My D21 is interested in honors colleges at state Us and directionals. What are the actual benefits? From what I can find from poking around here and on reddit from comments of students in the programs, it sounds like they generally have some smaller classes, nicer dorms, and priority registration. But then they all say most people drop out of them after a couple of years because of the extra work and the honors degrees don’t really mean anything.
So honors colleges worth it?
The benefits can change from school to school. You listed many of the more common ones. Don’t underestimate there value.
Honors colleges offer valuable perks and let you meet some of the top students at your college. But too often they’re oversold with glossy pamphlets suggesting a small LAC has been set up giving an elite private education at the public school price. On the forum you’ll see posts that say/imply that. A real example – “The Burnett Honors College combines the intimacy of a small liberal arts college with the benefits of a large, research university located in a metropolitan environment”
Depending on the program offerings may range from separate honors classes to taking just one honors seminar per semester. And some of the “honors” offerings may just be a discussion section of the regular class (at many U’s you meet 2-3x a week in the full class with the prof, then once a week in a smaller discussion section with a TA). You really need to dig in to find what a particular school offers.
Honors programs typically offer the small classes and hand-picked profs the 1st two years of college. It doesn’t take that many classes to come up with a set that will meet the lower-division requirements for most majors. But it’s rare to find more than a token amount of upper-division classes since the honors program simply doesn’t have enough faculty members to create entire majors. You’ll take the rest in the regular U. This is reflected in the requirements for completing the honors college. At ASU you only need 36 honors units out of the 120 it takes to graduate, and you’ll likely find similar numbers elsewhere.
Honors colleges offer perks in addition to the classes. Typical ones include early registration so you get the classes you want (a perk worth its weight in gold!), special counselors, guaranteed housing, special library privileges, sometimes streamlined opportunities to be involved in research. Your diploma will proudly bear the honors insignia. But I would have reservations about attending a college for its honors program in liu of a more highly regarded U if finances are not an issue
S19 is in the Honors college (not a program, a separate college) at our large state U and is very happy with that. Advantages:
S19 chose the Honors college for those reasons - an Honors designation on a diploma was not a factor. He intends to stay in through senior year, during which he will do a thesis, although as an earlier poster noted, there are few honors sections in his major at the 400+ level.
This can really vary. Honors college at my D’s large state u is nothing like the one described by @SammoJ At D’s school there are some honors classes but not many. There seem to be more offerings in stem than in other areas. My D, who is now a senior economics major, has never taken an honors class. The one time that one was offered in her major and she planned to take it, it was cancelled before the start of the semester. Even kids who do take honors classes, are only in one. Their other four classes are just regular classes. This year they started giving priority registration to this years freshmen honors students. My D never got that but that would be a major benefit. They also seem to be ramping up advising and research mentoring so maybe is getting better. D has technically been in the honors college for four years and the only thing she has used it for is their special study space on campus.
You really need to research the individual programs to see what you get.
They are all different and it depends on what the student wants out of their college experience.
My D would not have preferred to go to a more highly ranked college (as someone suggested upthread) because that’s not the college experience she wanted. She wanted to attend a school with strong D1 sports and huge school spirit. The honors program requires 27 credits and a capstone. Most take far more than the 27 credits. There are many upper level honors options, especially in majors that are popular with honors students. While the honors courses are great, it’s the honors community that really makes it special. A tightly knit community of around 2000 students with elite school stats. For a student that wants that big flagship experience, it offers the best of both worlds. I don’t hear of many dropping out of the program at her school.
As someone else mentioned, priority registration is worth its weight in gold. My D has had the best profs every year because she registers first for all classes.
Honors Colleges vary tremendously school by school so you need to explore each individual program.
Priority registration makes it worth it just on its own.
For schools that have a housing shortage, having an honors residence can be very helpful. At my D’s school, she also has priority housing registration moving forward because the honors residence is mostly for freshmen.
Other perks at my D’s school that haven’t been previously mentioned:
Special study abroad trips just for honors college students
Internship opportunities specifically for HC (and some companies that came to campus would only talk to freshmen if they were in HC)
Guaranteed undergraduate research
Honors faculty advisors (another worth their weight in gold perk as they are veterans who really know the ins and outs)
Leadership opportunities through mentoring and “TA” programs for the honors seminars.
Weekly dinners with profs (my D is on a first name basis with six professors and goes for coffee and hangs regularly with them).
The biggest negative we heard about HC at my D’s school is the pressure to maintain the 3.5 GPA cutoff. There were also some complaints from engineers that having to take the additional honors seminar class and the honors engineering design class was “too much” and that it hurt students who needed a high GPA to transition to their major. That was not our D’s experience and the average honors engineering GPA is a 3.6. She also thought the engineering design class was way better than the non honors equivalent based on what she heard from friends (obviously there is no way to directly compare since no one takes both).
My D’s school’s honors class requirements are very loose too which can be quite different amongst colleges. She had 3/4 of her honors credits done after freshmen year and can get the rest by continuing mentoring and research, without having to have a specific honors course. Some schools have much stricter requirements.
FWIW, D thought that Honors would only be helpful for freshman year but now that she’s in it, she loves the program and is planning to stay until graduation.
Thanks for the replies.
"My D would not have preferred to go to a more highly ranked college (as someone suggested upthread) because that’s not the college experience she wanted. "
This is my D as well. She doesn’t want to go to a competitive school, but she wants to be in classes with “smarter” students. So that’s a big part of the honors appeal for her, but it’s hard to tell how much of that you really get at each school.
Right now, she’s interested in schools like Northern Arizona, Western Colorado, Utah, Utah State, Montana State, Oregon State, Humboldt State, etc.
The Honors College at Utah is excellent and there is not too large a burden of required courses (7 courses, some of which can count for your major). There are some interesting courses including the Praxis labs and an Honors summer program (Ecology and Legacy minor) which includes trips to Montana and Chile. Admission is reasonably competitive (there are around 600 students per year, around 20% of admitted students are offered a place), so you need to be around or above the 75th percentile in terms of scores. There are quite a few very strong students, because Utah offers 30 full rides per year plus many additional full tuition scholarships (particularly to Utah residents), so they attract 50+ NMFs each year. But grading is relatively generous with the average GPA for graduates being around 3.6.
One of the biggest benefits is the Honors accommodation which is really luxurious. A new large dorm (1000 beds) will open next summer adding more Honors accommodation.
My D has loved it there and she is a very strong student (35 ACT/4.0 GPA). In particular the outdoor lifestyle is wonderful.
Thanks @Twoin18 We are planning to visit Utah and Utah State over spring break.
There’s value in graduating with academic honors (magna cum laude, etc.), but I don’t think being in an honors program buys a student very much, unless there are a lot of perqs that outweigh the disadvantages. UMMV.
Some schools have honors programs for different schools within the university.
The business school might have its own honors program with nice perks and usually better internship or job placement opportunities.