<p>My dad has been telling me to just submit two essays for the main app and move on to the honors application. His reasoning is that the honors programs don't really look at those two essays [and instead place the most weight on the program-specific ones] and I need to get the main application in soon if I want to secure good housing.</p>
<p>Thoughts?</p>
<p>Are you top 10% instate?</p>
<p>Yes, 10char</p>
<p>I think they have your whole admissions packet when they are evaluating you for the honors programs. That would mean they have your “regular” essays. I think that if they have them, they are likely to look at them, but I am not sure. Maybe theloneranger knows; he is our resident Plan II expert.</p>
<p>Bump, 10char</p>
<p>Not sure about Plan II, but I know for engineering honors, it pretty much hinges on class rank and SAT score. Someone posted on here earlier that they were told by the engineering dept. that to be considered for engineering honors this year,(09-10), you had to have at least a 1500 SAT M/CR or the equilivant ACT score.</p>
<p>Hm. That bit about the SAT score is a little hard to believe since colleges do so much talking about holistic admissions, but I do meet the criteria so I’m not worried about that.</p>
<p>But no one has any idea about how much the main essays matter? I’m not going to write absolute crap for them but if it’s the supplemental essays that really count, by all means I’ll focus on those.</p>
<p>Also: someone posted earlier [can’t remember who it was or find the post] that it was possible to submit the main app with rough drafts for essays and gain access to the honors applications, and then somehow update the main essays later?</p>
<p>I don’t think you can change your essays once they have been submitted, but I could be wrong. As far as engineering, they are very old school in how they do things. Admission to the University is handled differently than admission to engineering. Engineering is (as I said) all about class rank and standardized test scores. I heard this repeated in several meetings. </p>
<p>I don’t think anyone here can really answer your question about the admissions essays. My suggestion would be to call the Plan II office and the Engineering honors office and ask them.</p>
<p>Listen to your father. Stop wasting your time. If you have the 1500+ SAT and your in the top 8%, finish your application. Then work on your honors essay, and application.</p>
<p>Well, according to Plan II’s website Essays A and B [which I’m assuming are the ones on the main app] are 40% of the total evaluation criteria, so I guess I do need to write some quality essays.</p>
<p>yes you really should write the best essays possible. Plan II is really hard (and I mean hard) to get into, and I think one of the deciding factors comes down to the essays. I know some people who weren’t top 10 and got into plan ii because of SAT and essays. And I think this year, it was something like 1 in 10 people got in? correct me if i’m wrong…</p>
<p>ikari, you are very right. It is very hard to get into Plan II. I know some one got into HYP,but did not get into Plan II.
My daughter is in Plan II and BHP, she loves UT.
I still saved her essays to Plan II . Her essays were very good, she really is a good writer since she was very young, the school knows when the essays were written by the student.
So good luck to everyone, hope you all get in.</p>
<p>You should definitely /not/ blow-off Essays A and B (and C if you’re up for it). They are, as you’ve now read, a <em>very</em> important component of your admittance to Plan II, which is a writing intensive major. </p>
<p>You should still do a good job on your honors application essays. But, they are basically short answers by comparison to the Main Essays, so it wouldn’t make sense for the admissions office to discount the bulk of your writing sample.</p>
<p>Every honors major program has a different set of standards that they look for in there holistic reviews. Engineering may not care about your essays, but they really don’t need to do non-technical writing. Plan II makes you take World Literature, Foreign Language, and Logic/Modes of Reasoning. Business makes you learn how to be concise and build resumes. The foci differ, and thus, the selection processes are different.</p>
<p>I would spend as much time as possible crafting your essays if you’d like to get in to Plan II.</p>
<p>I spent about a week altogeter on mine; I know others who worked on them for 2
<p>The honors app doesn’t matter that much for Plan II, and there’s not really an essay on the honors app. However, if you blow off the essays for the main app, you won’t get in to Plan II. It’s that simple.</p>
<p>To confirm once again, yes the essays are of utmost importance. I went to a Plan II info session yesterday (I loved it by the way), and they said the two applytexas essays count for 40%.</p>
<p>Plan II seems sooo amazing. I really want to get in.</p>