<p>MidwesternMom: He is away today but I will show your suggestions to him. They seem like some very good ideas about how to create what he is looking for. He hasn’t spoken to many LAH students but he has spoken to a couple. While it seems that there definitely is a sense of community at LAH he has more than once gotten the same reply as I did on this thread. Even when information about Plan 2 has not been solicited people have offered that Plan 2 creates more of a sense of community. This appears to indicate to him and me that if community is what he is looking for he is in the wrong program. I would love to hear an unqualified response that there is a great community feel in LAH, but since we haven’t been hearing this it seems that may be because it isn’t true. Still your suggestions sound like great ideas to build these things into the program where they are not automatically built in. Thank you for your thoughts. Its time to crunch the information we have from all of the schools and hopefully come up with a good choice…I absolutely don’t want to do this again next year!</p>
<p>181818- is your son planning to live in the honors quad? I have read on this board that there is a sense of community for those living there. Maybe Loneranger or someone else can confirm this?</p>
<p>Also, you may know about Camp Texas already, but I just discovered it yesterday. If your son attends an orientation and Camp Texas, that will give him some additional opportunities to meet kids before school starts. </p>
<p>Does anyone know if there is a facebook group for the 2013 students, either for all of the students or for specific honors programs? Or maybe there’s a section on the larger facebook group for this (I’m not very familiar with facebook).</p>
<p>I’m sure you son received an email about chats with UT students. I think there was one last night and there will be one next week. Maybe he could ask more questions about LAH then.<br>
Good luck! This is agonizing, isn’t it?</p>
<p>cpq1xtbu, I cannot stress enough how beneficial Camp Texas is. My very best friends at UT who aren’t in my fraternity I met through Camp Texas. It’s an excellent, excellent program.</p>
<p>There are multiple facebook groups for UT 2013. The largest one is at f a c e b o o k .com/group.php?gid=34463576191 (with spaces removed.</p>
<p>There is a very strong sense of community in the Quad. I’m not really into the whole “Quad culture,” but some of my best friends at Texas live on my floor in the quad (one of whom I met at Camp Texas). The people who are in to the Quad Culture have a great time, and I think one reason that the Quad has more upperclassmen is because people request to come back again and again because they like it so much.</p>
<p>181818, I do think that LAH has those opportunities. They have a smaller program than Plan II and in all honesty, I don’t even think that Plan II has a super-tight knit community because it’s pretty large and everyone is in different classes. I believe that with the LAH class list they should have sent out a list of LAH sections of classes. I’d strongly recommend your son look at these. They are usually discussion classes with very small classes. The one LAH class I take (Plan II kids can get permission to take them) had less than 10 students. The LAH kids seemed to know one another and talked about LAH events.</p>
<p>I think that if for all his life his friends have been few but strong academically, LAH will be great for that–probably better than other programs because it is so small and taking optional classes lets you grow very close to a small number of people.</p>
<p>I hope this helps, and if there’s anything else you need to know don’t hesitate to ask.</p>
<p>Thanks yet again, loneranger. Can you please explain what you mean by “quad culture”? Also, my son received an invitation to apply to the FRI today. Would it be too much work to do Plan II and FRI together?</p>
<p>No clue about FRI, I haven’t heard much about this program.</p>
<p>The Quad has its own culture, it’s kinda quirky and nerdy and close knit all on its own. It’s hard to explain, but it’s kinda different from normal UT. But most of the kids in the Quad really love it.</p>
<p>Yes, there is a facebook group for UT Class of 2013 students. A current student Bobby Don’t-remember-his-last-name-but-he-is-active-in-residence-hall-council is on there and willing to answer any questions for incoming freshmen. </p>
<p>There is a general LAH facebook group but the last time I looked at it no one had posted on the wall since last August so no one is using it. </p>
<p>And there is the old LAH facebook group for fans of Paul Sullivan, a much-loved LAH advisor who recently moved on, out of LAH. I remember the existence of that one because it has a cute name, something along the lines of “I want to have Paul Sullivan’s babies.”</p>
<p>Bobby’s last name is Jenkins I believe.</p>
<p>I’m also open for PMs if anyone has questiosn they don’t want to ask on the boards.</p>
<p>I HEART PAUL SULLIVAN!! I don’t think anyone in the world can be more missed than Paul Sullivan is by his LAHers. “I heart Paul Sullivan” was the name of the old Facebook group. Now, maybe there was another one out there for more diehard fans, I don’t know. Hehe. Honestly, I kind of like the name as you remember it better.</p>
<p>I haven’t been keeping up with this thread, but I noticed some mention of the LAH course, History at Play. I’m not going to endorse or condemn it, but I will say this. History at Play can be a dangerous thing. As funny as this is, I’m not kidding. Do not take it on lightly. It can be a lot of fun. But it also has the potential to annoy the crap out of you. About halfway through, you’re going to REALLY REALLY just want to take a break from the damn thing. But you can’t. It can be annoying to the point that it has a negative impact on your well-being. But like I said, it can also be a lot of fun. Just be prepared for the intensity. Don’t take it unless it’s something you really want to do. Never NEVER tack it onto your schedule on a whim.</p>
<p>It will allow you to build friendships with others in the program that you DO get along with. But if there are any that you don’t get along with so well, they will really really get on your nerves and there’s no escape.</p>
<p>So just be warned. I’m not saying this class is an altogether bad idea. Just know what you’re getting into and realize that it may not be for you. For some of you out there, this may end up being your favorite class that you take in college. It’s a very unique experience.</p>
<p>What IS it?</p>
<p>If you’re in LAH, you’ll be told about it at orientation, most likely. There’s also the course description. It’s a writing component class. It involves the class pretending to each represent various characters in a past time period at certain pivotal moments. It bears some similarities to a role-playing game, but not so much as you might think. It is mostly about rhetorical debate. Each person is assigned a position on a certain topic and a goal. Sometimes, the class ends up simply shouting arguments at each other, but the graded portion is the written arguments that you submit for the debate. It’s a really weird class. I’m sure one of the actual professors will provide a more satisfactory description at orientation.</p>