Tips and Examples for UT-Austin “Please share background on events or special circumstances that you feel may have impacted your high school academic performance, including COVID-19.”
The Whitsundays., Queensland, Australia
In addition to the required long Essay A telling your story and three short answers addressing prompts on your major choice, leadership OR diversity, and how you see yourself changing the world, you have the option to submit a required response addressing any academic or COVID special circumstances:
Please share background on events or special circumstances that you feel may have impacted your high school academic performance, including the possible effects of COVID-19.
In the Fall 2018 cycle, UT required all students to write an Academics short answer discussing their academic record. Some students used this as an opportunity to present special circumstances. You can read more about the old Academics short answer here, and the examples may help answer this new prompt as well. They discontinued this prompt after only a single admissions cycle. For whatever reason, they have essentially resurrected it into an even more convoluted essay that doesn’t explicitly allow for responding beyond any substantial extenuating circumstances.
The prompt also seems to overlap a lot with the Essay A discussing opportunities and obstacles during high school. So, if you’ve sufficiently articulated special circumstances in the main essay, there is no need to repeat them in the optional supplement.
Nevertheless, this essay is a perfect opportunity to discuss circumstances and context relevant to your academic performance. I will provide a few tips followed by examples to give students a better idea how and ways to approach this topic.
My recommendations will not change because of UT-Austin going test-optional, which I discuss here. If you choose not to submit an ACT/SAT, you still need to have most or all A’s on the honors/AP track to be competitive, especially for majors that are in high demand.
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There is a related prompt for Transfer students only called Essay C special circumstances that you can opt to submit in substitute for the Essay E Issue of Importance. Much of the advice in this post also applies to a potential Essay C.
Transfer Essay C Special Circumstances
There may be personal information you want considered as part of your admissions application. Write an essay describing that information. You might include exceptional hardships, challenges, or opportunities that have shaped or impacted your abilities or academic credentials, personal responsibilities, exceptional achievements or talents, educational goals, or ways in which you might contribute to an institution committed to creating a diverse learning environment.
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Understanding the prompt
It isn’t necessarily enough to have encountered significant obstacles or adversity that may be appropriate for discussing in Essay A. There needs to be a direct relationship to your grades and overall academic performance.
It’s important to stress a cause-and-effect relationship. For example:
“My mother passed away during the middle of the spring of junior year. My fifth and sixth six weeks grades dropped dramatically from the previous four grading periods that year. Consequently, my ranking dropped by 40 points. I don’t feel this is representative of my overall academic potential but more due to our family coping with our loss.”
Generally speaking, if you’re nearly academically perfect, and your rank drops by a few spaces, it probably isn’t relevant to share with your reviewers in any circumstances. You don’t need to explain every A- or decision to drop an AP course.
Types of General Special Circumstances
Do you have family obligations, an illness or injury, or did you change cities or schools? Let reviewers know what is going on. If you have a physician's diagnosis, consider referencing this or having them submit a reference letter.
Other special circumstances may include suffering from a natural disaster; a parent losing their job; the passing of a close friend or family member; struggling with mental health issues; living with a chronic condition; an issue from childhood that reemerges in your teenage years.
Complaining about your very competitive high school is probably not sufficient grounds for special circumstances. There is also a very high probability you will not earn any sympathies from your reviewer.
Potential COVID-19 Special Circumstances
Here are a number of possible ways Coronavirus may have disrupted your life and educational opportunities. It isn’t exhaustive, and not everything on this list may be necessary to discuss.
You contracted the virus and experienced complications
An immediate family member was hospitalized or passed away
One or both parents lost their job or your family’s primary source of income
A parent is a high-risk medical professional or essential worker
You work/ed an essential skills job
Unable to access stimulus or other social services benefits
Housing disruptions like inability to pay rent, eviction, or some other displacement resulting in temporary or permanent homelessness or transience
Taking in other family members or friends who have lost their homes
Food insecurity
Visa or immigration issues
Inability to leave abusive or neglectful households due to lockdown or social distancing requirements
Mental, emotional, or psychological distress or suicidal ideation
Amplification of pre-existing medical conditions or inability to receive regular treatment that impacts your schoolwork or overall well-being
Unable to go to work or school because you depend on public transportation
Lack of access to educational opportunities, i.e. school not adequately transitioning to online classes, inadequate home internet access, or a noisy/full house
Converting to a pass/fail system does not sufficiently account for your academic progress
Unable to take for the first time or retake the ACT/SAT
Complications with AP Exams
Canceled summer camps, research opportunities, or internships
Spring academic, athletic, or music competition cancellations
Change of future plans
Apply Texas/Common Application Covid-19 Impact Boxes
UT applicants have the option to check yes to any that apply. “The University of Texas at Austin understands that a pandemic like COVID-19 (Coronavirus) has had an impact on students and their families. Please share here how these circumstances may have affected you and your family.”
