How H-1B parents with children on H-4 visas should plan for college admissions





By Rajkamal Rao  








There are many H-1B parents whose rising senior children on H-4B visas face a dilemma about how to protect their immigration status and still attend college.

There are two main questions:  What should the immigration status of the children be when they enter college? H-4B or F-1? And, what kinds of scholarships and financial aid can these children find applicable?


Immigration stages and the priority date

Which immigration status the child decides to be in largely depends upon the green card priority date of the H-1B parent.

There are three major steps to obtaining a green card.
  1. The Labor Certification or PERM stage (Application for Permanent Employment Certification).
  2. The Immigrant Petition (I-140) stage.
  3. The Adjustment of Status (I-485) stage.
The priority date is the date on which the Labor Certification was filed with the Department of Labor, or, if no Labor Certification is required, as in the case of applicants with exceptional ability, the date on which USCIS received the I-140 petition.

The priority date is simply the reserved position in the queue to obtain a green card.

With so many H-1B employees applying for I-140s, and only about 7,900 green cards issued each year, the wait is long. Estimates are that anyone with a priority date after 2009 is in this line, those closer to 2009 at the head of the line, and those with a priority date of today at the very end of the line. Everyone in the line is considered to be in the green card backlog.

When the priority date becomes current - that is, there is a green card available for the employee and their family - H-1B families enter the I-485 stage.

When the I-485 is properly filed, USCIS will initially respond by mailing a letter that confirms receipt of the application, via Form I-797C, approximately 2-3 weeks after the I-485 filing. This is the H-1B employee's confirmation that they are officially an “adjustment of status” applicant. It takes 8-14 months after receiving the I-797 to obtain the physical green card.

What should the immigration status of the children be when they enter college?

Children of H-1B families are by default on H-4 dependent visas. These are restrictive and do not permit any meaningful activity other than going to school. Working for gain is forbidden, although, the experience of work in college (on-campus employment, teaching assistant roles, internships) is integral to the college experience. The H-4 EAD visas that permit H-1B spouses to work are not granted to children.

For students whose families are in the I-485 stage, it may be appropriate to stay on the H-4 visa and wait out the 8-14 month processing time to get the green card.

If the family is not yet at the I-485 stage, students should consider converting to an F-1 visa so that they can pursue on-campus employment and internship opportunities. However, such a move could force them to pay out-of-state tuition fees [see next section]. The decision to convert to F-1 has to balance these two conflicting priorities. In some cases (see points 2 and 3 below), converting to F-1 may be the only way that a student can legally remain in the United States.

The process to convert to F-1 is fairly straightforward. In general, you need three documents to file your I-539 - (see item #6 in the document) - the official form that USCIS requires to grant you the change of status: your I-94, the I-20 from your target institution and a financial statement to demonstrate that the cost of a year's attendance in college (tuition, fees, books, room and board) is covered. Some institutions process the so-called Change of Status for you but you still have to do the federal paperwork. 

  1. Once the student sends in a deposit to a college and locks in a seat, the student should request the college to process a conversion to an F-1 visa. The University of Missouri has published an excellent checklist of the process. Rochester also has a detailed guide.

  2. This conversion may be especially necessary if the H-1B parent becomes unemployed and is forced to leave the U.S when the student is in college on a H-4 visa. Job loss may even occur when the student is a rising high school senior. Luckily, U.S. law allows for high school students at public high schools to study for an entire academic year on an F-1 visa, although, the student must technically reimburse the high school for tuition expenses.

  3. If a student is younger and the parent has to return to their home country, the student can still convert to an F-1 visa but switch to a private high school. Students on an F-1 visa can pursue a full secondary education – and even earn a diploma – but only at U.S. private high schools.
As long as a student is younger than 21, they can continue to appear on their parents' I-485 application and still get their green cards. As a student turns to being within 9 months of their 21st birthday and the parents haven't still obtained their green cards, the student has to find other ways to remain in the United States - convert to F-1, obtain an H-1B sponsorship - or even consider marriage to a citizen or permanent resident!

Scholarships and financial aid for H-1B children

The majority of public scholarships - such as FAFSA grants, work study, and subsidized loans - are unfortunately not available to H-1B families. Many states operate financial aid programs specifically for such families - like the State of Texas TASFA program.

But the best news for H-1B families is that children can attend public colleges and universities as in-state residents. Domicile is a technical term that colleges use to determine whether someone is resident in a state or not. The legal definition of domicile is that it is a place that a person treats as their permanent home, or lives in and has a substantial connection with. States permit H-1B families to claim domicile on the theory that these families want to immigrate to the United States and make the state their future home.

Many children of H-1B families know of no homes other than those in America. State law is fairly uniform and we will use Texas as an example. If a child is a dependent of an H-1 or L-1 parent, and if the child graduates from a Texas public high school and has attended that school for three years leading to obtaining a high school diploma, the student is automatically deemed to have earned independent domicile in the state of Texas and is eligible to be treated as in-state for the purpose of tuition. This classification remains even if the parents leave the state of Texas but still hold on to their H-1 or L-1 status.

Even if the student did not spend three years in Texas leading to a high school diploma, the student can qualify for in-state tuition - as a dependent of their parents. This assumes that the parents continue to live in Texas as their domicile - they live in a home in Texas, work in Texas, drive in Texas, and have a substantial connection to the state. The only time such dependent domicile becomes an issue is when the parents have to leave the state, say to go to California. Then, the student attending a Texas college is no longer an in-state resident for the purposes of tuition.

