How to use this course (updated 2024)
Book Copies
Audiobook: Your Ticket to the Forty Acres (2021)
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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
College and Honors Admissions Data
First-time Freshmen Application Review Updated 2024
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Introduction to File Review (4:25)
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Computer Science AD (12:03)
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Communications and Leadership AN (9:53)
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Business Honors AR (8:29)
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Moody Communications AS (11:15)
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Computer Science AT (10:21)
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Business Honors CV (10:56)
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Moody Communications GT (8:27)
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Business HJ (10:13)
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Computer Science KG (9:32)
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Business and Plan II MC (9:42)
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Computer Science NR (9:15)
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Business and Plan II NZ (16:13)
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Computer Science RG (9:10)
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Chemistry and Plan II SJ (10:40)
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Computer Science SW (11:39)
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Liberal Arts Honors SY (9:50)
Crafting your application
Resume Workshop
Essay Building Workshops
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: 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
Pre-2020 First-Time Freshman Application Review (Old)
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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)
