<p>My son just received an invitation to the Honors Colloquium July 24-26. If anyone has been to this we would like to hear about it. He is trying to decide if he would like to attend.</p>
<p>I attended last year. It's a very good opportunity to learn about UT, what they have to offer, and you even get to take some classes taught by UT faculty members. They have student mentors who give you real advice about the college app process. It was a lot of fun (bowling, gregory gym, live concert, etc) and you get to meet a lot of brilliant people. I recommend that you take the opportunity. Besides, its free!</p>
<p>Thanks for the information. He is registered and it seems like it is a good thing he signed up early, so many of the programs are already full.</p>
<p>My daughter attended a few years back, and had a similar experience to meegracee. They really promote Plan II and the various Honors programs. And a good way to see if such a large campus will suit them.</p>
<p>Both things he is looking for. He has been really impressed by the plan II program and is interested in learning about the Language Arts Honors program. The size of the campus and student body has also been a concern. This seems like both a huge advantage and disadvantage so hopefully the Colloquium will help him sort that out.</p>
<p>There is no Language Arts Honors program, just Liberal Arts Honors. LAH and Plan 2 are mutually exclusive, you cannot do both. LAH is basically honors sections of the liberal arts core courses for the first two years, followed by honors courses in the chosen major for two years. Plan II essentially replaces most of the liberal arts core courses (as well as some science courses) with Plan II-specific courses, and requires a thesis. Many students complete second majors (often submitting their thesis on a subject in the second major), and can participate in the departmental honors programs of their second major. They usually can't do the courses for Liberal Arts Honors, though.</p>
<p>Woops, I meant to say Liberal Arts. Thank you for clarifying about both programs. He has visited the Plan II program already and was very impressed and will most likely be applying to it. His undergrad focus will most likely be in the school ofLiberal Arts (psychology or philosophy) with law school as his ultimate goal so both programs fit. I'm not sure how competitive the Liberal Arts program is but Plan II seems to be extremely competitive. UT seems like such a hugh community that I expect that if he become a longhorn that he will be most comfortable if attached to a smaller program. The summer program should help him figure out that part.</p>
<p>Plan II is the best program at UT and arguably one of the best academic programs in the South/Southwest, up there with Rice, Duke, etc. It basically comes down to what experience you want outside the classroom, Plan II/UT give you the academic excellence and large school experience, which you can't really get anywhere else in the country.</p>
<p>Plan II is clearly an amazing program and I expect if given the chance after visiting the program my son would have signed up right there. However as with all highly competitive programs one has to keep an open mind to all of the possibilities.</p>
<p>Hey I have a few questions about Honors at UT.</p>
<p>First, I'm assuming "honors" = smaller classes. Is this right?</p>
<p>Also, is there any way for science majors to take honors classes? It seems like LAH is just for humanities. Would the best bet be Plan II with science electives and a thesis that reflects that?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>I think that science majors would be in Dean's Scholars, not in Liberal Arts Honors? </p>
<p>Plan II is a major so if you want to be a science major and go on to graduate school in your science, and if you also want to be in Plan II, you will do a double major.</p>
<p>alizarda, there are lots of straight Plan II majors who go on to grad school in the sciences. You can take electives and write a thesis on science. There are mandatory Plan II science courses. You can double major.</p>
<p>Honors means smaller and more rigorous classes for the honors sections you take. It does not mean that you will get better classes for those non-honors classes you have to take, you will be in the same situation as everybody else.</p>
<p>I'm going to the honors colloquium this july as well and it seems like it is going to be awesome. I've already been to UT twice before for debate and as to the student body: at the tournament i got lost and one student actually walked all the way to where i needed to go. Bc it is a large school it feels as if it is alive there are tons of ppl walking around it is an amazing place.</p>
<p>Allizarda, this is all new to me too so I can't tell you about the programs but from the UT Vewbook the honors programs are: Business Honors; Dean's Scholars Honors(College of Natural Sciences); Engineering Honors; Liberal Arts Honors; Plan II Honors (College of Liberal Arts); and Turing Scholars (Department of Computer Sciences). The link to the UT honors web page is: bealonghorn.utexas.edu/honors/.</p>