After a long wait, seniors who applied to UT Austin during the early application (EA) window will get their application results on Jan. 15.
Those who chose to apply early action submitted their applications by an earlier due date—Oct. 15.—than regular decision students, allowing them to receive an admission decision sooner.
“I applied EA to UT so that I could know my decision earlier, which would influence if I apply to additional schools,” senior Shreya Narayan said.
Besides getting an admission decision early, senior Trisha Agarwal had another reason for going with the early action route.
“I decided to apply early action to UT because I thought I’d have more time and energy in October compared to late November,” she said. “I also had many applications due November 1st so I had to have the majority of my materials done anyways.”
Senior Jyoshika Setti started the application process early in order to avoid being on a time crunch as the early action deadline got closer.
“During the summer, I was worried that I might not have time for college apps, so I started writing essays as soon as the prompts were released,” Setti said. “Because of that, time management was pretty good and I was able to submit my application early.”
According to College Board, in some cases, early action can boost an applicant’s chance of getting accepted. However, this varies from school to school, and for UT Austin, it is unclear whether this applies, because last year, which was the first year the university offered an EA option, when EA results were released, instead of being accepted or denied, many applicants were just deferred and ended up receiving their final admission results on Feb. 15 with the regular decision pool.
Senior Ramya Hariharan hopes that there won’t be a repeat of last year’s situation this year, but plans to relax and wait it out if she doesn’t receive her decision just yet.
“I am concerned about [there being a repeat of last year], but I’m also hoping that the admissions office may have increased their staff and planned better.” Hariharan said. “I do want to enjoy my last semester of senior year, so I’ll spend time with my friends and family rather than worrying about my decision if I don’t get it as scheduled.”
