Before you can apply to college, you need to decide where to apply! 

1. Think about what you want. 

• Consider things like campus location, size, and diversity; what major you want to study; affordability; admissions requirements, and more! 

2. Research Admission Requirements 

• Every college has their own requirements to determine who is eligible to be admitted. They often consider some or all of the things below:

  • • Are you academically prepared to do well on their campus? This will be determined by looking at your GPA, test scores (SAT or ACT), and the rigor of courses you took in high school (AP, Dual Credit or Academic). 

    • Will you be involved on their campus? They may consider your resume, looking for things like leadership, work experience, extracurricular involvement on your high school campus, etc.

    • What is your character or your story? What drives you? They may require essays and/or letters of recommendation to learn more about you as a person. 

• Some majors may have additional requirements outside of what is required for admission to the university. Applicants may have to have higher scores/GPA, submit a portfolio or even audition for the major you want to pursue. See this example at University of Houston. 

3. Choose a Balanced List of Schools 

• When you build your college list, try to have a mix of Reach, Target and Solid schools. 

  • • Reach schools have higher admission requirements than you have. Sometimes, this is just because they are so competitive and have far more applicants than they can accept. Other times, this is the result of the level of rigor needed to succeed on their campus that you have not yet proven with your GPA, test scores and/or courses taken in high school. 

    • Target schools require GPA and test scores that align with what you earned. 

    • Solid schools have lower admission requirements than what you have earned, meaning your GPA and test scores are above their minimum admission requirements. Community colleges are considered Solid for all applicants because they have open admissions, meaning anyone who applies will be admitted. However, students do still need to prove college-readiness via the SAT, ACT or TSI to be eligible to enroll in college-level courses. (See more on the Testing page). 

• Texas public high school students can qualify for admission to Texas public colleges with their high school GPA/Class Rank. Students ranked in the top 10% of their senior class qualify for admission to all Texas public colleges except UT, which requires students to be ranked in the top 5% of their senior class. (See more on KISD's website). 

  • • Outside of the top 10%, many Texas public colleges still offer automatic admission to students based on their class rank ad test scores. Please see the chart below for Automatic Admission Policies for Fall 2026. 

Now that you have a college list, it's time to apply! 

Pick the Application System You Will Be Using! 

1. CommonApp - Create your account! 

•  CommonApp has 750+ colleges and syncs with SchooLinks, which is how counselors & Registrars send your application documents! 

• CommonApp Essay Prompts 25-26!

2. ApplyTX - Create your account!

• ApplyTX is for Texas public colleges, though most are also in Common App

• You will have to manually add your Apply Texas applications to SchooLinks for counselors to send documents

3. Institutional Applications 

• Some colleges, like UCLA system, have institutional applications instead of participating in an application platform. For these, you have to apply on their website. Like Apply Texas, you will have to manually add the application in SchooLinks for counselors to send documents!