UT Honors Programs

Last week I participated in an honors panel at a colloquium that UT Admissions held for high school counselors from around Texas and a few from out-of-state. It reminded me to emphasize here that prospective applicants should take their time and do the research about the different honors programs available at UT Austin. As wonderful as I think Plan II is (and a whole lot of people think so too), it's not always the right program for every motivated, high-achieving, bright student. Just because someone made straight A's, or scored off the charts on SAT, ACT or AP tests, or was in honors, TAG or all AP classes, doesn't mean that he or she will necessarily be happy with Plan II or that the applicant will be attractive to Plan II.

Look at Dean's Scholars (natural sciences), Turing Scholars (computer science), Business Honors (duh!) and Engineering Honors (ditto) to see kinds of honors programs at UT. Plan II's sister program, Liberal Arts Honors, offers honors tracks to students who are interested in the liberal arts or a specific liberal arts discipline, and who may not be interested in some or all of the Plan II core curriculum classes. I strongly recommend a thorough exploration of the website of the different honors programs and other good alternatives, such as Bridging Disciplines (housed in the School of Undergraduate Studies) and the Business Foundations Program, a certificate program offered by the McCombs School of Business for students who are not business majors.

Remember, Plan II is an interdisciplinary core curriculum program. The requirements range from world literature to advanced physics and there are very, very few substitutions accepted for any of the Plan II core courses. If you have very focused or narrow interests, Plan II will not be a good fit. If you don't like to write (A LOT) Plan II may not be in your comfort zone. If the idea of original research is really scary, remember that Plan II requires a senior thesis. It's one of the very best programs in the country, if you're seeking a challenging, broad education with lots of interaction with faculty, lots of writing and oral presentations, a strong classroom dynamic and a tightly-knit student community. But Plan II is certainly not the only honors opportunity for serious, high-achieving students.

Although some students combine Plan II and another honors program (i.e. Plan II and Business Honors or Plan II and Engineering Honors), applicants should be aware that dual-degree programs are five-year commitments. Because Plan II and Liberal Arts Honors are both in the College of Liberal Arts, students cannot combine these two programs. Applicants may apply to both Plan II and LAH, but if admitted to both programs, must choose between them.


Finally, we're in the middle of our second orientation session of the summer for our incoming Plan II freshmen. All of us in the Plan II office look forward to orientation and getting to know our new students. We're already crazy about them. It's so fun to welcome another group of excited and interesting people.





much more to come....