Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Early Consideration Notification Coming Soon

The Plan II early consideration admission notifications will be mailed on or before December 15, 2008. Remember, the primary advantage of the early consideration process is the December notification. However, Plan II will restrict admission offers to the early consideration applicant pool to 50. The remaining early consideration applicants will receive a deferral of decision or a denial of admission.

Deferred early consideration applicants will remain in the applicant pool and will be considered in successive rolling admissions cycles. Unfortunately, there is no guaranteed notification date after December 15, only the final date by which notification to all applicants will have been mailed, April 1, 2009.

Plan II Honors early consideration offers of admission do NOT require a binding commitment from the applicant to attend the University of Texas at Austin and/or Plan II Honors. All applicants have until May 1 to make a final decision about attending the University of Texas and Plan II Honors. What's important to keep in mind is that the applicant's response date determines when UT Housing issues a contract. The earlier the response (when the applicant commits to UT and pays the enrollment fee), the better the chance of the top dorm choice.

An early consideration applicant who is denied admission may still be admissible to the University (to any other major in the College of Liberal Arts or to majors in the College of Natural Science) and to other competitive admission majors/colleges such as Engineering or the College of Communication. The decision processes are independent from each other. The applicant does not need to take any steps for the application to remain in consideration for other majors in the College of Liberal Arts or for other ApplyTexas major/college choice.

Remember too: Plan II notification is strictly in writing from Plan II Honors via US Mail. Plan II admission decisions will NOT be reflected on the Status Check website.

Most, if not all other admission decisions are available on the BeALonghorn Status Check website if the applicant logs on using the UT EID and password Status Check.

If you have not received notification from Plan II Honors by December 19, email Jennifer Scalora (scalora@mail.utexas.edu). Be sure to include your FULL name and UT EID.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Stay on Track with your Application Submission: Don't delay.

Forgive my slow posts. The early consideration deadline absorbed a lot of my attention these last couple of weeks.

Now that it has passed however, I want to encourage prospective applicants to complete and submit the required application documents as soon as it is feasible.

I VERY strongly recommend completing the application process LONG before the January 15 deadline. Because Plan II does rolling admissions, the competition increases as the application cycle moves forward: fewer spots are available, therefore the competition is stiffer for each available offer of admission. We put applications into the review process in the order the applications are completed. So if you are waiting to submit essays or other required documents, your delay might your chances of admission.

Furthermore, the closer we get to the deadline, the harder it is to track your application documents. So many UT applications arrive each day during the last two weeks prior to the deadline the whole system slows dramatically. ApplyTexas applications load into the system slower: the 24-hour lag becomes a 48 to 72-hour lag before you can access the honors application.

If you submit documents by mail, the documents are digitized and loaded slower due to the sheer numbers arriving every day. Your teacher is pressured to submit a recommendation faster. Everything gets harder. Meanwhile applicants’ (and their parents') anxiety levels are rising. Don't delay! Smart applicants will have their applications complete and submitted by the last day of classes before their schools' winter break.

Remember too: Plan II notification is strictly in writing from Plan II Honors via US Mail. Plan II admission decisions will NOT be reflected on the Status Check website. Most, if not all other admission decisions are available on the BeALonghorn Status Check website if the applicant logs on using the UT EID and password (https://utdirect.utexas.edu/admissions/status_check.WBX).