Applying for the Forty Acres Scholars Program (FASP) and UT-Austin Scholarships
Photo credit EranVzl
Perhaps the only college admissions content area I’ve never dedicated blog, video, or book content to is UT-Austin scholarships. The primary reason is that UT-Austin reserves almost all its funding for students who demonstrate financial need. There isn’t a “scholarship strategy,” even for the Forty Acres Scholars Program (FASP), but this post is helpful for learning how and why aid packaging works nationwide.
Any merit aid that UT-Austin distributes is part of the admissions process submitted through the Common App, so there isn’t any advice unique to scholarships that doesn’t also apply to maximizing your admissions chances. Submitting strong admissions applications indirectly influences the few scholarship chances available. FASP consideration is part of your Common App submission, too. Since so many people ask about merit scholarships, even though it’s a dead end for almost everyone, I figured I’d make a post.
I summarize and provide insights into FASP. I provide an overview of UT's non-need-based aid to incoming freshmen and contrast UT’s stinginess for incoming students with its largesse for current UT students. I observe why the top 50 universities rarely offer need-based aid and contrast it with less selective universities, which reserve most of their scholarship budget to entice students to enroll. I address whether applying for outside non-institutional scholarships is worth the effort.
The easiest way to reach me is by email kevin@texadmissions.com and to complete this questionnaire for a free email admissions assessment and to discuss pricing and services.
I do not assist non-clients with FASP or outside scholarships as an à la carte service.
Forty Acres Scholars Program (FASP) application overview and essay tips
Established in 2012, the Forty Acres Scholars Program (FASP) is UT’s flagship merit-based full-ride plus stipend offer given annually to 20-25 incoming freshmen. FASP invites 150-200 semifinalists for interviews early each spring among 4,000 - 5,000 applicants or those invited to apply. Then, 50 are invited for an in-person weekend in early March. That makes the program five to ten times more selective than the most in-demand programs like MIT, Stanford, or UT’s Dean’s Scholars. The Forty Acres offer rate is approximately .5% among invited applicants and .02% among all UT applicants.
Here is a PDF of the funnel from the Class of 2024 cycle, along with a list of recent recipients and a list of FASP recipients over the past few years.
how Fasp is funded
Rather than a centralized fund, FASP has hundreds of smaller donors and a few prominent, permanently funded endowments. Here is the FASP 2024-2025 Donor’s List. That means FASP isn’t a single program but many individual scholarships, some of which are earmarked for specific majors like McCombs. During FASP’s first year, when I worked at UT, one Fine Arts student gained admission while ranking outside the top 10%. This observation entails that UT doesn’t take the 20 best of its 90,000+ applicants, but that it depends on donors’ desires, which is outside your control or knowledge. That makes assessing it even less predictable than admission to elite universities like MIT, Stanford, or UT Honors programs like CSB or Dean’s Scholars, with centralized processes, because FASP isn’t strictly centralized.
“stats” don’t really matter - selection is like a lottery
Stats don’t matter in the sense that a 1480 versus a 1510 SAT isn’t going to move any needles. Many academically perfect students will not receive an invitation to apply for FASP, and applicants outside the top 10% or scoring less than a 1450 on the SAT will be invited.
Still, you almost always need to be extremely high-achieving to be invited and receive the semifinalist. I’ve worked with two recipients and six semifinalists over the years, and they weren’t necessarily valedictorians with a 1600 SAT. So, some FASP recipients are the most impressive student that high school or community has ever produced, while others gain admission on merits other than a conventionally exceptional resume that FASP administrators feel will add to their program.
One pre-COVID client of mine, whom I was surprised got into UT in general, was invited to be a semifinalist; my theory is that they were part Native American. Perhaps FASP wanted to interview the top Native American in the applicant pool or something. It wouldn’t surprise me if some low-key back scratching happens among the VVIPs who fund this program and their elite social circles. Another semifinalist client of mine without VVIP connections received an invitation despite being outside the top 10% and a decent but not exceptional resume; however, they’d experienced substantial hardship and loss. So, maybe that was why. Another received a semifinalist invitation almost certainly because of a VVIP connection.
