How to use this course
Book Copy: Your Ticket to the Forty Acres, second edition
Book Copy: Surviving the College Admissions Madness
Introduction to the UT admissions process
What are my chances?
Your Admissions Reviewer
Correcting Misconceptions
Affirmative Action and Diversity
College and Honors Admissions Data
Crafting your application
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Introduction and Advice from Former Applicants (12:00)
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Apply Texas Walkthrough (14:28)
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Diversity and Fit for Major (14:29)
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Writing and Editing your Essays (69:37)
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Essay A Brainstorming Worksheet
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Expanded Resume and Recommendation Letters (31:21)
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Recommendation Letter Templates
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Beware of overediting!
Resume Workshop
First-Time Freshman Essay A with Short Answers Final Drafts
Essay Building Workshops
First-Time Freshman Application Review
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Amrita Vasanti McCombs Business (13:34)
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Adriane Kerr Liberal Arts (13:35)
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Bhavika Farha Natural Sciences (Environmental Science) (14:25)
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Cecilia Baines McCombs and Plan II (18:05)
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Christopher Donadio Business Honors Program (15:22)
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Javed Sikh Business Honors Program (11:58)
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Lauren Sanders Liberal Arts (12:23)
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Jackson Pettigrew Aerospace Engineering (11:41)
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Louis Mehl McCombs Business (11:46)
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Mahir Arya Computer Science (14:57)
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Meredith Fredrickson Liberal Arts (11:55)
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Russ Lyle Plan II and Engineering Honors (17:25)
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Tiana Mahati Computer Science (14:26)
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Travis Honeycutt Mechanical Engineering (11:27)
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Will Eide Computer Science (18:09)
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Zach Saiki Computer Science (8:12)
Transfer Final Drafts
Transfer Application Review
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Introduction to Transfer Admissions Review (6:30)
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Transfer: Tomlinson Communications / RTF (12:28)
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Transfer: Harris Communications / Public Relations (12:08)
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Transfer: McGill Liberal Arts (9:22)
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Transfer: Sethu Business (9:57)
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Spring Transfer: Diehl Natural Sciences (15:15)
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Spring Transfer: Evensen Liberal Arts (13:55)
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Transfer Essays A and E Brainstorming Worksheets
Additional reading and resources
Audiobook: Your Ticket to the Forty Acres
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Introduction: Stumbling into Admissions
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Section I: Introducing Holistic Review
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Chapter 1: What are my chances?
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Chapter 2: The Personal Achievement Index
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Chapter 3: Factors you can control
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Chapter 4: The Academic Index
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Section II: What Does the Reviewer See?
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Chapter 5: Who is your admissions reviewer?
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Chapter 6: College fairs and high school visits
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Chapter 7: Admitting for "fit"
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Section III: Dispelling Myths: Race, Privilege, and Affirmative Action
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Chapter 8: A brief legal history of affirmative action
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Chapter 9: Why does UT-Austin consider race?
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Section IV: Putting Your Application Together: A Tactical Approach
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Chapter 10: Correcting Misconceptions
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Chapter 11: Crafting Compelling Essays
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Chapter 12: Building Effective Resumes and Recommendation Letters
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Section V: College, School, and Honors Admissions Data
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Chapter 13: Regular Admission Data and Statistics
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Chapter 14: Honors Admission and the Application Process
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Section VI: What Comes Next? Receiving Your Decision
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Chapter 15: The Transfer Guide
Audiobook: Surviving the College Admissions Madness
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Disclaimer
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Argument part 1
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Argument part 2
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Argument part 3
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Chapter 1 College Essay Madness
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Chapter 1.1 Most college essays are not very good
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Chapter 1.2 Students—the madness isn’t your fault
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Chapter 1.3 You get an essay! And you get an essay! Everybody gets an essay (requirement)!
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Chapter 1.4 Introducing a new measurement unit for essay length: a Princeton
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Chapter 1.5 Not-optional optional options
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Chapter 1.6 Authenticity and many other institutional values
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Chapter 2 Can Anything Stop the Madness?
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Chapter 2.1 A brief overview of admissions anxieties and worries
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Chapter 2.2 Parents are not the primary problem
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Chapter 2.3 Independent educational consultants are also not the primary problem
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Chapter 2.4 My intentions
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Chapter 3 A College Essay
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Chapter 3.1 Where's Bobina?
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Chapter 4. Stoicism and the Gap Theory of Happiness
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Chapter 4.1 A few cognitive traps and distortions to avoid
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Chapter 4.2 Less-obvious anxiety sources
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Chapter 4.3 Life and death decisions
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Chapter 5. Historical Perspectives and Admissions Systems Abroad
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Chapter 5.1 Admissions systems abroad
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Chapter 5.2 Decentralized application portals and requirements contribute to the madness
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Chapter 6. Holistic Review is Bullshit
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Chapter 6.1 A note on definitions
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Chapter 6.2 Reliably selecting talent is impossible
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Chapter 6.3 Community college transfer applicants are especially screwed
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Chapter 6.4 Cheaters often win
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Chapter 6.5 Reviewing files as a UT-Austin Undergraduate Admissions Counselor
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Chapter 6.6 Shaping the class and related hocus pocus
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Chapter 6.7 Bias, errors, and privilege
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Chapter 6.8 Do recommendation letters make a difference?
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Chapter 6.9 The truth about interviews
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Chapter 6.10 “Chance me” and the ludic fallacy
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Chapter 7. Avoiding Application Mistakes
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Chapter 7.1 Minimizing debt
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Chapter 7.2 Building a reasonable college list
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Chapter 7.3 More cognitive distortions to avoid
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Chapter 8. Questionable Enrollment and Recruitment Practices
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Chapter 8.1 The Early Decision racket
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Chapter 8.2 Admissions purgatory: deferrals, waitlist, appeals, and letters of continued interest
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Chapter 8.3 Dashboard and the darkside of big data
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Chapter 9. Rethinking Diversity
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Chapter 9.1 Diversity-themed essay topics are problematic
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Chapter 9.2 Professional ethics revisited
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Chapter 9.3 Antiracism in college admissions backfires
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Chapter 9.4 Poverty matters more than race
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Chapter 10. Meritocracy Madness
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Chapter 10.1 On moral luck
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Chapter 10.2 Admissions by partial lottery?
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Chapter 10.3 Nietzsche’s gap year
