<p>I saw someone asked about this in July and got no answer, under the Community College forum.</p>
<p>I put my question here, because the trick is, it is an honors program at a CC (only a few CCs offer it) but the guarantee is that you can transfer to a bunch of different four year schools after your AA degree.</p>
<p>Out of curiosity, I did a little research since I have never heard of this either. Here is an article with some interesting information - read the comments also:</p>
<p>I personally am always skeptical when for-profit entities become involved in education. My concern here would be, what are they really offering you that you could not do yourself? Note that they charge higher tuition than the CC would itself to its students. They are not guaranteeing you admission into any four-year college. According to this company, you are paying for extra preparation and assistance in transferring to respected institutions. That may be worth the money for some student who really does not know how to navigate the higher education system. But many higher tier colleges are very receptive to transfers from community college without students having to pay an intermediary. If you are a student who knows how to navigate the system, can research transfer options, and utilizes services at your community college such as advising and transfer counseling, I don’t see what real advantage this program would give you. However, it might be beneficial if you live in an area with very weak community colleges, because it might give you the preparation and assistance that might be lacking at your local institution.</p>
<p>Thank you - we’ll check the articles out… NJ by the way has automatic transfer credit approval from county colleges to four-year state colleges, and we get a lot of transfer students from CC’s where I work. Sadly, they have not tried to standardize the curriculum at the community colleges, so we are getting unprepared students.</p>
So, I was an American Honors Candidate. I spent about 30 hours working on my program application and the on my scholarship application. 2 weeks later I was accepted into the program only to find out that this is a colossal money grab. They wanted me to pay $1000 extra per semester to be a member. My tuition for the spring semester was $1704.00 before books and fees. American Honors wanted me to pay $2750 before any books or fees.
The representative I spoke to apologized to me claiming she “thought” she had discussed this cost in advance, but there was no mention of additional costs. I am not clueless, I assumed there would be a nominal fee to join, but $2000/year is ridiculous. No amount of counseling is worth that kind of cost. Any student who is good enough to attain the grades needed to get into the program is already invested enough in their education to make sure they get into the 4 year institution of their choice.
My advice is to steer clear of these money grabbers.