Access to technology is unreliable or nonexistent
I lost my job or ability to work
Parent or guardian lost a job or unable to work
I was considered an essential worker and had to work
Parent or guardian considered an essential worker
Travel, electricity, internet affected by the curfew
Home responsibilities increased or changed
My health was affected
Health of one or more household members affected
How to Write about Coronavirus in College Admissions Essays
I see three broad possible approaches for discussing disruptions and special circumstances: dedicating your Apply Texas Essay A or Common Application essay; sharing information in the dedicated short answer and Common Application optional essay responses; discussing it little in a required essay or not at all. It’s also important for applicants to be especially mindful of both the content and tone of your essays should you choose to discuss the pandemic.
For now, I’m recommending a high threshold for whether to discuss Coronavirus. Given that every student and family in the US and around the world has been affected somehow by the pandemic, the first question you should ask yourself is, “How is my situation uniquely different from my classmates or people from similar backgrounds?” Answering this question will require an unusual degree of self-awareness and an understanding of how the pandemic affects society and not just your personal life.
I suggest dedicating an entire long essay to Coronavirus only if you’ve experienced significant hardships or life-changing disruptions like the loss of a loved one or becoming homeless that is so central to current barriers or future opportunities that you need the space to expand upon what’s going on. If you choose to dedicate an entire long essay, your writing should be largely about you and your family’s circumstances and not a general discussion of the pandemic or something that happened to a friend.
I imagine that most applicants won’t fall under the world-shattering category of significant trauma or hardship, but many still might have experienced setbacks or disruptions suitable for writing the optional essay. My suggestion here is to “stick to the facts” and avoid writing unnecessarily lengthy essays. Your UT COVID short answer does not need to look like the other essays with regards to boasting about ECs or writing lengthy narratives.
Every school has experienced changes in grading policies. Many students are missing out on summer activities, competitions, or camps. A lot of applicants will be unable to retake the ACT/SAT and attempt to improve. Still, others won’t be able to take the exams at all. If you’re in the same or similar boat to many of your classmates, maybe forgo writing the optional essays.
I understand that what may appear like a minor setback or inconvenience to an outsider seem significant or life-altering to you. Understanding who you're writing to and your admissions audience is critical to assessing whether and how you should discuss Coronavirus. Your admissions reviewer, ultimately, is the arbiter of deciding how severe the disruption is. Their understanding will be relative to their personal experiences and the other dozens or hundreds of Covid-19-related essays that they’ll undoubtedly read.
Keep in mind that many applicants will choose to write about the pandemic, and some will experience truly distressing and traumatic events, so your admissions reviewer will see a wide variety of responses. If you make a mountain out of a molehill, your reviewer will know. You won’t be doing yourself any favors and may even damage your application.
You can also assume that your reader knows what Coronavirus and the Covid-19 pandemic is. You don’t need to write to them like they’re an alien from another planet. When I worked at UT in the early 2010s, I can’t tell you the number of applicants who wrote about the mechanics of an iPhone or how social media works as if the reviewer has never heard of smartphones or Facebook.
One understandable cliche that I’m anticipating is a significant increase in related majors like biology, public health, social work, and ever more applicants thinking they want to be pre-med. The “I want to be a doctor to help people” is already a well-trodden trope that often leads to eye-rolling from admissions readers. I’m thinking here about UT’s First Choice Major short answer, specifically.
It’s fine if your academic interests and future ambitions have shifted as a result of the pandemic. Be mindful that you will be among countless others writing essentially the same essays about how they want to be hero doctors or discover the next epidemiological breakthrough in the laboratory. If you choose to take this route, do as much homework as you can about what potential majors or careers are involved with addressing public health and economic catastrophes. Here, conveying a nuanced and mature tone will be especially important.
Another rule of thumb to help you decide whether to write about coronavirus is to distinguish whether something happened to you or your immediate family, or is it that I’ve missed out on something that would have happened without the pandemic. Missing out on something like potentially raising your grades due to pass/fail policies or a summer camp cancellation is materially different than something happening to you like contracting the virus or your family losing their job.
