My D17 will be applying this summer to UT Austin for Fall 2017. Of course she doesn’t know what career she wants to pursue, but thinking about Business and Pre-Law during undergrad. Then she’d have a choice afterwards to apply to Law School or pursue a business career.
Looking at UT’s majors, she was interested in the Plan II Honors program and the Business Honors program. Reading UTs website, it says you can do both at the same time.
Can both be completed in 4 years?
Would a student apply to both as an incoming freshman? The programs are in different colleges.
Is it wise to do both?
Would a (good) student be overwhelmed doing both?
Any insight would be helpful. We are at the beginning stages of thinking about all this.
Thanks!
Not sure about the applicant process as a freshman but I know Plan II can only be offered to an incoming freshman so that’s a yes, Plan II is done in conjunction with another major, effectively she would be double majoring.
Yes, you can also apply for honors business as an incoming freshman as well. I have several old classmates from high school who have just completed their first year in the program. I don’t think any of them did Plan II as well though. You can also apply to the BHP after freshman year.
Honestly, college is very different. If it were me, I’d do a semester or two to adjust and get feeling for the difficulty of classes. The hardest AP/IB class in high school is the easier college class is one way to put it. Of course, it depends on the person so if she knows she can handle it, then I don’t see why not.
It may affect her ability to do extracurricular activities, so that’s one tradeoff to consider.
TL;DR: Yes you can apply to both. College honor courses are different than high school honors courses, everyone at UT is a good student or they wouldn’t have gotten in, in the first place. If you want to do things non class related I wouldn’t recommend doing both.
While at my son’s UT Orientation last week, the parents next to us had a daughter who was accepted and will take both Plan II and BHP. I’m certain I read here in CC, in some of the Plan II and BHP threads from this recent application cycle, that there were others. It sure seemed like many Plan II were double majoring or were also doing Honors Engineering or CS etc.
‘Can they both be done in 4 years’? There will be some duplication of courses which will help ie Calc, Econ, Lit etc. I’d suspect summer school would be needed or at least helpful. She could use some of her APs, if she has them, to reduce some courses needed. It certainly depends on your student. If their goal is an academic superstar and are disciplined, I bet they could. But, if they want to experience the social/interpersonal/school spirit of college, something might have to give, as in grades or sleep or stress level. Many have done it before her.
If she’s interested in both, apply to both regardless. Consider Liberal Arts Honors as well (Plan 1). Good luck to you all and enjoy this crazy time. \m/
Yes. As stated above Plan 2 students double major in another field. In your case it would be a Business Degree with the Plan 2 program. The only difference is you would take Honors courses instead of the general business courses (roughly same content just different kids, and maybe a little faster).
Thanks everyone for the information. My D will probably apply for both. She is attending an information session for Business Honors in early August. The Plan II information sessions are only available when school is in session. So that will probably wait until early September.
Food for thought: 5 or 6 students awarded the 40 Acres scholarship this year (20 total, I think), curiously, were double majors in Plan II and Business Honors Program. My son is Plan II and Engineering, and it will take him 5 years to complete both–business and plan II is doable in 4 years.