Also, send us by postal mail a copy of your high school transcript that is most recent. This should at least include eleventh grade. This must be an official transcript, stamped and signed by a school official. The transcript must include class rank even if it may be an estimate, unless it is the policy of your school not to reveal class rank.
Finally, ask two teachers, at least one of whom is a science or mathematics teacher, to complete the Faculty Reference forms. The forms, as well as your transcript, should be sent directly to:
Dean's Scholars Program College of Natural Sciences The University of Texas at Austin Austin, Texas 78712-1199
Social Security Number:
Date of Birth:
Postal Address: City, State, and Zip:
Phone:
High School:
Most Recent Class Rank: out of
Date of Ranking:
SAT scores: Highest total at single testing: Verbal score (for that testing): Mathematical score (for that testing):
Expected major(s):
1. List each school or community activity in which you have been involved during the last three years in order of their importance to you. Include your period of involvement and any positions you have held. Please list no more than ten.
2. List part-time or summer jobs, volunteer positions, or internships you have held during the last three years in order of their importance to you. Include your position, period of involvement, and hours per week. Please list no more than four.
3. List in order of their importance to you any significant honors and scholarships received during the last three years. Include the award sponsor, basis for the award (e.g. leadership, scholarship, need, etc.), and date received.
4. Identify your educational and career goals.
Topic D - Critical Thinking Explain a belief you accepted at some time in your life but recently rejected on the basis of a rational process. You might choose your former belief in the existence of Santa Claus, for example, but you should remember that the rejection you discuss must have been made on a rational basis. Rejection based upon simply accepting someone's word is not appropriate for this essay. In your essay, explain the belief itself, your former reasons for holding it, and, most important, the rational process that led you to reject it.
You may interpret "rejection" in a weak sense, such that you do not need to show that your former belief was false. For example, if you rejected "eating spinach makes me strong" you need not have come to the conclusion "eating spinach does not make me strong." All you need for this example is good reason for thinking that your information is not sufficient to support any conclusion as to whether or not spinach makes you strong. Please consider your topic carefully. We mentioned "Santa Claus" by way of illustration only. A good essay will use a serious belief that you have rejected recently.
Topic E - Critical Thinking Belief systems, be they scientific, cultural, religious, political, ethical, or otherwise, are vulnerable to criticism and frequently in need of defense. Defenders of some belief systems have treated criticism as harmful, but modern scientists actually try to be their own best critics - to undermine their own contributions both to see if they are worth defending and to work out how to defend them. UT Professor Steven Weinberg, a Nobel Laureate in physics, writes this about brilliant young physicist David Alan Guth, who came upon an attractive new theory about the beginning of our cosmos:
"Then Guth did something that might seem odd: he went to work to find things wrong with his inflation theory [of a very early phase in the origin of the universe]. This is the way physics works; Guth must have known that if something were wrong with inflationary cosmology then this would become clear to many physicists, and Guth would naturally want to be the first one who found that something was wrong with his theory [so that he] would have a chance to fix it." (New York Review of Books XLIV, Number 1 [June 12, 1997], "Before the Big Bang," p.18.)
For your essay, choose one belief system outside the normal range of science and address the following questions: What is the effect of criticism on this belief system? Does criticism strengthen it or weaken it? In particular, what is the effect of criticism in the form of evidence that conflicts with the belief system? (You may wish in your answer to distinguish one kind of criticism from another, depending on its basis.)
