurricular and volunteer activities
Employment information
School-specific questions

The system is divided into these sections to help admissions officers learn more about the prospective students, their habits, behavior, interests, aspirations, extracurricular activities, working and volunteering experiences, and more.

Since your application holds your personal information, they can use it to contact you in case they need clarification regarding questions, your information, etc. These sections help the officers get a clear picture of who their prospective students are, by understanding their interests and backgrounds.

When it comes to your biographical and educational information, it includes your demographics, school, and contact details. Admissions officers use this information to determine how you compare to other candidates, what resources your school provided you with, your background, etc.

Aside from these requirements, there are also custom questions to think about. These are included in most Texas universities are the Apply Texas version of supplemental essays. The most common topic of these custom questions is to find out why you’ve chosen a certain school or major or what you think your contribution should be to campus, etc.

Spring applications are mostly asked to write about their background and the environment in which they grew up in their essays. UT at Austin requires applicants to give answers to three 250-word questions that cover their future leadership, academics, and career.

To make sure you’re properly prepared for your application and Apply Texas essay, see that you include all extra requirements before you submit.

Prompts and Essays

If you’re comparing high school and colleges, you’ll find out that college essays are almost the same, only a bit more serious. When it comes to Apply Texas essay requirements, these vary. The required prompts vary from school to school, but the most common essay prompt is Essay A.

For example, UT Austin supplemental essays require Essay A with three smaller custom questions, while Texas A&M requires Essay A and B. All universities require an essay no longer than 1200-1500 words. If we take the fact that admissions officers have a lot of applicants to deal with, it would be wise to keep your word count to less than 1000.

Now, there are three different ApplyTexas essay prompts for freshman and international freshman applications:

Essay 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?
Essay B: Most students have an identity, an interest, or a talent that defines them in an essential way. Tell us about yourself.
Essay C: You’ve got a ticket in your hand – Where will you go? What will you do? What will happen when you get there?

Let’s take a closer look at each of the three.

This prompt is almost like your personal statement, only different. Students who are using the Coalition App or the Common App usually write Essay A. It includes the most important things that admissions officers should know about you.

The trick with Essay A is to make it unique and personal to make your essay impactful and memorable. That means that centering your essay around your strongest test performance isn’t going to be enough to make you stand out.

The narrative you choose to go with should be focused on you and your personality. You’re applying to college, hoping to get a good education that will help you build your career. You can’t expect to reflect on such a major event in your life by writing about scoring great on a math test.

The story you choose to go with should be deeply connected to you. In most cases, adversity comes in handy. With that in mind, our recommendation would be to write about certain challenges and obstacles you had to overcome, such as a natural disaster, loss of a family member, an illness, etc.

On the other hand, you can use this prompt to write about your expectations and opportunities. It’s even better if you had a chance to engage in some activities that other students haven’t. It’s essential to pick a topic that separates you from the rest.

Essay B gives you full control over your essay. You have complete freedom to write about anything that comes to your mind. Essay B isn’t about all of the activities you’ve crossed your path with, so you’ll have to stick with the most essential and meaningful one.

Pick the one that really defines you as a person and then elaborate on it. Talk about it, why it matters to you, how it helped you and defined you as a person, what you’ve learned from it, and how it helped develop a specific interest.

It’s even better if the activity is connected to the theme of your application. It helps to highlight your commitment to what you’ve actively pursued and felt so passionate about. The most important part of Essay B is talking about you and your identity.

This part of your personality refers to anything related to your personality like an unusual hobby that defines your personality, your socioeconomic class, sexual orientation, languages you speak, culture, ethnic background, and so on.

Pretty much, anything that you think is essential and played a big role in defining who you are as a person, your way of thinking and acting could be the topic of your essay.

It’s not just enough to talk about your identity — you have to go further beyond it and expand on the concept. Talk about why you think this matters to you and how it helped shape you, your life, and your perspective.

The third prompt is about using your imagination without limits or boundaries. In essence, writing an essay should be fun. You’re not here to defend your dissertation in medicine — you’re here to tell the admissions officers who you are, what you love, how you feel, and where you would like to be in the next few years. Essay C is exactly that — your view of the future.

You can talk about where you would like to go with your life and then expand on that concept by thinking critically about the reasons that compelled you to go that way. If you can relate it back to your application, that would be even better.

By doing so, you have far better chances of standing out in the entire college admissions process. The best thing about the Essay C prompt is that you can choose a fictional place, as there are no rules stating it has to be a real place.

Essay C is essentially how admissions officers ascertain your character and capability. By letting your imagination run wild, you’re showing them how your mind works but, more importantly, what your true values are.

This question is also an excellent way to show them what characteristics of a community you really hold dear. There is no one size fits all when it comes to writing a college essay that stands out. You’ll just have to think it through and try to connect all the dots into a bigger picture.

It’s vital that you give answers to the following questions:

What made you choose that particular location?
How are you connected to that place?
What role does that place play in your life?

It’s important that you describe some meaningful situations that helped define you as a person. Oh, and don’t forget to edit before you submit as you can’t afford to submit an essay with grammar mistakes, etc.

Tips for Writing Essay A Prompt with Topic Ideas

Let’s elaborate a bit on what you can do with your Essay A prompt. The main goal of this prompt is to allow admissions officers to see how the external environment has shaped you as a high school student. You can start by describing your environment.

Identify and describe specific events and experiences that shaped your personality while in high school. Only describe the experiences that are really important to you. It’s essential that you focus on how these experiences shaped you through your high school career.

Just describing the environment isn't enough as you have to show how that environment shaped you into the person you are today. Your audience is hoping to learn two main things about you:

That you can be thoughtful and mature about your surroundings
What makes you different from the rest in your environment

Here are some key strategies you can use to make sure you answer the prompt correctly.

1. Choose a specific aspect of your surroundings

Take ideas such as your community, neighborhood, home, or family and work on them in several different directions. Expand on each concept by including the most significant things and events that connected you with the surroundings.

2. Talk about how your surroundings made you special

Reflect upon how this environment helped turn you into who you are today. More importantly, how it helped you stand out. You can talk about how your environment positively fostered certain traits or qualities in you or mention some obstacles you had to overcome.

It’s vital that you make a connection between your special traits and the environment to send a clear message to your readers. Think of specific events, anecdotes, or stories that could be related to your interaction with your surroundings and explain what they say about you.

3. Make it interesting

Remember when we said that writing an essay should be fun? You can make your essay more interesting by including some action and characters. Just like a good movie, your essay needs a happy ending or, at least, a poignant one.

Here are some good features to consider for your essay:

Setting — try to depict the main characters and their connection to the environment or start by describing the actual physical environment.
Stakes — adding high stakes to the story gives your essay a dynamic range, making things more interesting. So, explain what you gained or lost in your anecdote.
Conflict resolution — every story has an external and internal conflict that needs resolution. External conflict includes someone like a friend, a family member, a neighbor, etc. Inner conflict is essentially your response to a particular experience or event. Both conflicts need some level of resolution to express how the changes impacted you.

Here are some good Essay A ideas:

Describe a situation where you made the initiative to organize people in your surroundings to contribute to a common local cause.
Reflect upon a close relationship with someone very close to you.
Talk about a particular place in your environment and why it matters so much to you.
Describe how it feels being a minority where you come from.
The things you had to do to handle culture shock from having to move.

Tips for Writing Essay B Prompt with Topic Ideas

Prompt B is all about telling others about yourself. Now, this is pretty vague, but we can dissect it into two specific sections:

The things that define you — every person has certain traits that define them, whether it’s a talent, an interest, or an identity.
How these things make who you are — having traits alone isn’t enough, you’ll have to elaborate on how these traits make you who you are, what they say about you as a person.

Essay B tells your readers two things about you:

How you see yourself — colleges are looking for students who are aware of themselves and can communicate messages about themselves in a cohesive, confident, and clear way. Describe your values and core traits that helped you go through changes and develop a sense of self.
What your passion is — prompt B speaks about your ability to communicate genuine passion. You’ll face a lot of challenges in college, and you’ll need a driving force to overcome them all. Speaking about what you’re passionate about tells your readers that you can be engaged in the world around you.

It’s important not to lose yourself in describing a complete image of your personality. Keep in mind that you have to stay on the right course in describing your defining trait.

So, be both comprehensive and focused at the same time. Here are a couple of ways you can frame your identity and put your passion in the best perspective.

1. Identify your core message

To be able to precisely, comprehensively, and accurately describe the essence of who you are, you first need to identify your defining trait. It has to be something that clearly represents who you are or the core aspect of your personality.

This is where we’ll mention anecdotes and stories once again. The best way to identify your core message isn’t by just saying what it is. If you can tell a story about how you’ve come to recognize it, now that’s a completely different thing. Be positive and realistic as this helps make your essay sound serious and mature.

2. Make your core message a part of a bigger picture

So, you’ve identified your core message. The next phase should be using it to create a complete image of your personality. Think about what your core trait says about you.

Are you adventurous?
Are you passionate?
Do you like exposing yourself to risk?
Do you have a taste for exploration?
Are you a team player?

Go with two or three traits and start painting your final masterpiece about who you are in your essence.

3. Don’t be afraid to describe situations

Just telling about some event or experience that demonstrates your key trait isn’t nearly as effective as showing or describing how certain situations led you to develop and recognize those traits.

4. Be mindful of your tone

You’re here to talk about the special qualities that make you unique and valuable to your college and community. Therefore, avoid seeming narcissistic, self-aggrandizing, staid, and glib.

You don’t want to sound self-centered and whiney. Instead, describe yourself as a person people can rely on, as someone who can take charge of a touchy or difficult situation.

Here are some good Essay B ideas to contemplate on:

If you’re an expert on some topic or really good at something, try to explain how that impacts your identity.
Describe what a certain extracurricular activity you got involved in means to you and what you’ve learned from it.
If there’s anything you did thorough research on, speak about how you’ve come to discover that interest and the things you’ve learned from it.
If you have a personality trait, explain how it impacted you, your life and the people around you.
Describe how your cultural or religious background defined you.

Tips for Writing Essay C Prompt with Topic Ideas

Essay C is essentially about you giving your imagined possibilities to your readers. Since there’s a pretty vast array of possibilities to reflect on here, we recommend taking one of the following two approaches:

Take your long-term goals and expand on them — describe what long-term goals you’d like to accomplish in your life and career to show what your interests are.
Make your narrative imaginative — the C topic doesn’t put any limits on you. It gives you complete freedom to talk about anything, anywhere. It’s important to determine the place and the things you’ll do there. This helps express yourself as a thoughtful person, capable of thinking ahead of things and situations.

Essay C helps admissions officers understand a specific path you’re set on. This prompt allows you to demonstrate your maturity and knowledge. More importantly, it tells about your capability to include all possibilities and portray a futuristic picture of your life and career in a compelling way. It is crucial to find out all the essay requirements the university you are going to enter has. That's why we prepared different blogs such as Virginia Tech GPA requirements , Carnegie Mellon essay prompts , Johns Hopkins essay that worked , etc, to help our users prepare for this writing task.

