Texas Tech Essay Prompts 2023-24

Texas Tech Essays 2023-24

If you’re a student looking to learn how to get into Texas Tech, this guide is for you. One way to stand out from other applicants is by taking advantage of the Texas Tech essay prompts. While not required, writing stellar Texas Tech supplemental essays will greatly enhance your application and improve your chances of admission.

This guide will walk you through the Texas Tech essay prompts for the 2023-2024 application cycle. We’ll go over the ins and outs of the Texas Tech essays and give you tips on how to answer the prompts effectively. The Texas Tech essay prompts can change from year to year. So, always make sure that your info on the Texas Tech essay prompts is up to date! 

First, let’s go over some quick facts about Texas Tech. 

Texas Tech Admissions: Quick Facts

Please note that essay requirements are subject to change each admissions cycle, and portions of this article may have been written before the final publication of the most recent guidelines. For the most up-to-date information on essay requirements, check the university’s admissions website.

Does Texas Tech require an essay?

The short answer? No. Students are not required to respond to the Texas Tech essay prompts to gain admission to Texas Tech. Furthermore, if you choose to apply via the Common Application, you do not need to submit your Common App Personal Statement. However, while there are no required Texas Tech essays, there are two optional Texas Tech essay prompts provided to potential applicants.

Although the Texas Tech essay prompts are optional, Texas Tech states on their Essay Tips page that it’s highly recommended to submit at least one essay. In addition to responding to either Texas Tech essay prompts in the Common App or the Apply Texas application portal, you may also choose to submit your Common App personal statement.

Just because these essays aren’t technically required does not mean that you have a free pass to ignore the Texas Tech essay prompts. The Texas Tech acceptance rate is 67%, meaning that nearly a third of applicants will not be granted admission. By writing Texas Tech essays, you can show the Texas Tech admissions committee exactly why you deserve to be admitted. 

Now, let’s go over the requirements for the Texas Tech essay prompts.

Texas Tech Essay Requirements

Between the Common App and the Apply Texas portal, there are three potential Texas tech essays you can submit. Here are the Texas Tech essay prompts that you’ll have to choose from:

• Personal Statement (Common App) – Students can choose one of seven unique essay prompts. 650 words max.
• Essay A (Common App/Apply Texas) –  Students can respond to an essay prompt about the opportunities or challenges they’ve faced. 800 words max.
• Essay B (Common App/Apply Texas) – Students can respond to an essay prompt about their identity, interests, or talents. 800 words max.

Common App Personal Statement Essay

The Common App essay, also often called the Personal Statement, is a 200-650 word essay. When you hear people talking about writing their “college essay,” this is usually what they talk about! Unlike school-specific supplemental essays, the Common App personal statement asks general questions about who you are so that the schools you apply to can get to know you better. 

Here are this year’s Common App Personal Statement prompts, which you can choose to use as your Texas Tech essay prompts:

One reason to use these personal statement prompts as your Texas Tech essay prompts is that you might have already written one! Most schools accept or require the Common App and the Common App personal statement. So, if you’re applying to schools outside of Texas, you will likely have already written a Common App essay. If you choose to apply with the Common App, you can submit this essay instead of or in addition to your Texas Tech supplemental essays. 

Texas Tech Essay Prompts

Your other essay options can be accessed on the Common App and a different application portal: Apply Texas. Apply Texas is a different application experience than the Common App, and it is a special application portal used by many Texas schools. 

Some Texas schools require essays on the Apply Texas portal. So, if you’re applying to other Texas schools and have already written Apply Texas essays, you can easily re-purpose those essays for your Texas Tech supplemental essays. 

The Apply Texas Portal has three essay options, each capped at 800 words. Students applying to Texas Tech can choose between prompts A or B:

• Essay A: Tell us your story. What unique opportunities or challenges have you experienced throughout your high school career that have shaped who you are today?
• Essay B: Some students have an identity, an interest, or a talent that defines them in an essential way. If you are one of these students, then tell us about yourself.

Ultimately, what Texas Tech essay you choose to submit will depend on what portal you apply with. Next, we’ll dive deeper into how to approach each of these Texas Tech essay prompts.

How do I write the Texas Tech essay?

Let’s say you’ve decided whether you’re applying with the Common App or the Apply Texas app. And you know which of the Texas Tech essay prompts you’re going to follow. How do you actually write your Texas Tech essay?

Answering Texas Tech essay prompts, or any other college admissions prompt, is a pretty big task. Since these questions aren’t specific to Texas Tech, you don’t need to necessarily write a “Why School Essay,” or focus on what about Texas Tech makes you want to attend. Instead, your essays should give the Texas Tech admissions committee insight into why you’ll be successful in college. In particular, aim to share something about your past experiences and strengths that they won’t see anywhere else on your application.

