<p>Can somehelp me differentiate Plan II at Texas from the "Honors Colleges" offered now by innumerable other colleges? Plan II is old and venerable, but I can't really tease out of its website whether it truly provides the classic LAC experience inside the monster university that forms the basic premise of Honors Colleges. Other schools, for example, have specific dorms, honors-only courses, etc. etc. From what I have read, Plan II has some differentiating features, but basically Plan II Honors kids aren't treated espescially special. I would not call pre-registration for classes "special." Convince me I am wrong!</p>
<p>Just to clarify, Plan II does have many Plan II specific courses, and UT has an honors quad which houses students from all honors programs.</p>
<p>I am not in the business of proving people wrong, because I firmly believe that everyone has a right to their own opinion. But I personally believe Plan II is a very special program, but certainly not a program for everyone. Plan II is more than a “program”, as it is actually a stand alone degree. It is very broad, yet specialized in the fact that program is basically a small (yet limitless) pod in a very large university. Dedicated professors, classes and counselors, create not only a degree, but a community. Plan II has its own theater troupe, chamber group, singing group and clubs dedicated to double majors and specialized programs (pre-med, pre-law, etc) Academically the Director of Plan II calls it the Swiss Army knife of education, and I could not agree more. It is truly a LAC experience (if not at the top of LAC game) yet has an enormous benefit of the resources of a world class research university. </p>
<p>Are you simply trying to decide if you want to accept their offer of admission? Are there other programs you are considering?</p>
<p>Plan II does have many specific courses, but if you’re taking chemistry, for example, you’re in the same giant classes as everyone else. There’s not a chemistry class exclusively for Plan II majors or anything like that. Almost half of the Plan II majors I’ve known were double-majoring in Plan II and something else.</p>
<p>Pre-registration can be an important benefit for making sure you get the classes you want when you want them, and not having to shift an entire course sequence by one semester (turning a fall/spring sequence into spring/fall) because a class was already full when you tried to register.</p>
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[quote]
Are you simply trying to decide if you want to accept their offer of admission? Are there other programs you are considering? [/ quote]</p>
<p>I am considering USC “Thematic Option,” where there is promised close interaction with professors and access to good research opportunities. When it comes time to apply to med school, I want to have thorough letters of rec from professors as well as a decent list of authored research. My question is simply whether one can get that at Plan II, or whether one is dumped into the usual 500 kid lecture halls with TAs who don’t speak English and minimal contact with Professors who could truly mentor you and help guide quality research and future recs.</p>
<p>Not only can you get that through Plan II, there is also UT’s Freshman Research Initiative. When you take your Plan II signature courses in your Freshman year, you will be sitting a class that is no more than 18 students (usually 15) and that class is taught by a professor or a visiting faculty. (Same with your World Lit Class) Not only do most of these professors wildly engage their students, it is TYPICAL for these teachers to have the student at their homes for meals, chats or general hanging out. This programs ends after 4 years into a Senior Thesis that you can do whatever you want. So if med school is what you want, grab the Freshman Research Initiative by the horns (pun completely intended) grow your research in your 2nd and 3rd year and wrap it up in your Senior Thesis. What is not for a med school to love? From the Plan II website:</p>
<p>** What if I want to be a doctor?</p>
<p>In many ways, Plan II Honors can be the perfect undergraduate major to lead to med-school. Year after year we see Plan II students admitted to the best medical schools, often ahead of or instead of graduates with science majors. It is rather straightforward to combine the pre-med requirements with the Plan II major requirements and easy to complete the Plan II major requirements and the pre-med recommended courses in four years.</p>
<p>The combination seems to be quite desirable as it leads to well-rounded, well-educated individuals with great communication and writing skills in addition to the science background needed for medical study. Most Plan II pre-med graduates tend to stay in Texas for medical school because, first, we have several of the most highly rated medical school programs here in Texas, and secondly, there is a substantial financial savings for staying in state for med school just as there is for undergraduate studies. With something as expensive as medical school, resident tuition savings is substantial. However, if you explore back over the years in the graduating class profiles, you see that we also have lots of Plan II pre-meds to go Washington University, Harvard Med, Johns Hopkins, Stanford and all the other well-known and highly ranked programs around the country. All the biggies know Plan II quite well–whether it’s for medical school, law school or other advanced degree programs.</p>
<p>Some students do complete double-majors (with BA programs in Biology, Chemistry, Molecular Biology, etc), Plan II Honors and and the pre-med requirements, and even dual-degrees (a five-year program with a BA, Plan II major and a BS with a major in Biology, Chemistry, Molecular Biology, etc). If a student is really excited and deeply interested in one of the science disciplines, then by all means, he or she should incorporate that study into his or her degree plans. But no science major is needed to get into even the MOST exclusive of medical programs. Many schools see science majors as too narrowly focused and find that the science major actually can set them back in the consideration process. **</p>
<p>I feel like the previous people have the academic bases covered - it really is like being in a small liberal arts college, with all the craziness of a huge school.</p>
<p>Social-wise, it’s also really liberal-artsy, everybody’s friends or at least friendly to each other and when you meet another Plan IIer it’s like “oo, instant friends!” (: We’re all rather close to each other and hang out in groups.</p>
<p>Possibly a very dumb question, but can you only do the FRI if you’re enrolled in the College of Natural Sciences?</p>