Students who covert to an F-1 visa will lose their in-state tuition privileges. The F-1 is a non-immigrant student visa and by definition, F-1 students are expected to return to their home countries after their studies even if the F-1 student in this case has no connections to the home country. The F-1 is NOT a dual intent visa - that is, unlike those on an H-1B visa, students on an F-1 visa are not permitted to apply for a green card directly, and therefore, cannot reasonably claim domicile in a state. USCIS rules prohibit F-1 students from attempting to gain domicile in a state for the purposes of enjoying in-state tuition benefits.

We recommend that students of H-1B families limit their school choices to state public universities and colleges.







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Preparing for Fall 2020 Online






By Rajkamal Rao  

The Drag at the University of Texas, Austin. Photo Credit: Rao Advisors LLC


Incoming college freshmen are having to contend with one of the most consequential decisions of their college careers as they consider the Fall 2020 term. To attend a university campus? Take hybrid classes? Or go online? 

So fraught has been this dilemma that even the U.S. government appeared unsure of what to do. Applying decades-old rules to manage the huge international student population, the government shocked the world when it announced that foreign students taking online-only classes had to leave the country or switch to an institution that offers in-person or hybrid classes - arguing that it would be hard to monitor students if they're at a different location but taking classes online. After a hue and cry, and a lawsuit from Harvard and MIT, joined by colleges in the University of California system, the government backed down. 

Going to college has always been about in-person friendships and relationships that last a lifetime. Cutting out one semester out of eight seems like such a big slice lost. For high school students locked at home since March, packing bags and heading to the college dorm was the most anticipated event. To now consider the possibility of extending the lockdown at home without making new friends, even as high school friends attend different institutions and no longer have much in common, is devastating for an incoming freshman.

Looking at the bright side

Although only 10% of the 1,200 colleges that the Chronicle of Higher Education is tracking are going fully online, some of the largest institutions are in this list: Harvard, all the colleges of the California State University system (23 campuses), the University of Alaska at Anchorage, the University of Arkansas (all campuses), the University of California at Irvine, UCLA, Rutgers, the University of Massachusetts, the University of Southern California and Wayne State University.

The obvious concern is about student safety as cases of coronavirus rapidly rise, even though there is plenty of evidence to suggest that young people are less likely to fall sick from the virus.






For a freshman, adjusting to college life requires independently managing both life and work, that is, academics. By taking classes online, freshmen will get used to college academics - attending college classes, listening to lectures, completing project assignments, taking tests, and managing time - all from the comfort of home. When students hope to return to campus for Spring 2021, they would be pros at college academics having completed an entire term online. All they then have to do is to adjust to college life, which should be easier to do.

College students are naturally attracted to campus life because the environment is designed to promote freedom, away from home. Students explore new topics, engage in debates, make new friends and hobbies, shed old ones, and mingle freely without reservation.

But attending a campus during the Covid-19 pandemic requires students to give up most of these freedoms. Students will be forced to honor social distancing, so loud parties are impossible. Class density will be reduced to 40% of normal, so the classroom doesn't feel like it usually does. Masks will be required to be worn at all times, an inconvenience for students who are engaged in vibrant conversation. Contact-tracing apps, while voluntary, infringe on student privacy rights, tracking student movement all over campus. Penalties for non-compliance can be steep, with fines, and even suspension. All of these headaches can be avoided until institutions come to terms with the pandemic and open up campuses with few or no restrictions.

Lastly, there's the issue of cost. For many families hurt economically during the pandemic, not having to pay for room and board can save thousands of dollars, in some cases, over $10,000.

On balance, staying home for Fall 2020 is not as bad as it seems.


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Core Idea 4: Transfer to a 4-Year College






By Rajkamal Rao

Go back to Checklist for Core 4 Undergrads

 

 


This page is dedicated to undergraduates - that is, those that want to pursue a traditional 4-year US education to get a BA/BS degree.

The best-kept secret yet is that most good Community Colleges have articulation agreements with top schools.  An articulation agreement is a legally binding agreement between a 2-year Community College and a 4-year college detailing a simplified but guaranteed transfer from one to the other.

The idea of articulation is that you complete a pre-determined set of courses (or lesson plan) at a lower-cost college and transfer to a destination institution without questions asked (as long as you meet all the conditions of articulation). This provides what is generally called college or university "pathway" to millions of students who otherwise can't go to a 4-year college after high school graduation.

A 2022 study shows that while many four-year colleges expressed the need for facilitating transfer in an effort to maintain enrollment and improve diversity amidst the pandemic, the scope and impact of the efforts have proved to be limited, in part because of Covid-19. Transfer enrollment continues to drop, resulting in a double-digit enrollment decline over two years since the spring of 2020 (-16.0%).

So, 4-year colleges are even more ready than usual to accept transfer students. It is this fact that can be exploited to use upward transfer mechanisms to get admission to your desired 4-year college.


Example 1: Houston Community College to University of Houston Clear Lake

Suppose you're an underperforming student in high school who wishes to earn a 4-year degree in Information Technology.  Or suppose your family has constraints to send you to a 4-year college away from home. Whatever may be the reason, exploiting the Core 2 - Core 4 pathway is a great idea. For foreign students, this could be the Core 2 - Core 3 - Core 4 pathway because it gives them an additional 1-year OPT opportunity in between.

First, you would enroll at Houston Community College and take the required 42- credit minimum core curriculum towards earning an Associates Degree in the Arts and Sciences. You would also complete 18 credits in the elective of your choosing. Or you could directly consider transferring to the University of Houston for your BA degree in Information Technology, as long as you maintain a minimum of 2.0 GPA at the community college.