Personal Statement Essay

Let’s start with some tips on how to write a Common App Personal Statement. Since it is a feature of so many students’ college journeys, you can find lots of CollegeAdvisor resources on how to tackle the Common App essay. 

Each year, the Common App releases prompts that students can choose from, which we listed above. All of these prompts are pretty open-ended, and that’s on purpose! The most important part about writing a personal statement isn’t perfectly answering the question—it’s not an exam—but telling a story about something that matters to you. 

The Common App prompts, or in this case, your Texas Tech essay prompts, are all meant to get you thinking about significant aspects of your life. Periods when you experienced change or growth, something that made you change your perspective, or a part of your identity, an interest, or an event that you feel is central to who you are.

If the prompt was simply “tell me about yourself,” that might feel impossible to tackle. But by asking these questions, the Common App personal essay prompts are encouraging you to reflect deeply on certain aspects of your life. Regardless of which Texas Tech essay prompts you choose to answer, the most important part of writing a great essay is self-reflection.

Texas Tech Essays

Instead, you might choose to complete the Texas Tech supplemental essays. In that case, you can answer one (or both!) of the prompts as recommended by Texas Tech. You’ll notice that these Texas Tech essay prompts have similarities to the Common App essay prompts. 

Essay A asks about “your story.” What experiences have shaped you into who you are today? This prompt is in a similar vein as Common App prompt #2 and even #3 or #5. Essay B asks about something that defines you. What aspects of your identity/personality are central to who you are? This prompt echoes Common App prompt #1.

If you choose to answer one or both of these Texas Tech essay prompts, you’re in luck. Texas Tech has some advice from you here on potential Texas Tech essay topics. 

According to their guide, it looks like Admissions is looking for a combination of personal storytelling and resume points. Your Texas Tech essay should certainly highlight exceptional achievements, leadership experiences, or community service, the kind of thing you could cover on a resume or CV. However, instead of simply listing these details, you’ll want to communicate them in the context of a story. That means focusing on your personal connection to these experiences and the effect they had on you.

Extracurriculars are also a common topic for supplemental essays. When brainstorming ideas for your Texas Tech supplemental essays, your extracurriculars can make for great Texas Tech essay topics! Just make sure to describe the impact you made in your organization, the impact the organization had on you, and any leadership roles you had—not just what the organization does.

If you want to write a more creative essay that dives more deeply into who you are, you could supply Texas Tech with an additional resume. Many colleges require a resume or CV, and if you apply through the Common App you will have to list your extracurricular activities. For Texas Tech, a resume is optional. However, f you have one that goes more deeply into your leadership experience, community service, and extracurriculars, it will only help your application.

Is the Texas Tech essay required?

As previously stated, there are no required Texas Tech supplemental essays. However, we encourage you to reflect on one of the many Texas Tech essay topics and complete at least one Texas Tech essay.

Texas Tech only requires you to submit your high school transcript and a $75 application fee. It’s optional to submit your SAT/ACT scores, Texas Tech essays, letters of recommendation, and resume. While this may seem relatively straightforward, your grades are only one indication of your abilities as a student and individual.

If you want to showcase something meaningful to you outside of your academic performance, you’ll need to submit Texas Tech supplemental essays. If you’re stuck on thinking of a topic, consider something unique about your story that someone couldn’t tell just by looking at your grades. One of those ideas will help you answer these Texas Tech essay prompts.

There are so many great Texas Tech essay topics that you can use to tell TTU more about who you are, there’s really no reason not to explore one of them. In general, even when something is optional on a college application, you should try your best to supply as much information about yourself to the college as possible. The Texas Tech acceptance rate is 67%, meaning that only about 2 out of every 3 applicants get in. To improve your odds, you should enhance your application with well-written Texas Tech supplemental essays.

Is the Texas Tech essay important?

Absolutely! The Texas Tech supplemental essays are important because they allow you to tell the admissions committee more about who you are. What your background is, what your passions are, what you value–the things that make you, you. Colleges like Texas Tech aim to bring together a diverse and eager student body. Consequently, you want to show the admissions committee that you are a whole, complex person (something your high school transcript cannot do justice to).

Additionally, since these Texas Tech supplemental essays are essays you could submit to multiple schools, chances are that you will have to write some of these essays for other colleges anyway! It’s completely normal to reuse your Common App essay for multiple applications. 

Additional requirements for Texas Tech application

Now that we’ve gone through the Texas Tech essay topics, what else do you need to know about how to get into Texas Tech? Let’s take a look at the requirements for your TTU application. 

Earlier, we mentioned that the only requirements for Texas Tech are a high school transcript and a fee of $75. Other aspects of your application, like SAT/ACT scores, letters of recommendation, any essays, or a resume, are optional.

For students who meet Texas Tech’s assured admission requirements, submitting your transcript and your application fee might feel like enough. However, we would always recommend at the very least exploring one of the Texas Tech essay topics to provide a little more depth to your application. 

