<p>Hello. I am a student from the NY/NJ area who was recently accepted into Barrett the Honors college at ASU as a finance major. I have visited before and I really love the school and would love to go there in the fall (I'd be a part of the class of 2017). I want to know that I am not making a huge mistake. I know that ASU is sometimes the but of higher education jokes, but I feel like that is a very out dated stereotype. I want to basically know that I am going to be getting the best bang for my buck over these next four years. On a side note, I also like to party (no, that's not why I picked ASU, that's just an added bonus). I was also wondering what the party scene is like there? How they are towards freshman? Where parties take place? etc. thanks</p>
<p>ASU will have the full range of students from the top students in the state of Arizona to the ones who are rather marginal admits at four year colleges (Arizona has only three state universities to serve the full range). You will likely find the top students in Barrett, though you want to verify on the school-specific forum that your major is sufficiently rigorous and intellectually stimulating for you (you may not like it if your major is a “gut” major there that the marginal students tend to go to so that they can barely graduate).</p>
<p>There’s ASU and there’s ASU Honors. The honors college is a brand new first class facility and accepts nothing but smart people, many of whom are NMF finalists. BTW what are your other choices?</p>
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<p>I do know some smart people who graduated from ASU (including one now at a top-ranked PhD program in his major). Given ASU’s huge size, there will be smart people there. There will also be a lot of more marginal students there, though.</p>
<p>The OP should make sure that his/her major is one that attracts smart people, rather than being a “gut” major that attracts the marginal students.</p>
<p>MB: Another Michigan guy that can’t get over the 1987 Rose bowl?</p>
<p>Just a side note, ASU’s b-school isn’t an ********* that just about anyone with a pulse can get into. Coming from California, I saw many marginal, but rather wealthy, students, for whom the UCs (except Merced and Riverside) were impossible dreams choose ASU. I spoke with two and both applied to its business school but were accepted as undeclared majors in whatever ASU’s B-school is.</p>
<p>Also OP, are you really concerned about whether you, as a freshman, will be able to party at ASU? I know literally nothing about the party scene on campus, but my guess is, based on its reputation and inclusion into the Princeton Review’s top party schools list, if you want to party, you can party. If you can’t find a party at ASU, you won’t be able to find a party at any school.</p>
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<p>Among California publics, business as an undergraduate major is offered at Berkeley and Riverside among the UCs, plus most of the CSUs. Perhaps those students did not have any chance at Berkeley, but turned up their noses to Riverside and the CSUs?</p>
<p>However, “marginal” student would be a better description for someone at or near the bottom edge of CSU eligibility (e.g. 2.5 HS GPA and 900 SAT CR+M) rather than someone who could “only” get into Riverside.</p>
<p>I doubt it. Those same students ended up enrolling at ASU despite at least two students get into NAU’s bschool.</p>
<p>Forget what people say. You have done your homework, visited Barrett, and realize it is an excellent opportunity for a liberal arts type education within a large public university. There are only 4,000 students in Barrett and your opportunities to meet and work with professors are outstanding. I am sure there will be opportunities to socialize at ANY school, so trust your instinct on the opportunities that Barrett will provide you. By the way, I have no affiliation with the college, I am just a parent looking into merit scholarships and realize Barrett will be visited by my two high school students. The attention you will receive there will surpass anything you would get at a prestigious University of California campus.</p>
<p>just be sure you realize that Barrett is not a separate college at ASU that delivers all of your education. In fact they teach only 30% of the classes you take; the other 70% are regular ASU classes.
