How to Apply to The University of Texas at Austin’s Nursing (BSN) Degree: Choose Nursing as Your First-Choice Major When You Apply as a First-Year Student, With No Second Application, a 1 December Deadline, Only Biology, Chemistry and Statistics for Transfer, and the Path for Domestic, International (Including Chinese) and Transfer Applicants

The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) is in Austin, Texas. The bachelor’s in nursing (BSN) is offered by the School of Nursing, which lists a 4-year program with no part-time study and no distance learning. The nursing page says the BSN program is “direct entry, with no additional application prior to upper division course work,” and that admission is highly competitive. This guide summarises UT Austin’s published information for fall 2027 entry for U.S. applicants, international applicants, applicants from China and transfer students.

1. Degree and program

• Degree and school: Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN), School of Nursing. Admitted students are designated by semester: J1 and J2 for the first and second semesters of junior year and S1 and S2 for senior year.
• Licensure: the school says graduates will be prepared to take the NCLEX-RN. An NCLEX pass rate is not on the pages we read; not published there.
• Honors program: all admitted first-year nursing students are invited to apply; the school says the admissions office sends an invitation letter with the link and that this is the only opportunity to apply. Honors students work with a faculty mentor on research, take honors sections of selected courses, complete an honors project and present at a professional conference or poster session. A minimum 3.7 UT cumulative GPA is needed to graduate with honors from the School of Nursing.
• STEM designation: not on the pages we read; not published there.
• Pre-health advising, accelerated second-degree options and RN-to-BSN are outside this guide and not on the pages we read; check UT Austin’s site.

2. How you get into nursing (first-year)

• How to apply: the nursing page says first-year applicants apply through the Office of Admissions, select Nursing as the first-choice major and answer two short-answer prompts: (1) the factors that have influenced your desire to pursue a career in nursing; and (2) how your academic and extracurricular activities have prepared you for a nursing degree.
• Seats and score thresholds: the pages we read give no first-year seat count and no minimum GPA or test score; not published there.
• TEAS/HESI: the external-transfer section explicitly says no exams such as the HESI or TEAS are required; the first-year pages list none.
• Interview, clinical or volunteer experience: not listed for first-year applicants; not published there. The internal-transfer page advises students to explore nursing careers and volunteer to strengthen their understanding.
• Background check, health examination, vaccinations, insurance: not on the pages we read; not published there. The school also has a Professional and Technical Standards for Nursing Practice PDF, which we did not read.
• Changing into nursing after admission: see the internal-transfer rules in section 9; the process is competitive and space-available.
• Texas public high school automatic admission: the high school prerequisites page describes the policy but does not say whether it applies to nursing; not published there.

3. Prerequisites, curriculum and credit

• High school coursework (admissions, university-wide): language arts 4 credits required; mathematics “4 credits strongly recommended, 3 required,” at the level of Algebra I or higher including Algebra II; science “4 strongly recommended, 2 required,” with biology, physics and chemistry suggested; social studies 3 required (4 recommended); foreign language 2 required, in a single language; physical education 1 and fine arts 1 recommended; electives 6 recommended. No separate nursing high school prerequisites are listed.
• University coursework (2024–26 degree plan worksheet): Freshman fall: Rhetoric and Writing (RHE 306), Principles of Chemistry I (CH 301), Foundations of Data Analysis (SDS 302F), a first-year signature course and a visual or performing arts course. Freshman spring: Introductory Biology I (BIO 311C), Fundamentals of Nutrition (NTR 306), Introduction to Psychology (PSY 301), Global Health (N 309) and an English literature course; summer: U.S. government and American history core courses. Sophomore year: Human Microscopy and Gross Anatomy, Introduction to Medical Microbiology, Child Development and Communication in Health Care Settings (N 310); then Introduction to Patient-Centered Nursing Care (N 320), Health Assessment Skills (N 224), Clinical Nursing Skills I Practicum (N 127P), Ethics of Health Care (N 321) and Human Systems Physiology with lab. Junior year: Mental Health Nursing with practicum, Adult Health Nursing I with practicum and Nursing Research; Nursing Care of Childbearing Families with practicum, Adult Health IIA, Clinical Nursing Skills II Practicum, Genetics in Health Care (N 223) and Interprofessional Collaborative Practice; Pharmacology (PHM 338), taught in summer, fall and spring, to be taken after N 320 and before the senior year. Senior year: Nursing Care of Children and Families with practicum, Adult Health IIB with practicum, Spanish for Health Care Professionals (N 354) and Quality and Safety; Public Health Nursing with practicum, Complex Nursing Care, Leadership and Management, a Clinical Care Management Practicum and a Capstone Preceptorship.
• Hours per semester: the worksheet shows 15, 15, summer 6, 16–17, 16, 13, 15, 15 and 14. It is the 2024–26 worksheet, updated 15 April 2024; use the current plan.
• Total clinical hours and clinical partner hospitals: not on the pages we read; not published there.
• AP/IB credit: not on the pages we read; ask admissions or the nursing student services office (ss@nursing.utexas.edu, 512-232-4780).

