Earlier hiccups frustrated many prospective students who were eligible to submit applications over the summer, including for two-year colleges, graduate programs and some four-year institutions. Those problems smoothed out following initial increases to the number of started and stopped applications, and total submissions through the portal now sit higher than this time last year, said Sarah Keyton, association commissioner for administration at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
"We are really excited about ApplyTexas," Keyton said. "This is obviously mission critical, very high priority for the agency."
The new site launched June 10, part of a massive undertaking to streamline the admissions process and lower technological barriers to higher education. The changes include a step-by-step guide through each section in the application process; a set of core questions to simplify the process for students submitting to multiple schools; customized dashboards for each student and institution; and a tracking system for transcript requests and submissions.
ApplyTexas, which serves 117 of the state's higher education institutions, has received 90,000 applications since its relaunch, according to the state agency administering the portal. Those numbers are expected to grow when most four-year applications open this week, though the prior glitches have pushed some four-year applicants to the CommonApp, a portal that also serves a number of Texas institutions.
Danna Kutach, of Pearland, said her daughter submitted three tickets to have bugs resolved on her application to Stephen F. Austin State University. The application opened earlier in July, but Kutach said the process was so frustrating that her incoming senior will be applying to Texas A&M University through CommonApp — even though ApplyTexas is an option and her core questions are already filled out.
Kutach said her daughter doesn't want to take any risks. The state flagship uses rolling admissions, which can affect how fast housing and certain majors get filled.
"For A&M, it's very important that she gets her application in as soon as possible," she said.
Texas A&M's website encourages students to apply using CommonApp. The University of Texas at Austin also uses both sites to process applications, but most prospective students use CommonApp, Vice Provost for Admissions Miguel V. Wasielewski said. Admissions officers aren't expecting major issues with the state's portal and are reassuring students that they should take their time to make sure their applications are the best they can be, he said.
"If there are any initial emergency issues with ApplyTexas, we'll be able to sort those out pretty quickly so when those students do submit the applications they won't have any problem," Wasielewski said.
The ApplyTexas redesign comes amid other major changes at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, which is also between leaders as Commissioner Harrison Keller leaves to become president of the University of North Texas.
The agency relaunched its My Texas Future portal this spring to help students map out their college and career plans, and ApplyTexas is being integrated into that system. Officials are also opening a direct admissions process this fall, allowing students to input their credentials and receive automatic admission to participating colleges without the rigamarole of a formal application.
ApplyTexas offers nine different applications, including for two-year, four-year, international and dual-credit students. Public institutions are not taxed to use it, but students pay per application, ranging from no cost to as high as $75, agency officials said.
The coordinating board worked closely with institutions to remedy problems with the website's rollout, Keyton said. They held multiple trainings and released updates through June and July about certain fixes: A July 3 note acknowledged that students had challenges with graduate applications to UT-Austin but could rest assured that their applications had been received, and a July 22 note affirmed that a series of bugs had been fixed across various application types.
Jose Valentine, dean of enrollment services at San Jacinto College, said he believed two-year colleges might have been most affected by the rollout because a bulk of their students apply for the fall semester during the summer. Started and stopped as well as deleted applications rose immediately after the relaunch but fell again as the agency communicated regularly with the colleges and the glitches got resolved, he said.
"It's definitely had its challenges," Valentine said. "We sort of chugged through it and created some proactive student support services to help our students get through that process. At the college itself, we've had to provide some grace and flexibility in response to it."
Officials at the state agency emphasized that new systems tend to come with a learning curve. But in the long run, they hope more people find it easier to apply to college as a result of the ApplyTexas redesign, even if some students still prefer CommonApp, Keyton said.
"The agency doesn't view it as 'ApplyTexas or CommonApp,'" she said. "Any and all paths to increase enrollment and access to higher education are positive, and we want to encourage those. I don't think it's an 'either or,' I think it's a 'both and.'"
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