Advice for Late Admission to Honors Program?

<p>Although I realize that I'll probably be able to get a concrete answer for my situation at my A&O session this summer, I wanted to test the waters here first for one of my biggest questions about academics at UW, which is: how does the late admission process work with the honors program?</p>

<p>Having recently come to regret not applying for freshman entrance into the honors program because of an inferiority complex-inducing GPA (3.53, when the reported average was 3.9), I'm starting to become interested in the alternate route to UW Honors: late admission. I know the nuts and bolts of how it works, when you have to apply and how, the stellar grades you need to have and all that kind of stuff, but I'd really like to know more about the intangibles. Realistically, how competitive is late admissions? Even if you have some AP/IB credits to leverage, will you have trouble graduating in 4 years if you start the honors program as a sophomore? What are some things I could do to give me a leg up in late admissions (i.e. does stuff like forming relationships with professors help)? And in the first place, what is being in the honors program like?</p>

<p>Any answers you can provide would be greatly beneficial to me as I piece together what my strategy going into UW will be.</p>

<p>I don’t think the honors program accepts AP/IB credit, so it might be hard to graduate in 4 years. You might want to consider departmental honors.</p>

<p>Honors will accept AP credits, but not towards the honors core. They’ll still work for gen-ed requirements. [UW</a> Honors - AP & IB Credit Guidelines - How Your Credits May Translate](<a href=“http://depts.washington.edu/uwhonors/apply/ap_ib/]UW”>AP & IB Credit Guidelines | University of Washington Honors Program)</p>