4. Rounds and materials (fall 2027 entry)

• Deadlines on the nursing page: first-year fall admission 1 December; transfer fall admission 1 March.
• Admissions first-year dates (summer/fall; the page prints dates into 2027): application opens 1 August; Early Action deadline 15 October with supplemental materials 22 October and decisions 15 January; regular deadline 1 December with supplemental materials 10 December and decisions by 15 February; honors decisions 1 March. Whether nursing takes part in Early Action is not on the pages we read; ask admissions.
• Application and fee: through the Common App; the non-refundable fee is $75, with fee waivers available.
• Essays: at least one essay and the required short answers; nursing’s two prompts are in section 2.
• Testing: at least one official SAT or ACT score sent by the testing agency (SAT code 6882, ACT 4240); the SAT Essay, ACT Writing and ACT Science are not required; official CLT scores also satisfy the requirement.
• Transcripts: a high school transcript listing all coursework from grades 9–11 and class rank; send college transcripts too if you have college or dual-credit coursework.
• Recommendations and resume: all optional. Up to two letters, and the office encourages writers from outside your high school; a resume and the 250–300-word circumstances prompt are optional too.
• NursingCAS or another nursing-only platform: not on the pages we read; not published there.

5. U.S. applicants

• Tuition: UT Austin tuition varies by residency, college or school and semester hours. The site says Texas legislative action froze all resident undergraduate academic costs (tuition, mandatory academic fees, academic-related general fees and college course fees) for 2025–26 and 2026–27. The 2026–27 rate tables are PDFs on a third-party file-sharing site that we did not open, and the nursing figures are not on the pages we read; not published there, so check the tuition page on Texas One Stop. An optional Longhorn Fixed Tuition program exists for undergraduates enrolling at UT for the first time.
• Scholarships: see section 8.
• In-state preference: other than the Texas public high school automatic admission policy, no nursing-specific preference on the pages we read; not published there.

6. International applicants

• Who counts as an international first-year applicant: a high school graduate who is neither a U.S. citizen nor a permanent resident and did not graduate from a Texas high school. The dates match the domestic ones: Early Action 15 October, regular 1 December, decisions 15 January and 15 February, accept admission and pay the enrollment deposit by 1 May.
• Application fee: $90; fee waivers are not available for international students.
• English proof: submit TOEFL, IELTS or Duolingo English Test (DET). Minimums: TOEFL iBT 79 (120 scale); IELTS Academic overall 6.5; DET 115. Institutional TOEFL (ITP), TOEFL Essentials and IELTS General Training are not accepted. The site does not say nursing requires more than other majors.
• Exemptions: applicants from a country where English is the sole official language and the primary conversational language (the page lists Australia, Canada except Quebec, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Kingdom and others), or who graduate from a high school in the United States or such a country after at least three years of study.
• Transcripts: documents showing completion of an accredited secondary school series equivalent to U.S. grades 9–12.
• Financial documents, international scholarships, clinical courses, the licensure exam, Social Security number: not on the admissions and nursing pages we read; not published there. International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS) handles visas, insurance and related matters; ask the School of Nursing and ISSS.

7. Applicants from China

• Gaokao: not mentioned on the pages we read; not published there.
• Transcripts and Huikao materials: the international first-year page asks only for an accredited secondary school series equivalent to U.S. grades 9–12; it has no China entry and does not mention Huikao materials; not published there.
• English: China is not among the countries listed on the English exemption page; the page also says institutional TOEFL (ITP) scores are not accepted.
• China-specific notes for nursing: none on the pages we read.

