<p>My S is at USC engineering. Neither he nor his friends have signed up for "honors," tho they were all NMFs. They are happy with the regular courses. Since he has a lot of AP credits, he gets to register early anyway. Haven't read many/any great things about the honors program to cause us to urge him to consider it. They're all working on balancing their coursework & ECs, having a great time doing it.</p>
<p>Several of the other schools he was considering wanted to enroll him in their honor's programs & we considered them. As was said, the honors programs vary considerably, so please research them before deciding if they're right for the student. I was in the honor's college at our flagship U back in the day (70s) & liked the smaller classes. My sibs also were in the honor's college for similar reasons & graduated with honors. I created the honors program in the department at the U I transferred to by getting faculty advisors & writing an honors thesis. That U now has a Honors College.</p>
<p>MERCYMOM - your above post is very very true - my gal experienced that benefit of early registration - even being in the Honors program of a big state U - she did get some assistance from the Honors advisor to get into a class that was already closed - which actually saved us an extra semester :) As it ended up tho - because she had changed direction for her sophmore year - and had multi other responsibilities and being very involved in many other school things - she decided to drop the Honors Program - alot of extra work - but my gal is not grad school bound - her choice - so it really will not affect her in that way - tho she has qualified for Dean's List and Honor's List since making that decision - so we are ok and happy for her anyways LOL</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for all the pros and cons listed here. It has given me a lot to think about and to talk to her about. In the end I don't want to push her into something if she does not want it (to much stress already without adding to it!) - but hopefully she will be willing to explore the opportunity a little.</p>
<p>I think she is thinking along the lines of HImom's son. Enjoying herself a little and balancing coursework and ECs. She has had a pretty stressful junior and senior year at a school that is all about academics and has absolutely no ECs. Has had some academic benefits but the work load and level pushes the kids close to "burn out". So I do understand her doubts about taking on too much extra - and we have to think about the issues of GPA and keeping those much needed scholarships. But she is also wanting to go to med school so has to hit the road running gradewise from day 1. A crystal ball would come in really handy right now.</p>
<p>Most honors college programs only offer the small classes and top profs the 1st 2 years, when for liberal arts majors its easier to craft a standard set of offerings that will meet the distribution requirements for almost any major. It is rare to find more than a token amount of offerings upper-division since the honors program simply doesn't have enough staff to duplicate an entire major or set of majors. So the last 2 years most/all classes are taken with the rest of the students in the regular U's classes. Since the teaching of the profs will be geared towards that level, the discussions and student involvement in class will be dominated by the majority of her peers, and so on.</p>
<p>Honors programs offer perks like early registration, guaranteed housing, and so on and its worth doing if you're going to that school anyway. But I would be skeptical of attending a college for its honors program in place of a more highly regarded U. If your D is willing to go to office hours she can get the same faculty contact at your state U.</p>
<p>Benefit to Honors Colleges? Gosh, yes! The available goodies and opportunities for self-discovery at many Honors colleges/programs do not stop at the generic smaller classes and early sign-up for registration. For instance, my son, a junior at Texas Tech Honors College has recently decided that "law school", is the way to go for him. A benefit only available to Honors students that he will take advantage of is enrolling next semester in a Constitutional Law class in Tech's Law School so he can test drive the real thing. This is an advantage over most liberal arts colleges offered by Honors programs at research universities. Specifically, that some Honors students can enroll in graduate courses in their field of interest (such as my son in law school) as an undergraduate so they can taste what committing to that field from an academic perspective will be like.</p>
<p>More to my "Gosh, yes!" At many research universities with honors programs (especially state flagship universities) around the country, the opportunities for genuine collaborative research with faculty are tremendous. Texas Tech's Undergraduate Research program is an example. Faculty from the Medical School, Arts & Sciences, Engineering, and other areas roll out the red carpet for honors and other students to assist them in cutting edge research - both paid and unpaid opportunities.</p>
<p>I am just furthering a rumor here, since they never let me near the honors college. Almost all of the 3.9+ engineering graduates I have ever known or heard of were Honors. I’m sure there are many reasons for this, including the intelligence and work ethic of these students. Another factor, which may have some validity, is that these students avoid weed-out physics, chemistry, etc., taking the more student-friendly honors version.</p>
<p>University of Oregon has a great honors program (Clark Honors College - school actually within the larger campus). One advantage to students applying through WUE program is that if you get the WUE scholarship through the honors college (only 5 given /entering freshman) you can choose any major and change your major. Students receiving the WUE scholarship through the main U of O campus are restricted to particular majors and cannot switch later.</p>
<p>I can't say enough good things about PSU's honors college. He is so happy there, my son is pressuring my daughter to apply, even though she wants to attend an LAC. He wants to make sure she has a choice if she changes her mind.