It’s okay to write a few sentences about a school’s grading policies and how it affects your class rank, for example, but you don’t need to use 250 words if it isn’t necessary. Save your admissions reviewer the time. Most applicants, however, may be able to sufficiently share any potential disruptions or special circumstances in a paragraph in their long essay or a few sentences in short answers/supplements.
My final rule of thumb is: if you feel that you need to share something, it’s better to err on the side of disclosure rather than omission. Your admissions reviewer will only know as much as you tell them. They’re not mindreaders or have crystal balls that share everything that’s going on at your school. Provide the content but be careful to strike a measured and balanced tone.
Discussing structural themes and background
The prompt specifically mentions discussing your background as a special circumstance. The SAT has released an Adversity Score from 1-100 that students cannot access and universities may opt to use. UT-Austin has already been utilizing an internal adversity score for at least a year to account for structural disadvantages linked to lower academic performance or less educational opportunities. Structural and environmental circumstances have always been taken into account in the holistic review process.
Without making a statement on the efficacy of this score, the SAT identified fifteen factors adversely affecting student performance and potential. These are factors I largely agree with because peer-reviewed research and my own career working in college admissions support the notion that we live in a vastly unequal society where your zip code, race, upbringing play large roles in your life possibilities. I dedicate the middle section of my book Your Ticket to the Forty Acres to discussions of race, admissions, and inequality.
If you come from a disadvantaged background or underserved community, it is a good road map for sharing aspects of your upbringing relevant to your academic performance. I’ve included a few other factors that may be relevant to your GPA or SAT and the environment in which you were raised:
Median family income
Percentage of students receiving government aid, living in poverty, or unable to afford housing and daily expenses
Raised in a single-parent household, by a relative, have a parent who is incarcerated, or spending time in the foster care system
Percentage of adults who have four-year college degrees
Percentage of adults without a high school degree
Unemployment and temporary employment rates
Percentage of adults working agricultural jobs
Probability of being victim of a crime
Dropout or alternative education completion rate
Communities where English may not be the majority native language spoken
Lack of high school resources like AP coursework or extracurricular organizations
Average SAT/ACT score from your school or number of students who pass AP exams
Teacher or counselor to student ratio
Discussing these contextual and circumstantial factors can put your academic achievement into context. If you are excelling in a community where few people go to college, your performance may look all the more impressive. There are ways to communicate these obstacles into areas of strength.
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Discussing ADHD and receiving testing accommodations on the SAT and ACT
These are very delicate topics that should be considered conscientiously. I haven’t discussed these themes yet in a blog post or in my book until now since I imagine many hundreds of students will want to discuss receiving accommodation on the ACT or SAT.
ADHD is a real and clinically debilitating condition for some young learners and adults. One of my closest family members received diagnosis as an adult and has been medicated for over fifteen years. It’s possible they wouldn’t be able to function without it. I’ve worked with students who have crippling and debilitating cases of ADHD often accompanied by other neurodevelopment conditions like dyslexia or mental illnesses like obsessive compulsive disorder.
In good faith, however, I cannot condone seeking a mental health diagnosis from a physician primarily for perceived college admissions benefits. I also look down upon admissions professionals or high school counselors who suggest this option to families where the diagnosis and especially medication may be inappropriate.
If you already have a diagnosis and are curious what’s involved with requesting accommodation, I’ve found a thoughtful resource that may help.
There is nevertheless a disturbing rise of usually white students attending private schools from high-income families seeking physicians willing diagnose and medicate their children in no small part to receive additional timing or other testing modifications on standardized exams. The Wall Street Journal recently documented (behind soft paywall, use anonymous browsing) how:
“Requests to the College Board for such special accommodations jumped 200% from the 2010-11 year to the 2017-18 year….In Newton North, the school near Boston where about a third of students are eligible for extra time on college entrance exams, Dr. Fleishman, the superintendent, said virtually every time a student sees a private counselor for evaluation, he or she leaves with a recommendation for a special accommodation….The diagnoses sometimes didn’t mesh with what the school and teachers knew about the students. ”
A 2016 article from Psychology Today cites these trends as uniquely American, with cases more than fifteen times compared with developed European nations. Although a relatively rare diagnosis a generation ago,
“Recent data indicat[es] that more than 14% of all school age boys are diagnosed with ADHD and that most are being treated with Ritalin, Adderall, Concerta or other schedule II prescription medications...US schools are probably pushing ADHD with the goal of improving student learning. Sadly, dramatically increasing ADHD--and ADHD medication does not appear to be helping American students learn better than students in other countries.”
The author rightly stresses that high stakes, rigid curriculum as early as elementary schools contributes to disrupting the growth and mental wellbeing of young learners.
