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New Essay Requirements for ApplyTexas and University of Texas for Fall 2018

If you might be deciding on be an incoming freshmen towards the University of Texas at Austin for Fall 2018, I believe that is a bit of good news for you.

The application essays you will need to write have changed from writing three longer essays (Topics A, B, and C) to at least one long essay (Topic A) and three supplements, which they call ‘short answers.’

To address Topic A, you need certainly to write one personal statement form of essay about your background for the prompt they call Topic A. There is no stated word length, but a good range is around 500 words.

For the three quick answers, you will write no more than 300 words each on Career Plans, Academics and Leadership.

You can read all about the changes and new prompts on the ApplyTexas internet site.

This can be a exact prompt for Topic A:

What was the environment in which you were raised? Describe your family, home, neighborhood or community, and explain exactly how it has shaped you as a person.

Read THIS POST for my advice and writing strategies on the best way to write about your back ground (‘the environment in which you were raised’) and address this prompt.

Listed below are the 3 New Short Answer Prompts and Tips(This is all directly from the ApplyTexas web site)

Quick Answer 1: Career Plans

If you could have any career, what would it not be? Why? Describe any activities you might be involved with, life experiences you’ve had, or even classes you’ve taken that have helped you identify this professional path.

Suggestions to consider: This is a way to describe your academic and future professional interests. May very well not yet be 100% specific about everything you might like to do, but is there a certain field which you think you need to function in, or even a certain path you want to pursue after college? Exactly How have your interests and experiences influenced your choice of majors or your plans to explore in college?

Quick Answer 2: Academics

Can you believe your academic record (transcript information and test scores) provide an accurate representation of you as being a student? Why or why not?

Suggestions to consider: Feel free to handle what you want the Office of Admissions to know about your scholastic record so that we can consider this information when we review your application. You can discuss your scholastic work, class rank, GPA, individual course grades, test scores, and/or the classes that you took or the classes that were accessible to you. You can even describe exactly how special circumstances and/or your school, community, and family members environments impacted your high school performance.

Short Answer 3: Leadership

Just how do you show leadership in your lifetime? Exactly How do the truth is yourself being truly a leader at UT Austin?racism essay examples

Tips to consider: Leadership can be demonstrated by roles you own as an officer in a club or organization, but other forms of leadership are very important too. Leaders can emerge in several situations at any moment, including not in the school experience. Please share a brief description of the type of leadership qualities you possess, from school and non-school related experiences, including demonstrations of leadership in your work, your community, or within your family responsibilities, and then share how you desire to demonstrate leadership as a part of our campus community.

My buddy, Kevin Martin, just published this guide, Your Ticket towards the Forty Acres: The Unofficial Guide for UT Undergraduate Admissions, on Amazon (Kindle) to help students quickly figure out what they need certainly to do to game the admissions scene at the University of Texas, especially its Austin campus.

What I love concerning this book is that Kevin was a first-gen student who graduated top of his class, after which went on to for their admissions department as being a counselor.

So he’s got experienced both sides of this process.

Into the book, Kevin shares his personal experience and stories in addition to advice and recommendations on figuring out just what you will need to increase your odds of getting accepted.

The most readily useful news?

You can download this bookfor FREE through Saturday, June 17!

Just go to Amazon and acquire your copy and then do your homework.

This is from the review I left for his book on Amazon:

‘Unlike many guides for gaming the college admissions industry, Kevin has his priorities straight: It’s all about finding the right fit.

And this book offers everything you need to provide it your personal most readily useful shot, from his insights on the psychology of the process to deciphering the actual algorithms used for deciding who gets in.’

Kevin also was kind enough to let me give out a number of his most readily useful advice on the University of Texas essays.

Kevin Martin

Listed here is an excerpt from his book on how to brainstorm and come up with what’s known as Essay A:

18 Questions

to Help Guide

Your Apply Texas Essay A

The English Department professor who conducted our UT-Austin essay review training would say, ‘Think of a college essay prompt maybe not as box to trap students but as an invitation to publish.’

It is up to the student to define what they want to publish. Many essay prompts are broad, and Apply Texas Essay A is no exception.

‘What was the environmental surroundings in which you’re raised? Describe your family members, home, neighborhood, or community, and explain exactly how it has shaped you as being a person.’

Colleges and universities note a trend that primary and secondary school teachers have observed for decades.

A student’s home life heavily influences their ability to succeed or fail.

UT wishes to understand about important people in your lifetime, organizations that impact you, or the atmosphere of the household or high school.

I hear students say, ‘I don’t possess anything interesting to discuss. My home life is boring, suburban, and predictable.’

Remember, you’re not writing your autobiography. You’re submitting at most 650 words making one or two observations.

If you’re having trouble getting started, consider thinking about a number of these questions to narrow down the prompt:

  • Were you raised in children that encouraged reading?
  • What food did your parents put on the table?
  • Can you eat dinner together each night?
  • Do your parents support your interests and curiosities?
  • Do they attend your recreations games or choir concerts?
  • Can you play outside?
  • What do your parents do for work, and does this inform your future goals?
  • Do you feel pressure to excel into the class room?
  • Where does that pressure come from?
  • Exactly what are your days like before and after school, on the weekends, plus in the summers?
  • Do you have got any siblings who have influenced you?
  • What about grandparents?
  • Is there one memory or experience that sticks out among the others?
  • Just What does family do over the holidays?
  • Maybe you have taken a memorable vacation?
  • Just What are your friends like?
  • Are your parents divorced?
  • How will you think living in Austin or attending UT will differ from your current environment?

I love working with students from all around the globe.

I’m always surprised, however, exactly how many of these students overlook their rich backgrounds when brainstorming topics for their college application essays.