Here are some tips to help you express compelling and thoughtful visions of your future.

1. Pick your destination

Since this is practically your direct interpretation of what you should be doing in the future, you have to pick a destination that has a special meaning for you. It has to be genuinely compelling to you.

2. Don’t overdo it

Students usually get lost in describing their vision because there is so much they would want to say but are limited by the word count. Therefore, stick with a simple aspiration rather than brag about your vision.

Remember that you’re writing a college essay. It has to be real, convincing and serious yet imaginative. Talk about what kind of person you’d like to become.

3. Include all other elements

Picking a destination is just one side of the coin. Don’t forget to include and consider other elements of your story. Take the key ideas that relate back to your goals, talents, and personality.

Your admissions officers shouldn’t have to think about your point or who you are — your paper is there to explain that to them.

Here are some good Essay C ideas you can use to accomplish that:

Describe how a particular extracurricular activity or class led you to pursue a particular academic career.
Put yourself in a leadership role and describe what that experience taught you and how you’ve learned to take charge and solve problems.
Start a discussion on how you had the chance to teach someone to do something and how that inspired you to teach in the future.
If you want to make it more abstract and fictional, describe a place from your favorite movie or book you’d like to visit and what that says about you.
Name a historical period you’d like to visit.

Essays & Short Answers

Summer/Fall 2025 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).

The Common App personal essay will complete the UT Austin essay requirement.

Spring 2025 Essays

All freshman Spring 2025 applicants must submit Topic A in ApplyTexas.

Please keep your essay between 500–700 words (typically two to three paragraphs).

Spring 2025 Essay Topic

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

Submitting Your Essay

You can submit your essays:

In conjunction with your application.
Using the Document Upload System in MyStatus.

*Students do not need to submit other Common App essays. We’ll only review what is required.

Short Answers

Submit the required short answers to prompts in your admission application. Answers are limited to no more than 40 lines, or about 250–300 words per prompt, typically the length of one paragraph.

Summer/Fall 2025 Prompts

Why are you interested in the major you indicated as your first-choice major?
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 student s: This can include an extracurricular activity, a club/organization, volunteer activity, work or a family responsibility.)

Optional Short Answer

Please share background on events or special circumstances that you feel may have impacted your high school academic performance.

Spring 2025 Prompts

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 core purpose of The University of Texas at Austin is, “To Transform Lives for the Benefit of Society.” Please share how you believe your experience at UT Austin will prepare you to “Change the World” after you graduate.

Submitting Your Short Answers

You can submit your short answers with either your Common App or Apply Texas application. Short answer responses must be completed in order to submit your application.

Transfer applicants must submit one essay responding to Topic A. Applicants to the School of Architecture are required to upload Topic D in addition to Topic A.

Essay Topics

Topic a (required).

The statement of purpose will provide an opportunity to explain any extenuating circumstances that you feel could add value to your application. You may also want to explain unique aspects of your academic background or valued experiences you may have had that relate to your academic discipline. The statement of purpose is not meant to be a listing of accomplishments in high school/college or a record of your participation in school-related activities. Rather, this is your opportunity to address the admission committee directly and to let us know more about you as an individual, in a manner that your transcripts and the other application information cannot convey.

Topic D (School of Architecture majors only)

Personal interaction with objects, images and spaces can be so powerful as to change the way one thinks about particular issues or topics. For your intended area of study, describe an experience where instruction in that area or your personal interaction with an object, image or space effected this type of change in your thinking. What did you do to act upon your new thinking and what have you done to prepare yourself for further study in this area?

Submitting Your Essay(s)

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How to Write Perfect ApplyTexas Essays

College Essays

The ApplyTexas college application contains many essay prompts, and each of the most popular colleges in Texas has different requirements for which essays they expect applicants to answer.

So how do you get advice on writing your best ApplyTexas essays, no matter which school you're applying to? Look no further than this article, which completely unpacks all possible ApplyTexas essay prompts. We'll explain what each prompt is looking for and what admissions officers are hoping to learn about you. In addition, we'll give you our top strategies for ensuring that your essay meets all these expectations and help you come up with your best essay topics.

Worried about college applications? Our world-class admissions counselors can help. We've guided thousands of students to get into their top choice schools with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies.

To help you navigate this long guide, here is an overview of what we'll be talking about:

What Are the ApplyTexas Essays?

Comparing applytexas essay prompts a, b, and c, dissecting applytexas essay topic a, dissecting applytexas essay topic b, dissecting applytexas essay topic c, dissecting applytexas essay topic d.

Dissecting the UT and Texas A&M Short Answer Prompts
Briefly: ApplyTexas Essay Topic E (Transfer Students Only)

The ApplyTexas application is basically the Texas version of the Common Application , which many US colleges use. It's a unified college application process that's accepted by all Texas public universities and many private ones. (Note that some schools that accept ApplyTexas also accept the Common App.)

The ApplyTexas website is a good source for figuring out whether your target college accepts the ApplyTexas application. That said, the best way to confirm exactly what your school expects is to go to its admissions website.

Why Do Colleges Want You to Write Essays?

Admissions officers are trying to put together classes full of interesting, vibrant students who have different backgrounds, strengths, weaknesses, goals, and dreams. One tool colleges use to identify a diverse set of perspectives is the college essay .

These essays are a chance for you to show admissions officers those sides of yourself that aren’t reflected in the rest of your application. This is where you describe where you've come from, what you believe in, what you value, and what has shaped you.

This is also where you make yourself sound mature and insightful—two key qualities that colleges are looking for in applicants . These are important because colleges want to enroll students who will ultimately thrive when faced with the independence of college life .

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Admissions staff want to enroll a diverse incoming class of motivated and thoughtful students.

ApplyTexas Essay Requirements

There are four essay prompts on the ApplyTexas application for first-year admission (Topics A, B, C, and D). For Topics A, B, and C, there are slight variations on the prompt for transfer students or those looking to be readmitted. We’ll cover each variation just below the main topic breakdown. There are also several short-answer prompts for UT Austin and Texas A&M , as well as Topic D for art and architecture majors and Topic E for transfer students only . Although there are no strict word limits, colleges usually suggest keeping the essays somewhere between one and one and a half pages long.

All Texas colleges and universities have different application requirements, including which essay or essays they want. Some schools require essays, some list them as optional, and others use a combination of required and optional essays. Several schools use the essays to determine scholarship awards, honors program eligibility, or admission to specific majors.

Here are some essay submission requirement examples from a range of Texas schools:

You are required to write an essay on Topic A .
You also have to answer three short-answer prompts (250–300 words each) .
If you're applying for a studio art, art education, art history, architecture, or visual art studies major, you'll have to write a short answer specific to your major .
UT Austin also accepts the Common App.

Texas A&M

If you're an engineering major, you'll have to respond to a short-answer prompt .
Texas A&M also accepts the Common App .

Southern Methodist University

You must write an essay on Topic A .
You may (but do not have to) write an essay on Topic B .
You also have to answer two short-answer prompts .
SMU also accepts the Common App and Coalition App and has its own online application, so you have the option to pick and choose the application you want to fill out .

Texas Christian University

You must write an essay on any of the topics (A, B, or C) .
TCU also accepts the Common App and Coalition App has its own online application, so it's another school for which you can choose the application you want to use.

The essays required as part of each admissions application differ from college to college. Check each institution's website for the most up-to-date instructions.

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Three of the ApplyTexas essay topics try to get to the heart of what makes you the person you are. But since Topics A, B, and C all focus on things that are essential to you as a person, coming up with a totally unique idea for each can be difficult—especially since on a first read-through, these prompts can sound really similar .

Before I dissect all of the ApplyTexas essay prompts, let's see how A, B, and C differ from one another. You can then keep these differences in mind as you try to think of topics to write about.

ApplyTexas Prompts

Here are the most recent prompts for Topics A, B, and C on the ApplyTexas application.

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

Most students have an identity, an interest, or a talent that defines them in an essential way. Tell us about yourself.

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

How to Tell Topics A, B, and C Apart

One helpful way to keep these topics separate in your mind is to create a big-picture category for each one: Topic A is outside, Topic B is inside, and Topic C is the future .

In other words, Topic A is asking about the impact of challenges or opportunities on you and how you handled that impact. Topic B is asking about your inner passions and how these define you. Finally, Topic C wants to know where you're going from here. These very broad categories will help as you brainstorm ideas and life experiences you can use for your essay .

Although many of the stories you think of can be shaped to fit each of these prompts, think about what the experience most reveals about you. If it’s about how your external community shaped you, that'd probably be a good fit for Topic A. If it’s a story about the causes or interests that you're most passionate about, save it for Topic B. If it’s primarily about an event that you think predicts your future, it'll likely work well for Topic C.

(Note: if you are a transfer student writing the essay variation for Topics A, B, or C, keep in mind that these variations still ask you about the outside, inside, or future respectively.)

Your years-long passion for performing in theater productions is an appropriate subject for ApplyTexas Topic B essays.

Now, we'll thoroughly deconstruct everything you need to know about Topic A, the first ApplyTexas essay prompt.

What’s the Prompt Asking, and How Should You Answer It?

This prompt wants to see how a particular external experience as a high school student has shaped you . The prompt uses the phrase "your story," signaling that admissions staff want to know what you believe has had the biggest impact on you.

Step 1: Describe Your Experience

The first part of the prompt is about identifying and describing specific experiences you've had as a high school student. You don't want your essay coming across too vague, so make sure you're focusing on one or two specific experiences, whether they've been positive or negative. The prompt suggests zeroing in on something "unique," or something that has affected you in a way it hasn't impacted anyone else.

You'll want to choose an opportunity or challenge that you can describe vividly and that's really important to you. In other words, it needs to have had a significant impact on your personal development.

It should also be an experience that has been part of your life for a while . You're describing something that's affected you "throughout your high school career," after all.

Step 2: Explain How This Experience Shaped You

You shouldn't just describe your experience—you also need to discuss how that experience affected you as a person . How did this particular opportunity or difficulty turn you into the person you are today?

It's best if you can think of one or two concrete anecdotes or stories about how your chosen experience(s) helped shape you. For example, don't just say that a public piano recital made you a hard-working person— describe in detail how practicing diligently each day, even when you weren't feeling motivated, got frustrated by particular parts of the piece you were performing, and experienced stage fright showed you that working toward your goals is worthwhile, even when it's hard.

Elaborating on how a specific challenge or obstacle that you faced during your high school career helped shape your current perspective and personality is one option for Topic A essays.

What Are Readers Hoping to Learn About You?