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<p>Members of the 2011-2012 Barrett Honors graduating class went on to attend law school at Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Univ. of Chicago, UC Berkeley, UCLA, USC, William and Mary. The medical schools they are now attending include Johns Hopkins, UCLA, Vanderbilt, Mayo, Dartmouth. The graduate programs they were admitted to include PhD, MD/PhD MS, MM, MBA, MA/MD at USC, Columbia, Cornell, Stanford, MIT, UCLA, Emory, UC Berkeley, Univ. of Penn to name a few. National scholarships won in Spring 2012 include 23 Fulbright, 3 Killam, 1 Circumnavigator, 1 Goldwater, 1 Marshall, 1 Truman, 6 Boren and 2 Udall. Places of employment include The Vanguard Group, JB Hunt, JP Morgan, Intel, BP, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Honeywell…I don’t think that you can discount this information. Also wanted to add that my understanding is regular ASU classes can be contracted into an honors class by Barrett students so more than the 36 hours of honors coursework can be achieved if the student desires. ASU and Barrett need to be looked at individually…their stats don’t compare.</p>
<p>My son attends Barrett and he loves it there. With his stats he could have went just about anywhere for college, but since he is planning on attending graduate/professional school after his undergrad the scholarship for Barrett was too good to turn down. He can now use the money he has saved for his further education. As for social life, my DS has met lots of new friends. For freshman year many events are planned on the residence hall floors for residents to really get to know each other. The students also planned their own activities such as movie nights in each other’s rooms etc… The dining hall at BHC is wonderful and has the best food on campus. I have been there for lunch a few times and wish I could eat there all of the time! As for academics my DS has turned many classes into honors classes by making a contract with the professor. He has built a close bond this way with a few profs already which came in handy when he needed a couple of letters of rec for a summer internship. He has also taken honors classes and has enjoyed both the regular and the honors classes. The Barrett experience is what you make it. As for being a business major, many top companies recruit on campus and from some of the parent bulletins I have seen, some have specific meeting times with just Barrett students. Yes the major campus of ASU has the admissions standards of any large state U that needs to be accessible to the general population. Barrett is different and has a comprehensive application process to be considered for acceptance. As a previous poster mentioned - just look at the stats of the students who are attending Barrett as posted on the website. I can tell you that our son is very happy with his decision to attend Barrett. Our other DS is still in high school and he wants to attend Barrett as well…</p>
<p>@mominaz and ptpgjlc:<br>
Thanks, your posts are reassuring. My son has been admitted to the Barrett Honors college as an incoming freshman in fall 2013. He has selected Biomedical Engineering as his major. Just like your son, he wants to pursue higher education (grad school or medical school) after undergrad. ASU is offering him great scholarship that we cannot ignore. He is getting decisions back from UCs now and we are in the dilemma. We are planning a visit to ASU/Barrett during the first week in April where he can stay overnight at the dorms, tour the campus, eat the great cafetaria food (that we have heard so much about) and shadow etc. From the good things we have heard thus far, and ofcourse the generous scholarship offering, Barrett is certainly amongst the top contenders for us. Just the fact that he will be amongst the top 10% at ASU/Barrett rather than one amongst the crowd at one of the top UCs is swaying us in that direction. Reading your posts I feel that we won’t regret our decision.</p>
<p>my DS has also been admitted to Barrett for fall 2013. He is having a little bit of a problem with moving from So. CA. He was accepted to many good/great colleges in So. CA including UCLA. We have visited Barrett and were very impressed with what they have to offer, and the scholarships blow away anything offered here locally for NMF. My son is a serious student and in no way a party person, I have full confidence that he will find friends and people like him when he gets there. He is a computer engineering major and dorming with other engineering students is a great plus, not to mention the Barrett dorms are very nice. He was having a hard time picturing himself at UCLA where freshman are almost guaranteed three to a room. I am very excited for his upcoming venture. Orientation is in 3 weeks, hope he has a clearer vision when he returns.</p>
<p>Just curious whether you’ve made a decision. My son just received his admission to Barrett letter. We too are east coasters and while he very much enjoyed his recent visit (and has a close friend on campus who is a sophomore) he has some concerns about the distance from home versus some southeastern schools he’s very interested in. The upshot is amazing weather, the impressive Barrett academic opportunities and facilities and a compelling all-in-cost when factoring in the merit offer. He’s eager to participate in ASU’s Chinese Flagship (intensive language program) program as well. Wondering whether you’ve decided to go for it.</p>
<p>We are in the Midwest, not quite as far away as you. D has decided to attend ASU. We visited twice, the 2nd time for several days including orientation.</p>
<p>The distance is a bit of concern for us. D doesn’t fly well. Especially the way Thanksgiving break is so closely followed by winter break. I checked with housing. The dorms are open throughout all breaks, but dining halls are closed. Considering having her home for the 4 day October break, then skipping Thanksgiving, or going out there to see her. Southwest flies from our area to Phoenix very cheap.</p>
<p>Or could emulate the pres of Barrett’s parent’s organization who told me at the merchandise sale that he moved out there from east coast after his kids both went to ASU.</p>
