Good news, Texas! Free College Application Week is coming
Texas residents can apply to college for free from October 13-19, 2025. Here’s everything you need to know about Free College Application Week.
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and Governor Greg Abbott announced a new statewide initiative on September 2: Free College Application Week. The program will run from October 13-19, 2025, and will be held during the second full week of October every year moving forward. Free College Application Week is open to Texas residents who want to apply to public universities and colleges in the state. It was created during the 89th Texas Legislative Sessions as part of Senate Bill 2231. As a result, all public institutions are required to waive their admission application fees during that designated week.
Speaking about the program, Governor Abbott stated, “During free college application week, Texans can apply to their preferred colleges or universities without application fees. By supporting our students today, we are investing in a stronger Texas tomorrow.” Residents must create an ApplyTexas account and provide necessary background information in order to qualify, which we’ll talk you through below to ensure you’re prepared for the process.
First, though, let’s go over the eligibility requirements.
Who’s eligible for Free College Application Week?
Texas residents who are applying for undergraduate admission at an in-state public university or college are qualified to participate in Free College Application Week. Both first-time students and transfer students are eligible. Students, or their parents, must have a permanent residence in Texas for at least 12 consecutive months to be considered a resident. The prospective student must also be lawfully present in the US when submitting their application.
For further Texas residency information, please click here.
Here’s what you’ll need to set up your ApplyTexas account
Prior to Free College Application Week, you’ll need to set up a free account with ApplyTexas. The app is designed specifically for schools in the Lone Star State, including community colleges. When you’re registering, you’ll be asked to provide specific information, all of which will be handy to have during the actual college application process as well.
First, you need to provide personal information, including:
- Permanent mailing address in Texas.
- Phone number.
- Social security number (if this is applicable to you).
- City/state/country of birth.
- Emergency contact.
ApplyTexas also requires you to provide high school, extracurricular, and test information either for yourself or your child, depending on who’s applying for college through the program:
- Start/end dates for high school.
- Start/end dates for previous universities or colleges if applying as a transfer student.
- Extracurricular activities.
- Volunteer activities.
- Awards/honors/talents, including date received, description of the award/honor/talent, position held, and the place of service.
- Month and year for all official tests taken, or planned, such as the SATⓇ, ACT, IELTS, and TOEFL.
- For incoming college freshmen, you’ll need to provide credit values and titles of senior-year courses you’re currently taking or have recently complete.
If you’ve already attended your freshman year of college and are applying as a transfer student, you’ll need to provide the number, title, and credit value for every college course you’re either taking currently, or are planning to take before you enroll at the new school you’re applying for.
Preparing for Free Application Week
After you create your ApplyTexas account, search through their system for in-state public universities and colleges to pull up the right application for each school you or your child is interested in attending. Then, between October 13-19, you’ll be able to waive those application fees, which typically cost around $50 per institution. If you want to get a jump start on filling out the forms, you certainly can, just make sure you hold off on submitting anything until Free Application Week begins to ensure you’re taking advantage of this program.
For additional information regarding what you might need, and how the waiver process works, check out My Texas Future’s helpful guide here.
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