Admission staff are looking for two main things. First, they want to see that you can be mature and thoughtful about your surroundings and events in your life . Are you curious about the world around you? If you've really reflected on your experience, you'll be able to describe the people, places, and events that have impacted you as a high school student in a nuanced, insightful way.

Second, they want to see how you stand out from other applicants . This can be accomplished in one of two ways: (1) you can emphasize how you are somehow different because of your experience and how it impacted you, or (2) you can emphasize how you learned positive qualities from the event that differentiate you from other students. Basically, how did your experience turn you into a special, interesting person?

How Can Your Essay Give Them What They Want?

How can you make sure your essay is really answering the prompt? Here are some key strategies.

#1: Pick a Specific Experience

You'll need to select a particular opportunity or obstacle to zero in on. Opportunities include travel, internships, volunteer or paid jobs, academic events, and awards. Challenges might include competitions, performances, illnesses, injuries, or learning something new. Remember, you'll want to focus on one or two particular events or experiences that have truly contributed to your personal growth .

As you're choosing the experiences you want to write about, think about significant things that happened to you in connection with those events. Remember, you'll need to get beyond just describing how the opportunity or challenge is important to you to show how its impact on you is so significant .

#2: How Did This Experience Shape You?

You then need to consider what about your experience turned you into a person who stands out . Again, this can be about how you overcame the difficulty or how the opportunity fostered positive qualities or traits in you that would make you an appealing member of the college's student body. You want to make sure you have a clear message that links your experience to one, two, or three special traits you have.

Try to think of specific stories and anecdotes related to the event. Then, thoughtfully analyze these to reveal what they show about you. Important adults in your life can help you brainstorm potential ideas.

#3: Think of the Essay Like a Movie

Like a good movie script, a college essay needs characters, some action, and a poignant but ultimately happy ending . When you’re planning out your personal statement, try to think of the story you’re telling in movie terms. Ensure that your essay has the following features:

Setting: As you're describing your experience, taking time to give a vivid sense of place is key. You can accomplish this by describing the actual physical surroundings, the main "characters" in your community, or a combination of both.
Stakes: Movies propel the action forward by giving characters high stakes: win or lose, life or death. Even if you are describing your experience in positive terms, there needs to be a sense of conflict or dynamic change. In the anecdote(s) you've selected to write about, what did you stand to gain or lose?
External conflict resolution: If there's an external conflict of some kind (e.g., with a neighbor, a family member, a friend, or a city council), you need to show some level of resolution.
Internal conflict resolution: Inner conflict is essentially about how you changed in response to the event or experience. You'll need to clearly lay out what happened within you and how those changes have carried you forward as a person.

Describing your feelings before, during, and after the opportunity or challenge is a crucial element of a Topic A college essay.

#4: Add Details, Description, and Examples

Your essay will really stand out if you add effective examples and descriptions.

For example, imagine Karima decides to describe how learning to navigate public transit as a high school first-year student made her resourceful and helped her explore the city she grew up in. She also discusses how exploring the city ultimately changed her perspective. How should she frame her experience? Here are some options:

I was nervous about taking the El by myself for the first time. At the station, there were lots of commuters and adults who seemed impatient but confident. At first, I was very afraid of getting lost, but over time, I became as confident as those commuters.

I felt a mixture of nerves and excitement walking up the Howard red line turnstile for the first time. What if I got lost on my way to the museum? I was worried that I would just seem like a nuisance to all of the frowning commuters who crowded the platform. If I needed help, would they help me? Was I even brave enough to ask? When the metal doors opened, I pressed my nails into my palms and rushed in after a woman with a red briefcase. Success! At least for the first step. I found a sideways-facing seat and clutched my macrame bag with my notebook and sketching supplies. A map hung above my seat. Pressing my finger to the colorful grid, I found my stop and counted how many I still had to go. I spent the entire train ride staring at that map, straining my ears for everything the conductor said. Now, when I think about the first time I rode the El by myself, I smile. What seemed so scary at the time is just an everyday way to get around now. But I always look around on the platform to see if any nervous kids linger at the edges of the commuter crowds and offer them a smile.

Both versions set up the same story plotwise, but the second makes the train ride (and therefore the author) come alive through the addition of specific, individualizing details , such as the following:

Visual cues: The reader "sees" what the author sees through descriptions such as "frowning commuters who crowded the platform," "woman with a red briefcase," and "colorful grid."
Emotional responses: We experience the author’s feelings: she "felt a mixture of nerves and excitement." She wonders if she's brave enough to ask for help. The train ride was "so scary at the time" but feels "everyday" now.
Differentiation: Even though the commuters are mostly a monolithic group, we get to see some individuals, such as the woman with a red briefcase.

ApplyTexas Topic A Essay Ideas

There's no one best topic for this essay prompt (or any other), but I've included some potential ideas below to help you get started with your own brainstorming:

Describe a time you organized the people around you to advocate a common local cause.
Hone in on a particular trip with one or more family members.
Identify a time when you were no longer in your comfort zone. Describe how you adapted and learned from that experience.
Discuss being a minority in your school or neighborhood.
Describe going through a cultural or religious rite of passage as a high school student.
Elaborate on how you moved from one place to somewhere totally different and handled your culture shock.

ApplyTexas Topic A for Transfer, Transient, or Readmit Students

If you are applying to transfer or to be readmitted, you likely already have some college experience. So in this case, ApplyTexas offers a personal statement option that allows you to write about your life beyond your high school years. This option still asks you to demonstrate what in your experience has turned you into a unique individual. But if, for instance, you left college and now are reapplying, you’ll want to address how some aspect of that experience made an impact on who you are now. Otherwise, follow the advice above for the standard Topic A prompt.

Here’s the current Essay Topic A prompt for transfer applicants:

The statement of purpose will provide an opportunity to explain any extenuating circumstances that you feel could add value to your application. You may also want to explain unique aspects of your academic background or valued experiences you may have had that relate to your academic discipline. The statement of purpose is not meant to be a listing of accomplishments in high school or a record of your participation in school-related activities. Rather, this is your opportunity to address the admissions committee directly and to let us know more about you as an individual, in a manner that your transcripts and other application information cannot convey.

Want to build the best possible college application? We can help. PrepScholar Admissions combines world-class admissions counselors with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies. We've guided thousands of students to get into their top choice schools, from state colleges to the Ivy League. We know what kinds of students colleges want to admit and are driven to get you admitted to your dream schools. Learn more about PrepScholar Admissions to maximize your chance of getting in:

Next up, let's go through the same process for ApplyTexas Topic B, taking it apart brick by brick and putting it back together again.

What’s the Prompt Asking?

At first glance, this prompt seems pretty vague. "Tell us about yourself" is not exactly the most detailed set of instructions. But if we dig a little deeper, we can see that there are actually two pretty specific things this question is asking.

#1: What Defines You?

This prompts posits that "most students"—which likely includes you!—have some kind of defining trait . This could be "an identity, an interest, or a talent," so you need to express what that defining trait is for you specifically.

For instance, are you an amazing knitter? Do you spend your free time researching cephalopods? Are you a connoisseur of indie movies or mystery novels? Or maybe you have a religious, cultural, ethnic, or LGBTQIA+ identity that's very important to you. Any of these things could plausibly be the main, framing theme of your essay.

#2: How Does That Defining Trait Fit Into "You" Overall?

Even though you have some kind of defining trait, that's not the entirety of you. Essentially, you need to contextualize your defining trait within your broader personality and identity. This is where the "tell us about yourself" part comes in. What does your defining trait say about you as a person? And how does it fit into your overall personality, values, and dreams?

In a Topic B college essay, you could potentially describe your knowledge of chess and how it exemplifies your talent for thinking several steps ahead.

Admissions staff are hoping to learn two main things:

#1: What You're Passionate About

It's essential that this essay communicates genuine passion for whatever you write about. College is a lot of work, and passion is an important driving force when things get busy. Therefore, readers are looking for students who are really engaged in the world around them and excited about specific causes and activities!

#2: How You View Yourself (and How Successfully You Can Communicate That)

A strong, well-developed sense of self goes a long way toward helping you weather all the changes you're going to experience when you attend college. Even though you'll change and grow a lot as a person during your college years, having a sense of your own core traits and values will help those changes be exciting as opposed to scary .

Colleges are looking for a developed sense of self. Additionally, they are looking for students who can communicate messages about themselves in a clear, confident, and cohesive way .

The challenge with this prompt is giving a complete picture of you as a person while still staying on message about your defining trait. You need to be focused yet comprehensive. Let's explore the best ways to show off your passion and frame your identity.

#1: Define the Core Message

First, you need to select that defining trait . This could be pretty much anything, just as long as you're genuinely invested in this trait and feel that it represents some core aspect of you.

It should also be something you can describe through stories and anecdotes . Just saying, "I'm a redhead, and that defines me" makes for a pretty boring essay! However, a story about how you started a photography project that consists of portraits of redheads like you and what you learned about yourself from this experience is much more interesting.

Be careful to select something that presents you in a broadly positive light . If you choose a trait that doesn't seem very serious, such as your enduring and eternal love of onion rings, you risk seeming at best immature and at worst outright disrespectful.

You also want to pick something realistic —don't claim you're the greatest mathematician who ever lived unless you are, in fact, the greatest mathematician who ever lived (and you probably aren't). Otherwise, you'll seem out of touch.

#2: Fit Your Message into the Larger Picture

Next, consider how you can use this trait to paint a more complete picture of you as a person . It's great that you're passionate about skiing and are a member of a ski team, but what else does this say about you? Are you an adventurous daredevil who loves to take (reasonable) risks? Are you a nature lover with a taste for exploration? Do you love being part of a team?

Select at least two or three positive messages you want to communicate about yourself in your essay about your key trait.

In a Topic B essay, a student could connect their long-time passion for cooking to their penchant for adding their unique touch to every project they take on.

#3: Show, Don't Tell

It's much more interesting to read about things you do that demonstrate your key traits than it is to hear you list them. Don't just say, "Everyone asks me for advice because I'm level-headed and reasonable." Instead, actually describe situations that show people asking you for advice and you offering that level-headed, reasonable advice.

#4: Watch Your Tone

It's important to watch your tone as you write an essay that's (pretty overtly) about how great you are. You want to demonstrate your own special qualities without seeming glib, staid, self-aggrandizing, or narcissistic .

Let’s say Andrew wants to write about figuring out how to grow a garden, despite his yard being in full shade, and how this desire turned into a passion for horticulture. He could launch into a rant about the garden store employees not knowing which plants are right for which light, the previous house owner’s terrible habit of using the yard as a pet bathroom, or the achy knee that prevented him from proper weeding posture.

Alternatively, he could describe doing research on the complex gardens of royal palaces, planning his garden based on plant color and height, using the process of trial and error to see which plants would flourish, and getting so involved with this work that he often lost track of time.

One of these approaches makes him sound whiny and self-centered, whereas the other makes him sound like someone who can take charge of a difficult situation .

