College Applications 5 Tips for Completing the ApplyTexas Application Written by Tova Javetzon June 13th, 2017 I began my career as both a tour guide and senior interviewer at my alma mater, Barnard, where I later joined the admissions team and read and reviewed applications from students applying from the northeastern, midwestern, and western regions of the United States, as well as Canada. A few years later, while pursuing my master’s degree, I briefly left admissions to be the director of student life at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Realizing I missed working closely with students on the high school side of college counseling, I joined the admissions team at Fordham University where I recruited and reviewed applicants applying to Fordham’s liberal arts and business colleges. My most recent experience at Montclair State helped me understand what the application process looks like outside of highly selective colleges and how to help students who may not be fully prepared for college-level work. One of my favorite past experiences was managing the athletic recruitment process at Fordham as well as a number of sports at Barnard. Understanding the inner workings of both the Ivy and Patriot athletic leagues meant I was able to guide students to find the best athletic matches as part of their college search. Learn More About Tova applytexas, coalition application, common app, common application, So, you find yourself applying to a school in the state of Texas. Whether you're a resident of Texas or not, you can use the ApplyTexas application for any school on your list in the Lone Star State. Well, almost any school—Rice University prefers to march to the beat of other common platform drums. If you're thinking of using ApplyTexas, here are five tips to remember before you start your application: Create copies after you’ve completed the activities sections. This tip will save you a lot of time and frustration. Unlike the Common Application or other shared application platforms, most of the information you provide on the ApplyTexas app is entered into a specific school’s application, not a general profile or account in the ApplyTexas system. For example, if I know I plan to apply to Texas Tech, I would begin in ApplyTexas by starting an application to Tech, then I would make sure to complete that app in its entirety. After I finished, I could choose the option to make a copy of the Texas Tech application so that the completed information would be copied into the next school’s application. If I had made a copy before finishing with the extracurricular activities sections, I would have to enter all of that information twice. So, save yourself the headache and wait to copy your application until you’ve completed the extracurricular and volunteer activities as well as the employment information! Check all requirements on each school's individual website. ApplyTexas keeps you in check for the required components of ApplyTexas. But it is possible the school has additional requirements to be submitted outside of ApplyTexas. For example, UT has a required "Student Information Form" that has to be submitted directly through their portal. Without this form your application would remain incomplete. Occasionally schools have additional short answer questions to be submitted through their individual portals—and these questions aren't available on ApplyTexas. For example, Baylor has a recommended additional short answer response about why you're interested in their university and it's nowhere to be found on ApplyTexas. Don't feel like you have to use ApplyTexas if they accept other applications. While some of the large flagships (UT, Texas Tech to name just two) only accept the ApplyTexas application, plenty of other schools (both public and private) accept other application platforms, such as the Common Application or the Coalition Application. Bottom line here is go with whichever application platform is most convenient for you. If a school accepts multiple platforms, they have no preference which you choose. If you're applying to a school that accepts the Common App and you're already using it for other schools, there's no advantage to using ApplyTexas. If you skip the activities sections you might skip out on scholarship consideration. Even if you plan to send in a supplemental activities resume, do not skip or rush through filling in the three activities sections (extracurricular, volunteer, and employment). ApplyTexas makes very clear that scholarship consideration is based on the information provided in the ApplyTexas application. Quoting from their instructions, "Information submitted on paper resumes is not considered when scholarship decisions are made. If you want to apply for scholarships, be sure to include details in the sections below about your activities, service, talents, and employment." Their FAQ page is super helpful. I'll admit it, the ApplyTexas platform is pretty clunky and well, I'm just going to say it, not nearly as pretty as many of its counterparts. But, their frequently asked questions webpage is actually a great resource. Check it out before you get started and keep it bookmarked in case you run into trouble while completing or submitting your applications. Now it's time to get cracking on your application—good luck! Related Resources Read | Posted on November 15th, 2023 How to Reduce the Cost of Applying to College Read | Posted on October 12th, 2023 Financial Implications of Applying Early Decision Read | Posted on October 6th, 2023 What are the Different College Admissions Deadline Types?
