I will be entering graduate school this year and have come to the unfortunate conclusion I very likely will be unable to hunt given the fall and spring schedule during the first year. I might be able to sneak out to the ranch on the off Saturday or Sunday but am not counting on it.

On public, I want to keep building my points with the least likely chance to get drawn. I know we don’t have a “preference point - no hunt” option like other states so is my best bet just to apply for the hunts with the most applicants/lowest draw odds and hope I don’t get picked?

Yeah, put in one ticket for the most sought after hunt in each category.

That’s what I figured. Gonna be a heartbreaker when I get draw powderhorn and I have to choose between that and a final exam haha

Yeah, I have done that before and got drawn.

Texas really needs a points only option.

I thought it was possible to defer a drawn hunt to keep your points?

They’ve needed a “point only” option for a long time. Has to be a simple work around by the brain trust at the IT dept at tpwd.
If there is a category of hunt I know I can’t make, annd I just want the point, I add the spouse and kid to the ticket to lower my already atrociously low odds even more. ( I have double digit points on a lot of categories, they have single digits) . I’ll then also find a hunt that is popular with multiple hunt dates available at the wma/state park. I will then only pick one date of the multiple to pick from. This lowers your chance even more.
Sad it has to be played this way.

Apply for the hunt with the worst odds and least permits, and only a single hunt period if there is more than one. Usually the first hunt period. If you have any points, add people with zero or much less points than you to average down. Members here with zero or few points would likely welcome you adding them to your application to average their chances up BTW.
But, remember points are now cubed, so you do have a greater risk of getting drawn if you have very many points. For example 10 points cubed is really 1000 points. There are some hunts I will not be applying for for because I have double digit points. I have two hunting leases, so don't want to draw some of the lesser public hunt categories this season, and don't want to risk losing those double digit points.

Nope unless they changed it recently.