<p>cmdana - I am another prospective Rebel and SMBHC student, and received an acceptance notification Janurary 12. However, the people that I have been in contact with at the Honors College have told me that they are still reading essays and applications. Good Luck to your daughter!</p>
<p>Thanks RyanSC. How early did you apply to SMBHC? Congratulations on hearing so early! Her application wasn’t even complete until early January because of teacher and counselor recommendations.</p>
<p>My application was completed by mid-November; I remember wanting to have it in by Thanksgiving break.</p>
<p>I just checked on-line, and my daughter was wait listed for the Honors college. Does anybody know more about this…odds of wait listed applicant being accepted, when final decisions for wait listed people will issue (after May 1??), etc? Are many people wait listed? Do they deny people or just wait list or accept?</p>
<p>BTW, she has a 28 ACT, 3.7 w, 3.5 or so UW GPA, with very strong letters of rec and nice essays.</p>
<p>Congratulations on being wait listed! I don’t know what your D’s chances are but that’s better than being denied like my D was. I was really a little surprised she wasn’t wait listed after seeing your comment earlier this week and I was hopeful she would get in or be wait listed at least. She never received an email or anything online on her application status. We had to wait until yesterday when we got the letter in the mail!</p>
<p>BTW, my D had a 31 ACT, a 3.59 GPA (unweighted) from a tough high school (we had 42 kids who were national merit scholars in her grade last year) and I hope good letters of recommendation (including one from our mayor for a program she was involved in).</p>
<p>Still, with all the competition that the Ole Miss Honors College had this year, it wasn’t enough. I can’t believe they had 27.5% more students apply. At least that makes me realize that quite a few high achieving students will be attending there.</p>
<p>Not sure about my D. She may choose not to attend since she didn’t get accepted into the honors college.</p>
<p>I’m a current SMBHC student, and I absolutely love it! I was hesitant to apply at first because I assumed it was for awkward nerdy students (I know that’s a dumb reason). But one thing that I do love about the Honors College is that it attracts the campus leaders both in the classroom and in major organizations. The HC even caters to this crowd, providing several leadership opportunities and ways to gain experience in your interests around campus.
The best way to explain what the Honors College is that it offers an Ivy-League-style education for the cost of a public university. Instead of taking Eng 101 and Eng 102, honors students take Honors 101 and Honors 102. These are small classes (about 10-15 people) that focus on discussion style learning. Students will read books that promote critical thinking and that are very thought provoking, and the class time is spent discussing the texts. The teacher basically uses the texts to springboard toward any topic the students choose to discuss, mostly focusing on real world events of the time or deep philosophical questions. These were truly the best classes that I have taken at Ole Miss, and I honestly looked forward to each class meeting.
Besides these two honors classes, students may take several other honor-version classes in their curriculum. Some choose the honors sections of classes they take for their major, while some chose to take honors sections for their humanity courses. What makes the honors sections different is the size, teaching style, and student-teacher interaction. For example, I took the honors section of General Chemistry my freshman year. Our class had about 20 students, and our professor happened to be the Dean of the Graduate School (so we were the only class he taught). Therefore, we received a great deal of interaction with our teacher (something that Ole Miss already makes a point to promote). This year I am taking the honors section of Physics, and my favorite part is seeing live demonstrations of the concepts we learn in class. This is the advantage of the smaller classes - it is easier to do fun things in class.