They’ve also hosted these weird, invite-only recruitment events at private residences where desperate teens and parents grovel to extremely wealthy donors. My former boss at UT attended one once, and the experience didn’t sound endearing. I’m unsure if these recruitment events still occur or what difference they might make.
expect a mess when applying to fasp
FASP is also the single most frustrating application at UT-Austin. Despite the millions of dollars of backing it and hundreds of people supporting the application process for over a decade, the application process and requirements are always a mess. The system changes yearly, and the FASP pages lack transparency.
I honestly can’t figure out why they can’t figure out how to administer their process. I’ve never made an FASP tips post because the requirements and process change every year so that any blog post would become outdated. So, I’m taking an overview approach instead.
The system has shifted from being a totally separate application to being part of the regular admission submissions on the Common App. In some years, anyone could apply for it. In others, everyone was considered, whereby presumably the top applicants were flagged by Office of Admissions reviewers to send them to FASP review staff. Sometimes, there are no additional essays; in others, the essay requirements are onerous. In those onerous cycles, applicants going for BHP, CSB, and FASP submitted nine essays of over 3,500 words.
For a few years around 2020, students had to copy/paste all of their regular application, essay, and resume inputs into a totally separate portal, and then answer three distinct essay questionss of 300 words each that all amounted to variations on “why do you want FASP and what will you contribute?”
It doesn’t take 900 words to answer why you want FASP: “the money and prestige.” Part of me theorized that they created onerous barriers to apply to limit the number of applicants and make the process more digestible for their bureaucracy.
fall 2025 fasp application cycle
Then, for the recent admissions cycle, Fall 2025, they claimed that there wasn’t a separate application. It was true that submitting your Common App makes you automatically eligible for consideration. After October 15, through a mysterious system, FASP released “invitations to apply” in small batches with nearly immediate deadlines. Some of these invitations went out around Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks and during finals, where applicants had less than a week or two to submit an additional essay.
They continued these invitations through January. Since FASP’s process was totally separate from the distribution of UT regular and honors admissions decisions, these invites caused tons of stress in schools and families.
Many people asked me variants of “if I didn’t get an invite, does that mean I was denied?” Conversely, invitees were eventually denied admission to UT entirely, so the invitation produced inflated expectations. Some rumors online claimed that 1,300 students received invitations, but I never saw definitive proof or official FASP sources to suggest this.
fasp essay tip
The confounding part is that FASP invites applicants to reuse their regular admissions essays, and the topic is almost identical to what most applicants submit for their Common App Main Essay:
“Imagine you have been granted a full-ride scholarship to join a vibrant community of scholars at the University of Texas at Austin. In an essay of no more than 500 words, please detail how you intend to contribute to and enrich the community of scholars during your time here. Be sure to draw upon your past experiences, achievements, and values to articulate a compelling vision for your role within this scholarly community and how your unique perspective will leave a lasting impact.”
So, in practice, all of my Fall 2025 clients trimmed their Common App main essay and added in a few bits about UT-specific resources or how they imagine their lives going without the burden of debt. You could also use your UT Major short answer or a STEM Honors program essay and repurpose it to fit.
Consequently, since you cannot control whether you’re invited to apply for FASP, and since the essay topic is essentially the same for what you submitted for regular admission, there isn’t much “to do” or any FASP-specific strategies. My client, who received FASP for Fall 2024, literally copy/pasted their Common App Main Essay.
It would be much more sensible for UT Honors programs to refer their top 5-10% applicants to FASP as an initial filter and then go directly to a semifinalist phone interview rather than trickling invitations and duplicating application materials. Perhaps the point is the HR bureaucracy that layers on inaccessibility, like multiple bank agent filters evaluating a loan, rather than efficiency in applying, reviewing, and distributing decisions.
semifinalist interviews and the fasp finalist weekend
Since semifinalist designations are pretty random, you just have to hope you get invited for an interview based on the arbitrary judgments of individual donors or FASP bureaucracy. The half-hour phone interview with UT alumni is pretty basic and nothing different than how top 20 private universities might interview.