Notice how UH specifies exactly what courses to take - among a wide variety of courses - to meet its requirements for the degree. There's a lot of flexibility for the average student. But there's also specificity. It is this combination which makes articulation agreements so beneficial to both student and institution.

Example 2: Collin College to various degree programs at several colleges

Collin College has negotiated various pathways too many to list here. Check out their website for details.

An easy way is to decide with your area of interest. Suppose this is computer science. Click on the STEM option to see several options about this field. The closest program to computer science is 21-22 Computer Systems - Information Systems. Click on pathway. A .pdf document will open in a different window showing the exact menu of courses you need to complete, by semester, to transfer to your destination institution.

Notice that courses with a "c" designation represent core curriculum courses. All students pursuing an undergraduate degree must complete the 42-hour statewide Texas core curriculum. Core courses may be chosen from a large menu of classes offered under broad topic areas such as English Composition, Humanities, History, Government, Social Sciences, Math, Natural Sciences, and the Arts. Students can generally proceed to take classes in their major only after completing core curriculum requirements - and will do so after three semesters, assuming 15 credits a semester.


Example 3: Austin Community College to Texas A&M

Suppose you are interested to get a degree in Biomedical Sciences at Texas A&M University.  What are your chances of getting into Texas A&M as an international student as a traditional undergrad?  Even if you rate your chances as high, what would be the cost? Answer:  Flat rate tuition costs for international students are $10,913 per semester.


At Austin Community College (ACC), however, a five-course semester will cost $4,860 (a 3-credit course costs $972).  Luckily for us, ACC and Texas A&M have signed a binding agreement.  Accordingly, if a student completes a pre-determined list of courses at ACC totaling 67 credit hours, obtains at least a 3.6 GPA and doesn't score lower than a B in science and math, this student is automatically guaranteed admission to Texas A&M!

Let us look at the ROI analysis.  For this exercise, we are only considering tuition and fees but omitting all other expenses (living, health insurance, transportation, etc).

Traditional Option:  Complete all 120 Credit Hours at Texas A&M
Total Cost: $87,306 ($757.55 per credit hour x 120 credits)

Core Idea 4:  Complete 67 hours at Austin CC and 53 hours at Texas A&M
Cost at ACC: $21,708 ($324 per credit hour x 67 credits)
Cost at Texas A&M:  $40,150.15 ($757.55 per credit hour x 53 credits)
Total: $61,858.15

Your final 4-year degree will still be stamped by Texas A&M but the cost is nearly 29% lower.  Plus it was probably easier and more structured to get into the college to begin with.  You earn an Associates Degree along the way which you can add to your resume.  And if you're a foreign student on an F-1 visa, you have the chance to work, in the United States, as an intern for a full year if you exploit the Core 2 idea.

The ROI is clearly better in the second option.  We said earlier that we would prove to you that the Core 4 approach is off-the-beaten-track, requires hard work but is beneficial to you overall.  Many famous Americans have exploited this route, so you won't be alone in this adventure!

There is just one issue with this approach, though.  Not every 4-year college - indeed, the top private schools in the country - has articulation agreements with community colleges.  And by definition, articulation agreements are restricted to partners within a state - that is, the community college and the 4-year college both are generally present within the same state making transferring across state lines difficult.

Recognizing this gap, Quad Learning, a private company has slowly begun developing a network of community colleges and 4-year colleges across the country, called American Honors.  The site's mission statement says: "In collaboration with local community colleges and nationally renowned experts in higher education, we create new pathways for individuals to earn a high-quality bachelor’s degree."

The New York Times reports that at the community colleges participating so far, students in the honors program pay about $2,000 per year more intuition than their classmates. Quad Learning has long-term revenue-sharing agreements with each college.  “We like to think about the price as being halfway between a community college and a four-year, open-access university,” said Chris Romer, president of the company. “If we can do the first two years of college for $12,000, that’s a game-changer for a lot of families.”  Partner schools include Ohio State, Vanderbilt, Stanford, the University of Arizona, and Georgetown.

No matter which approaches you choose - the in-state Core 4 articulation method or the American Honors route - the win-win benefits are clear.  You can more easily get into a top-quality degree program but with a significant discount.


Example 3: Internal Transfer of major once already in college

While the focus of this article is to transfer from 2-year institutions to 4-year colleges, it is possible to apply to switch majors after starting your undergraduate career. For example, at the University of Texas at Austin, this process is known as internal transfer and is similar to the process of transferring to another university, as you must apply for admission to the college or school that houses the new major.


UT has published detailed guidelines about such transfers. This process is the same at most large and reputed universities where transfers are competitive. The process is much less formal at smaller institutions where all you need is the approval of your academic advisor.





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Introduction to College 529 plans






By Rajkamal Rao  

Image Courtesy: U.S. Department of Education

Section 529 of the Internal Revenue Code allows states, state agencies, and eligible educational institutions to sponsor qualified tuition programs (529 plans), which are tax-advantaged vehicles designed to encourage saving for future qualified higher education expenses and certain K-12 tuition expenses of a beneficiary.

If you're a parent, grandparent, or a relative of a student, you can become a 529 account holder. Anyone who is at least age 18, possesses a physical address in the United States and has a valid Social Security Number or Tax Identification Number can be an account owner. There are thousands of 529 plans in which you can invest. Contributions are on an after-tax basis, but any growth of the fund's value (through dividends and capital gains) is tax-free. This feature is the most attractive benefit of qualified tuition programs.