8. Costs and scholarships

• School of Nursing scholarships: awarded on need and merit. The page prints an application window of 2 February to 23 March 2026 (for the following academic year), with decisions by August, and requires the school’s online scholarship form plus the FAFSA. That window belongs to the previous cycle; check the new dates for 2027 entry. Whether international students can apply is not on the pages we read; not published there.
• Other: the Army ROTC Partnership in Nursing Education Program (Army Nurse Corps), the Forty Acres Scholars full-ride merit scholarship (administered by Texas Exes), and a student travel fund for conferences.
• Nursing surcharges and clinical-related costs: not on the pages we read; not published there.

9. Transfer students

• External transfer: the nursing page gives a 1 March deadline and says the School of Nursing offers only fall admission to external transfer applicants. Apply through the Office of Admissions, select Nursing as first choice and submit the essays and documents; no HESI or TEAS is required; acceptance is competitive and space-available. Admissions lists: Common App opens 1 September, deadline 1 March, supplemental materials 10 March, decisions 30 June; you must have or will have 24 semester hours of transferable coursework; $75 fee (waivers available), one essay, transcripts from every school attended, a resume, and optional recommendations.
• Prerequisites: only three: biology, chemistry and statistics, all introductory and not requiring labs. The school also recommends taking as many courses as possible from the freshman year and first sophomore semester of the degree plan. For Texas institutions, the Automated Transfer Equivalency System shows how courses transfer.
• GPA: a minimum GPA for external transfer applicants is not on the pages we read; not published there.
• After admission: the BSN is direct entry, with no additional application before upper-division coursework.
• Internal transfer: current UT Austin students in a non-nursing major can apply. Deadlines: 1 December for spring admission and 1 May for fall admission. Eligibility: 24 credit hours (preferably in residence; pass/fail, UT Extension, correspondence and credit by exam do not count); foreign language proficiency (two years of one language in high school or two semesters in college); preference for students with a UT cumulative GPA and science GPA of 3.0 or above; and CH 301, SDS 302 and BIO 311C each with a C- or better. The other science courses the BSN needs (BIO 326M, BIO 446L, BIO 365S, NTR 306, PHR 338) are not required to apply, but each needs a C- or better. Students are limited to two internal transfer attempts and should apply within the first four long semesters; students with 90 or more hours or a completed degree are encouraged to consider other routes such as the Alternate Entry MSN or a second bachelor’s. Reviews use the essay, resume and GPAs, and decisions come after the term’s grades are available. The site also links an articulation agreement with Austin Community College.
• International transfer: admissions has a separate page: applicants are neither citizens nor permanent residents and need 24 hours of transferable coursework, and in-progress coursework cannot be used; Common App opens 1 September, deadline 1 March, decisions 15 June; $90 fee; one essay, college and high school transcripts (showing completion of a secondary series equivalent to U.S. grades 9–12), and an official English translation for non-English transcripts; English test requirements as above. The page does not say nursing excludes international transfer students.

Checklist

U.S. applicants:

• Apply through the Common App by 1 December (or Early Action 15 October) with Nursing as first choice, and answer the two nursing short-answer prompts
• At least one official SAT or ACT score; high school English 4, math 3–4 (with Algebra II), science 2–4, social studies 3, language 2; $75 fee

International applicants (including China):

• Same materials with a $90 fee; TOEFL 79, IELTS 6.5 or DET 115 unless exempt; how the Gaokao and Huikao are used and any China-specific items are not published, so ask admissions

Transfer students:

• External: 1 March, 24 semester hours, introductory biology, chemistry and statistics, fall only; internal: 1 December (spring) or 1 May (fall), with CH 301, SDS 302 and BIO 311C at C- or better

Sources: The University of Texas at Austin, School of Nursing: BSN; School of Nursing: Internal Transfer; School of Nursing: Honors Program; School of Nursing: Financial Support; School of Nursing: BSN Degree Plan 2024-26 (PDF); Admissions: Freshman; Admissions: High School Prerequisites; Admissions: International Freshman; Admissions: Info for International Students; Admissions: Transfer; Admissions: International Transfer; Texas One Stop: Tuition Rates. Some pages print no year; check UT Austin’s website for the latest for fall 2027 entry.