It isn’t me or anyone else’s business to question someone’s potential learning differences or neurodevelopment conditions. I’m not a clinician nor mental health counselor. If you do choose to discuss ADHD in your Special Circumstances, understand that there will be hundreds if not thousands of other students writing similarly.
I mention the Wall Street Journal and Psychology Today articles to put receiving accommodation into context and how your reviewer may perceive your condition. They may be skeptical and, consciously or unconsciously, setting a pretty high bar for you to state your case.
My advice then is to tread carefully, cite specific ways your diagnosis has affected your academic performance, and live before and after receiving treatment. I would never deter a student who wishes to share living with their condition, and I’ve helped many students share their stories.
Example: COVID Extracurricular Disruptions
The Covid-19 Shelter-In-Place (SIP) restrictions derailed all of my spring athletic competitions and STEM events junior year. These closures most greatly affected the track season, the math competition calendar, and piano playing events.
The track season was cancelled entirely since SIP started a week after the season. Since my school had a first-week bye, we didn't run a single race. This felt like a major setback because, due to all the time I spent training, I felt as though I was getting ready to have a breakout season. I don't see it as time wasted because I'm in better shape and improved my personal bests, but I expected to run a mile in under 4:35. It's a setback because I likely would have qualified for the sectional finals.
COVID closures meant that the math competitions AIME II (the alternative AIME date), and the USAMO were indefinitely postponed. Eventually, the season was resumed in an online format. However, the closures meant that the MAA, due to lack of resources, had to cut the USAMO pool size from roughly 270 students to roughly 220 students. This meant that my score of 234 was one point below the USAMO cutoff of 235; in the absence of COVID, I would have comfortably qualified for USAMO. This was a major blow because I spent innumerable hours preparing for the USAMO during my Sophomore and Junior years.
One silver lining during Covid was playing the piano. The Certificate of Merit (CM) tests in piano playing were moved online. In typical years, during the CM exam in April, one plays for an adjudicator followed by a theoretical knowledge test at an in-person testing center. This year, for the playing test, we submitted June video recordings and took theory exams online. I practiced for several hours a day for the exams and passed the Advanced (highest) level of CM with State Honors. I benefited from the additional time I obtained due to COVID, which allowed me to drastically improve my playing skills. Overall, despite the setbacks caused by COVID-19, I have tried to make the best of the situation to continue learning.
Commentary
I’ve chosen this example because this applicant experienced substantial disruptions in their extracurricular and athletic commitments that prevented them from competing at state and national level competitions. I think they meet the threshold for reporting experiences that excluded them from opportunities that most other students wouldn’t have experienced. Since these occurred during the end of their junior and into their senior year, they missed a critical window of time to potentially boost their credentials. They also stick to the facts and do not embellish.
Example: Anxiety, depression, and struggling with math
My academics do largely define my work ethic. As I began high school, I was a confused, overwhelmingly anxious young girl. I knew I was intelligent, but I struggled a bit trying to apply myself truly. At home, my parents would be gone often helping my sister with her rheumatoid arthritis or at work as they had been for the past four years.
I didn’t receive much emotional support at home because of their busy schedules. Since middle school, I’ve struggled with anxiety and depression. My grades suffered because I never received adequate mental health care, but things at home have improved recently
I started turning the corner and adapting to my new environment while taking AP US History sophomore year, but it wasn’t a smooth start. My teacher, Mr. Shoemaker, pushed us to our limits so we would do well on our AP test. I failed my first quiz. I felt distraught because, although some of my classmates didn’t pass their quizzes, I almost never fail. I realized I needed to make changes, fast.
I did my reading every night, I took extensive notes, and I did the optional flashcards for extra note-taking. He provided resources to succeed like extensive lectures and additional tutoring. I began to really kick it into overdrive by developing new study strategies, doing extra credit, and putting as much effort as possible into my work. Ever since that first quiz, my grades trended upwards.
Math clicked for me during junior year pre-calculus. I always thought math was confusing and not applicable to real life. I’ve come to appreciate how math involves problem-solving and it’s largely free of opinions – there are only valid or invalid solutions. Success in pre-calculus helped me develop confidence elsewhere, and the class I’m most excited about this year is Calculus BC.
Commentary
This essay is an appropriate example of family circumstances affecting their performance in the classroom. Their sibling lives with a chronic condition causing anxiety and depression for the student affecting particularly their ability to perform in math classes. They state directly why they feel their grades dropped - inadequate mental health care resources - but they do not dwell on the past.
