Info for Students Offered CAP for Freshman Year Accepting Your CAP OFfer
Some Texas freshman applicants who aren’t admitted to UT Austin are offered participation in the Coordinated Admission Program (CAP).
CAP students begin their undergraduate studies at one of seven participating UT System universities in Texas. Those who successfully complete the Coordinated Admission Program during the 2008-2009 academic year will receive guaranteed admission to UT Austin for the fall 2009 semester.
Review the CAP Offer Checklist below before completing the online CAP agreement so you can learn about the benefits of CAP and figure out if CAP is right for you.
What now?
If you’ve received an offer to participate in the Coordinated Admission Program, you should take the following steps to prepare to participate.
Consider CAP Options and Benefits |
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Is CAP Right For You? |
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Learn about Participating CAP Universities |
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Complete the CAP Agreement by the Deadline |
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Prepare for Freshman Enrollment |
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Complete the CAP Requirements |
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Stay in Touch During Your Freshman Year |
Options and Benefits of CAP Offers
If you’ve been offered CAP participation, you have two options for your freshman year:
- You can enroll in a UT System university that participates in CAP with the goal of returning to UT Austin after your freshman year.
- You can decline CAP participation and enroll in a college or university to which you’ve been admitted. If you turn down your CAP offer, you forfeit the benefits that CAP participants receive.
So what are the benefits of CAP participation? How is it better than transferring?
CAP Benefits
No need to apply for admission elsewhere
- If you participate in CAP, you don’t have to apply for admission to the UT System university you select to attend during your freshman year. Simply complete the CAP agreement to let us know that you want to participate.
- If you decide not to participate in CAP, you’ll have to apply to the college or university you want to attend as a freshman if you haven’t yet done so.
Guaranteed admission to UT Austin upon successful CAP completion
- If you successfully complete your CAP requirements, you’ll be guaranteed the right to return to UT Austin.
- If you don’t participate in CAP and later decide that you want to apply for transfer admission to UT Austin, you’ll receive no guarantee of admission. You’ll have to compete with all other transfer applicants, and your CAP offer will not be considered as part of the decision process.
Reasonable GPA requirement
- To be able to enroll at UT Austin, you must earn a 3.2 GPA during your CAP year.
- Some transfer applicants with GPAs above 3.2 do not get admitted to UT Austin. Again, there is no guarantee of admission for any GPA for transfer students.
Help selecting transferable coursework
- As a CAP student, you’ll select from courses that have been approved for transfer to UT Austin. That means that if you complete the program successfully, you’ll return to UT Austin with at least 30 hours of transferable coursework that will apply to a degree in Liberal Arts or Natural Sciences (or perhaps majors in other colleges on campus).
- If you enroll as a freshman at a college or university outside CAP, you’ll select courses without any guarantee that they’ll transfer to UT Austin. Some online resources are available to help students select courses for future transfer at some colleges and universities in Texas, but there is no guarantee that they’ll transfer or apply to the degree that you eventually pursue. Some students do an excellent job of selecting courses that transfer to UT Austin, but some are disappointed to learn that some of the courses they took will not help them complete their degree requirements.
No need to apply for transfer to UT Austin
- If you successfully complete the CAP requirements, you won’t have to apply for transfer admission to UT Austin at the end of your freshman year. You’ll simply submit an official transcript of your freshman coursework to us, and we’ll take it from there.
- If you decline your CAP offer, you’ll have to apply for transfer admission if you ever decide that you’re interested in attending UT Austin in the future.
Is CAP Right For You?
Each year more than a thousand students who we were not able to admit for the summer or fall semester accept our CAP offer and enroll at a UT System university. About two out of three students meet the qualifications and return to UT Austin for their sophomore year. We have observed over time that most, but not all, students are well served by CAP.
Below are a few important issues that you and your parents or guardians need to discuss before you make a final decision about CAP. These are simply meant to guide your decision rather than to discourage you from enrolling in CAP.
Consider These Issues
What is your level of math readiness?
You must enroll in and complete at least one math course beyond College Algebra (Math 301) during the fall 2008 and spring 2009 semesters. If you are unprepared or unable to take (at a minimum) College Algebra during your first semester, then you will not be able to fulfill the minimum CAP math requirement within the available two-semester timeframe. This will disqualify you from enrolling at UT Austin.
How many course credits do you already have?
