ApplyTexas product staff briefed the advisory committee on Nov. 6 about multiple proposed changes intended to improve data accuracy and administrative usability across the ApplyTexas applicant, admin and counselor portals.

County field & admin portal history: Staff reported committee feedback generally supported adding a county field to core address questions for Texas addresses but raised concerns about making the field required because some applicants may not know their county. Staff said they are exploring auto‑population options and technical discovery is ongoing. For the admin portals dropdown of past semesters, staff recommended showing three years (current plus two past cycles) to balance operational needs and usability.

EDI documentation MVP: Staff displayed an EDI (electronic data interchange) MVP user guide and requested rapid feedback; a deadline for comments was set for 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 12. The product team said the EDI MVP will be a template for future application types and will inform how data records are exchanged with institutions.

Essay controls: Amy Signer, product user‑experience designer, presented a proposed admin control that would add a master essay toggle and allow administrators to designate each prompt as "required," "optional" or "not in use." The team said the control would affect undergraduate applications only and would not change graduate‑application behavior. "The thinking is that there would be a master essay toggle, within the undergraduate application settings," Signer said. The interface would require a status selection for each prompt when essays are enabled, preventing unintentionally publishing unused prompts.

Residency‑logic subcommittee: Staff asked for volunteers (five from two‑ and four‑year institutions) to work with the product team on residency skip‑logic mapping; multiple members volunteered and staff will follow up to schedule discovery sessions.

Why it matters: These changes aim to reduce applicant and administrative burden, improve data quality for institutions and the coordinating board, and reduce support tickets and misrouted applications. Staff will circulate materials and collect committee feedback to inform prioritization for upcoming sprints and deployments.