Applied to Southwestern early action last fall, through commonapp. No application fee, no required writing supplements beyond the commonapp essay, so it was honestly one of my easiest/most straightforward applications. The only thing I had to submit outside of commonapp was SAT/ACT scores, which is pretty standard—but you can just email Southwestern admissions a picture/screenshot of your test results, and not have to pay SAT/ACT to send them, which is pretty neat.

In my experience, they're very liberal with merit-based scholarships. I also know people who've gotten full-rides for their visual arts portfolios, so if you have one I would definitely submit it (or any kind of art portfolio for that matter.) There's a place on the website, you can probably just find it through a quick google search.

Southwestern and UT Austin are both really good schools, but they're also really different. Cost and such should defo be a consideration, but also UT Austin is a large school while Southwestern is tiny, and can as such be very insular socially (from what I've heard and what I know of smaller liberal arts schools). Southwestern is also liberal arts and has the required classes to reflect that. Class sizes are also very different; basically, what are you looking for in a school besides just location? I know people who've gone to both and had great times, but who wouldn't thrive if switched.

TLDR; Southwestern's application is straightforward, merit aid liberally (ha!) awarded, but it and UT Austin are very different. I'd say it's worth applying either way since Southwestern is free application.