Admission and Registration
Admission
Admission and readmission of undergraduate students to the University is the responsibility of the executive director of admissions. Information about admission to the University is given in the General Information Catalog and online at https://admissions.utexas.edu/.
Prospective students must complete all general application requirements required by the university’s Office of Admissions. All required application materials must be received by the posted application deadline. If a student’s materials are deemed late and the student believes they experienced extenuating circumstances, they may follow the Office of Admissions procedures for submitting an individual appeal online.
Admission Policies of the College
To major in any field in the College of Fine Arts, a student must be admitted to the University. In most cases, College of Fine Arts applicants must also complete additional requirements according to the student’s proposed major or program. This may include one or more items such as an audition, portfolio, other creative submission, interview, writing prompt(s), and additional questions.
College of Fine Arts faculty review student application materials to evaluate each student’s fit for their desired major/program in the context of the applicant pool. Upon completion of faculty review and deliberation, college leadership submits recommendations to the university’s executive director of admissions, who is responsible for making final admission decisions for all prospective freshman and external transfer applicants.
Information about admission requirements, procedures, and deadlines is available from the undergraduate admissions office in the department or online at https://finearts.utexas.edu/admissions/undergraduate/undergraduate-admissions.
Transfer Admission
Internal Transfer and Simultaneous Majors
A student may seek entrance to the College of Fine Arts via internal transfer from another division of the University or adding a simultaneous major in accordance with the procedures and policies given in the General Information Catalog. However, a student seeking admission to any department of the college must also satisfy the special admission requirements described above.
Transfer Credit Evaluation
Most credit accepted from another college or university is evaluated by the Office of Admissions to determine equivalent courses at The University of Texas at Austin. For some transferred courses, especially in the fine arts, credit is accepted but no specific University equivalency is assigned. If, for example, a student has completed 12 semester hours of transferable coursework in studio art at another institution, the Office of Admissions may accept the work only as 12 semester hours of unspecified credit in art. The same will often be true for courses in design, theatre and dance, and music.
Unspecified transfer credit both within and outside the student’s major is evaluated by the Office of the Dean, Student Affairs during the degree audit process described in the Degree Audit section. The Student Affairs Office, with assistance from departmental faculty and academic advisors, will identify courses in the major that are appropriate equivalencies.
Transfer credit in music performance may not be counted toward a degree in music until the student has completed additional music performance coursework at the University.
Registration
The General Information Catalog gives information about the University's academic policies and procedures, including adding and dropping courses, withdrawal, pass/fail status, transfer from one division of the University to another, and auditing a course. The Course Schedule, published each semester and summer session, includes registration instructions, advising locations, and the times, places, and instructors of classes. The Course Schedule and General Information are published on the registrar’s website, http://registrar.utexas.edu/.
Registration Approvals Required
Before registering for any semester or summer session, a student in the College of Fine Arts must obtain documented approval of the proposed schedule of classes from his or her designated advisor.
Course Prerequisites
The student must also meet the prerequisite for each course in which he or she enrolls. Prerequisites are given in the relevant catalog section and often appear in the Course Schedule. A student who registers for or adds a class without having met the prerequisite may be dropped from the class.
Fine Arts Registration Requirements
In addition to individual course prerequisites, there are special registration requirements for certain courses and areas of study in the College of Fine Arts.
Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music
- A student with transferred college credit in music theory must take a diagnostic examination in music theory. The results of the examination determine the level of music theory for which the student is advised to register.
- Before beginning upper-division coursework in the major instrument, students majoring in music performance (including those pursuing the pedagogy option) must pass a full faculty jury examination in the major instrument and must be admitted to upper-division standing in that instrument.
- Before beginning upper-division coursework in the major area, a student majoring in composition or music studies must obtain the approval of a designated committee composed of faculty members from that major.
- Fulfillment of the music performance requirement signifies the attainment of a given level of artistic performance, rather than the completion of a specific number of semester hours of credit. At the discretion of the faculty, a student may be required to repeat any course in music performance; in such a case, the course may be repeated for credit. No music performance requirement is fulfilled unless approval of the faculty has been obtained.
- A student in a degree other than music studies or the Bachelor of Arts in Music degree, whose degree plan requires a piano proficiency of Music 210K, must continue with group piano classes in consecutive semesters until the requirement is fulfilled. The student may not enroll in private instruction until the Music 210K proficiency has been completed. A student in music studies, whose degree plan requires piano proficiency demonstrated in Music 201F (Piano for Teachers), must successfully complete Music 201F before being admitted to upper-division coursework in music studies. Students in the Bachelor of Arts in Music degree program must successfully complete the piano proficiency of Music 201N.
Department of Theatre and Dance
A student must enroll in an appropriate production or performance laboratory course, under the supervision of a Department of Theatre and Dance faculty member, in any semester he or she wishes to participate in a production sponsored by the department. A student majoring in the Department of Theatre and Dance must consult his or her advisor to determine the appropriate course. Nonmajors who wish to enroll in production or performance laboratory courses must consult the undergraduate advising office of the department.