ApplyTexas Topic B Essay Ideas

Again, there's no single best approach here, but I've outlined some potential topics below:

Are you known for being really good at something or an expert on a particular topic? How does this impact your identity?
Discuss how you got involved in a certain extracurricular activity and what it means to you. What have you learned from participating in it?
Describe something you've done lots of research on in your free time. How did you discover that interest? What have you learned as a result?
What's your most evident personality trait? How has that trait impacted your life? (You can ask friends and relatives for help with this one.)
Relate the importance of your LGBTQIA+ identity.
Discuss your religious or cultural background and how this defines you.
Describe your experience as a member of a specific community.

ApplyTexas Topic B for Transfer, Transient, or Readmit Students

The ApplyTexas variation on Topic B is specifically designed for two different possible application situations. The first is for people who are applying as nondegree-seeking or postbaccalaureate students (aka “transient students”). In this case, they ask you to discuss the courses you want to take and what you hope to accomplish if you are admitted. That means they still want you to focus this essay on what you are passionate about, as mentioned above, but they expect that passion to be based on courses the university offers more directly.

The second is for students who are reapplying after being suspended for academic reasons. In this situation, they ask you to describe any actions you have taken to improve your academic performance and to give them a reason why you should be readmitted. You’ll still need to focus on your positive traits in this variation, so this can be a tricky task. As in the example above, you’ll need to watch your tone and not come across as whiny. Instead, confront the cause of your academic suspension and what you learned from that experience; then, turn it into a newfound strength. Maybe you learned new study habits you can describe for them. Maybe working full-time while you were suspended improved your work ethic. Whatever you choose, show how a negative situation changed into a positive learning experience for you, and focus on the better person you are now because of it.

Here’s the current prompt for Essay Topic B for transfer applicants:

If you are applying as a former student and were suspended for academic reasons, describe briefly any actions you have taken to improve your academic abilities and give reason why you should be readmitted. If you are applying as a nondegree-seeking or postbaccalaureate application, briefly describe the specific objectives you wish to accomplish if admitted, including the courses in which you would like to enroll.

Now, we can take apart Topic C to get a good handle on how to tackle this future-facing essay.

You've got a ticket in your hand—where will you go? What will you do? What will happen when you get there?

If ApplyTexas Topic A and Topic B were all about your past experiences, Topic C wants you to give readers a glimpse of your imagined possibilities .

There are basically two potential approaches to this question. We'll break them down here.

Option 1: Describe Your Long-Term Goals

One approach to this prompt is to use your essay as a chance to describe your long-term goals for your career and life .

For some students, this will be a straightforward endeavor. For example, say you’ve always wanted to be a doctor. You spend your time volunteering at hospitals, helping out at your mom’s practice, and studying biology. You could easily frame your "ticket" as a ticket to medical school. Just pick a few of the most gripping moments from these past experiences and discuss the overall trajectory of your interests, and your essay would likely be a winner!

But what if you’re not sure about your long-term goals yet? Or what if you feel like you really don't know where you're going next week, let alone next year or 10 years from now? Read on for Option 2.

Option 2: Demonstrate Thoughtful Imagination

Although you can certainly interpret this as a straightforward question about your future, you can also use it as a chance to be more imaginative.

Note that this entire question rests on the metaphor of the ticket. The ticket can take you anywhere; you decide. It could be to a real place, such as your grandmother's house or the Scottish Highlands or the Metropolitan Museum. Or it could be somewhere fantastical, such as a time machine to the Paleolithic.

The important point is that you use the destination you select—and what you plan to do there—to prove you're a thoughtful person who is excited about and actively engaged with the world around you .

The destination you choose to write about, whether realistic or fantastical, should be clearly linked to a specific goal or set of goals that you wish to pursue or are currently pursuing.

If you're on a direct path to a specific field of study or career, admissions officers definitely want to know this. Having driven, goal-oriented, and passionate students is a huge plus for any college. If this sounds like you, be sure your essay conveys not just your interest but also your deep love of the subject, as well as any related clubs, activities, or hobbies you’ve done during high school.

If you take the more creative approach to this prompt, however, realize that in this essay (as in all the other ApplyTexas essays), the how matters much more than the what . Don't worry that you don't have a specific goal in mind yet. No matter where your eventual academic, career, or other pursuits might lie, every activity you've done up to now has taught you something, whether that be developing your work ethic, mastering a skill, learning from a mentor, interacting with peers, dealing with setbacks, understanding your own learning style, or persevering through hardship. Your essay is a chance to show off that knowledge and maturity.

So no matter what destination you choose for your ticket (the what ), you want to communicate that you can think about future (and imagined!) possibilities in a compelling way based on your past experiences (the how ).

Whether you take the ideas of "where you are going" and "what you are doing" in a more literal or more abstract direction, the admissions committee wants to make sure that no matter what you study, you'll be able to get something meaningful out of it . They want to see that you’re not simply floating through life on the surface but are actively absorbing the qualities, skills, and know-how you'll need to succeed in the world.

Here are some ideas for how to show that you have thoughtful and compelling visions of possible futures.

#1: Pick Where You're Going

Is this going to be a more direct interpretation of your goals (my ticket is to the judge's bench) or a more creative one (my ticket is to Narnia)? Whichever one you choose, make sure that you choose a destination that is genuinely compelling to you . The last thing you want is to come off sounding bored or disingenuous.

#2: Don’t Overreach or Underreach

Another key point is to avoid overreaching or underreaching. For instance, it’s fine to say that you’d like to get involved in politics, but it’s a little too self-aggrandizing to say that you’re definitely going to be president of the United States. Be sure that whatever destination you select for your ticket, it doesn’t come off as unnecessary bragging rather than simple aspiration .

At the same time, make sure the destination you've chosen is one that makes sense in the context of a college essay. Maybe what you really want is a ticket to the potato chip factory; however, this essay might not be the best place to elaborate on this imagined possibility.

While you can of course choose a whimsical location, you need to be able to ground it in a real vision of the kind of person you want to become . Don't forget who your audience is! College admissions officers want to find students who are eager to learn . They also want to be exposed to new thoughts and ideas.

#3: Flesh It Out

Once you've picked a destination, it's time to consider the other components of the question: What are you going to do once you reach your destination? What will happen there? Try to think of some key messages that relate back to you, your talents, and your goals .

#4: Ground Your "Journey" in Specific Anecdotes and Examples

The way this question is framed is very abstract, so ground your thoughts about your destination (whether it's more straightforward or more creative) in concrete anecdotes and examples that show you're thoughtful, engaged, passionate, and driven.

This is even more important if you go the creative route and are writing about an unusual location. If you don't keep things somewhat grounded in reality, your essay could come across as frivolous. Make sure you make the most of this chance to share real-life examples of your desirable qualities.

Imagine Eleanor’s essay is about how she wants a ticket to Starfleet Academy (for the uninitiated, this is the fictional school in the Star Trek universe where people train to be Starfleet officers). Which essay below conveys more about her potential as a student?

My ticket is to Starfleet Academy. There, I would train to become part of the Command division so I could command a starship. Once I was captain of my own starship, I would explore the deepest reaches of space to interact with alien life and learn more about the universe.

I've loved Star Trek since my dad started playing copies of old episodes for me in our ancient DVD player. So if I could have a ticket to anywhere, it would be to Starfleet Academy to train in the command division. I know I would make a superb command officer. My ten years of experience in hapkido have taught me discipline and how to think on my feet. Working as a hapkido instructor in my dojo the past two years has honed my leadership and teaching qualities, which are essential for any starship commander. Additionally, I have the curiosity and sense of adventure necessary for a long career in the unknown reaches of space. Right now, I exercise my thirst for exploration through my photography blog. Using my DSLR camera, I track down and photograph obscure and hidden places I find in my town, on family trips, and even on day trips to nearby cities. I carefully catalogue the locations so other people can follow in my footsteps. Documentation, after all, is another important part of exploring space in a starship.

Both versions communicate the same things about the imagined destination, but the second essay does a much better job showing who Eleanor is as a person. All we really learn from the first excerpt is that Eleanor must like Star Trek .

We can also infer from version 1 that she probably likes leadership, exploration, and adventure because she wants to captain a starship, but we don't really know that for sure. Admissions officers shouldn't have to guess who you are from your essay; your essay should lay it out for them explicitly and articulately.

In the second essay, by contrast, Eleanor clearly lays out the qualities that would make her a great command officer and provides examples of how she exemplifies these qualities . She ties the abstract destination to concrete activities from her life, such as hapkido and photography. This provides a much more well-rounded picture of what Eleanor could bring to the student body and the school at large.

Eleanor's essay about her desire to explore the final frontier creatively illustrates her curiosity and leadership potential .

ApplyTexas Topic C Essay Ideas

I've come up with some sample essay ideas for the two different approaches to this prompt.

Possibility 1: Your Concrete Goals

Describe your goal to pursue a particular academic field or career and discuss how specific classes or extracurricular activities ignited that passion
Discuss how your plans to pursue politics, project management, or another leadership role were fostered by a first experience of leadership (this could be a straightforward leadership position in a club or job or a more indirect or unplanned leadership experience, such as suddenly having to take charge of a group).
Discuss how your desire to teach or train in the future was sparked by an experience of teaching someone to do something (e.g., by being a tutor or by helping a sibling deal with a particularly challenging class or learning issue).
Describe your goal to perform on stage, and discuss how your past experiences of public creativity (e.g., being in a play, staging an art show, performing an orchestra, or being involved in dance,.) led you to this goal

Possibility 2: Creative/Abstract Destination

What would you do if you could visit the world of a favorite childhood book, movie, or TV series? What qualities does that show about you?
Is there a relative or friend you would like to visit with your ticket?
Is there a particular historical period you would like to time travel to?
Is there a destination you've always wanted to go to that you've read about, heard about, or only conjured up in dreams or in a moment of creativity?

Remember to tie your imaginative destination to concrete details about your special qualities!

Topic C for Transfer, Transient, or Readmit Students

ApplyTexas offers a Topic C alternative in case there is personal information you want them to consider along with your application, such as why you are transferring to a new school. They still want you to focus on the future, but they encourage discussing any hardships, challenges, extenuating circumstances, or opportunities that have affected your abilities and academic credentials (in a positive way). They also want you to discuss how these circumstances can help you contribute to a diverse college community. In this case, this variation is not fundamentally different from the ticket question; it just asks for a more specific focus. So if this variation applies to you, use the advice above for question C option one.

Here’s the current prompt for Essay Topic C for transfer applicants:

There may be personal information that you want considered as part of your admissions application. Write an essay describing that information. You might include exceptional hardships, challenges, or opportunities that have shaped or impacted your abilities or academic credentials, personal responsibilities, exceptional achievements or talents, educational goals, or ways in which you might contribute to an institution committed to creating a diverse learning environment.

Would you use your ticket to visit Renaissance Italy, a journey you metaphorically hope to take as a history major?

