Students who plan on entering public universities in the State of Texas for the Fall of 2017 will be using the uniform application service at www.applytexas.org. The application process is very rigorous and time-consuming, and it requires the completion of multiple essays. The first date to submit an application for the Fall of 2017 is August 1, 2016. It is very important that your student submits his or her application immediately after midnight on August 1 — just over 2 weeks from now. Our contacts in higher education have told us that most, if not all, universities use the order in which the application was received for determining college placement within the university, new student orientation dates, class enrollment, and financial aid. Often, students who are in the top 10% of their graduating class make the assumption that they will automatically be admitted to both the university and the college that they desire — this is not true. They will be automatically admitted to the university, but they may not get the college or major that they want to study. This is especially true for those students that want to study business or engineering. We have had students get admission to the university but be told that they would not be allowed to study in the business college or the engineering college. Some have gone to the university and had to later fight for admission to the college/major that they originally desired. Many of the larger universities have stringent requirements for transfer to one of these colleges making it almost impossible.
Here is a website with good information about applying at www.applytexas.org:
https://www.applytexas.org/adappc/html/things_to_know.html
Please submit your child’s application as close to August 1 as possible. This is one of those situations where procrastination can be life-altering.