Then, if you’re one of the 50-60 selected as a finalist, congratulations! Sort of! Who knows why it happened? Maybe you come from the “right” high school, desired major, or zip code? Be gracious in your achievement and consider not sharing it on social media. Don’t contribute to the FOMO.
Undoubtedly, hundreds of similarly qualified and excellent applicants didn’t advance to the semifinalist and finalist rounds, so the selection is akin to a lottery. The Finalist Weekend is like a hybrid recruiting event with panels and tours that also serve as a group interview where you’re constantly being watched and assessed. This “weekend interview” setup is common at other full-ride programs at prestigious universities.
Nevertheless, I searched Reddit posts and other blogs for in-depth details about the weekend, but nothing appeared. To be honest, it probably doesn’t matter since there isn’t a lot to prepare for. I don’t have any advice for this finalist weekend other than to be agreeable, ask questions while not being overbearing, make an effort to chat with the other finalists, mostly to make potential friends, and feign interest in the VVIPs where necessary.
UT-Austin scholarships for incoming freshmen
Besides FASP, UT-Austin offers few merit non-financial-need scholarships for incoming students. Since at least 2011, they’ve never given scholarships for any National Merit status or automatically based on rank/test score. They reserve most of their scholarship budget to meet financial need and help current UT students with undergraduate research, subsidizing unpaid internships, facilitating study abroad, and otherwise alleviating financial burdens.
my ut-austin scholarship experience
I personally received over fifteen scholarships through various sources, including endowed presidential scholarships in the History and Humanities departments, study abroad/research stipends from the Bridging Disciplines Program, and assistance from the Liberal Arts Honors (LAH) program. These fully funded my fieldwork abroad in Bosnia and Rwanda. Some of these were given to me automatically, and others required applications/essays that I completed early on each spring semester.
how ut-austin distributes financial aid and merit scholarships
Approximately 44% of UT undergraduate students receive at least some need-based aid, including 4,000 of UT’s 9,000 incoming freshmen with an average need-based financial aid package of $20,000. For its ~39,000 full-time undergraduate enrollment, UT allocates around $240 million in need-based aid, contrasted with around $25,000,000 in non-need-based merit aid. So, 90% of UT’s total aid budget is for need-based.
There are also $22,000,000 in non-need-based tuition waivers that cover varied programs for military veterans, some international students, faculty, and other special/niche programs. I base this information on the Common Data Set 2024-2025, pages 22-27.
The boundary between need-based and merit aid is often fuzzy, with some high-achieving applicants from low- and middle-income families receiving hybrid offers like Presidential or Impact scholars. The Terry Foundation also has generous hybrid aid offers to Texas public universities. The financial need category always subsumes merit, both in how packages are composed and the data reported.
international and out-of-state applicants will not get UT-Austin merit scholarships
Many international students see a Texas policy of giving in-state tuition waivers to those who receive $1,000 or more in merit scholarships. Still, in practice, international and out-of-state students virtually never receive scholarships. In fact, international students must demonstrate “proof of finances” as a precondition to enrolling. At less selective Texas public universities, this in-state tuition waiver is much more accessible.
It makes sense that UT allocates almost all of its budget for need-based aid to Texas residents to increase access for working and middle-class families, urban and rural students, and families with parents who didn’t attend college. The Texas Advance Commitment guarantees at least some money for all families reporting less than $100,000 on their FAFSA. I was a first-generation college student, so I understand the difficulties of growing up in a non-college-going community and enrolling at an elite university. In hindsight, some of my UT scholarships and success were likely because UT tagged me as first-gen.
Fewer than 5% of enrolling freshmen receive merit scholarships
In contrast, 422 incoming freshmen received non-need-based merit scholarships, less than 5% of the enrolling students. The average offer is $4,000. Since Engineering Honors (EHP) gives most or all of its enrolling students scholarships, perhaps a third of those 422 are EHP students. Another 20 or so receive the Forty Acres Scholarship Program (FASP) offers. Other honors programs like Canfield Business Honors (CBHP) also offer merit aid to their highest-tier students. This 422 figure excludes the 82 scholarship freshmen athletes.