Anyone can contribute to a 529 account regardless of who owns the account, but only the account owner has control over how money is invested and used. Only the account owner is eligible for federal and state tax benefits. The maximum aggregate account balance for all 529 accounts for the same beneficiary is $485,000.

The account beneficiary is the student for whom you are investing money for their qualified higher education or K-12 tuition expenses. Any person with a physical address in the United States and a valid Social Security Number or Tax Identification Number can be a beneficiary.

Funds in the 529 plan can be used for "qualified" education expenses when the student attends an eligible educational institution. An eligible educational institution is any college, university, or vocational school in the United States or abroad qualified to participate in federal student aid programs. You can determine the eligibility of an educational institution by going to the U.S. Department of Education’s Database of Accredited Post Secondary Institutions and Programs (DAPIP) or the Federal Student Loan Program list. According to a 2023 law, up to $35,000 in funds remaining in a 529 plan can be rolled over into a Roth IRA for the student (the beneficiary). This will encourage more parents to invest in 529s knowing that they don't have to pay taxes on withdrawals after their qualified expenses have been met.

To be considered a qualified withdrawal, money must be withdrawn from an account in the same period that educational expenses are incurred. Examples of qualified education expenses: 

  • K-12 tuition expenses of an account beneficiary who attends a public, private or religious school (up to $10,000 per calendar year per beneficiary from all qualified tuition programs). 

  • College tuition, mandatory fees, books, supplies, and equipment required for the beneficiary to enroll and attend an eligible higher educational institution.

  • A computer, peripheral computer equipment, software, and internet access while enrolled in
    an eligible higher educational institution.

  • Room and board, if the beneficiary is enrolled at least half time. Half-time enrollment is
    defined as half of a full-time academic semester or term workload. Costs cannot exceed the allowance for room and board as determined by the eligible higher educational institution.

Account funds that are used for any purpose other than to pay for the qualified higher education expenses are nonqualified withdrawals and are subject to taxes and penalties. Examples of nonqualified higher education expenses include:

  • Transportation expenses

  • Cellphone plans

  • Sports and fitness club memberships

  • Health insurance

Tax treatment of 529 withdrawals (1099-Q) - RAO ADVISORS EXAMPLE

When parents contribute funds into a 529 plan, they do so on their after-tax income. That is, contributions to a 529 plan are not tax-deductible, like IRA or 401K plans. But funds already in a 529 account grow tax-free.

Suppose that parents contribute $100,000 into their daughter's 529 plan over 10 years. And over time, suppose that the fund has grown to $155,000.

The $55,000 gain in the fund is not taxable if the money is used for qualified educational expenses, such as tuition, books approved by the university as required, meals, and housing costs as determined by the university. But the funds become taxable to the daughter, the beneficiary, if funds are used for unqualified education expenses such as transportation, cellphone plans, health insurance fees, gym memberships, and extracurricular activities. The gain is NOT taxable to the parents.

The daughter begins her college journey with the parents paying more than half of her cost of attendance (tuition, fees, room and board) using the 529 plan as the funding vehicle. Suppose the daughter incurs $25,598 in tuition, fees, and room and board expenses for her first year in college. Suppose that the daughter also has a full ride from the school's endowment - that is, the daughter's tuition is paid for by an entity other than the university.

The family withdraws the $25,598 from the 529 plan. Because this entire amount is qualified (tuition, fees, room, and board), it is 100% tax free. But the daughter has also received $13,500 as a scholarship from an endowment. This amount is taxable to the student.

During tax season, the family gets three sets of forms:

  1. 1098-T (a record of all tuition payments made to the university and any scholarships or grants received); 

  2. 1099-E (a record of the daughter's loan payments, if any, addressed to the daughter); and

  3. 1099-Q (a record of disbursements from the fund operating the 529 plan, addressed to the daughter).

Parental tax return: Because the daughter depended upon her parents for more than 50% of her living expenses, her parents should claim her as a dependent on their tax return. The parents will enter the 1098-T form details into their Form 1040 and claim one of two tax credits (the American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC) or the Lifetime Learning Credit (LLC)) if they meet income requirements. Tax credits reduce taxes owed dollar for dollar.

Student tax return: The student will also enter the 1098-T form to record scholarships received. Because the daughter was the beneficiary of the 529 plan disbursements, she must pay taxes on the gain if used for unqualified expenses. But all of her expenses were qualified. The 1099-Q will have the following key fields populated.


1099-Q form. Image Courtesy: Rao Advisors
  • Box 1 (Gross Distribution): $25,598

    • Box 2 (Earnings): $13,828

    • Box 3 (Basis): $11,770
The fund has calculated that over the life of the account, the parents paid in the Box 3 amount as the principal - the Basis. The basis grew by the interest amount - the Earnings - in Box 2. The sum of the two amounts was paid to the university as Gross Distribution on the student's behalf.

The daughter must file a tax return - as an individual - to report Box 2 earnings as income if used for unqualified expenses. But all earnings went to pay for qualified expenses - so they would cancel out for tax purposes. She should enter all of her education expenses - tuition, books [required by the university), books (not required by the university)], room and board, computers, internet, etc.

In this case, the daughter received $13,500 in a scholarship which is taxable. So this amount appears on the student's return as income. If the student had an educational loan to pay for additional expenses not allowed by the 529 plan, she would enter 1099-E details into her tax return. For this example, let us assume that she has no education loans to report.

