Baylor University supplemental essays
Yes, for some applicants. Every Baylor University supplement in 2026-27 depends on the college or program you apply to. Common App, ApplyTexas. Personal statement required (250-650 words).
Early Decision closes November 1, 2026, Early Action closes November 1, 2026 and Regular Decision closes February 1, 2027. Every Baylor University prompt is printed on this page in full, with its word limit and who has to answer it, checked against the college’s own admissions page.
Deadlines
| Round | Date |
|---|---|
| Early Decision | November 1, 2026 |
| Early Action | November 1, 2026 |
| Regular Decision | February 1, 2027 |
Checked against admissions.web.baylor.edu/admissions/incoming-freshman/application-process. Confirm on the college’s own page before you submit.
The essays, 2026-27
Required (for November 1 Binding / Early Decision applicants); optional but recommended for everyone else · about 450 words (Baylor's exact wording: "The response we ask for really is short — only about 450 words.")
What are you looking for in a university, why do you want to attend Baylor, and how do you see yourself contributing to the Baylor community?
Baylor's own heading is "Short Answer Response (required for November 1 Binding (Early Decision) applicants)" and it sits under the section "7. Recommended Items", alongside résumé and letters of recommendation. Baylor's page prints the question in italics and ends it with "community?." - a question mark immediately followed by a period. That stray period is verbatim in Baylor's source; strip it if we clean punctuation, but do not otherwise reword. [Our edit: Baylor prints the question ending "community?." with a stray period after the question mark. Dropped, because reproducing an obvious typo makes the question look mistyped by us.]
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Your Baylor University checklist
No supplement every applicant writes: which ones you write depends on your college or program. The first deadline, Early Decision, is November 1, 2026.
- Common App personal statementRequired250-650 words
- One program-specific promptOnly if you apply to the college or program it names. All printed in full above.
It saves these rows to your essay manager, where each one carries a status you set yourself and the prompt stays attached to it. Add your other schools and they land on the same page, in deadline order. Nothing written yet? The topic quiz is free as well.
Free: this page, the checklist, the essay manager and the topic quiz. Paid: a written review of a finished draft, $49 an essay.
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Not sure what a review is? What an AI college essay review can and cannot do, and what a college essay grader leaves out. What the read checks against Baylor University’s own prompts is on the Baylor University essay review page.
Getting into Baylor University
Baylor University admits 51.3% of applicants. The middle 50% of enrolled students scored 1200-1400 on the SAT and 27-32 on the ACT.
About 1 in 2 applicants are admitted, at a college of 14,785 undergraduates.
| Enrolled students | 25th | Median | 75th |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAT total | 1200 | 1300 | 1400 |
| SAT reading and writing | 610 | 650 | 700 |
| SAT math | 590 | 650 | 700 |
| ACT composite | 27 | 30 | 32 |
What SAT score do you need for Baylor University?
A 1400 puts you in the top quarter of the students who enrolled, a 1300 at their midpoint, and a 1200 at the bottom quarter, meaning one in four enrolled students scored below it. The same three points on the ACT are 27, 30 and 32. A quarter of an enrolled class scoring under the 25th percentile is not a rounding error, so a score below the range is a reason to strengthen the rest of the application rather than a reason not to apply.
US Department of Education, College Scorecard (2026-09-17). Percentiles describe students who enrolled, not everyone admitted. SAT totals are the reading and math bands added together, which is how every source in this market reports them and is an approximation of about 10 to 20 points, because the two sections are correlated.
- What SAT score do you need for Baylor University?
- Baylor University sets no minimum. Among students who enrolled, the middle 50% scored 1200-1400 on the SAT: a 1200 sits at the 25th percentile, 1300 at the median and 1400 at the 75th. A score at or above 1400 is a clear strength in the application; below 1200 it is the part of the file the rest has to make up for. These are the figures Baylor University reports to the US Department of Education, released in the College Scorecard of 2026-09-17.
- What ACT score do you need for Baylor University?
- The middle 50% of enrolled students scored 27-32 on the ACT, with a composite of 30 at the median. There is no cutoff: a quarter of the enrolled class scored below 27. Reported by Baylor University to the US Department of Education, College Scorecard release of 2026-09-17.
- What GPA do you need for Baylor University?
- The honest answer is that the federal data behind this page does not contain one. Colleges report their admit rate and their enrolled students' test scores to the Department of Education; they do not report a GPA distribution, so any site quoting an exact average GPA for Baylor University is either reading that college's own Common Data Set or estimating. What the reported data does say is that Baylor University admits 51.3% of applicants, and the more selective a college is, the closer to the top of the class its admitted students sit and the more the strength of your course load counts alongside the number itself.
- How hard is it to get into Baylor University?
- Baylor University admits 51.3% of the people who apply, which is about 1 in 2 applicants. Numbers inside the reported range put you in a real position here, and the application itself decides the rest.
What Baylor University costs after grant aid, by family income, from the same federal data.
Sort your whole college list into reaches, targets and likelies, or find colleges that fit your GPA and test scores. Both are free and neither needs an account.
Baylor University essay questions, answered
- Does Baylor University have supplemental essays?
- Yes, for some applicants. Every Baylor University supplement in 2026-27 depends on the college or program you apply to. Every prompt is printed in full on this page.
- How many essays do you write for Baylor University in 2026-27?
- It depends on the college or program you apply to. Baylor University sets no supplement every applicant writes in 2026-27; the prompts on this page name who each one is for.
Schools with similar admit rates
Baylor University admits 51.3% of applicants. The colleges either side of it in our set by admit rate, most selective first, each with its own prompts and deadlines: Purdue University (49.9%), Rhodes College (50.3%), Providence College (50.9%), Bard College (52.1%), University of San Diego (USD) (52.4%), University of Connecticut (UConn) (52.4%).