How to Write the UT Austin Supplemental Essay

A lot of selective colleges with a lot of applicants require supplemental essays. In many cases, these essays are just as important as the personal statement of the applicant. The University of Texas at Austin is one of those US colleges that requires a supplemental essay.

Each year, new applicants need to write one as best as they can to increase their chances of getting approved by the admissions committee. Since Austin is a very competitive university, the essay carries a lot of importance and gives applicants yet another opportunity to stand out from the rest.

Getting into this kind of college is a great learning opportunity, and you should put in all the required effort to demonstrate you’re worthy of it. This post will share a perspective on what to expect in the essay and explain how to write it piece by piece. Also, in case you need college application essay help, our writers will help you.

What You Need to Know About the University of Texas at Austin

UT Austin is one of the largest and the best colleges in the US. This public university is a large community that has over 40,000 undergraduates and a total number of 50,000 students. It’s a large school that can be really scary and competitive, but this is because it offers lots of benefits.

It has 17 libraries, four museums, over 400 student programs for studying abroad, and over 150 programs for undergraduate degrees. Furthermore, Austin is one of the largest academic research universities, and in 2016 projects received more than half a billion of funding from sponsors.

This means that students that want to do research have a lot of opportunities to do so. Unlike many other schools, the University of Texas at Austin has an application of its own called “ApplyTexas”. You can also apply with the Coalition Application.

ApplyTexas and UT, in general, are very strict, and the requirements are very serious. Luckily, the essay required is not that tedious. It is a bit long, but there are things you can do to ensure it goes well. Today we are going to help go through this process.

Things to Consider Before You Write and Submit

The ApplyTexas can be standardized similarly to the common app colleges, which allows students the ability to apply to several different universities. So before you start applying, make sure that you’ve added all the schools on your ApplyTexas application.

Still, some private schools that accept only the Common Application. Even though most of the public Universities in Texas accept the ApplyTexas application, there are those that only accept a Common Application. Make sure to check these things to avoid making invalid applications.

You can even use both applications if this suits your situation. However, try and use the application that suits your college list the best and consider a wider perspective.

In case you don’t have any writing skills whatsoever and can handle the UT Austin essay on your own, Admission Writer can help you.

How to Approach Writing Your UT Austin Supplemental Essay

1. Essay

There aren’t many requirements available for writing the supplemental essay that it should be 500 to 700 words long. It comes in the form of a question that goes usually goes something like this:

“Tell us about you. What are the challenges or opportunities you faced so far and how they made you the person you are today?”

To write this essay, you will have to answer three essential questions:

1. What is my family like?
2. What is my home like, and what does my day look like?
3. How have all of these things affected me as a person?

It’s important to focus on the relevant details of your personal history in this part of the essay. Which relationships, memories, and knowledge tie you to your family and your living environment and describe how they’ve shaped your personality.

Think of special opportunities you got in your high school, unique challenges you faced, public performances, shows, arts and crafts, and so on.

2. Topic A or Short Answer 1

This prompt is also a vital part of the essay even though it's separate from it. All the questions need to have from 250 to 300 words, which is the length of a single paragraph. The questions are usually something like:

“Why is this your first-choice major, and what interests you about it?”

Simply put, these questions are designed to give students the opportunity why they want to study at this university and why they’ve chosen a certain major. You can connect the answer to this question with your essay.

Make a connection between the major, your previous experience, and your current passions. Simply put, try and tell a story about what is so exciting to you about the major and why you think it fits your character.

If you don’t have the inspiration for this kind of story, you can simply focus on your curiosity and your interests and how the course aligns with them.

3. Topic B or Short Answer 2

Compared to the first one, this prompt gives you more freedom to speak about the things you want. It still focuses on you as an individual but with more variety and unique approach. The question will be something like:

“Tell us about your talents, interest, and identity. How did you use those things to demonstrate initiative and leadership within your family, friends, or school?”

A lot of applicants make the mistake of writing something similar to their resume when trying to answer this question. Your identity refers to all of the things that define you and they can range from your religion, gender, ethnicity, sports you like, games you like to play, and so on.

When brainstorming ideas, make sure to define all of the characteristics that define you then focus on those that positively represent you. Additionally, describe how you got those characteristics and why they became an important part of your character.

In the end, make sure to rank all your characteristics based on their importance and history. Showcase your leadership and first talk about more important events. It also requires a short answer.

Talking about yourself can often be really difficult. If you deliver all relevant information about yourself to the Admission Writer, we can create a story about you as a person!

4. Topic C or Short Answer 3

The third question takes a drastic turn away from the previous two and doesn’t focus on the present or the past, but the future. It’s the prompt that emphasizes your ability to be creative. The question you can expect will be something close to this:

“Tell us how all your talents and experience will help you go through your time at UT Austin, and where you see yourself in the future?”

In this part, you will have to make predictions based on your current experiences and your skills. You have to be realistic about how your journey would look like while at college. At the same time, you should talk about your ambitions and what job you want to do in the future with the knowledge that the school can give you.

Talk about how this school is a stepping stone for what you want to do in your life. Show your ambition and how you imagine yourself looking like an adult with a young career. How will college be different from high school in your opinion, and what project are you excited about the most? This is also something worth considering.

Maybe you are looking for a Cornell engineering essay, or Brown essay, you can find them here. Just open one more blog from our library. Browse as many blogs as you need, they are all useful and informative for every applicant.

Conclusion

All of this information was gathered directly from the members of the community at UT Austin. They demonstrate the academic performance requirements for their essay and explain the right approaches. Learning how to write this essay will help your chances of getting accepted, so make sure to put in an effort.

Your attention to detail is critical in the essay, and it will be analyzed thoroughly, so don’t try to go through it quickly. Before you submit your application, make sure to double-check the essay and share it with someone if you need a fresh pair of eyes.

From an experience perspective, this advice from previous applicants has been very helpful. To get additional info on writing essays, check out our blog.