For 2021, her tax due would be $1,123 (tax owed because of the scholarship). To avoid penalties, she should have made four equal estimated tax payments of $281, one per quarter, leading up to tax filing day - or else incur a penalty for underpayment of taxes. Most students would not think of doing this. Luckily, if this is her first year of paying income taxes and she did now owe any taxes for the previous year, 2020, the IRS allows a one-time penalty waiver.

But for subsequent years, the IRS will impose a penalty if the student does not make her regular EST payments.





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Articles Archive






Rajkamal Rao's list of TV appearances and newspaper articles


Rajkamal Rao is a verified Muck Rack journalist with his work appearing in print, online, on TV, and radio. He is an ardent sports fan - click here for an archive of his work covering sports.  



 

ET Now 


ET Now is an English-language business and finance news channel in India, owned and operated by Bennett Coleman & Company Limited. It has evolved to also encompass Politics, Governance, Environment, and Technology under its domain of coverage. It is headquartered in Mumbai.

Rajkamal Rao has participated in numerous debates on the ET Now television channel. Here is a list of his TV appearances. 



TIPP insights



About Tippinsights

Rajkamal Rao is a columnist for tippinsights, and a member and lead writer of the tippinsights Editorial Board. Here is a list of his recent articles where he served as the only EB writer. Many of his by-line pieces are also carried on Bo Snerdley's DailyBS website. Snerdley served as conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh's call screener for 30 years.

Rajkamal Rao's work is regularly featured in RealClearPolitics, America's largest curator of opinions, editorials, and polls.

Tippinsights - the home of America's public opinion and independent news - is from America's most accurate pollster, the only organization that accurately predicted the margin of victory in the last five presidential elections.



The Hindu BusinessLine


The Hindu BusinessLine, part of the well-known The Hindu group of publications, is a business daily published from 16 Indian cities. Rajkamal Rao started writing op-ed columns for the paper in October 2012.




BusinessLine on Campus


With a rich corporate-academia-student interface, this portal features news stories and analysis from the Hindu BusinessLine’s extensive network of correspondents as well as exclusive articles by senior corporate executives and HR professionals, many of whom teach at top B-schools.

Rajkamal Rao wrote his first Worldview column when the portal launched in April 2015. He wrote 283 columns, ending with the last publication of the paper in December 2022 - marking a record as the longest-serving columnist for The Hindu group. Here is the full list. 


Rajkamal Rao is frequently quoted in the media. 

Rajkamal Rao's Biography



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Preparing teenage children for summer


Image: Rao Advisors


By Rajkamal Rao

As families heave a sigh of relief to celebrate the end of the long school year and usher in the summer, there are a few tips to make the time off enjoyable and beneficial. Here's our guide, broken down by current grade level. For a full list of outstanding summer opportunities, please check out our popular post #49.

12th grade - students about to enter college
These teenagers are in for a tough but well-deserved transition as they prepare to leave loving homes and venture out into the open world. If they are the kind where the mother and father have done most of the heavy lifting at home - laundry, cooking, ironing, sewing - now is the time to teach them basic life survival skills. Sign them up for a credit card because this will help them build a credit history even if it is the parents who are paying for the card. Teach them basic personal financial literacy skills, including banking, borrowing, and saving. 

If they're already not driving, make sure they quickly acquire a drivers license. Ensure that their passports are in order - you don't want them to miss out on a semester abroad program because their passports are expiring soon. Some schools, like Northeastern University, allow college freshmen to start their first semester abroad in an exotic location, such as Ireland or Italy.
 
If students have time before they start college in the Fall, they could consider an academic summer program or work or an internship.


11th grade
These children have the most at stake as they enter the senior year in high school. They're also the most likely to have an active summer.

If they have already completed their SAT/ACT tests, invest time to shortlist colleges. Every college which participates in Title IV financial aid, that is, disburses federal grants and loans, is required by law to publish the 25th and 75th percentile SAT/ACT "cutoff" scores. The U.S. Department of Education's College Navigator website is an excellent resource here. Use these benchmarks to initially bucket your desired college into safe, core, and dream categories.

For those colleges which record a campus visit as an expression of student demonstrated interest, we strongly recommend that you take your teenager on an official campus tour. Have your student sit in on an information session, attend classes (although fewer are offered during the summer), have lunch at the cafeteria, and if possible, have the student stay over at the dorm for the night to experience first-hand one of the most important elements of college life. Maintain a log of your visit - we recommend updating thoughts immediately on an iPad or tablet using a campus visit questionnaire.

If your desired college has a firewall policy in place where the admissions office is not even aware of your campus visits (such as elite schools such as Harvard, Yale, Brown and Princeton) and frankly doesn't care that you visited, a virtual campus tour is a great way to learn more about the institution.

Whatever method you employ, use your campus tours to narrow down your shortlist.

Summer is the time when your student must complete the Common App essay, and at least get the outline of supplemental essays complete. Invest in a professional - we have a highly successful track record here - to proofread your student's essays. Remember that essays may ultimately be the most important factor in college admissions. Refer to our primer on essays - and contact us for help.

Finally, summer is the time to continue your extracurricular activities in leadership, service - or even a job. They could consider an academic summer program or an internship. 
 

8th - 10th grade
These children have earned the right to enjoy their summer, but should guard against the summer slump when the long vacation can cause them to forget key skills they learned during the school year. At a minimum, encourage your children to practice reading, writing and math, using the Khan Academy. If your child is already into reading books, use the Khan Academy website to practice math. We strongly recommend constant practice at the Khan Academy and ACT Academy websites to prepare for the SAT/PSAT and ACT respectively.

