<p>Self-explanatory title. I'm a natural perfectionist and I don't like to do things half-heartedly, but UT is my safety school, and I really don't think I'll be applying for any honors programs unless someone manages to convince me otherwise (I'm somewhat interested in Health Science or Polymathic Scholars, but I know very little about them), so I don't want to spend any more time on the essays than perhaps the bare minimum necessary.</p>
<p>I don't mean to brush of UT as an insignificant school by any means; I'm just not that interested in going there personally, and I'm not sure if I'd be the best fit for it either. Of course, even if I did end up going there, I'm sure I'd grow to love it - I'm a rather adaptable person.</p>
<p>Also, how much would it hurt my chances for graduate or medical school (especially the latter) if I end up going to UT and don't graduate from an honors program? My friend recently told me about her sister who successfully went on to go to med school without taking honors, but I'm still somewhat skeptical. Would honors programs, specifically the ones I listed above (Health Science Scholars/Polymathic Scholars) give me more of an edge when applying to grad/med school? And if they do, to what extent would they do so?</p>
<p>Where do you think that you can get in that would allow you to have better chances? Also, what does it hurt to apply to those programs, at worst you waste an hour .</p>
<p>I’m not quite sure if I’m interpreting your first question correctly, but if I end up applying to any honors, I’ll likely apply to either Health Science Scholars or Polymathic Scholars. Plan II seems rather interesting, but it may be a bit too writing and humanities oriented, I don’t know. I believe my stats are good enough for me to have at least a chance of getting into any of the honors I just listed, but I don’t know if I want to spend time putting effort into doing extra essays when the admissions office will probably see right through my facade of superficial interest when they read them. I know I just called all of the honors above “interesting”, but any interest I have for any of them is of the shallow sort at best.</p>
<p>Also, like I said, I’m a perfectionist. So even if I don’t really care too much about something, as long as I spend time doing it, I’ll likely spend all the time that I can to try and perfect it anyway. An hour, you say? It’d likely take me at least 2-3 just to type a first draft without looking it over. I’d also need to type up a resume and bug one of my teachers for a last minute recommendation.</p>
<p>I thought my essays were sloppily written and definitely not my best material, yet I was still recently accepted into BHP . I know that essays are imperative for many of the Ivies and selective schools that are comparable to the acceptance rates of UT’s honors programs, but I honestly think that UT places much more emphasis on Class Rank/GPA/Scores/ECs (in that order) than they do on essays.</p>
<p>@yellowboy I have to agree, I think that the admissions committee puts a-lot more emphasis on your activities and accomplishments. I think for BHP especially, they weigh activities and gpa the most. @Constantius I was asking what other schools you think that you can get into. </p>
<p>@baulge Okay, so I did interpret your first question wrong. Whoops. I’m smart like that.</p>
<p>UT is literally the only public school I’m applying to. Everything else is private. I’ve applied to Duke ED, and everywhere else I’m applying to is pretty much also in the top 20 universities nationwide. I’m not going to even attempt applying to anything in the HYPSM tier though. I wouldn’t know about better chances for any of the schools I’m applying to vs. UT honors, but…</p>