If you're applying to one of several fine arts fields, you might have to write this essay.

Personal interaction with objects, images, and spaces can be so powerful as to change the way one thinks about particular issues or topics. For your intended area of study (architecture, art history, design, studio art, visual art studies/art education), describe an experience where instruction in that area or your personal interaction with an object, image, or space effected this type of change in your thinking. What did you do to act upon your new thinking and what have you done to prepare yourself for further study in this area?

If you’re applying to study architecture, art, or art history, one of the essays you will likely have to write is this one. This essay topic is trying to ask as broadly as possible about an experience with art that has moved you in some way. This means that your options for answering the question are quite varied. So what are the two different parts of this prompt? Let's take a look.

Part 1: Observation and Reaction

Think of a time you experienced that blown-away feeling when looking at something human made. This is the reaction and situation the first part of the essay wants you to recreate. The prompt is primarily interested in your ability to describe and pinpoint exactly what quality made you stop in your tracks. The huge set of inspiring object options the prompt offers tells us that your taste level won't be judged here.

You can focus on a learning experience, which includes both classes and extracurricular activities, or you can focus on a direct experience in which you encountered an object or space without the mediation of a class or teacher. The only limit to your focus object is that it is something made by someone other than you. Your reaction should be in conversation with the original artist, not a form of navel-gazing.

The key for this part of the essay is that your description needs to segue into a story of change and transformation . What the essay topic is asking you to show isn’t just that you were struck by something you saw or learned about, but that you also absorbed something from this experience that impacted your own art going forward.

Did seeing the Angkor Wat Temple during a trip abroad with your family foster your intellectual passion for Southeast Asian art or religious monuments?

Part 2: Absorption

This brings us to the second part of the essay prompt: this is where you need to move from the past into the present — and then at least gesture meaningfully toward the future.

It’s one thing to look at a piece of art, such as a sculpture or architectural form, and feel moved by its grace, boldness, or vision. But it’s a sign of a mature, creative mind to be able to take to heart what is meaningful to you about this work and then transmute this experience into your own art or your interpretation of others' creative works.

This essay wants to see that developing maturity in you ; therefore, you should explain exactly how your own vision has changed after this meaningful encounter you've described. What qualities, philosophy, or themes do you now try to infuse into what you create or how you analyze art?

More importantly, this essay prompt asserts that being affected by something once isn’t enough. That’s why in this second part of the essay, you also need to explain what you’ve been doing to keep having similarly moving encounters with other creative works .

You have some choice, too, when it comes to answering, "What have you done to prepare yourself for further study in this area?" For example, you could describe how you’ve sought out other works by the same artist who moved you the first time. Or you could describe investigating new media or techniques to emulate something you saw. Or you could discuss learning about the period, genre, school, or philosophical theory that the original piece of art comes from to give yourself a more contextualized understanding.

If you’re planning an academic career in the visual arts or architecture, then you’re entering a long conversation started by our cave-painting ancestors and continuing through every human culture and society since.

This essay wants to make sure that you aren’t creating or interpreting art in a vacuum and that you have had enough education and awareness to be inspired by others. By demonstrating how you react to works that move you—not with jealousy or dismissal but with appreciation and recognition of another’s talent and ability—you're proving that you're ready to participate in this ongoing conversation.

At the same time, this essay is asking you to show your own creative readiness. For example, describe not only the work you have produced but also your ability to introduce new elements into that work—in this case, inspired by the piece you described. This way, you can demonstrate that you aren’t a one-note artist but are mature enough to alter and develop what you make. Or if you want to major in art history or art education, relate how your perspective on a particular piece of art or architecture is shaped by your unique perspective, based on your experiences, education, and cultural identity.

A student might write their Topic D essay on how Michelangelo's Madonna della Pietà has influenced their own artistic renderings of youth and beauty in grief.

What are some best practices for teasing out the complexities of art in written form? Here are some helpful tips as you brainstorm and write your essay.

#1: Pick One Piece of Art or Learning Experience

Once you’ve chosen between these two contexts, narrow down your selection even further . If you're writing about an educational encounter, don’t forget that it can come from an informal situation as well. For example, you could write about something you learned on your own from a documentary, a museum visit, or an art book.

If you're writing about a direct experience with art, don't necessarily fixate on a classic piece . Alternatively, you could discuss a little-known public sculpture, a particularly striking building or bridge you saw while traveling, or a gallery exhibition.

Whatever you end up writing about, make sure you know some of the identifying details . You don’t need to know the answers to all the following questions, but do your best to research so you can answer at least two or three of them:

Who is the artist?
Where is the piece on display?
What kind of work is it?
With what materials was it made?
When was it made?

#2: Figure Out Why You Were Struck by This Particular Work

The make-it-or-break-it moment in this essay will be your ability to explain what affected you in the object you're writing about . Why is it different from other works you’ve seen? Were you in the right place and time to be moved by it, or would it have affected you the same way no matter where or when you saw it? Did it speak to you because it shares some of your ideals, philosophies, or tastes—or because it was so different from them?

Be careful with your explanation because it can easily get so vague as to be meaningless or so obscure and "deep" that you lose your reader. Before you start trying to put it down on paper, try to talk out what you plan to say either with a friend, parent, or teacher. Do they understand what you’re saying, and do they believe you?

#3: Make a Timeline of Your Own Creative Works

When you think about what you've been making or thinking about making during your high school career, what is the trajectory of your ideas? How has your understanding of the materials you want to work with or study changed? What message do you want your works to convey, or what message in others' works most resonate with you? How do you want your works to be seen or engaged with by others? What is the reason you feel compelled to be creative or involved in the arts?

Now that you’ve come up with this timeline, see whether your changes in thought overlap with the art experience you're planning on describing . Is there a way you can combine what was so exciting to you about this work with the way you’ve seen your own ideas about art evolve?

#4: Use a Mix of Concreteness and Comparisons in Your Description

Just as nothing ruins a joke like explaining it, nothing ruins the wordless experience of looking at art as talking it to death does. Still, you need to find a way to use words to give the reader a sense of what the piece that moved you actually looks like —particularly if the reader isn't familiar with the work or the artist that created it.

Here is my suggested trick for writing well about art. First, be specific about the object. Discuss its colors, size, what it appears to be made of, what your eye goes to first (e.g., bright colors versus darker, more muted ones), what it represents (if it’s figurative), where it is in relation to the viewer, whether or not you can see marks of the tools used (e.g., brush strokes or scrapes from sculpting tools).

Second, step away from the concrete, and get creative with language by using techniques such as comparative description. Use your imagination to create emotionally resonant similes. Is there a form of movement (e.g., flying, crawling, or tumbling) that this piece feels like? Does it remind you of something from the natural world (e.g., a falling leaf, a forest canopy being moved by wind, waves, or sand dunes shifting)?

If the work is figurative, imagine what has been happening just before the moment in time it captures. What happened just after this point? Using these kinds of nonliteral descriptors will let your reader understand both the actual physical object and its aesthetic appeal.

Dissecting the UT and Texas A&M Short-Answer Prompts

Both UT Austin and Texas A&M require short answers as part of their first-year applications. For both schools, some prompts are required by all applicants, whereas others are required by those applying to certain majors or departments.

We'll go over the UT Austin prompts, followed by the Texas A&M prompt.

UT Austin Short-Answer Prompts

UT Austin requires three short answers from all first-year applicants and also offers an optional prompt. Each short answer should be approximately 250–300 words , or one paragraph.

Short Answer 1: Why are you interested in the major you indicated as your first-choice major?

Short Answer 2: 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.

Short Answer 3: The core purpose of The University of Texas at Austin is, “To Transform Lives for the Benefit of Society.” Please share how you believe your experience at UT Austin will prepare you to “Change the World” after you graduate.

Optional Short Answer: Please share background on events or special circumstances that may have impacted your high school academic performance.

What Are These UT Austin Short-Answer Prompts Asking?

Obviously, these short-answer prompts are asking four different things, but they do have some similarities in terms of their overall goals.

These prompts basically want to know what you can offer UT Austin and why you'd be a great fit as a student there . They also want to know why you chose UT Austin and your specific major.

In other words, all these prompts essentially work together as a "Why This College?" essay .

How Can You Give UT Austin What They Want?

Admissions officers will be looking for evidence that you're genuinely interested in the school, the major you've chosen, and the career you want to pursue . Make sure to identify features of the program that appeal to you. In other words, why UT Austin? What makes you a good fit here?

Be as specific as possible in your responses. Since you won't have much room to write a lot, try to focus on a particular anecdote, skill, or goal you have.

Admissions officers also want to see that you have an aptitude for your chosen career path , so if you have any relevant work, research, or volunteer experience, they definitely want to know this! It's OK to take a broad view of what's relevant here.

Finally, they're looking for individuals who have clear goals as well as a general idea of what they want to do with their degree . Are you interested in working with a specific population or specialty? Why? What led you to this conclusion?

Texas A&M Engineering Prompt

All engineering applicants to Texas A&M must submit an esssay responding to the following prompt:

Describe your academic and career goals in the broad field of engineering (including computer science, industrial distribution, and engineering technology). What and/or who has influenced you either inside or outside the classroom that contributed to these goals?

What Is This Texas A&M Engineering Prompt Asking?

The engineering prompt wants to know two essential things:

What are your future goals for your specific field of interest (i.e., the kind of engineering field you want to go into or are considering going into)?
What environmental or external factors (e.g., a person, a mentor, a volunteer experience, or a paper or book you read) contributed to your development of these goals?

How Can You Give Texas A&M What They Want?

Be as specific as possible in your response. For the engineering prompt, what admissions officers want to know is simply what your biggest engineering ambition is and how you came to have this goal.

You'll want to be as specific as possible. Admissions officers want to see that you have a clear future in mind for what you want to do with your engineering degree. For example, do you plan to go on to a PhD program? Why? Do you have a particular career in mind?

In addition, make sure to specify the main inspiration for or motivation behind this goal. For instance, did you have a high school teacher who encouraged you to study engineering? Or perhaps you decided on a whim to take a computer science class, which you ended up loving.

Remember that the inspiration for your engineering goals doesn't have to be limited to something school-related. If you get stuck, think broadly about what initially got you interested in the field.

Briefly: ApplyTexas Essay Topic E (Transfer Students)

US transfer students and international transfer students must typically submit an additional essay responding to the following prompt (or must submit an essay on one of the topic variations listed above ).

Choose an issue of importance to you—the issue could be personal, school related, local, political, or international in scope⁠—and write an essay in which you explain the significance of that issue to yourself, your family, your community, or your generation.

What's the Prompt Asking?

This prompt, which is intended for transfer students, essentially wants to know what hardship, challenge, or social issue has affected you on a personal level (or a larger group you're part of) and why you think this particular issue is so important to you .