Whatever institutional aid you might receive is almost always considered in conjunction with your admissions application that you submit on the Common App, so there isn’t much “extra to do” to be eligible.”
The Texas Exes scholarship fund offers scholarships to around 300 incoming freshmen, but the awards are generally small, on average $1,750. They sometimes have a need-based component or a niche requirement. Most Texas Exes scholarships require a separate application. I’ve had a few students get these Texas Exes offers, but the amounts are so small that it generally isn’t worth the effort to apply, and sometimes an in-person interview.
To reiterate, if your family makes more than $100,000 or you’re an out-of-state/international student, you should assume you will pay the full cost of attendance. Do not bother apply to UT as a non-resident if you cannot afford the approximately $225,000 total cost, nor should you plan on holding out for establishing Texas residency, which I discuss in this post.
How do scholarships typically work at top-50 universities?
top universities don’t need to lure students
UT-Austin is like most other top 50 public and private universities, offering few merit scholarships. Prominent public universities like the UCs, UW-Seattle, Michigan, UNC, UVA, Georgia Tech, and others do not need to subsidize non-resident tuition because they’re sufficiently in demand that non-resident families are willing to pay the full out-of-state cost. Elite private universities like the Ivy League and equivalent have yield rates over 70%, where most admitted students choose to enroll, meaning plenty of families are willing to pay the full cost. UT-Austin’s enrollment yield rate is stable at 45-50% for each cycle, similar to Michigan or UC-Berkeley.
Elite universities do not need merit scholarships to entice enrollment. They reserve almost all of their scholarship budget to meet financial need. Some universities like Rice University have relatively high cutoffs for what constitutes need-based aid, like families making less than $200,000 qualifying for half tuition, and those making less than $75,000 have all costs covered. Others make “no loan” guarantees for qualifying families.
Still, despite these financial guarantees, elite universities overwhelmingly enroll students from the top 1%. Living in resource-rich communities and attending elite private schools is the highest correlate of gaining admission to elite universities.
less-selective universities offer much more merit aid—UT-Dallas AES
Contrast how elite universities almost never give scholarships with a campus like UT-Dallas. They’re the third-ranked public university in Texas and around the top 100 nationally. They’re one of the strongest universities that covers the full cost of attendance for National Merit Finalists, of which ~175 incoming UTD students qualify.
UTD’s flagship Academic Excellence Scholarship (AES) provides varying amounts up to a full ride based primarily on one’s transcript and SAT. UTD doesn’t require any separate scholarship applications. Top offers tend to rank in the top 2% and score a 1550, with the lowest tier class ranks 10-20% and 1300-1400 on the SAT.
The UT-Dallas Common Data Set supports my claim that less prestigious universities allocate much more merit-based aid to entice students to enroll. The average UTD merit package is $10,600, and 20% of enrolling UTD students receive merit aid. Texas Tech has a helpful breakdown of which rank/test score equals what merit package. I have one or two clients admitted to UT and other top universities each year who take UTD’s honors and full-ride offer.
In exceedingly rare instances, top universities might give students merit scholarships
I had a Fall 2025 client who received two Rice merit scholarships, totalling $60,000 yearly. Rice said they give this offer to only a dozen or so applicants each year. That student declined Rice, Duke, UCLA, Georgia Tech, Purdue Honors, and UT’s offer to enroll at Penn M&T, the extremely selective combined Wharton/Engineering program, so based on their profile, they were one of the world’s top college applicants. Even so, they didn’t gain admission to UT Honors, MIT, CMU, Caltech, Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Cornell. Academically-perfect students with exceptional resumes will have similar outcomes. Getting into multiple top 10s for STEM regular decision applicants is equally rare. Perhaps a thousand applicants globally will juggle multiple top 10 university offers. So, if you’re an academically perfect student with a strong resume and are applying to a dozen high reaches, you will be lucky to get into a single campus.