However, if you are applying to other schools, you might have already asked teachers for letters of recommendation, created a resume, or written a Common App essay. If you have these things, submit them to Texas Tech! Even though these parts of your application aren’t required, there’s no harm in submitting additional materials.

Five Tips for Writing the Texas Tech Essays

If you choose to write essays for Texas Tech, as we at CollegeAdvisor and TTU recommend, here are some tips to get you started.

Five Tips for Texas Tech Essays

1. Reflect and Brainstorm

Before you even start your first draft, try some writing exercises to help you brainstorm. Use the Common App prompts as a jumping-off point. Try setting your phone timer for 20 minutes and answer each prompt using bullet points, or whatever style of writing is easiest for you. Just write until the timer goes off, and then move to the next one. Don’t worry about style or grammar—the point of this exercise is just to get you thinking. When you finish, you will hopefully have multiple different threads that could turn into Texas Tech essay topics. 

2. Choose the best prompt for you

Ask yourself: did I enjoy answering one of these prompts more than another? Did I get excited by writing about any of these topics? What patterns can I see in my answers? Look for things you care about or value, things that have made an impact on your life, and things that have driven you to pursue a specific career or major. Reflection is a very important part of the college application process, and you can’t write a good essay without it. 

3. Use a strong hook

Once you have decided on your Texas Tech essay topics, think about how you will pull your reader into the essay. The opening passage that is meant to grab the reader’s attention is called a “hook,” because it hooks you in! A hook can be a quote, an anecdote, a song lyric, or just a creative introduction. Whatever you decide, the best test is whether it makes the reader want to keep reading. 

4. Show, don’t tell

You’ve probably heard this one in English class before—show, don’t tell. This means that when you’re telling a story, focus on trying to make the reader feel like they’re in the story with you. What did it look like, smell like, sound like? Let’s say you’re talking about a moment when you were nervous: Instead of saying “I was so nervous,” think about how your body felt: were your hands shaking? Did your voice waver? Could you see clearly? Was it bright in the room? Were you sweating? Your reader should be able to imagine themselves in your shoes. Little vivid anecdotes like this also make good hooks!

5. Perfect spelling and grammar

This one should be obvious. Do not include any typos or grammatical errors in a college essay. We get it, mistakes happen, but with so many online platforms to help you catch grammatical errors (and of course offline supporters like your parents, teachers, or friends), there’s really no excuse. That brings us to…

Bonus Tip: Don’t rely on ChatGPT to write your essays

It can be enticing: a robot to write your essay for you? What could go wrong! Sure, ChatGPT could potentially create an acceptable essay, but it destroys the whole point of contributing an essay to your application. Letting the admissions committee get to know you, authentically, as more than just grades or test scores. 

ChatGPT’s writing is at worst, cliché and predictable, and at best, intellectually dishonest. If you want to use it to grammar check your essay, or look up information about Texas Tech, go to town. However, keep in mind that ChatGPT is not completely reliable when it comes to facts. So to be honest, it’s better to avoid it altogether.

For more tips on how to write better essays, check out this guide.

Texas Tech Essays Takeaways

We hope that this breakdown of the Texas Tech essays has helped you learn more about how to get into Texas Tech. Before you go, here are 5 main takeaways to remember as you start working on your TTU application:

Texas Tech Essays Final Takeaways

1. Texas Tech is one of the top 10 best colleges in Texas, and the Texas Tech acceptance rate is 67%. Applicants will want to do everything they can to enhance their application.
2. The Texas Tech application deadlines are December 1 (Summer/Fall Priority Scholarship Deadline), May 1 (Summer/Fall Priority Application Deadline), and November 1 (Spring Priority Scholarship Deadline and Spring Priority Application Deadline). These Texas Tech application deadlines are a little different than other colleges—make sure you research which deadline is right for you.
3. There are no required Texas Tech essays. However, it is highly recommended that you write at least one essay. You can and should use the Common Application or the Apply Texas portal to respond to the Texas Tech essay prompts. 
4. Though there are many optional parts of the TTU application, it’s always better to supply as much material as you can. if you have already written a Common App essay, asked for a letter of recommendation, or created a resume for another school, don’t hesitate to submit these same materials to Texas Tech!
5. When writing your Texas Tech essays, focus on deep self-reflection. Avoid simply listing your accomplishments or providing only general details. Highlight your most important experiences and best qualities in an engaging and well-crafted essay.

For any college application help, don’t hesitate to review CollegeAdvisor’s extensive catalog of Articles and Guides. Good luck!

This essay guide was written by advisor, Rachel Kahn. Looking for more admissions support? Click here to schedule a free meeting with one of our Admissions Specialists. During your meeting, our team will discuss your profile and help you find targeted ways to increase your admissions odds at top schools. We’ll also answer any questions and discuss how CollegeAdvisor.com can support you in the college application process.