For example, maybe you identify as LGBTQIA+ and have personally experienced discrimination in your local community because of your sexual orientation or gender identity. Or perhaps you grew up in a wealthy family but have begun to see recently how widespread the issue of homelessness really is and now are making a more conscious effort to find ways to remedy this problem in your own community.

The issue you choose doesn't have to relate to a wider social issue; it could be a learning disability you have, for instance, or the fact that you no longer share the same religious beliefs as your family.

The most important part of this question is the connection between the issue and yourself . In other words, why is this issue so important to you ? How has it affected your life, your goals, your experiences, etc.?

This essay is a way for admissions officers to get to know you and what matters to you personally on a much deeper level than what some of the other essay topics allow, so don't be afraid to dive into topics that are very emotional, personal, or special to you .

Furthermore, be sure to clearly explain why this particular issue—especially if it's a broader social issue that affects many people—is meaningful to you . Admissions officers want to know about any challenges you've faced and how these have positively contributed to your own growth as a person.

The Bottom Line: Tips for Writing ApplyTexas Essays

The ApplyTexas application contains four essay prompts (Topics A, B, C, and D), with different schools requiring different combinations of mandatory and optional essays . There are also short-answer prompts for UT Austin, as well as a Topic E only for transfer students.

One way to keep these three similar-sounding essay topics (A, B, and C) separate in your mind is to create a big-picture category for each one:

Topic A is about your outside .
Topic B is your inside .
Topic C is about your future .

Now, let's briefly summarize each essay topic:

Essay Topic A

Overview: Describe any unique experiences you've had as a high school student and how these have shaped who you are as a person.
Pick a specific aspect of your experience.
Describe how it made you special.
Describe the setting, stakes, and conflict resolution.
Add details, description, and examples.

Essay Topic B

Overview: Describe a defining trait and how it fits into the larger vision of you.
Define the core message.
Fit that core message of yourself into the larger picture.
Show things about yourself; don’t tell.
Watch your tone to make sure that you show your great qualities without seeming narcissistic, boring, glib, or self-aggrandizing.

Essay Topic C

Overview: Describe "where you are going" in either a literal, goal-oriented sense or a more imaginative sense.
Pick where you’re going, but don’t over- or underreach.
Flesh out your destination. How does it relate back to you?
Ground your “journey” in specific anecdotes and examples.

Essay Topic D

Overview: Describe being affected by a work of art or an artistic experience to make sure that you are ready to enter a fine arts field.
Pick one piece of art or one specific experience of learning about art.
Figure out exactly why this work or event struck you.
Examine your own work to see how this artwork has affected your creativity or engagement with art or art history.
Use a mix of concrete descriptions and comparisons when writing about the piece of art.

Short-Answer Prompts

Overview: Specific to UT Austin applicants
Describe your relevant experiences and interests up to this point.
Describe what about the program appeals to you and how you will use your degree (i.e., your future goals).
Treat the prompts as parts of a "Why This College?" essay.

Essay Topic E (Transfer Students)

Overview: Specific to US and international transfer applicants
Pick an issue that means a lot to you and has had a clear effect on how you see yourself.
Emphasize how this issue or how you've treated this issue has ultimately had a positive impact on your personal growth.

What's Next?

Curious about the other college essay choices out there? If your target college also accepts the Common Application, check out our guide to the Common App essay prompts to see whether they would be a better fit for you.

Interested to see how other people tackled this part of the application? We have a roundup of 100+ accepted essays from tons of colleges .

Stuck on what to write about? Read our suggestions for how to come up with great essay ideas .

Working on the rest of your college applications? We have great advice on how to find the right college for you , how to write about your extracurricular activities , and how to ask teachers for letters of recommendation .

Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points? We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download them for free now:

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Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.

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TEXAS Paragraph Structure

Create a Great Essay in Texas Format Step by Step

Publication Date: 01 Oct 2019

Many students don’t like writing essays in various styles and find it a nightmare. To be honest, such an attitude is not justified, as this format is on more technique to present your thoughts on a particular question. Of course, the Texas format has its special requirements, but they are not as difficult as it may seem at first glance. Below we gathered necessary information that will help you to make all details clear and write your essay .

What is the Texas format?

This writing style is common for the New Zealand system of qualifications, but it is also widely used in different countries. The brightest example of its usage is ApplyTexas – an alternative version for the Common Application. The first step to understanding what the Texas format provides is to decrypt the acronym of Texas. T stands for a topic, E – for explain, X – for example, A – for analysis, and S – for a summary.

Create your Texas essay step by step

Make a plan and formulate your argument. Planning is always a good idea, even during the exam. Write down key ideas and arguments that come to your mind and pick up examples to support them.
Start with the introduction. The optimal introduction should cover five-seven lines in length. In one sentence you should explain what the issue is – clearly introduce your argument. Then broad your topic with some specifics, it may be a reason why you have chosen this or that issue. Then add a banter – sentence that is not quite on topic. You should also mention, not describes, at least three points you want to consider later.
Create your body paragraphs. At this stage, you should deal with, at least, three arguments. If you are not limited in time, you can write about more. However, if there are any time limits, it is better not to risk it, but to work harder on what is already there. So now it’s high time to apply Texas formula for each paragraph . In one line you specify what you will be talking about in the paragraph. Then you elaborate on the topic and provide more details on it. After that, you have to offer an example from real life. It also may be a quote for a literature response. Next, you analyze how the example correlates with your argument, two lines are pretty enough. The last thing is to summarize – paraphrase your topic statement more affirmatively. All together you receive a remarkable Texas paragraph for any custom essay. Repeat this process three times, and as a result, the body for the paper is ready.
Finish with the summary. The summary is similar to the introduction but you should write it in a more decisive manner. The best way to finish your essay is to summarize the main points and, if possible, mention examples. You have to draw a kind of red line throughout the essay. At the same time, you shouldn’t repeat yourself. Restate your basic ideas from the introduction but through the perspective of the facts, you have covered in the body. In this case, your voice will sound more decisive and confident.
Revise yourself. In the end, you should look through the whole essay to check whether everything is logically built and exclude any mistakes in grammar or spelling.

TSI Essay Guide

One challenging component of the TSI test is the essay question. You will be asked to write a persuasive essay on a controversial issue or an issue of current interest. The TSI essay will be evaluated on your organization, focus, development and support, sentence structure, and mechanical conventions. Fortunately, your essay is only required to be 300-600 words in length. A simple 5 paragraph essay will be more than sufficient. Scores on the essay section range from 1 to 8, with 8 being the highest.

An essay that is too short to be evaluated, written on a topic other than the one presented, or written in a language other than English, will be given a score of zero. The biggest differences between the low-scoring and high-scoring essays is LENGTH and CLARITY. Aim to achieve multiple paragraphs with good organization, and this essay should be fairly easy!

TSI Essay Tips and Strategies

Understand that the TSI Essay will NOT require any outside knowledge. You are not expected to have any specific technical know-how or understanding of specific books or authors. The essay will be based off a provided prompt meant to spark your creativity. Everything you need to answer the question will be part of the prompt!
Select one side only. Unlike real life where most of our opinions are a mix of gray, the TSI essay requires you to take a strong stand on one side and one side ONLY of the issue. You won’t be able to adequately argue a middle-of-the-road approach, and you risk appearing indecisive and muddling your essay.
Remember that you will not be scored on your opinion. Don’t worry if you feel you are choosing a less commonly held position on the topic. The reader will NOT give you a lower score based on personal bias.
Don’t change your position mid-essay. Even if you feel you’re running out of steam and you’re regretting your position on the topic, stay strong and finish the essay anyway. Don’t waffle, and don’t try to take a “middle of the road” approach. You don’t have time to go back and re-write the whole thing.
No example is “too” specific. As long as you can argue logically that it supports your thesis, no example is “too” specific. Most essays are way too general. Aim to make the reader think, “wow, what extreme detail!” as they read. If you are using an example from personal experience, using some names, dates, places, and other concrete details can go a long way. Replace abstracts with absolutes.
Incorporate the opposing side. A great way to strengthen your own argument is to acknowledge that there is in fact complexity to the issue. However, if you bring up and describe the opposing side, make sure to criticize it effectively and reiterate that your side is the only one that is valid. This is a great tool to use in your conclusion, although many students include it in an additional body paragraph.
Keep the introduction and conclusion brief . Don’t take forever to get to the topic. The function of an introductory paragraph is to introduce the reader to the topic in the prompt, and then to clearly and forcefully state your position on it. More than 3-4 sentences is too long. In the conclusion, 1-2 sentences is great to reiterate your position and leave the essay with a closing idea. Save your writing-time for your body paragraphs!
Use Transition Words . Scroll down to the bottom of this article to see a good list of common transition words. Be sure to use these words as you move between paragraphs! Always make sure the reader will understand why you are moving from one paragraph to the next paragraph!

TSI Essay Template

This is a sample outline for the TSI Essay. Notice we are aiming for 5 paragraphs total. You may opt for a shorter 4 paragraph version if 5 paragraphs are too many for you to write, but aim for 5 paragraphs if you can. If you have trouble completing 5 paragraphs, see if you can streamline your body paragraphs. They can often be bloated with unnecessary wordiness. Keep the introduction and the conclusion short and sweet.

Paragraph 1 — Introduction (3–4 sentences)

You will want to begin your essay with one of the following: a generalization about the topic, a quotation, a short anecdote to set-up the correctness of your position, a historical framework, or a piece of news illustrating the contemporariness of the issue. Admit the complexity of the issue.

You have two goals in the beginning part of the essay: to introduce the topic, and to express your opinion on it. Be sure to place your thesis as the final sentence in your introduction.

Paragraph 2 — First Example (4–6 sentences)

Start with your most-powerful or relevant example. Be specific. Your example can be from history, science, politics, business, entertainment, pop culture, current events, personal experience, etc. Anything can be an example, but choose ONE only for each paragraph. It needs to be something you are knowledgeable about and also something that you believe strongly supports your thesis. You have three tasks in your body paragraphs:

Introduce your example.
Describe it.
Explain how it fully supports your thesis.

You should spend the majority of your body paragraph accomplishing the third step: explaining how it fully supports your thesis . Aim to convince the reader through very concrete details how your position on the issue is correct.

Paragraph 3 — Second Example (4–6 sentences)

Use a transition phrase to introduce the second example. Describe it, and explain again how it fully supports your thesis. You may refer to your first example if you need to, but prioritize a focus on your new example. Don’t mention your third example until you get to the third paragraph.

Paragraph 4 — Third Example (4–6 sentences)

Use a transition phrase again in the first topic sentence. Describe the example. Explain how it supports. Make sure you are elucidating for the reader how each example relates to the topic.

