The University of Texas in Austin carries the unique reputation of being an outstanding school and an amazingly fun college experience. It’s not surprising, then, that students flock to the university. Demand is high, too, for transfer students.

Automatic admission program for eligible transfers from Texas community colleges inflates overall transfer acceptance rate. This also increases the number of transfer applications UT Austin receives. For the fall of 2024 they received just applications for transfer. This was a large increase over the previous year when they received 7,846 applications for transfer. That number, for the fall of 2023, was itself a record. The year before, they received 1,000 fewer transfer applications. The number of accepted transfers has, however, stayed fairly steady, with about 2,300 annually. As a result, the overall transfer acceptance rate has dropped over the past 3 years from 34% to 22.5%. 

The difficulty of gaining admission to UT Austin also goes up with the popularity and competitiveness of the major, as fewer spots are open for transfers for majors like computer science. But don’t think that applying to transfer as a less competitive major is a way through, though. Transfers do not have the same flexibility to shift focus post admission as first-year students do, and your application with transparently show that, say, English Literature is not your genuine focus if you haven’t pursued it — or something close — actively already at your current college.

There are some other requirements for being eligible to transfer to UT Austin. 24+ hours of transferable credit from other colleges or universities and a minimum 3.0 GPA. However, basically no one gets in with a GPA that low unless they have something else impacting their application (ex: athletics). Truly competitive transfer applicants, the admissions office , have a 3.9 out of 4.0 or higher.

Below, we’re going to break down the written portions of the application to guide you towards your strongest shot at acceptance by UT Austin as a transfer.

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As you start your application, you’ll see that there are a lot of schools to pick from within UT Austin. They let you select up to two, and we recommend having at least one of the two be a less competitive college. However, it still needs to offer what you want to study, or at least something close. Do not aim to transfer between colleges at UT Austin once you arrive, as that is often not an option.

THE TRANSFER ESSAY: STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

Regardless of major, there is one essay that you need to write. It’s a long one (up to 650 words), and it asked a lot of you. Be sure to think carefully through the scope of the prompt before you jump into drafting.

All transfer applicants must submit one essay responding to the Statement of Purpose. This essay should address your interest and preparation for the major you’ve chosen as your first choice. Please keep your essay between 500–650 words (typically two to three paragraphs and about 3000 characters with spaces).

Statement of Purpose: The statement of purpose will provide an opportunity to explain any extenuating circumstances that you feel could add value to your application. You may also want to explain unique aspects of your academic background or valued experiences you may have had that relate to your academic discipline. The statement of purpose is not meant to be a listing of accomplishments in high school or a record of your participation in school-related activities. Rather, this is your opportunity to address the admission committee directly and to let us know more about you as an individual, in a manner that your transcripts and the other application information cannot convey.

Before we start exploring more about what the statement of purpose should be for your best outcomes, and how to accomplish it, let’s dwell for a moment on what they do not want. Admissions has specifically stated that they don’t want a list of the awesome things you done. They want to be excited by your application while reading this, not bogged down in details.

We’ve found that the best way to catch the attention of the application readers at UT Austin is to capture their imagination with story. So, this Statement of Purpose needs to be more story than statement. Another way to think about it is that it needs to show more of your mission academically, like in the sense of a Mission Statement, than your accolades. You’ll come off as impressive, but without boring the readers or prompting eye rolls.

Now let’s talk about how to do this. Remember, you are transferring. UT Austin wants to see what drives you, and also what is driving you towards them. That is distinctly different from what is driving you away from your current school. If the university wanted to hear all about why you are keen to leave, they would ask. Instead, they are asking about what you are seeking out.

We like to start, then, with a spark. There is something for you academically that clicked or shifted drastically in the last few years. This might not actually be the number one reason you are looking to transfer, but UT Austin doesn’t want to hear social woes. So, for the purpose of this essay put academics at the center right from the beginning through this spark moment.

Communicate the spark through story. Write a super specific story that shows you engaging directly with the subject, and pack it full of detail to communicate enthusiasm. Then, write about how you got there. What was your journey to your passion? Again, focus on what is exciting for you. The application reader should feel your enthusiasm.

After setting up your passion (and your purpose) point towards the future — first at UT Austin. Go beyond the name of your major, sharing specific classes you’d want to take, a professor or two you would love to study under (and why), and a program or two that you’d love to be part of. This could be research, field work, or career development, but should not be outside of Texas.

Finish your essay by sharing your dreams for the future beyond earning you Bachelor’s degree, but contextualized within how UT Austin would empower you to get there.

Applicants to the School of Nursing should address the goal of becoming a nurse and/or a career in nursing.

If you are applying to the School of Nursing, they want to be sure that you write about wanting to be a nurse. Luckily, the approach we outlined above sets you up to do that already, so we don’t actually need to change anything about how best to answer the supplement prompt. As a future nurse, though, just remember that it is critically important that you write about nursing in a way that is both pragmatic and empathetic. Your writing should just be about the ‘soft’, people side of nursing, but it also shouldn’t just be about science classes. Meld the two.

And, if you are planning on applying to the School of Architecture, there is . 

Topic D (School of Architecture majors only)

Personal interaction with objects, images and spaces can be so powerful as to change the way one thinks about particular issues or topics. For your intended area of study, describe an experience where instruction in that area or your personal interaction with an object, image or space effected this type of change in your thinking. What did you do to act upon your new thinking and what have you done to prepare yourself for further study in this area? (4,500 characters, 500-700 words)

The only undergraduate school within UT Austin that requires an additional essay as part of the transfer application is the School of Architecture. It’s a particularly interesting situation because the question it’s explicitly about architecture or the experience of studying it. Really, what they are asking is for you to share a learning experience (with a teacher or self-led) that changed how you think.

It would make sense, though, to center your answer on something to do with architecture, interior design, or the built world. It is also necessary to ensure that you aren’t repeating yourself at all between this supplement and the Statement of Purpose. Other than that, the essay will really follow a similar gameplan. There must be a guiding story with lots of visuals and strong storytelling. There must be a bigger message about who you are and how you operate in the world, here centered specifically on the built environment and architecture.

RESUME

UT Austin doesn’t have any more essays, but they do require that all transfer applicants submit a resume. When most schools offer a spot for a resume, it’s optional and there are not guidelines. UT Austin does the opposite. They are very clear about what they want to see on your resume, and it may require you to break one of our golden rules of college admissions.

We are strong advocates for the one-page resume. Except in extreme circumstances, there is zero need to have a resume that extends to a second page if you have good formatting. However, the amount that UT Austin wants to see on your resume may require you to break that length limit.  

They say that they want to see the following on your resume: The “previous five years of academic, extracurricular, community, and work activities and your honors and awards-including high school if taken place within the last five years.”

They don’t just want you to list what you did though. “Be sure to incorporate all your achievements,” they say, including “details about what each activity involved rather than a general description and the number of hours per week and weeks per years you spend on each activity.” Basically, they want more than they already got in the Experiences and Achievements sections.

What you shouldn’t do, though, is run with this as an excuse for a 10 page resume with images, charts, and a bajillion fonts. Keep it focused, stick to the point, and be direct. Also, keep the font size above 11.

As you wrap up your application, don’t overlook the power of including test scores even though they are optional. A few years out from taking the SAT or ACT, it can feel so far in the past that it may as well be irrelevant. Strong scores, though, underline an impressive application. Include them if you have them.

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