<p>Hi, AllThisIsNewToMe, congrats to your son for jumping into his ApplyTexas app so early. Someone posted, “When will I hear back?” on the UT forum…wow. Aug. 1, and they’re out of the chute!</p>
<p>Everyone has offered great ideas! In case you really are new to this, I’ll just throw in a few Texas-unique practical considerations, plus one approach to getting an applicant unstuck.</p>
<p>What to write on essay B depends to some extent on whether he has to write essay D for architecture or art (UT only); whether he is applying to an honors program or for scholarships, and if so, whether B will be used for both admission and honors or scholarship OR he has to write a separate honors or scholarship essay; and whether he’s going to write “optional” essay C (note that A&M “strongly recommends” it, especially for holistic review and scholarship candidates, which means he better write C if either applies!). Obviously, the more he has to write, the more coordination he needs to apply to his overall application to insure he is consistently communicating his theme without being redundant, i.e., each piece should add new information about his passions, skills, character, ideologies, etc.</p>
<p>An additional consideration for B is whether to write with choice of major in mind, particularly if he’s applying to UT, where all admits are assigned to a major based on holistic review. Because the majority of applicants are writing only essays A and B, many use those opportunities to weave in major-related themes with the hope of boosting their chances of admission into their first choice of major, especially competitive admits like engineering and business. With that said, good writing is far more important than trying to force something pitched to the major…topic really doesn’t matter. </p>
<p>Thankfully, it doesn’t have to be long! If he hasn’t read through UT’s essay tips, they might be helpful (and they’re generic, so apply equally to A&M): <a href=“http://bealonghorn.utexas.edu/freshmen/before/tips[/url]”>http://bealonghorn.utexas.edu/freshmen/before/tips</a></p>
<p>Above, I mentioned personal theme, and that is my general tip. If you know the story you want your app to tell about you, then you’ll know what parts to ask a teacher to highlight in a rec letter, what parts you’ll need to detail in the expanded resume and what parts are ideal to reveal through essay B…which should guide the brainstorming to come up with a topic! If the idea of developing a theme stumps him, tell him to pretend he’s being interviewed and is asked to describe himself in one sentence or by a short list of descriptors. Or he can ask family and friends to throw out descriptive words and phrases. What themes emerge? What are the most important qualities, strengths and interests the college should know about him as a student, an individual and a member of a community? If he can articulate that, he’ll be able to see how each part of the app, from transcript to letters of rec and everything in between, tells a piece of his story. (Or not! Helping kids get unstuck definitely falls in the YMMV category!)</p>
<p>Hook 'em and/or gig 'em!</p>