University of Texas at Austin supplemental essays
University of Texas at Austin asks for four essays in 2026-27. ApplyTexas, Common App. The first essay above is the personal statement itself: UT Austin states "The Common App personal essay will complete the UT Austin essay requirement", so it is not extra writing on top of one.
That is four pieces of writing in all: the ApplyTexas personal statement is one of them, not an extra. Early Action closes October 15, 2026 (Priority EA) and Regular Decision closes December 1, 2026. Every University of Texas at Austin 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 Action | October 15, 2026 (Priority EA) |
| Regular Decision | December 1, 2026 |
Checked against admissions.utexas.edu/apply/essays-and-short-answers. Confirm on the college’s own page before you submit.
The essays, 2026-27
Required · Please keep your essay between 500-650 words (typically two to three paragraphs).
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.
UT labels this simply "Essays" then "Prompt" in the Freshman section. UT adds: "The Common App personal essay will complete the UT Austin essay requirement." and "*Students do not need to submit other Common App essays. We’ll only review what is required." It can be submitted with the application or via the Document Upload System in MyStatus.
Get a free read on this essayPaste your draft, see the verdict before you pay.No draft yet? Pick a topic for this promptRequired · no more than 40 lines, or about 250-300 words per prompt, typically the length of one paragraph
Why are you interested in the major you indicated as your first-choice major?
Listed under "Short Answers" > "Required Prompts", item 1 of 2. UT states "Short answer responses must be completed in order to submit your application." Submitted with either the Common App or the ApplyTexas application.
Get a free read on this essayPaste your draft, see the verdict before you pay.No draft yet? Pick a topic for this promptRequired · no more than 40 lines, or about 250-300 words per prompt, typically the length of one paragraph
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?
Listed under "Short Answers" > "Required Prompts", item 2 of 2. UT appends a parenthetical guidance note immediately after the question, which reads on the page as: "(Guidance for students: This can include an extracurricular activity, a club/organization, volunteer activity, work or a family responsibility.)" - in the page source the italic tag is mis-closed ("<em>Guidance for student</em>s:"), so the rendered text is as quoted. The dashes around "both in and outside of school" are em dashes in UT's source.
Get a free read on this essayPaste your draft, see the verdict before you pay.No draft yet? Pick a topic for this promptOptional · no more than 40 lines, or about 250-300 words per prompt (College Essay Guy renders it as "Maximum 40 lines, or approximately 250-300 words.")
Please share background on events or special circumstances that you feel may have impacted your high school academic performance.
UT labels this "Optional Prompt" under Short Answers.
Get a free read on this essayPaste your draft, see the verdict before you pay.No draft yet? Pick a topic for this prompt
Your University of Texas at Austin checklist
Four supplements, three of them required. The first deadline, Early Action, is October 15, 2026 (Priority EA).
- Supplement 1Required
- Supplement 2Required
- Supplement 3Required
- Supplement 4Optional
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.
Paste your essay for a free read
Have it in a document? or drop one here (Word, PDF, or Text).
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 University of Texas at Austin’s own prompts is on the University of Texas at Austin essay review page.
Getting into University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Austin admits 26.6% of applicants. The middle 50% of enrolled students scored 1250-1510 on the SAT and 27-33 on the ACT.
About 1 in 4 applicants are admitted, at a college of 42,855 undergraduates.
| Enrolled students | 25th | Median | 75th |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAT total | 1250 | 1390 | 1510 |
| SAT reading and writing | 630 | 690 | 740 |
| SAT math | 620 | 700 | 770 |
| ACT composite | 27 | 31 | 33 |
What SAT score do you need for University of Texas at Austin?
A 1510 puts you in the top quarter of the students who enrolled, a 1390 at their midpoint, and a 1250 at the bottom quarter, meaning one in four enrolled students scored below it. The same three points on the ACT are 27, 31 and 33. 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 University of Texas at Austin?
- University of Texas at Austin sets no minimum. Among students who enrolled, the middle 50% scored 1250-1510 on the SAT: a 1250 sits at the 25th percentile, 1390 at the median and 1510 at the 75th. A score at or above 1510 is a clear strength in the application; below 1250 it is the part of the file the rest has to make up for. These are the figures University of Texas at Austin reports to the US Department of Education, released in the College Scorecard of 2026-09-17.
- What ACT score do you need for University of Texas at Austin?
- The middle 50% of enrolled students scored 27-33 on the ACT, with a composite of 31 at the median. There is no cutoff: a quarter of the enrolled class scored below 27. Reported by University of Texas at Austin to the US Department of Education, College Scorecard release of 2026-09-17.
- What GPA do you need for University of Texas at Austin?
- 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 University of Texas at Austin is either reading that college's own Common Data Set or estimating. What the reported data does say is that University of Texas at Austin admits 26.6% 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 University of Texas at Austin?
- University of Texas at Austin admits 26.6% of the people who apply, which is about 1 in 4 applicants. Numbers inside the reported range put you in a real position here, and the application itself decides the rest.
What University of Texas at Austin 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.
University of Texas at Austin essay questions, answered
- Does University of Texas at Austin have supplemental essays?
- Yes. University of Texas at Austin asks for four essays in 2026-27. Every prompt is printed in full on this page.
- How many essays do you write for University of Texas at Austin in 2026-27?
- Four in total. The first essay above is the personal statement itself: UT Austin states "The Common App personal essay will complete the UT Austin essay requirement", so it is not extra writing on top of one.
Schools with similar admit rates
University of Texas at Austin admits 26.6% of applicants. The colleges either side of it in our set by admit rate, most selective first, each with its own prompts and deadlines: Spelman College (24.9%), Pitzer College (25.2%), Lehigh University (25.9%), Villanova University (27.0%), Franklin & Marshall College (28.2%), Macalester College (28.5%).