Summer is the time to make sure your student's course roadmap for the remaining years of high school is well planned out. Check to see if your student has to meet prerequisites for a course by taking a credit by exam - or take an online course from TxVSN or the UT online school.

Summer is also the time to update your student's bragsheet. For students pursuing liberal arts interests, it is the time to build a profile of their work - recordings, literary pieces, videos, etc. Use the free Coalition Access platform to build your bragsheet and profile. Over 80 top colleges accept the Coalition Access application for admissions.

If students have time, they could consider an academic summer program or an internship.


Key Takeaways
Summer is a great time for children to relax, indulge in sports and pursue their passions. Extracurricular activities are an important part of who students are. Refer to our blog post for tips.


A Note About Rao Advisors Premium Services
Our promise is to empower you with high-quality, ethical and free advice via this website.  But parents and students often ask us if they can engage with us for individual counseling sessions. We are indebted and privileged to have earned their trust in matters which are so important to them. Please check out our public Google reviews to see what they say about us.

Individual counseling is part of the Premium Offering of Rao Advisors and involves a fee.  Please contact us for more information.







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So, you want to apply to UT Austin. What next?






By Rajkamal Rao  

Image Courtesy: The University of Texas Austin


The University of Texas in Austin, called UT, is the best Tier-1 public university in Texas and one of the best in the world. It has consistently made the list of eight "Public Ivy" schools. Public Ivy is a term coined by author Richard Moll in his 1985 book, Public Ivies: A Guide to America's Best Public Undergraduate Colleges and Universities to refer to universities in the United States that are said to provide an Ivy League collegiate experience at a public university price.

Boasting over 4,800 graduate assistants including more than 1,800 research assistants, UT has earned Carnegie Foundation's classification as an institution that engages in "Very high research activity." Four Nobel laureates are affiliated with UT.

The university's Engineering, Computer Science, and Business programs are consistently ranked in the top-10 in the country, better than similar programs at Ivy League schools. In terms of prestige among the country's top public universities, UT is nearly in the same league as the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Michigan, and the University of Virginia. With the city of Austin's standing as an effective alternative to Silicon Valley and numerous high-profile multi-billion dollar investments from Big Tech, UT's prestige has dramatically increased in recent years. 

For the ultimate examples of how UT has helped change the world, high school students can look to the contributions of UT's Jason McLellan, an associate professor of molecular bio-sciences and his team of researchers, Daniel Wrapp and Nianshuang Wang. Together, they co-designed the stabilized spike protein at the heart of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines to battle Covid.

Or, consider how Dr. John Goodenough, a UT Cockrell Engineering Professor and 2019 Nobel Prize winner who died in June 2023, helped change the world through his research in batteries. The Lithion Ion battery that powers modern mobile devices owes its existence to Dr. Goodenough.

 

How selective is UT?

The 2025 numbers are here. Applications for first-year admissions to The University of Texas at Austin increased 24.3% for the Fall 2025 term, compared with the number received one year ago. The University received 90,562 applications during the submission period of August 1 to December 1, compared with 72,885 applications received for Fall 2024 admission. Applications from Texas residents increased by 12%, while out-of-state applications soared by 48%. It marks the third consecutive year UT has received a record-breaking volume of first-year applications.

For context, UT processed about 51,000 applications for Fall 2021. This means that the number of applications (the demand) has skyrocketed by nearly 78% in less than four years. During this period, the supply of freshman spots remained the same, with around 10,000 students. 

UT Austin's legendary affirmative action policy—considered the platinum standard because it does not include any racial considerations yet still allows the institution to welcome a highly diverse student body—has come under severe strain. When the state of Texas first announced the policy in the late 1990s, any student who graduated in the top 10% of their Texas high school class would automatically gain admission to the state's 41 public universities. Because Texas is a segregated state with many underprivileged neighborhoods, distinctly Black, Native American, or Hispanic, the top 10% rule automatically sent sizable numbers of minorities to Austin [7,500 seats of an incoming first-year class are reserved for the top 10%].

Each year, UT received a diverse student body that was also at the top of the class, a win-win. It is little wonder that the school has risen in college rankings to become one of the finest institutions in the world.

In 2011, the university shocked Texas residents when it tightened the rule to the top 8%. Two years later, the policy was tightened again to the top 7% of the class. For the class of 2026, only the top 5% of Texas high school students are automatically admitted. At UT, the statistical chance of getting into the 2,500 "holistic" freshman spots—for those that are not in the Top 5% of their high school class—is about 3%, an acceptance rate that is tighter than the most elite schools in the country, including Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Yale, and Princeton.
 
Getting into UT is just the first hurdle. Getting into the major of your choice is the next. Then, getting into an Honors program. And finally, getting a scholarship.

The top disciplines sought are Computer Science, Business, Engineering, Natural Science majors, Communications, and Nursing.

What about majors?

When you apply to UT, you also have to choose your major. Certain majors - like engineering, computer science, and business - are extremely popular with students. With demand ever so high, admission to these majors is highly competitive. Automatic admits are given two choices for majors, but it is not always clear if the second choice is automatically granted if the first choice is denied.

While your choice of major may appear to be career-defining, it is not really so unless you are in a professional field, like nursing or medicine or engineering. Here's an excellent article by a UT freshman about majors.