The approved CAP course listings for each UT System school offer a large number of courses from which freshmen may choose. Most students find plenty of courses in which to enroll during their fall and spring semesters. However, students who have earned a high number of AP or IB credits in high school may have difficulty finding courses from the approved CAP courses lists. If, after reviewing the approved course listing, you find there are not enough available courses to complete the 30 hour requirement, then CAP is not the best option for you.
You would be better served attending college elsewhere as a regular freshman and, after attaining 30 college credits, apply for transfer to UT Austin for your sophomore year. Having lost your guarantee by not enrolling in CAP you will have to compete for a space with the transfer applicant pool, but your freshman year will be more academically challenging and productive.
What major do you want to pursue?
Students who successfully complete the CAP requirements during their freshman year are guaranteed admission as an “undeclared major” to the College of Liberal Arts or College of Natural Sciences at UT Austin. However, many CAP students are interested in applying to a major outside of liberal arts and natural sciences, like business, engineering and communication.
The UT System institution you select for your freshman year is not obligated to guarantee prerequisite courses for majors outside of Liberal Arts and Natural Science You will likely find approved courses that work within these two colleges and also apply toward a major outside of Liberal Arts or Natural Science, but you should know that there is no obligation to see that you are prepared to transfer into the McCombs School of Business, for example.
CAP students can ask to be considered in the transfer applicant pool for any major without jeopardizing their automatic admission into Liberal Arts or Natural Science. Admission to majors in business, engineering and communication is highly competitive, and if you will not be happy with any major at UT Austin other than one of these, then you should consider attending a college or university where your pathway to one of these majors is more certain.
Learn about Participating CAP Universities
Even though you do not have to apply to your selected UT System school, there may be additional steps you have to take—such as registering for orientation, taking care of placement testing, and applying for on-campus housing or financial aid—to enroll in the university you select.
To find out more about the universities that participate in CAP and about how various issues are handled by each of the universities, visit their CAP information pages. It’s important that you read this information closely to determine what steps you need to take to enroll in your selected university.
At any time during the process, of course, you may also contact the designated representative at the participating CAP universities with questions.
Complete the Online CAP Agreement
If you decided to participate in CAP, you must submit the online CAP agreement by the deadline specified below. As part of the agreement, you’ll select a participating UT System university to attend during your participation in the program. You do not have to apply for admission to your selected university.
CAP Agreement Deadlines:
- UT Arlington: June 1, 2008
- UT Brownsville: August 20, 2008
- UT El Paso: July 1, 2008
- UT Pan Am: May 31, 2008
- UT Permian Basin: May 1, 2008
- UT San Antonio: May 1, 2008
- UT Tyler: June 1, 2008
Once we receive your completed online CAP agreement, we'll send you a confirmation letter and send your information to the UT System university you selected.
Prepare for Freshman Enrollment
After you select the university you want to attend and you submit your CAP agreement, UT Austin will send your information to the university you plan to attend. You should review the online information about the participating CAP universities to help you begin planning for the things you’ll need to do to prepare to enroll.
Complete the CAP requirements
To assure that you will be able to return to UT Austin after your freshman year, there are two things that you need to do:
- Work during the fall and spring semesters of your CAP year to complete the required 30 hours of coursework with at least a 3.2 GPA.
- After you finish your CAP year, send us an official transcript to verify that you’ve met the CAP requirements. Near the end of the spring semester you should get in touch with your CAP advisor to make sure that you know exactly what you need to do to make this happen by the June 1 deadline.
There really isn’t anything more for you to do. There are no additional admissions applications to fill out or any additional fees to be paid. We’ll keep track of who you are and where you are and get in touch with you when necessary.
After you complete your CAP requirements, we’ll send you official confirmation about your admission to UT Austin along with information about what you need to do to enroll in the fall.
Stay in Touch
During your freshman year, you should stay in touch with the CAP advisor on your campus. They will help you select approved classes and will be able to answer any questions you might have during the year.
UT Austin will also stay in touch with you by e-mail and by mail during your freshman year. Near the end of the fall semester, we’ll ask you to update your contact information and to tell us which major you’re interested in at UT Austin. We’ll contact you again in April to touch base and remind you that you’ll need to send official transcripts of your work to us after you finish your freshman year. And finally, we’ll contact you with your final admission decision after we receive your final transcripts to let you know in an official way whether you’ve successfully completed the requirements to return to UT Austin and what you should do next.
CAP Resources
- Frequently asked questions for students participating in CAP during freshman year
- List of UT System universities participating in CAP
- Financial aid information for students participating in CAP
Updated 6 May 2008
