5-Point Scorecard To Make Sure Your UT Austin Required Long Essay (Topic A Essay) Stands Out

All applicants to the University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M, and other schools on the Apply Texas application system need to submit the Topic A essay. This essay, which runs between 500 and 700 words, plays a crucial role in the holistic review process for applications.


Essay A is a student's primary vehicle for communicating the aspects of their personality, perspectives, and relationships that a resume alone can't convey. It's their chance to give the admissions committee a sense of who they are and how they see the world.


Here's the prompt:


Tell us your story. What unique opportunities or challenges have you experienced throughout your high school career that have shaped who you are today?


Students are used to writing academic papers, where their teachers provide clear prompts, a list of expectations, and even a rubric that lays out exactly what they need to do to earn full credit. Personal essays are a different beast. This Essay A prompt is particularly open-ended. That means the expectations can seem frustratingly amorphous, and no one can tell your student with 100% accuracy what they need to do to succeed. That freedom of thought, though, is representative of what college will be like for your student, so it's a great chance to embrace that new mindset.


But once a student completes their draft, how can they be sure their essay will stand out from the stack? We’ve developed a 5-point scorecard to help students assess their drafts of Apply Texas Essay A. Here it is.


Students should give themselves a score of 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest) for each criterion on the scorecard. The goal will be for them to have at least 20 as a total score. 


When scoring their essay, students should keep an eye on the following aspects:


The student is the main character. If you spend most of the essay talking about your grandfather or the complicated details involved in coding your app, you may be missing the opportunity to share important information about yourself. To earn a 5, your essay must reveal how your grandfather impacted you or why you chose to code the app and how the experience influenced you. 


Values and unique characteristics. In an effective essay, the reader gains insight into a few of your most important qualities and values. Examples include resilience, kindness, creativity, persistence, empathy, curiosity, courage, etc. Does your essay give a focused, in-depth look into a few specific characteristics with examples that showcase them in an engaging, readable way? If so, give yourself a 5. 


The essay focuses on recent experiences rather than (or in addition to) childhood experiences. From a resume standpoint, colleges are interested in what you’ve done in high school. They want to know the person who will be coming to their campus, not the child you used to be. While it’s fine to link something that happened in your childhood to more recent experiences, it’s important to spend the majority of your essay on those recent experiences. If your essay does that, give yourself a 5 here.


The essay demonstrates learning, growth, or movement. The most interesting movies and books show character change and development, right? The same is true for an effective personal essay. To earn a 5 in this category, make sure your essay includes self-reflection about what you learned from an experience, how you have grown in some way, and even how you have applied what you’ve learned in a new situation. 


The essay moves into the future. How will the positive qualities and values you’ve highlighted in your essay help you in college or your future career? A 5 in this area means that you've spent a small part of the essay, typically near the end, reflecting on how what you have written about will allow you to contribute or succeed as a student, person, or employee in the future.


If a student scores below a 5 in any of these areas, they should consider revising the essay to improve their score. We don't expect students will get a perfect score here—again, the goal is 20 or above as a total—but the higher they can get, the more likely it is that they have an engaging essay that will stand out for essay readers.


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