The University of Texas Austin (UT) is a large, public research university in Austin, Texas. UT is a super popular school with our clients, both first-year and transfer, and it makes sense! It’s an extremely highly ranked public university with top-notch programs in everything from business to STEM to the humanities. First-year admission to UT is competitive, especially for out-of-state students, but their overall acceptance rate is 29%. Their transfer acceptance rate is similar – 30%, but a lot of those students come from automatic acceptance via community colleges. If you want to transfer to UT, you need to make sure you have the strongest application possible.

We’re going to explore all the things you need to have and the best strategies you can employ to have the most competitive transfer app to UT.

Requirements

To be eligible for transfer to UT, you need to have taken at least “24 semester hours of required transferable coursework at another college or university.” This translates to two full-time semesters of work.

Here’s what you need to gather to get ready to submit:

High school transcript
College transcript
Common App
Essays
Resume

Other things you might need:

Standardized test scores (they only accept scores from high school)
2 academic recommendations
2 professional recommendations
Major-specific items

Keep Your Academics on Track

While UT is one of the more transfer-friendly schools out there, that doesn’t mean you can slack off. UT is still competitive, so getting and maintaining perfect grades should be the bare minimum, especially if you’re applying to uber-competitive programs like McCombs.

This does not mean you can just take easy-A-unrelated-to-your-major classes. You need to take classes that are challenging and prove your interest in your major. You also need to keep in mind the “24 semester hours of required transferable coursework,” thing they keep harping on when choosing courses.

Let’s talk more about proving interest in your major. If you want to study business at McCombs, for example, but you’re currently a bio major, you need to choose a good mix of courses that fulfill the core requirements at your current school and that signal an interest in business. If you’re at a school without a business major, that might look like econ or math classes. Even more impressive? You want to communicate that you’ve developed a niche. If you’re studying bio and want to keep studying bio, then you need to take more advanced courses that prove your interest in say, ecology or entomology. Don’t just take random electives or classes that have nothing to do with your intended path. You need to show them a clear narrative.

Keep Your Extracurriculars on Track

In the same vein as above, you also need to develop a strong resume for when you ultimately apply. Now, unlike high school, the transfer Common App activities section (which they annoyingly call “Experiences”) is more about quality than quantity. If you tell UT that you joined 10 clubs in college, they’re going to know you didn’t engage in any of them sincerely enough to count.

Instead, focus on a few, in-depth things that can continue to prove that niche you’re trying to build. If you’re interested in bio, that might look like joining a special lab. Business? Get an internship.

Writing

UT has one question for their supplement, and it’s a very standard “Why” essay. They specifically shout out that for Natural Sciences, Nursing, and Social Work how you need to write specifically about that major and your goals. Spoiler alert: that’s what you should do for all the majors.

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE (ESSAY 1)

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 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.

Natural Sciences requires a statement of purpose essay that describes how your intended major would impact achievement of your educational and career goals.

Nursing requires that the statement of purpose focus on your goal of becoming a nurse and/or a career in nursing.

Social Work requires that the statement of purpose focus on your goal of earning a social work degree and how it will prepare you for the future.

Please keep your essay between 500–700 words (typically two to three paragraphs and no more than 4,500 characters with spaces).

A caveat before we begin: this prompt is weirdly all-encompassing. It also asks about extenuating circumstances, which is a little odd. It’s kind of all over the place! So, best to treat this like the standard transfer/Why essay.

A good “Why” essay starts with an origin story. Essentially, why do you want to study what you want to study? What was the inception point? If you’ve done a lot of extracurricular work in this space, this is also a place to mention how you’ve built upon this work over time.

Then, you need to get into your specific evidence. This is also where you should mention the things you’re looking for in a new school (without bashing your current one!). Maybe you want a bigger school with more resources, or they have a specific program you really want to join. You should think about this essay like you’re trying to convince UT that they’re the only place for you to study XYZ. Pull in specific professors and classes that go along with the story you’re telling them.

Feel free to also mention extracurriculars, labs, study abroads, etc., anything that you would want to partake in while you’re there. You can also talk about the cultural elements of UT. Maybe you’re at a small liberal arts school or community college and you really, really want to go to a school with a lot of school spirit and football games and tailgates. That’s absolutely okay to talk about – especially because they’re proud of that part of the school – just don’t make it the focal point of your essay.

Now… wait

UT has an early March deadline for transfer apps, and they say they’ll notify you by early June. After submitting, check that you got everything in on time, and now you just sit back and wait. Best of luck!

If you need help with your transfer applications, reach out to us today.