Outside of that or perhaps one or two other exceptions in my decade of working with 600+ families, you should not expect out-of-state tuition waivers or merit scholarships at highly desirable universities. Some universities have their equivalent of UT’s FASP, but these are extraordinarily competitive and akin to a lottery. Moreover, I strongly caution against applying binding Early Decision to universities where cost is in any way a factor. I discuss the hazards of student loan debt at the bottom of my “Building a Reasonable and Debt-Minimizing College List” post.
Finally, unless your family’s net worth is mid-seven figures or higher, it’s almost never worth paying $300,000+ for an undergraduate degree. So, many of my clients don’t apply to binding ED because they don’t want to preclude a potential UT offer since it’s a high-quality education at a reasonable price. Almost everyone is better off going to A&M or UT-Dallas and graduating with little or no debt rather than taking on potential six-figure loans to pay full price for a top-50 university.
One demographic I work with are transfer students at one university desiring UT enrollment. Every year, I work with a few who enrolled at very expensive universities, sometimes over a UT offer as a HS senior, only to realize it’s not worth it. They pay a high price to learn a tough lesson that most universities aren’t worth the sticker price.
Should you apply for outside scholarships?
Probably not.
Applying for scholarships outside of institutions or government sources is not worth the effort. Nearly any aid you might receive will come directly from the university as part of your Common App and FAFSA/CSS financial aid applications. There is rarely anything “extra to do” to be eligible for merit scholarships given from governments and institutions.
Almost zero of the 600+ families I’ve worked with over a decade have received notable outside scholarships that alter enrollment options or significantly decrease the cost burden. The most straightforward way to reduce your total cost of attendance is to attend a school like UT-Dallas that gives generous merit aid to incoming students.
There are no tricks or hacks to substantially reduce the cost of UT-Austin and other top 50 universities.
do not pay a firm to complete your fafsa or help you find scholarships
Occasionally, families will ask me about engineering the FAFSA in such a way to disguise or withhold their “expected family contribution,” going so far as to divorce or declare their child as independent. There is a cottage industry of firms offering these FAFSA hijacking services. I do not recommend taking these paths. It’s like evading taxes through shell companies or creative accounting: it might work and save you money, and you could even get away with it, but will you sleep peacefully at night, knowing your child’s wellbeing and college enrollment could be at risk?
There are many scholarship search engines. Some, like Fastweb, are reputable and have been around for decades, but almost none yield anything worth your time and energy. You’re better off working a job and buying lottery tickets, seriously.
There are also many scams that I conspiratorially think have data harvesting intentions or “pay us some money so you can potentially get more money.” Many of these scams appear on reputable search engines and databases since the hosts, including Fastweb, may not complete due diligence about the legitimacy of a given program.
You should never pay someone to search for or apply for scholarships on your behalf. At best, paid “scholarship search services” are a waste of money; at worst, they’re a scam that could hook you with ongoing fees. Paying someone to find you money is nonsensical. Never provide your Social Security number.
outside high-dollar scholarships are uncommon and extremely competitive
There are several reputable need-based nationwide scholarship programs, such as the Gates Millennium Scholarship, Jack Kent Cooke, Dell Scholars, Horatio Alger, Burger King Scholars, Ron Brown, and Elks Most Valuable Student. Still, all of these have need-based requirements or require being a member of a historically marginalized community. That makes sense because wealthy donors, foundations, and corporations have a social mission to increase educational access and social mobility. Those social desirability and democracy incentives call into question the entire notion of giving free money to high-achieving applications with no strings attached or demonstrating need or hardship.
Nevertheless, a few programs have no need-based requirements, like Coca Cola Scholars, Davidson Fellows Scholarship, Regeneron Science Talent Search, and the Coolidge Scholarship. Only a few hundred students among the 300,000 or so who apply for the top 50 universities will receive these, so the odds of getting one are so exceedingly rare that it isn’t worth applying unless you’re in the highly rarified tier of students for whom Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, or MIT is a safety school.
One Coca-Cola Scholar recipient compiled a spreadsheet of potential scholarship opportunities two years ago that may be of interest. Note that I haven’t verified these or updated deadlines or requirements.