<p>How is everything going for you or your children at Barrett? My son is seriously considering going there. He wants to study journalism and the J school at ASU is very reputable. He has a visit scheduled for the beginning of December. The people from Barrett have planned a wonderful visit full of great activities for my son. I am very impressed with their interest, communications and efficiency. Plus the scholarships that they offer are very attractive. We live in the Dallas area, so it will be far from us. But if Barrett is as good as it seems to be, we will be happy to see our son move to Arizona. I would love to know how things have been for you (or your children) since you (or them) started your (their) studies there. Thanks!</p>
<p>Kind of a long post but please hear me out if you’re considering coming to Barrett (or ASU in general).</p>
<p>I go to Barrett and honestly believe you should only accept admission here as a last choice. I went to school in Arizona so naturally we had a lot of college visits from other AZ schools, which included ASU. ASU advertised Barrett to our school as a “Harvard of the West”, which eventually proved to be a load of BS and miles from the truth. Unless you are planning to be a liberal arts major (gender studies, philosophy, ect.), Barrett is really a horrible choice. Really, the only Barret-honors classes worth taking at ASU are liberal arts ones, which do absolutely nothing for you if you’re a science major (I’m biology, hoping to go premed). Actual science classes at Barrett are ASU classes, and they’re really just terrible. Every one of my science classes felt like a joke, and many of the teachers had absolutely no idea how to teach. If you plan on being a science major at ASU or Barrett, you’re pretty much screwed. The classes are extremely disorganized and the Human Event takes up way too much time (ended up with a B first semester and an A second, however. ASU is also attempting to push additional “breakout” classes on all their science classes, which are essentially online-hybrid courses which are mandatory to attend, and only suck up your time.</p>
<p>90% of Barrett’s advertising to recruit high GPA students should be taken with a grain of salt. By not means is Barrett “The Harvard of the West”, and it should only be considered a decent option if you only got into other Arizona Universities. Sure you can argue that being a Barrett student looks good to grad schools (its considered a top honors college due to its liberal arts classes and the high GPAs of its undergrad students), but the truth is that no graduate schools outside of AZ really know what Barrett is and won’t take the effort to look into it. Being an honors student only matters when being compared to other non-honors students of the same college. For example, an honors status will only help you if a grad school or job is comparing your resume to someone who has a pretty much equal resume minus the “honors” title. If a good education is your first priority, please do not waste your time by coming to Barrett.</p>
<p>Socially, Barrett’s a nice college. The kids are friendly and there’s a somewhat decent party scene outside of campus. Most of the parties within a two mile radius of campus end up getting shut down, however. Our current president, Michael Crow, is extremely anti-fraternity/ sorority and has essentially made it his mission to remove ASU’s “party school” reputation. Basically, don’t come to ASU if you’re looking for a good “party” scene, or you’re probably going to get frisked by ASU’s god awful campus police squad on a regular basis. In the first two weekends of our fall semester, 857 students were arrested by ASU campus police on alcohol charges, as apparently the massive population of police here have nothing better to do but to harass new freshmen who aren’t entirely used to the college scene yet. Basically, be extremely careful at ASU if you’re going to try to attend any parties, as you will have a huge risk of having an MIC (Minor in consumption) on your record. I’ve never had one because I play it extremely safe, but be on your toes.</p>
<p><strong><em>As a side note, if you do ever end up being harassed by the police in tempe, remember to know your rights. You can respectfully refuse a breathalyzer, and it is within your rights to not let a police officer search your house or vehicle. If a police officer has stopped you on the way back to your dorm with no probable cause, ask if you are being arrested. If not, you are 100% free to leave and are free to not answer any questions that could potentially incriminate you. Many times Tempe police will ignore these constitutional rights, but if they do you can argue against their actions in court when they try to slap you with an offense. Even if you have not had any alcohol PLEASE refuse a breathalyzer test anyway. I’ve heard many horror stories of students walking back to their dorms during their weekends without having a drop of alcohol, only to end up getting stopped by police and agreeing to take a faulty breathalyzer. Breathalyzers are never 100%, and are often known to give faulty readings even when you’ve had no alcohol. If you end up getting a faulty reading, it is near impossible to try to fight it off in court. Remember that Tempe is within Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jurisdiction (Considered America’s toughest and most controversial sheriff), and the police here do not always consider you’re constitutional rights during interactions. Be on your toes here and please do not let campus police ruin your chance at a career.</em></strong></p>
I was trying to find some information from students currently at Barrett or parents with students currently at Barrett on their experience with this program. So it is interesting to read that we are in a very similar situation now as many of you were about a year ago. We live in California. Our son is a high school senior and was accepted at Barrett as a biology major; he intends to visit during Presidents Day week. He has also applied at several UCs and some private schools. To all of you who decided in favor of Barrett, how is your experience or your son’s or daughter’s experience? For all of you who decided against Barrett why did you reach this decision?
@BeateD have you searched CC’s ASU forum? http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/arizona-state-university/
-psy