Paragraph 5 — Conclusion (2–4 sentences)

In your conclusion, introduce the opposing side. Explain their position in general terms. Refute their position. Then reinforce the correctness of your own thesis. This takes care of having to come up with a conclusion—you’ll already know what to do! Here’s how it might look:

Although ________ is demonstrably correct, some have argued that _______, believing that ________. However, this viewpoint on the present issue is negated by ________. Rather, __________. Therefore, in the long run,

TSI Essay Practice

Be sure to write at least 2–3 sample essays before your exam so you are comfortable with the format. Have a teacher, friend, or trusted relative read through your essay and give you feedback. You may want to start with our TSI Practice Test Essay .

We have also provided some more TSI essay prompts in the list below. You can use these TSI essay topics to write additional practice essays. Try to utilize the template that we have provided in order to structure your response.

TSI Essay Topics

1) Do works of art have the power to change people’s lives? Some people say a book or a movie has the power to do just that. Are they exaggerating, or can art have such a large impact of individuals?

2) Is an education a requirement for a successful career? Explain the topic and either agree or disagree with the statement, offering support for your position.

3) Scientists and politicians argue over whether global warming and climate control present a real threat to human welfare. Take a position on this issue and explain whether or not you believe this to be a serious problem for humanity.

Transition Words List

Agreement Words

in the first place
not only … but also
as a matter of fact
in like manner
in addition
coupled with
in the same fashion / way
first, second, third
in the light of

Opposition Words

in contrast
different from
of course …, but
on the other hand
on the contrary
at the same time
in spite of
(and) still

Causation Words

in the event that
for the purpose of
with this intention
with this in mind
in the hope that
in order to

Example Words

in other words
to put it differently
for one thing
as an illustration
in this case
for this reason
to put it another way
that is to say
with attention to

TSI Practice Test Essay >>

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2 Awesome UT Austin Essay Examples

The University of Texas at Austin is one of the hardest colleges to get into in Texas . With a competitive acceptance rate, the school is moderately selective. Writing strong essays, however, will certainly boost your chances.

UT Austin requires one long essay and three short answers, with an additional optional short answer question. There are also a handful of program-specific prompts.

In this post, we’ll analyze sample essays written by a real applicants, sharing what they did well and what could be improved.

Please note: Looking at examples of real essays students have submitted to colleges can be very beneficial to get inspiration for your essays. You should never copy or plagiarize from these examples when writing your own essays. Colleges can tell when an essay isn’t genuine and will not view students favorably if they plagiarized.

Read our UT Austin essay breakdown to get a comprehensive overview of this year’s supplemental prompts.

Essay Example #1

Prompt: Using a favorite quotation from an essay or book you have read in the last three years as a starting point, tell us about an event or experience that helped you define one of your values or changed how you approach the world. Please write the quotation, title and author at the beginning of your essay (prompt from the 2020-2021 cycle).

“Fortunately, among these people a man was judged according to his worth and not according to the worth of his father.”

– Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

Like most children, I aspired to my father.

I saw my dad as an image of whom I wanted to be. Charismatic, genuine, respected among his peers – he embodied the qualities I saw essential to being a successful person.

The most appealing to me, however, was my father’s medical background. As the first person to attend university in our extended family, he had always been revered for his accomplishment of becoming a doctor.

As a direct consequence, biology was a keen passion during my childhood. I remember how each evening, as I was being tucked into bed, I would unload an avalanche of questions on my dad, many of them amusingly simple such as: If my body is 70% water, why don’t I have water spilling out of my finger every time I get a papercut? In school, I’d stay after class to probe my teachers about the topics I had read of but did not yet comprehend. And anytime I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I, without a whiff of doubt, bolted out I was going to be a doctor.

However, as I got older, I developed new interests – in particular, social science and leadership – which did not always align with my childhood goals of medicine and biology.

With this dichotomy in my mind, I decided to spend my sophomore summer volunteering at a hospital.

Once there, it suddenly dawned on me that, for my entire life, I had viewed being a doctor through rose-tinted glasses since the reality of being a medical professional differed wildly from my perceptions. The dozens of biology textbooks I had read had not prepared me for a single drop of blood, as seeing just one could send me into an exhausting realm of dizziness. With every additional day of volunteering, it became painfully clear – I could not follow in my father’s footsteps.

Disappointed, I began contemplating what made my experience in the hospital so bad and if anything could be done to improve people’s – whether patients’, doctors’, or volunteers’ like myself – experience. Then, a light-bulb switched on: what if I could improve the look of the hospital? As it stood, the hospital was incredibly run-down and inspired depression rather than hope.

With a goal to improve the hospital’s appearance and thus create a friendlier environment for the people inside, I started the Better Setting – Better Getting project, which was going to decorate the hospital with photographs of nature. Having done so, there was a question of financing ー with the hospital administration over-budget, I had to source the funding entirely from the private sector. It was challenging but, a few dozen cold-calls and a handful of live-pitches later, I found a corporate partner that recognised my vision. Finally, I was ready to make my goal a reality. Legal roadblocks and printing nuances still stood in the way, but, with the enthusiastic support of the hospital community, I was able to navigate my way through. Today, dozens of wall-sized nature photos emit joy and hope into the halls of the hospital.

My hospital volunteering, which had begun with heartbreak and disillusion, turned out to be a defining experience of self-discovery. It helped me close my chapter on medicine, a chapter I had so often doubted, and helped me validate my passion for leadership; it allowed me to operate free of doubt, knowing that I don’t have to follow my father’s footsteps. Above all, it made me realise that, although I would never be a doctor, I could nonetheless have a positive impact on society in my very own way.

What the Essay Did Well

The author begins with a quote from a historical fiction novel that the author has read. Although their essay topic doesn’t tie directly in with the novel’s plot, the quote they chose is profound and serves as a hook that piques the reader’s interest about the essay subject.

The author starts the essay by mentioning their father. Their use of first person and writing style makes their first lines seem like the narration at the beginning of a film. This introduction draws the reader in as it seems like the author is building up to something. Similarly, your introduction should start as if you are telling a story to provide the most engaging experience for the reader.

The author then delves more into their father’s background and describes his medical prowess by showing, rather than telling, readers about it. Instead of saying that his father is exceptional, the author presents a specific detail about how he was the first in his family to attend university. Phrasing your writing like this allows the reader to infer through descriptive detail rather than simply absorbing your words at face value. Ensuring that you create this immersive writing style might take more time, but it is worth it as it will make your essay more memorable to admissions officers.

Eventually, the third-to-last paragraph is the climactic point the reader has been waiting for. It is the most important part of the essay ー it’s time for the author to describe how they grew from the incident. During this portion of your essay, you should take readers through your thought process as you begin to formulate a solution for your conflict. It is not enough to say that you learned something new or to merely state that you felt like a changed person. You must provide concrete examples of how you reached a solution and what that solution entailed. Here, the author mentions their distaste for the hospital, specifically, its aesthetic. This sets readers up to hear their solution.

In the next paragraph, the author describes how they resolved part of their issues with the hospital and were able to grow into their new career path. When detailing your solution, make sure you are centering yourself as the agent of change and give specific details as to your specific impact in your environment. In this essay, the author doesn’t just say “I learned that I had a passion for business.” Rather, they show readers how their skills developed and mention specific steps they took, like live pitching and navigating legal roadblocks.

The author concludes this essay by summarizing their journey and bringing their essay back to their chosen quote. By wrapping up their essay in this manner, they underscore their growth in a way that flows well and is easy to read. Furthermore, their open-ended, future-facing final thoughts demonstrate that they intend to continue growing. This inclusion is a key part of any good essay; ending your essay on a strong, future-facing note evokes confidence and illustrates a readiness for the challenges that come with college and beyond.

What Could Be Improved

One area of improvement for this essay is that the section on their transformation is relatively brief. The author spends multiple paragraphs giving context but only dedicates one to the actions behind their growth. The author might want to trim other areas of the essay in order to fully develop this paragraph. They could describe what they did more thoroughly, and really delve into the steps they took to carry out the mentioned processes like so:

Essay Example #2

Prompt: Why are you interested in the major you indicated as your first-choice major?

I woke up. The curtains filtered the sun rays, hitting my face directly. I got up, looked from the bathroom to the kitchen, but my dad wasn’t there. I plopped on the couch, then the door opened. My dad walked in, clutching a brown paper bag with ninety-nine cent breakfast tacos. After eating, we drove to a customer’s house. He sat me in a chair, lifted the floorboard, and crawled under the house to fix the pipes. As he emerged, he talked, but my mind drifted to the weight of the eleven-millimeter hex wrench in my hand. My interest in mechanical engineering originates from my dad, who was a plumber. When I was fifteen, my dad passed away from cancer that constricted his throat. Holding his calloused hand on his deathbed, I wanted to prevent the suffering of others from cancer. Two years later, when I was given a topic of choice for my chemistry research paper, I stumbled upon an article about gold nanoparticles used for HIV treatment. I decided to steer the topic of gold nanoparticles used for cancer treatment instead, entering the field of nanotechnology. After reading numerous articles and watching college lectures on YouTube, I was utterly captivated by topics like using miniscule devices to induce hyperthermia as a safe method of cancer treatment. Nanotechnology is multi-disciplinary, reinforcing my interest in pursuing mechanical engineering as a gateway to participate in nanoscience and nanotechnology research at the University of Texas at Austin. I have learned that nanotechnology is not limited to stories like mine, but to other issues such as sustainable energy and water development that I hope to work towards. It is important for me to continue helping others without forfeiting my interest in nanotechnology, working in collaboration with both engineering and the medical field.

The introduction of this essay stands out for its narrative style. The first sentences only give hints of the story to come, which builds intrigue and keeps the reader engaged. The introduction transitions seamlessly into a vivid, personal story that shows where the author’s academic interests come from. Using a short anecdote like the one in this essay is the most effective way to explain your major choice.

The author then guides readers through their intellectual journey of discovering their academic passions. They demonstrate their passion by discussing specific details about cancer treatments and nanotechnology. Indeed, “nerding out” over your intellectual interests is an excellent way to prove that you are highly motivated to learn about them in college.

Lastly, the end of the essay looks forward to the future. We learn that the author’s dream is to cure cancer, and they want to do it by gaining multidisciplinary knowledge about engineering and medicine. We learn too that UT Austin is a part of the author’s vision. They show their interest in the school by discussing more than the major they want to pursue at UT Austin, highlighting research and the opportunity to explore new applications of nanotechnology.

The main area for improvement in this essay is its formatting. While formatting is far less important than the content of an essay, it can do much more than you would think to make your essay more impactful. This essay only needs one formatting change — paragraph spacing. Here is an example of the improvements:

I woke up.

The curtains filtered the sun rays, hitting my face directly. I got up, looked from the bathroom to the kitchen, but my dad wasn’t there. I plopped on the couch, then the door opened. My dad walked in, clutching a brown paper bag with ninety-nine cent breakfast tacos.

After eating, we drove to a customer’s house. He sat me in a chair, lifted the floorboard, and crawled under the house to fix the pipes. As he emerged, he talked, but my mind drifted to the weight of the eleven-millimeter hex wrench in my hand.