There has been several reasons behind this.

Many international students seem to trust that colleges wouldn’t be enthusiastic about their country of birth, and the relevant customs, food, traditions, etc.

These same students also believe they should appear ‘Americanized’ in order to be popular with their target schools into the U.S.

They have been wrong and wrong.

I also have worked with students born in the United States who are reluctant to feature their ethnic heritage as it wasn’t white and waspy.

Others are so immersed everyday within their cultural backgrounds which they don’t even recognize how special they have been or that they have even them.

Sometimes your ‘culture’ is so close to you that it’s hard to see.

For example, I had to convince some students by the Texas border in the Rio Grande Valley, which is practically entirely hispanic, which they had incredible cultural topics to feature within their essays, from Mexican myths and sayings to speciality breakfast tacos sold at their local convenience stores, called the Q-taco.

They were too close to these cultural treasures to comprehend that others outside their community would find them of interest.

The key is to find your unique cultural bubble. Sometimes you have several!

Even students from ‘white’ backgrounds who feel they don’t really have distinctive ‘ethnic’ cultural heritage usually overlook their particular rich cultural surroundings. (Examples: surf culture; ‘redneck’ culture; ‘preppie’ culture; army culture; hippie culture; city culture)

Culture is everywhere.

It’s type of like a mini-world using its own set of traditions, food, clothing, beliefs, etc. One good place to explore yours is to think about the background of the parents and grandparents.

In personal statements, you are interested in examples in your lifetime of what has shaped or defined you, along with your values.

Usually, these cultural backgrounds have played a powerful role, and also are distinctive and fascinating so take advantage of that in your essays!

As well as that many schools are seeking ‘diversity’ for their student human anatomy make-up: How will they know very well what you have to contribute if you don’t help them understand your upbringing?

Different is good!

Students who have any type of ethnic and cultural background are the lucky ones: They have something unique and often colorful to write about right out the door with your essay topics!

Advice for International Students

I have four pieces of advice for international students.

You might be happy since your cultural back ground is just a given: It’s frequently first defined by the united states you live in which is naturally ‘different’ compared to the U.S.

Embrace and celebrate that in your essay!

Often, everbody knows, there are various cultures within your country. The more certain you may be about authoring your culture, the greater amount of relevant and meaningful your points is going to be.

My Four Recommendations:

1. Simply Take the full time to become acquainted with the sort and style of essays which can be most reliable at most universities and colleges into the U.S. If you are writing your own statement essay (such as The Common Application key essay), you desire to write a personal essay which includes real-life experiences to showcase your personality and character.

RELATED: Understand How to publish a Personal Essay

I’m not an expert into the necessary essays at universities and colleges outside the U.S., nevertheless the prompts and sample essays I have read from places in Great Britain, Scotland, Germany as well as other countries have usually sought more formal, scholastic essays. If these will be the type of essays you are employed to writing, take care to learn about writing a narrative-style personal essay. There exists a difference.

2. When looking for an interest for your personal essay, consider the customs, traditions, (physical and emotional) environment, food, dress and other elements of your family background and lifestyle that have been unique to your country, or particular region or community.

These can make great topics, especially if you can share related experiences and reveal how they aided you define your core qualities or values.

Not only are these culturally related experiences fresh and interesting (especially to the Americans reading your essays), they are also full of personal stories, color and details that will enliven your essays.

3. I believe that when admissions folks at college and universities realize that you are an international student, they are going to be on the lookout for evidence that you have got the required steps to live far overseas.

If you ask me, that means they need to see which you are independent, determined, resilient and have grit. If you can showcase these qualities in your college application essays, I think you could give yourself an advantage.

RELATED: How to Show Your Grit

4. Though it may well not seem fair, but I also think when colleges see that you are from a country outside the U.S., especially one where English is not the main language, admissions folks will look more critically at the mechanics of the writing.

Always have some body with a strong command of english review your essays, and make yes you nail the spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Also, inquire further to assist you make sure to use more everyday language, and ‘write as you talk,’ so you aren’t too formal and stiff in your style, and don’t make use of idioms incorrectly (a tip-off that English is a second language).

Information For Everyone Else

Find your culture, no matter where you come from.

Usually, you are so surrounded by it so it can be hard to see.

As soon as you recognize your cultural back ground, you need to avoid making cliche observations about any of it in your essay.

For example, if you should be from such giant countries as China or India, you may need to carve down a smaller piece of the culture within your country.

HOT TIP: Pick one specific tradition or experience related to your cultural background to feature in your essay, instead of trying to write about too much. (The Q-taco; henna; Pho your grandma taught you to create; roping cows; braiding hair; ghost stories; picking berries; your strange name…)

That will help prevent the overdone and cliche.

Always look for ways to get the unexpected inside your culture.

Just What would readers be surprised to understand about your culture? Look for things that bust their assumptions.

Examples:

I’m from India, but I’m maybe not Hindu. Instead, I’m …

I’m from a native american tribe, but I don’t own any indigenous costumes or dance. Instead, I …

I’m from Texas but I hate bbq. Rather, I …

Dad is from Guatemala and my mom from Mexico, but I don’t speak Spanish. Rather, I …

I’m from California, but I’ve never visited the beach. Rather, I …

You receive the drift.

Everbody knows, many cultures come with stereotypes and generalizations, and even racism and prejudice.

Exploring these patterns and issues can cause great essays topics, especially if you experienced to deal with them.

Read my post on why Problems Make Great Essays.

Let the reader see and feel what it has experienced like to develop in your unique culture, and then share what you discovered from it, both the nice as well as the bad.

I’m confident you can be with a personal, compelling and meaningful essay, irrespective of just what planet you might be from!