1. What is this program anyway?

Dean's Scholars is the honors program of the College of Natural Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin. It is small - about 30 new students admitted each year and is the most selective honors program at The University for which freshmen are eligible. The program brings together a group of science students with similar interests and similar talents. 

2. Are there special classes?

The only special classes are the weekly seminars. Presently there are four different seminars each week and each Dean's Scholar is enrolled in one of the four. Given the small size of the program and the varied majors, it would be extremely difficult to determine any regular courses for which a sufficient number of Dean's Scholars would wish to take during any given semester. The program does have an understanding with the Plan II Honors Program that Dean's Scholars may apply (by speaking to me) to take certain Plan II classes. Such applications have never been denied. Since the Plan II classes are small, taught by very dedicated faculty, and have only honors students, some Dean's Scholars find them appealing to satisfy their various distributional requirements in humanities and social science. 

3. For what seminar do first year students register?

The Thursday afternoon seminars are the Freshman ones. For the purpose of this description, "freshman" means "first year dean's scholar". Some students enter the program after their first year at UT; some transfer from other schools, and many enter with enough advanced placement credit to bypass the official freshman UT status. Nevertheless, with respect to the program, all are "first year" students, and I (perhaps inaccurately) abbreviate that "freshmen". The important thing about the Freshman Seminar is not the number of hours students have but the fact that they are new to the program: nobody should get hung up on the name. All Dean's Scholars seminars are listed as Natural Sciences 110. Students should unique number 44815. I will organize the sections later and the dean's office will handle the paperwork. The three sections will meet together approximately every other week. The first meeting will be on Thursday, August 27, the second day of classes. On that day, all sections will meet in the Gearing Hall, room 114. 

4. What happens in the Freshman Seminar?

On the weeks when the three sections meet together, there will be speakers. By the end of the two semesters, we will have had at least one speaker from each of the departments of the College of Natural Sciences. Generally these presentation are reviews of research by the speaker. The official length of the class is 1 1/4 hours but many of our speakers only plan 45 minutes of material in expectation that there will be at least a half hour of questions. This is no time for students to become shy. 

5. Can a student be asked to leave the program?

Yes. The program is for students who will have little trouble in doing superbly in their regular classes and thus desire something extra. For all students, regular classes should be their primary concern. If a student is not performing sufficiently well in his or her regular classes (and this is currently triggered by having an overall UT GPA fall lower than 3.3), he or she goes onto a probationary status--the terms of which are determined after consultation with the student. Should the terms not be met, the student leaves the program but is welcome to reapply later. The purpose of dismissal from the program is not punitive but is intended to assist students to meet their potentials in the regular classes. In spite of the 3.3 threshold for probationary status, it should be recognized that almost all Dean's Scholars have GPA's close to or at 4.0. 

6. What are these "buddies"?

The buddy program attempts to bring current students and new students together in a one-on-one basis. Each student new to UT will be contacted by a current Dean's Scholar this summer. The new students should feel free to ask any questions at all about the program, courses, activities, clothes, food, dorms, whatever. This is not to say that the buddy will know all of the answers-- however, they should either know the answer or provide a pointer to someone who does know the answer. If no buddy has contacted you by August 15, tell me. Buddies are not assigned to current UT students joining the program. 

7. Should I go to Cline for advice?

I often am a place to start (but I may not always be the place to end). I do not know all of the ins and outs of every degree program in the college, nor am I acquitted with every instructor or every lab situation. I am, however, in touch with people who know the answers that I do not know. Furthermore, often the answers come from other students. In fact, part of the purpose of all of the Dean's Scholars activities is getting the younger students acquitted with the older students who (presumably) know the ropes. With respect to non-academic matters, students have come to me regarding financial problems, hassles from parents, dorm life, love-lives -- far more stuff than I ever would have imagined. If you have a problem and you want to talk to someone, you can certainly try me: I'm happy to listen. By the way, I'm in Taylor Hall 3.104A much of the time. To guarantee I'll be there, you should contact me ahead of time via telephone (471-9717) or e-mail (cline@cs.utexas.edu). In fact, often short questions can be handled over the telephone or e-mail. My home telephone is 345-7645 and you should feel free to use it. 

8. What are some of the activities?

There is an extra meeting for lunch each week for which all Dean's Scholars are welcome independent of year. For this, we invite speakers and have very informal presentations. The speakers are generally natural scientists but we have had philosophers, psychologists, entrepreneurs. In addition to the weekly Friday Lunches, we try to have at least one special activity per month. That may be a dinner, a picnic, a weekend trip, serving as judges for Invent Austin, or the annual Dean's Scholars' Musicale. In the last two years, the Scholars have initiated a program for making science presentations in local middle schools with the intention of maintaining children's interest in science. All of these activities are optional but since the Dean's Scholars Program is based upon participation for its success, it is expected that every student will engage in at least some of the activities. As mentioned above, without question, a student's first responsibility is to his or her classes, but applicants to Dean's Scholars are selected with the expectation that performing extremely well in those classes will not constitute a serious burden. For such students, science-related enrichment may be important. 

9. When can I expect to get a research position?

This depends a great deal on the area of research. All Dean's Scholars are expected to have research experience at some point during their undergraduate programs. Without question, the research experiences are important for admission into graduate programs as well as being enriching to the undergraduate programs. Some students are able to get such positions almost immediately and some have to wait for several years. The primary consideration is the background necessary to make contributions in a given research environment. I have found that in some biological labs, students can often find positions in their first years. On the other hand, in mathematics or theoretical physics, a great deal of background coursework is generally required--hence, students may have to delay the research for several years. Of course, the important issue is not how soon the research experience begins, but what its quality is. In particular, we try to steer students clear of "wash-the-glassware" sorts of positions in favor of having more serious roles in the research. 

10. So, what are some of the first activities this fall?

There will be a picnic near campus at Eastwoods Park for all Dean's Scholars on Sunday, August 30. That's the Sunday following the first week of classes. Maps and such will be provided at the seminar the preceding Thursday. There will be a dinner for Freshmen (and their buddies) at my house three weeks later on Saturday, September 19. Transportation will be discussed in the seminar. The first weekend trip will be to the Marine Sciences Institute in Port Aransas, Texas probably sometime in October.