UT Austin Essays 2025-2026
UT Austin Supplemental Essay Prompts: 2025-2026
The University of Texas at Austin recently released their supplemental essays for the 2025-2026 admissions cycle. In this article, we will explain exactly what they are looking for in responses from applicants, so you can write essays that get you admitted there.
1. Why are you interested in the major you indicated as your first-choice major? (300 words)
This isn't just a "why major" essay. It is an essay about why you chose to major in this field at UT Austin specifically. For this essay, you want to start with a vivid first-person description of some event in your life that enables you to make a strong personal connection to a problem, concept, or life goal related to your first-choice major.
Next, you want to state this problem, concept, or goal and explain why it fascinates you, considering both its technical details and what it means to you personally. Then, explain how your chosen major will enable you to study this problem or concept, achieve your life goal, or explore similar problems and concepts. In light of the experience that anchors your connection to this major, describe what pursuing this field will mean to you.
Following this, explain how the resources at UT Austin will enable you to best study this problem or concept, or achieve this life goal. In doing so, mention specific professors and research centers by name. Finally, paint a picture of how you'll positively impact the world using your UT Austin education.
2. 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? (Guidance for students: This can include an extracurricular activity, a club/organization, volunteer activity, work or a family responsibility.) (300 words)
It is key for this essay that you write about only one activity. Don't write about multiple activities. Also, make sure it is an activity from high school, not middle school. For this essay, I would pick an activity where you created a positive tangible impact in the lives of others (bonus points if that impact can be quantified), solved an incredibly difficult problem, such as during research, or won a competition despite facing some type of obstacle.
I'd start the essay with a vivid first depiction of an obstacle you faced in your chosen activity. Make the obstacle out to be as imposing as possible. Then, I would explain to the reader why, on a personal and emotional level, you had to overcome the obstacle and achieve your goal. To introduce this personal reason, you can take a short detour to give the reader a snapshot of another impactful experience in your life. I would then show the reader how you clearly overcame that challenge.
From there, I would showcase how you interacted with others as part of the activity, assuming it wasn't a solo endeavor. Colleges love to see how you interact with others because they want to see how well you'll fit into the incoming class they are trying to curate and the broader campus community. So if possible, after showing how you overcame a great challenge in this activity to draw the reader in, demonstrate how you managed to work productively with others to accomplish something positive, such as raising money, solving a problem, or practicing for a competition.
After illustrating the accomplishment from this activity that makes you most proud, conclude in one of two ways: either explain how this accomplishment recontextualized the life event that made your participation in this activity deeply personal, or describe how the experience has shaped your goals and ambitions for college and beyond.
If you want your college admissions essays to be the decisive factor that gets you into your dream school, schedule a free consultation with an admissions expert today to have all of your questions answered.