The science majors get huge benefits because they have the opportunity to work in a lab freshman year. It has really helped my son define his interests.</p>
<p>The only negative I have seen is that although there are distribution requirements, it is possible to graduate without a liberal arts education.</p>
<p>i haven't read all the previous posts, but the dorm where i live in is one of the most inconducive places for studying. there's partying every other night, and each night there will be students playing football or frisbee along the hallways. i had to put in an application to move out of my current room because i am paying for a room which i'm not in 70% of the time. i'm still on the waitlist though. :(</p>
<p>the classes however are great. we have small classes where our instructors are really dependable, and we also get priority registration in some really popular classes. we also get to do researh in our second year.</p>
<p>can anyone comment on rutgers honors college? the benefits i know of are honors dorm, scholarship (not sure if this applies to oos), and a few honors courses. i know a psych major there who said they really don't do much writing, tho, plus budget cutbacks have recently hurt research and scholarship money drastically, in addition to rising tuition. rutgers is by far the most affordable college option at this point (except for cc, which i would go to for free with the nj stars program) however i think i'd really prefer an lac.</p>
<p>I went thru UW- Madison's Letters and Sciences Honors Program and am glad I did- no special dorm but the classes/honors sections/ research/thesis were all worth the extra knowledge gained, regardless of post graduation effects (although I'm sure it helped on the med school app). The Honors program offers more now, such as outside class activities as well as giving son the harder classes to stretch his brain. The Engineering College states its courses are difficult enough that they don't offer special honors sections, I think you can do extra research or such for honors. </p>
<p>The benefits are personal and real; no need for "getting ahead" to make something worth your time and effort. I recommend getting as much out of the college experience as possible, the extras of an Honors Program or College help. If you're elegible, go for it; at Wisconsin you can enter/exit many semesters so it's not a monumental decision but helps in getting into Honors sections/courses. Even a school with a weak program should offer more than the regular classes do, and therefore be worthwhile.</p>
<p>I would suggest that you attend a Scholar's Day at Rutgers in the Spring if you get accepted to the Honors Program.</p>
<p>I got accepted to Northwestern, UVa, and JHU but chose Rutgers Honors because it made more sense. I get paid to attend college (after additional, outside scholarships), and I think I have the same opportunities. There are about 10-15 honors seminars offered every semester-- a class of about 15 students which discusses some interdisciplinary topic. Also, many intro and higher level classes have honors versions. Rutgers also really pushes undergrad research, something that was important to me, and offers the Henry Rutgers Honors Thesis program and the Aresty Research Center. Of course, there's also the honors dorms which are really awesome.</p>
<p>if you're going to receive lower grades by being part of the Honors program then its not worth it. future employers and grad schools will want better grades and wont be as impressed with the honors designation. although there may be some minimum requirements to remain in the honors college, the GPA cut-off tends to be low...something like 3.5</p>
<p>anyway, to sum it up, you have to get rid of the high school mentality when going to college. college isn't necessarily about who takes the hardest courses (which is what was preached in high school with everyone taking the most APs). take what u enjoy, do well, and be confident that people will appreciate you for what you were able to accomplish. if taking the most rigorous courses is what makes you happy, and ur willing to have a lower GPA because of it- then fine by me. but get your priorities in order and decide what u want in the future, and then go on from there in ur evaluation process.</p>
<p>Honor's program offer more opportunities for students in the way of internships, research opportunities, priority registration and of course honors classes will be smaller and more motivating.</p>
<p>My D was accepted into the honors program at our local State U. Honors provided a number of benefits: special dorm, extra advising, priority early registration. Honors also required mandatory enrollment in a number of honors humanities courses. My D had other academic interests and did not accept.</p>