Starting Information for Fall 2012 Applicants

The first and best thing you can do if you're considering the Plan II Honors Program at the University of Texas at Austin as one of your college application choices is to really use the Plan II web site to get a sense of what Plan II is.

Good starting places are: The Plan II Program description; and Aims of the Core Curriculum. Plan II is not an honors program for the "smart kids." It is an interdisciplinary core curriculum with a strong emphasis on writing, critical and analytical thinking, problem solving and research. Make sure you know what you're getting into.

Then, if what you see appeals to you, plan a visit to our campus during either the fall or the spring semester. we gently discourage visits to campus in the summer, we do hope that Connor will plan a visit to Austin during the fall or spring semesters, to see the campus and attend our Plan II specific information session and class visit and, perhaps also attend a general UT session or an information session on another specific college or major. Summer visits, when there are no classes, few or no faculty and few or no current Plan II students do nothing to help a prospective student understand the program or get a sense of what it’s like to attend the University of Texas at Austin. A big, hot empty campus, which is what UT is like during the summer, is NOT what it’s like for students attending UT Austin.

The Plan II information session and the Plan II World Literature class visit give a prospective applicant invaluable information about whether or not to apply, and later if admitted, whether or not Plan II is a the right fit and the best choice. This information covers all the bases, and along with the links noted below, you’ll have a very full story. Parents are very welcome to come, and in fact, while our prospective applicants go to a class, parents stay for the second hour of information and Q&A. The link to the online registration system is at the top of the Visit Plan II web page.

The fall 2011 session dates are posted; registration for fall information sessions will probably open in early August, about the time the ApplyTexas admission application opens. But even if you can’t make a visit in the fall or spring (although I hope you do), the web site is very thorough.