My interest in mechanical engineering originates from my dad, who was a plumber. When I was fifteen, my dad passed away from cancer that constricted his throat. Holding his calloused hand on his deathbed, I wanted to prevent the suffering of others from cancer.

Two years later, when I was given a topic of choice for my chemistry research paper, I stumbled upon an article about gold nanoparticles used for HIV treatment. I decided to steer the topic of gold nanoparticles used for cancer treatment instead, entering the field of nanotechnology. After reading numerous articles and watching college lectures on YouTube, I was utterly captivated by topics like using miniscule devices to induce hyperthermia as a safe method of cancer treatment.

Nanotechnology is multi-disciplinary, reinforcing my interest in pursuing mechanical engineering as a gateway to participate in nanoscience and nanotechnology research at the University of Texas at Austin. I have learned that nanotechnology is not limited to stories like mine, but to other issues such as sustainable energy and water development that I hope to work towards.

It is important for me to continue helping others without forfeiting my interest in nanotechnology, working in collaboration with both engineering and the medical field.

This new paragraph spacing makes the essay much easier to read. Separating certain parts into paragraphs puts powerful emphasis on the ideas that need them; for example, turning the sentence “I woke up” into its own paragraph creates a captivating hook that intrigues readers into finding out what happens next.

With the new format, it is also easier to see that the fourth paragraph would benefit from a few transitional phrases. To connect the author’s interests in mechanical engineering and cancer solutions, the paragraph could be reworded like so:

My interest in mechanical engineering originates from my dad, who was a plumber. My interest in finding solutions to cancer — and how mechanical engineering could create them — comes from my dad too. When I was fifteen, he passed away from cancer that constricted his throat. Holding his calloused hand on his deathbed, I wanted to prevent the suffering of others from cancer.

Where to Get Your UT Austin Essays Edited

Do you want feedback on your UT Austin essays? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays.

If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools. In fact, Alexander Oddo , an essay expert on CollegeVine, provided commentary on the essays in this post. Find the right advisor for you to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!

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How to Write a Texas Format Essay: 4 Steps (with Pictures)
Once you have your ideas, create a rough essay plan, detailing where you will put your arguments and what examples you will use to back it up. Once you've done that, you can begin writing the actual essay. [2] 2. The Introduction. This a five line paragraph that tells the reader what you're going to talk about.
How to Write the ApplyTexas Essays 2024-2025 + Examples
Even the recommended word count varies between schools. Here's a quick snapshot into the unique essay requirements of a few top ApplyTexas colleges: University of Texas at Austin: Choose between Topic A, B or C (optional). 1 short answer responses, 1 of which is optional.
Thirteen New Apply Texas Essay A Tell Us Your Story Examples
My friend Jay and I brought a piece of our demolished elementary school playground inside the Mayor's hall to make a point. UT-Austin requires first-time freshman applicants beginning with Spring/Fall 2021 to submit the following Apply Texas Essay A. It can be longer than the recommended 700 words as I cover in this post. Tell us your story.
How to Write the UT Austin Essays 2023-2024
Prompt 2: 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. (250-300 words) Prompt 3: The core purpose of The University of Texas at Austin is, "To ...
Six Examples of Apply Texas A "Tell Us Your Story"
Check out these thirteen Essay A Tell Us Your Story examples from Fall 2020 applicants. UT requires first-time freshman applicants beginning with Spring/Fall 2020 to submit the following essay. It can be longer than the recommended 700 words as I cover in this post. Tell us your story. What unique opportunities or challenges have you ...
Apply Texas Essays- Latest Guide
UT Austin. The University of Texas Austin requires its applicants to respond to Apply Texas Essay A if using the Apply Texas application. Their word limit is 500-700. Additionally, students will complete three required short answer essays with word limits of 250-300 words.
Communicating information: TEXAS
2. Deal with counter arguments. Find someone who disagrees with you. Read their view. Introduce their view into your paragraph and then show how it is wrong (with evidence). For topics in the past look at what the opponents at that time said. Plenty of men were against female suffrage in 1893.
What's With TEXAS Paragraphs
It wasn't until I arrived at my current school that writing was streamlined across the middle school with a specific format for introductory paragraphs, body paragraphs, and conclusions. We follow a TEXAS format for the body paragraphs of argumentative and literary essays. TEXAS stands for: T opic Sentence. cont E xt. textual e X ample. A ...
How to Write the 2021 University of Texas Application Essays Part 1
2020 through Spring 2021: University of Texas Essay Prompt A. ApplyTexas Essay Prompt A. Guidelines for Essay Topic A—350-ca. 750 words, recommend aiming for 550 words. Texas Essay Topic A (For U.S., applicants, as well as Transient, Readmit, and Transfer International applicants):Tell us your story.
How to Write the ApplyTexas Essays 2020-21: Topic A
If you're filling out the ApplyTexas application this year, you'll also have to work on the essays. In this video, we go over how to answer Topic A, includin...
How to Write the Apply Texas Essay
The required prompts vary from school to school, but the most common essay prompt is Essay A. For example, UT Austin supplemental essaysrequire Essay A with three smaller custom questions, while Texas A&M requires Essay A and B. All universities require an essay no longer than 1200-1500 words.
A Great ApplyTexas Essay Example
What the Essay Did Well This student's writing brings a level of musicality to her essay that nicely echoes the piano motif. From the beginning, she introduces their topic with descriptive language and a metaphor, incorporating imagery that immediately creates an immersive quality and grabs the reader's attention. The student then shows, rather than tells, how music has been a formative ...
Essays & Short Answers
Essays & Short Answers - University of Texas Admissions. 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). All freshman Spring 2025 applicants must submit Topic ...
How to Write Perfect ApplyTexas Essays · PrepScholar
You are required to write an essay on Topic A. You also have to answer three short-answer prompts (250-300 words each). If you're applying for a studio art, art education, art history, architecture, or visual art studies major, you'll have to write a short answer specific to your major. UT Austin also accepts the Common App.
10W1ENG21: TEXAS Paragraph Structure
Exemplar TEXAS.doc.pdf. Paragraph structure guide_ from SExy to texas.pdf. TEXAS Paragraph Exemplar.pdf. TEXAS Paragraph Writing.docx. Tools and Strategies to use at each stage of the 6 Step Essay Writing Process.pptx.
Perfect Guide for Writing a Texas Format Essay
All together you receive a remarkable Texas paragraph for any custom essay. Repeat this process three times, and as a result, the body for the paper is ready. Finish with the summary. The summary is similar to the introduction but you should write it in a more decisive manner. The best way to finish your essay is to summarize the main points ...
TSI Essay Guide
The TSI essay will be evaluated on your organization, focus, development and support, sentence structure, and mechanical conventions. Fortunately, your essay is only required to be 300-600 words in length. A simple 5 paragraph essay will be more than sufficient. Scores on the essay section range from 1 to 8, with 8 being the highest.
Personal Statements
Personal Statements. The personal statement, an integral component of most graduate or professional school applications, gives you an opportunity to tell your story to the admissions committee. A well-written, reflective personal statement can greatly enhance an application. It will not only demonstrate your writing skills but also explain why ...
How to Write the University of Texas-Austin (UT) Supplemental Essays
How to write each supplemental essay prompt for UT Austin. Prompt #1: Topic A. Prompt #2: Short answer #1 + examples. Prompt #3: Short answer #2 + examples. Prompt #4: Short answer #3 + examples. Prompt #5: Short answer #4 + examples. UT Expanded Resume tips, sample, + template. Proud home of the Longhorns (and Professor Matthew McConaughey ...
2 Awesome UT Austin Essay Examples
2 Awesome UT Austin Essay Examples. The University of Texas at Austin is one of the hardest colleges to get into in Texas. With a competitive acceptance rate, the school is moderately selective. Writing strong essays, however, will certainly boost your chances. UT Austin requires one long essay and three short answers, with an additional ...
APA Resources : University Writing Center : Texas State University
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Writing Application Essays; Citing AI; Red Writer Videos How to Avoid Choppy Writing; How to Fix a Fused Sentence; How to Fix a Comma Splice; How to Avoid a Missing Comma after an Introductory Element ... Texas Tech University. 2500 Broadway Lubbock, Texas 79409; 806.742.2011; Follow Texas Tech University. Like Texas Tech University on Facebook ...
How to Write a TEXAS Format Essay
Here are a few tips for a great TEXAS format essay introduction: The issue you're explaining should be stated in the opening sentence. Next, write a short statement that is not entirely on the subject. Make your introduction as brief as possible. Try to limit it to five to seven lines.

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Apply Texas Essays 2022‒2023

In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to tackle each of the Apply Texas essays. We’ll discuss:

What is Apply Texas?

Apply Texas essay vs. the Common Application essay

Understanding the Apply Texas essay requirements

What schools use Apply Texas?

Understanding the Apply Texas essay format

What are the Apply Texas essays?

Remember to consider school supplements

How long should Apply Texas essays be?

Texas Christian University

Apply Texas Essay A

Which Texas colleges require it?

How to write Apply Texas Essay A

Answer the prompt completely

Write passionately

Apply Texas Essays – Topic B

Some students have an identity, an interest, or a talent that defines them in an essential way. If you are one of these students, then tell us about yourself.

Approaching Apply Texas Essay B

Apply Texas Essay Prompts – 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?

Crafting a response to Essay C

Exploring Texas college’s essay requirements

How important are the Apply Texas essays?

5 Tips to Make Your Apply Texas Essays Stand Out

5 tips to write Apply Texas essays that impress

2. Choose a topic carefully

3. Get creative

4. Show personal growth

5. Start early!

Apply Texas Essays & More Essay Resources from CollegeAdvisor

Essay guides and other resources

Communicating information: paragraph writing

T - Topic sentence

E - Explanation

X - eXamples

S - So What?

Combining concepts

For example:

Steps to follow:

Being persausive

1. Look for outside examples

2. Deal with counter arguments

3. Get the best possible evidence

Building an argument

How to cite this page

The Teaching Factor

What’s With TEXAS Paragraphs

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How to Write the 2021 University of Texas Application Essays Part 1

Different Application Portals: Apply Texas

The Next Portal: The Coalition Application

A Comparison to the Common Application

Why You Should Look at Reusing Essays

Pay Attention to Word Count Limits in Essays

Many Application Essay Prompts Will Be The Same As Last Year

2020 through Spring 2021: University of Texas Essay Prompt A

A Few Words About Social Justice Topics

Comparing the University of Texas and Common Application Essay Prompts

Contact Me for Editing and Essay Development

The Eyes of Texas

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How to Write the Apply Texas Essay

About ApplyTexas Platform

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Prompts and Essays

Tips for Writing Essay A Prompt with Topic Ideas

1. Choose a specific aspect of your surroundings

2. Talk about how your surroundings made you special