Wednesday marks the University of Texas at Austin’s (UT) early action deadline for Fall 2026 admission, and seniors are putting the finishing touches on essays, forms, and short answers before hitting submit.

“The advantage of UT’s early action would be to know UT’s decision earlier than the general application deadline,” counselor Ryan Keifer said. “Students can use that information to potentially pick a school on their list earlier. But tackling early admissions is different for every college: some might give preference to early action, while others might not.”

As the deadline looms, seniors are taking different approaches to meet the early action requirements; some have already submitted their applications, while others are still refining theirs.

Senior Amaris George, for instance, has already submitted her application and described the process as slightly challenging. 

“For me, it was a long process with writing the supplemental essays,” George said. “I feel like the prompts were very straightforward, so I didn’t feel like I had a lot of room to be super creative. I had to be more direct with what I wrote about, but I eventually found a way.”

Other seniors, like Catalina Landauro, are still in the final stages of preparation.

“No, I haven’t [submitted my application to UT] yet, Landauro said. “I am waiting until next week to submit. So far, I’ve had to write my essay, and my sister has reviewed it various times, giving me feedback so I could write it as best as I could. I also spent time filling out information, figuring out FAFSA, and things like that. I also took around a week to be able to write the 2-3 short-answer questions that were necessary for the application process.”

Even with the multiple steps required, Landauro said the process hasn’t been stressful. 

“[The application process] hasn’t been stressful for me because my sister has gone through this before me and I have her backing me up,” Landauro said. “I feel like UT gives us a lot of time to get our applications in.”