Overall, the Honors College is what made my decision for Ole Miss easy. It is a great way for students to experience the challenging curriculum offered by expensive private schools but with the great atmosphere and amazing people at Ole Miss.</p>
<p>I applied in 2010, so the process may be different. As I understood it, the students who make the first cut for the Honors College are sent acceptance letters and are told to accept or decline by a certain date. Should a student decline, the admissions office will then accept the first person in line on the waiting list. I would assume a few people might do this, as they most likely get accepted into a private school that they would rather attend. But those who barely miss the cut for the Honors College might still be eligible for the Provost Scholars Program. [Office</a> of the Provost](<a href=“Provost Scholars Program | Office of the Provost | Ole Miss”>Provost Scholars Program | Office of the Provost | Ole Miss)
This is sort of a transition state for students who are still interested in the Honors College. I encourage you all to read about the program before deciding against Ole Miss should your not get accepted into the HC.</p>
<p>Wow, CMdana, I guess we should be pleased with the wait list. Sorry that your daughter was not accepted. The only thing I can figure is that my daughter’s strong point is writing, and her essays were exceptional, and the letters of rec were very personal and detailed with the highest of praise. Your daughter has wonderful stats, so it makes little sense to me, as I’m sure she had great essays and letters of rec as well.</p>
<p>We received a more formal letter in the mail where they apologized for being wait listed and indicated that spots may open in summer…leaving me the impression that it is not likely that the wait list will culminate into an acceptance. My daughter probably won’t attend if she does not get into the honors college. She feels that she needs to be around high achievers and very serious students to get the most out of college, and the honors college seemed perfect. She has been accepted to many good schools, including University of Illinois at Urbana in our home state, and even got a scholarship there. It would be tough to give that up without an honors college acceptance, although I completely understand that not everybody can be accepted.</p>
<p>OleMissrebel, my daughter was admitted into the Provost Scholars Program. It has some benefits like early registration and a POSSIBLE acceptance into the honors program in the junior year. It looks nice, and the tuition at Ole Miss with her scholarship is actually less than our in state school with a scholarship. Ole Miss is beautiful, and the administration has been nice. But the more open admission policy weighs against it compared to U of I Urbana, which is pretty highly rated nationally. The honors college would have made Ole Miss much more likely. If she does get in from the wait list, there is a very good chance she will go to Ole Miss. That program seemed special. We loved it when we visited.</p>
<p>Does your daughter know what she wants to major in? Many students find that the Croft Institute for International Studies attracts some of the same high-achieving, goal-driven students that the Honors College does. The Croft Institute, however, is for students interested in foreign policy like international cultures, business, marketing, etc. It is very similar to the HC in that it has its own building for the Croft students to study in and offers special programs (a semester abroad is required, I believe). But it is pretty much accepted that the HC students and Croft students are the highest achieving students on campus. However, the deadline for applying for Croft has most likely passed…not really sure on that.</p>
<p>When we visited over spring break, my son sat in on a Freshman Honors Seminar. He liked it quite a bit. These are very small classes, 14 or 15 students, I think.</p>
<p>My daughter will be giving up a Barksdale HC spot to attend another university. That should make someone on the waitlist happy.</p>
<p>How many hours of community service are honors students required to carry out each year? I think I remember that there were required hours but that there were not very many required hours.</p>
<p>The program requires 10 hours of service (termed Community Action) per academic semester. So, 20 per year. These hours can be earned in conjunction with another organizations (i.e. - academic honor society, student government, etc.)</p>
<p>20 hours per year sounds pretty manageable. Thanks for the information.</p>
<p>I am a high school student in Atlanta. I have a 3.8 GPA. I got a 27 on the ACT and a 1850 on the SAT. Will I have a good chance of getting in the honors college? Will it also help that I am out of state? I also will have taken 7 AP classes and 5 honors classes. Please let me know I am very interested in attending Ole Miss!</p>
<p>Does anyone know when the waitlisted students will be notified of an admittance decision?</p>
<p>Honors College admission is determined by a number of factors, not just the raw numbers. While your academic credentials are important, your leadership/service record as well as transcript and the essays that you submit will be crucial to your application. It is good that you have taken AP/Honors courses. However, being out of state doesn’t really matter in the process. </p>
<p>The Honors College at Ole Miss received over 1,100 applications for roughly 350 spaces. So, the admissions process is competitive. The average ACT is roughly 30-31. So, I would encourage you to maybe test again over the summer or at the beginning of your senior year. Having higher test scores also helps with scholarships. It’s important for you to know that Ole Miss doesn’t look at writing on the ACT/SAT, so you will need to know what your SAT score is without the writing.</p>
<p>The Honors Orientation program was great.</p>
<p>And I forgot to say - I got to meet DSG. He is pretty darn awesome.</p>
<p>I am particularly interested in seeing what opportunities are available as Freshman Ventures this year.</p>
<p>My DDs had an excellent experience with Freshman Ventures. What a great introduction into project management and research.</p>