Majors come with some restrictions. In general, a double major requires 140-150 credit hours total, compared to 120 for a straight single major. UT prefers that you complete all these in four years.

For example, in the College of Engineering, students have to complete 30 semester hours before they can apply for a double major. Click here for details.

UT provides students numerous opportunities in the arts - architecture and design, music, theater art.
Students who are interested in hot areas, such as Video Game development, or media/visual arts, such as Computer Animation as seen in movies, music videos, and commercials, should recognize the hybrid nature of course content, often spanning multiple colleges within UT. The university offers numerous choices to train in such topics anyway. For example, prospective students interested in pursuing Video Game Development should first apply to another major such as Arts and Entertainment Technologies (College of Fine Arts), Computer Science (College of Natural Sciences), or Radio-Television-Film (Moody College of Communication). Once accepted, the students can apply to the Game Development and Design Program. Another option is to pursue training across colleges, like the Bridging Disciplines Program in Digital Arts and Media.


Can I get a double major?

UT offers several double majors through its honors offerings. The Canfield Business Honors Program is considered a major by itself. Many students also major in another business area such as Finance, Marketing, or Supply Chain. Other examples of dual degrees include UT's Computer Science and Business (CSB) and the Electrical and Computer Engineering and Business (ECB) Honors programs.

Getting a double major means that you're, in effect, getting two degrees - although you will get only one diploma (that of your home college).  Your transcript, however, will show that you completed courses in both majors.

Suppose that your home major is Economics and you decide to major in Mathematics.  Your diploma will say that you earned a BS degree in Economics.  But your transcripts will show that you earned two majors - Economics and Math.

According to the Teagle Foundation, the following double major combinations are the most common. But UT may not allow all these combinations.

Foreign Language and International Studies
Foreign Language and Political Science
Economics and Mathematics
Economics and Political Science
Foreign Language and Biology
Foreign Language and Economics
Foreign Language and Business
Economics and Engineering
Foreign Language and Psychology

Most schools require you to complete all course credits for both majors within the time you are enrolled in the college - about 4 years. Some colleges require you to complete a minimum number of distinct courses to qualify for a double major.  It is certainly a lot more difficult to get a double major.  Because of the course restrictions, you may have to declare your majors earlier, meaning that you will miss out on trying out new electives or areas.

Ultimately, though, it is all about the number of specific credits that you are required to complete.  If you can knock off some preliminary courses when you are still in high school, it will give you more freedom to pursue a double major. 

Some schools don't allow students to pursue a second major if a student is already enrolled in composite/joint degrees, which by design, combine two different fields.  MIT, for example, offers composite degrees in Mathematics with Computer Science or Computer Science with Molecular Biology.  In general, MIT says that students are expected to plan a double major program in advance and complete it in four or five years.  MIT offers double major opportunities only to its top students - those who score at least a GPA of 4.0 or higher on a 5.0 GPA scale.

There is no definite advantage in getting a double major - meaning, you won't necessarily be preferred by employers nor will you automatically get a leg up when you try to attend graduate school.  Still, the thinking is that if you can get two majors during the same 4 years for the price of one (and a bit more), and you can demonstrate your commitment, this is altogether helpful.  Some researchers report that up to 25% of college students in the US are currently pursuing double majors.

Some colleges allow you to take courses at a partner institution to earn simultaneous degrees.  For example, Carnegie Mellon University students can take medical courses at the University of Pittsburgh because these are not offered at CMU.  Simultaneous degrees are posted on one transcript as two degrees, but two separate degree certificates are issued, one from each college.

Check with your target college or university for specific program information about Dual/Double Majors and Simultaneous Degrees.

 

How competitive are the Honors Programs? What's the difference between CBHP & McCombs?

Students are also invited to apply to Honors Programs at the University, College, or Department levels. Honors programs offer additional benefits to students, such as smaller class sizes, the ability to register early for courses, or designated housing (the Quad). Rules regarding admission to Honors programs vary by college. Admission is competitive.

The only times you can get into CBHP is as an entering Freshman, or in rare cases, as a Sophomore. Demonstrating the high bar of CBHP, McCombs business students say that their Freshman GPA should be 3.95 to apply for admission as a Sophomore. This is because the two business programs, although sharing the same building, are vastly different.

CBHP is a major in itself; McCombs is not. CBHP courses are taught using the case method of instruction, just like at Harvard or Darden (the University of Virginia). CBHP courses are, by design, intense. For example, the Freshman MIS course involves long-form projects that require mastery in Excel, knowledge of R programming, SQL, and Tableau; the McCombs equivalent is less rigorous. CBHP courses are open only to Honors students, but CBHP students could take McCombs courses at will. Students from the two programs intersect at University and Business School events, such as recruiting and networking events, but otherwise, largely remain excluded from each other.

At McCombs, you may only pursue a single major within the business school. Students enter the school as an undeclared business major. This is not an inferior choice. Unless you are applying to the Canfield Honors program, you have to complete 30 credits and demonstrate your competence before you are accepted into a major of your choice. Remember, you can change your major any number of times.

At the Canfield Business Honors Program (CBHP), you can pursue a double major in business. McCombs students can however pursue a double major outside of the business school, such as in History, or Biology. Most McCombs students pursue a major and a minor, such as a major in Finance and a minor in Accounting.

The College of Natural Sciences is more generous. It allows students multiple chances to apply to their Honors program. "Current UT students and transfer students can apply to any of the CNS honors programs before their fourth long semester of college. See each program's website for application instructions." Please look at FAQ #4 here. For the undergrad class of 2026, there were 3,000 applicants for the Polymathic Honors Program within the College of Natural Sciences. Only 150 were offered a spot.