Instead, I appreciate how they focus on themes of redemption and a second chance. Sharing about an influential teacher provides both nuance and an important factor in their newfound love of math. The essay is both believable and mature. Their transformation didn’t happen accidentally or suddenly. The student clearly put in the work to not just earn higher grades but develop an appreciation for a subject in which may of us, including myself, both struggle and fail to understand it’s significance.
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Example: Crippling skin condition
After freshman year, I really needed to bring my grades up, but sophomore year I was so far gone, I could’ve stood right next to you, and you wouldn’t have known. You might’ve figured it out if had my bag on, though. I spent most of that year aching in pain, my back, underneath my blood-soaked shirt, rubbed raw from my backpack straps; my mind unable to think about anything else.
My skin was dry and bright pink, my lips chapped, my eyes red, and my nose crusted. Quite the look for a swimmer. I had developed a severe case of cystic back acne. I remember getting out the shower one time, taking a white towel to my back as it turned a dark, blood red. I had to go on Accutane, what my dermatologist called the “nuclear weapon” against cystic acne.
Although it rattled my confidence, I never let my condition get the best of me. I walked around the halls of Columbia carrying my backpack by its strap, still determined to bring up my GPA. I stopped taking the drug at the beginning of my Junior year and was ready for a fresh start. The grades I earned were my best since early middle school. I brought my Sophomore 960 PSAT to a 1320 SAT.
I’m a good student, but I wasn’t always. Middle school and freshman year I cared very little about my school work. I slacked off. I wouldn’t be applying to UT if I hadn’t gotten off that track. My Accutane journey opened my eyes to the fragility of the human condition and gave me a better appreciation for the things I had otherwise taken granted, like receiving a good education. And I think my transcript shows that.
Commentary
Anyone who has taken Accutane knows that it’s brutal. This student had a particularly damaging case of acne that clearly and substantially affected his academic performance. One particularly helpful data point is his huge improvement from a 960 on the PSAT during the height of their condition to a strong 1320 on the SAT. Their application is a perfect example that not all test scores are created equally.
They also illustrate with descriptive language the extent of their condition. No doubt their reader probably cringed a little bit while reading - I know I did when they shared their first draft. There is definitely no sob story here. Their impressive turnaround and redemption is critical information that their reviewer needed to know.
Example: Asylum seeker changing countries and schools
I’m an earnest and diligent individual who has had to overcome the turbulence that comes with immigrating to a foreign country and adapting to very different academic, social and economic factors.
My family's move to the United States involved tremendous hardship but I persevered. In my home country, we don’t have divisions between regular, honors, and AP. All of my credits from my country unfortunately transferred as regular even though in my experience, my courses there were significantly more challenging than honors classes here. Consequently, my rank suffered, and I’ve been fighting an uphill battle ever since.
I knew I had to put in twice the effort of my peers. as I had to not only keep up with the course material and adjust to a new academic system with the additional challenge of mastering English, but to do so with the additional challenge of a language barrier.
Coming in, I knew that taking honors, dual credit and AP courses were the best way for me to take advantage of everything the US academic system, offered and drastically improve myself by stepping way out of my comfort zone. But first, I had to graduate my ESL classes. Once I did, I threw myself headfirst into taking all honors core classes, including English.
Honors English was more daunting to me than any of my other classes, but ’m thankful for my Honors English teacher Mrs. Waits. She always seemed impressed by my ambition, dedication, and, consequently, my grades. I kept earning some of the highest grades among my classmates on my essays. and this did much to improve my confidence in my English.
I excelled in Math despite needing to take prerequisite courses of material I had already learned was an entirely different hurdle. I had to take prerequisites despite already knowing most of the material. I took Algebra 2 online and Geometry in class my sophomore year. I’ve doubled up on my math since then. Last year, I took Honors Pre-Cal and AP stats, which allowed me to enroll in BC Calculus this year.
Outside of my dual-credit school work, I took 15 credits worth of college class after school and during the summers; I will enroll in college almost as a junior.
Commentary
I’ve shared this student’s other essays in different blog posts because they’re perfect examples of a student experiencing extreme hardship and making the most of their situation. Their academic development is no different. Being forced out of your country and moving to a new one as a sophomore where you don’t speak the language separated from much of your immediate family is distressing.
Clearly, they have made the most of their opportunities in the United States. It’s incredibly impressive that they went from remedial to Honors English and will earn enough credit hours to almost complete an Associate’s Degree. They also do a great job citing influential teachers and how they’ve excelled in subjects that have always been a strength like mathematics.