UT offers two admission deadlines - the priority deadline (Nov 1) and the regular deadline (Dec 1). Students who meet the priority deadline are offered a decision no later than Feb 1, although frequently, the school continues to send out admission offers even earlier. Regular deadline students will hear about their application before March 1.
 

What happens after you apply?

If you're an automatic admit and you apply before the priority deadline, you will generally hear from UT within a few days that you have been admitted to UT. But UT will likely not confirm admission to the major of your choice because this evaluation is through a holistic process. It is entirely possible for automatic admits to be denied admission to both their chosen majors. If your first and second choice majors are less-in-demand Liberal Arts areas, you are more likely to be awarded admission to one of those majors right away.

The best-case scenario is if you get into all three: UT, your first-choice major, and the Honors program of your choosing.

The next scenario is that you get into UT but your first-choice major is denied. This can be disappointing for those set on pursuing a high-in-demand major such as computer science or business. For its part, UT provides you with a list of majors that are still available. Some students may accept a close relative (Applied Math instead of Computer Science) in the hopes of maintaining very high grades in the Freshman year and requesting an inter-departmental transfer. Such transfer cases are very competitive. Generally, students with UT GPAs above 3.9 have a chance.

Students denied their first-choice major can always appeal the decision to UT. Unlike private universities, UT, as a public institution, offers students a rigorous appeals process. But success during appeals is rare because the burden is on the student to prove that the original application was so replete with errors (wrong grades, incorrect test scores, inaccurate recommendation letters) that the student deserves a second look. You can use the MyStatus page to appeal your decision.

Students denied their choice of major need to confront the real possibility of not attending UT at all, electing to enroll in another university where they at least have their favorite major locked in. They can then hope to transfer to UT for the Sophomore year, but admission to your favorite major is still extremely competitive. More than 1,500 students transfer, so you could get lucky.  


Coordinated Admissions Program

With so much demand for the top majors, many students selecting these majors are routinely being denied admission [the Top 5% get two choices] and are being offered Coordinated Admissions Program (CAP) admission to pursue a liberal arts major at one of six UT system schools for the first year and then transfer to the 40 acres. UT doesn't seem to appreciate that most students wanting to pursue CS, Business, Engineering and CNS majors DO NOT WANT to entertain CAP offers. It is becoming UT's polite way of saying no.

After completing CAP requirements during their freshman year at a UT system school like UT Arlington, students automatically transfer to UT Austin to complete their undergraduate studies. Students must examine CAP requirements at their system school, UT's core curriculum requirements and their high school AP record to decide which high school courses to transfer for college credit. If you have already claimed credit, it has been written to your student record and cannot be changed. CAP admissions are restricted to Liberal Arts majors. It is not realistic to expect CAP students to transfer to business, computer science, or engineering. You have to compete for those precious spots just like any other transfer student.

Please click here to watch a 1-hour discussion about the CAP program.

The worst scenario is that you're denied admission to UT. If this happens, you unfortunately have to move on for the Freshman year and enroll somewhere else. Maintain excellent grades and try for transfer admission to the UT Sophomore year. 


Core Curriculum: What courses will I take at UT if I enroll?

All students pursuing an undergraduate degree at the university must complete the 42-hour statewide core curriculum. [Examine this link to see a detailed list of all core courses for any Texas institution].

Core courses may be chosen from a large menu of classes offered under broad topic areas such as English Composition, Humanities, History, Government, Social Sciences, Math, Natural Sciences, and the Arts. Students can generally proceed to take classes in their major only after completing core curriculum requirements - and will do so after three semesters, assuming 15 credits a semester.

Based on a state law passed in 2015, UT is more generous in awarding college credit for AP/IB courses taken in high school. Work with UT's Testing and Evaluation Services department to apply for credits transfer. Here's a complete map between AP courses and UT approved courses.


Can I take community college credits to transfer to UT?

If you want to meet core curriculum requirements before you even start at UT by taking classes during the summer, you can do so by registering at your favorite community college. You will save money  because community colleges are much less expensive than taking courses at UT. 

Suppose you live in the Fort Worth area and want to complete an Economics course that you will be forced to take at UT to satisfy the core curriculum. Suppose also that Economics, as a topic, is not crucial to your college or post-college career. You may then fulfill the Economics requirement by completing a course at the Tarrant County Community College and have your credits transferred to UT.

To do this, go to UT's Transfer Credit website, select Tarrant County Community College in the "Sending Institution" dropdown, and select "Economics" in the UT Department dropdown. Leave the UT course number blank. Click on Initiate Search and you will get a list of courses that you can take at TCCC that can transfer to UT. 

UT Housing

Watch this video for a quick summary of the various housing options on campus. For information on UT Austin apartments, subleases, housing, and roommates, check out this Facebook group.


Home to Texas

Home to Texas is an innovative scholarship-funded summer program that connects first-year students with internship and research opportunities in their hometown communities. Apply to this in the Spring semester of your freshman year at UT.






A Note About Rao Advisors Premium Services
Our promise is to empower you with high-quality, ethical and free advice via this website.  But parents and students often ask us if they can engage with us for individual counseling sessions. We are indebted and privileged to have earned their trust in matters which are so important to them. Please check out our public Google reviews to see what they say about us.

Individual counseling is part of the Premium Offering of Rao Advisors and involves a fee.  Please contact us for more information.





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