I have recently received the news that I am a nms finalist. I am fairly sure I can get in to a top college, but am interested by the full ride barret (the asu honors college) offers. Most of the info I can find, however, is from them and not necessarily something I trust.
How different is it from an ivy / ivy level education? Both in terms of time at school and experience after.
I am interested in a CS major and do not currently plan on postgraduate education, for reference.
@htuy42
So I looked at Barret website, It definitely looks very good. However there is a kind of status arriving from the Ivy League. It also depends what other top college you’ve gotten into. For example if I had the choice between like NYU and ASU Barret, I would choose Barret. Also, If you live in arizona, it would be cheaper than Ivy.
We checked out Barrett when my D was looking at schools. The scholarship was definitely tempting! They seemed to have very good outcomes (students going on to fine graduate schools), support, (teachers and staff dedicated to Barrett) and facilities. They felt like sort of a small LAC within a college. They have their own living quarters and some classrooms and other offices. What we didn’t like, though, was that most of the classes are still with the main student body at ASU. And that school is huge! My D ended up at a small LAC…much more to her liking!
The other downside to us was the weather…to say it was hot is an understatement…
I assume they still offer to pay for you to visit, so you should take advantage of that and see if it’s for you.
@ClaremontMom
I definitely agree, though I don’t think that @htuy42 should dismiss, possibly a cheap, highly ranked, academically rigorous honors college. I don’t think that Barret has courses with the rest of ASU. Otherwise it wouldn’t be honors would it?
@honorroll123 I did not say the OP should dismiss it–quite the opposite. I said the OP should see for him/herself. As I said it did have very good credentials, but it just wasn’t for my D because of the size, weather and the fact that many (most?) classes were still in the general population.
Yes, that is correct, they have most of their classes still with the rest of ASU (or at least that was correct 2 years ago when we toured). This was surprising to us as well. They do have some Barrett only classes but most of the student’s classes are still with the general population. However, they do have an “honors” component to the classes (some or all the classes, I don’t remember). So they might take a class and then do some work above and beyond the regular class.
We did meet kids there that loved it, and the school appears to be having great success with their students.
Again, I recommend the OP take the tour and get more information. Two years ago when we were checking it out they offered to pay for travel for these visits, so it was a no-brainer to at least check it out.
And hopefully a current student can chime in with more information as all I know is what I learned in one day of touring.
For CS is doesn’t matter diddly where you got your degree. An Ivy grad won’t get more $ coding than an ASU grad.
Unless the Ivy League school grad does it for one of those elitist consulting or investment banking companies that preferentially recruit there.
For other types of CS jobs, it probably won’t make too much difference in initial recruiting out of college, and even less in subsequent jobs.
With respect to the presence of weaker students at ASU, they are probably not that likely to be found majoring in CS, due to the relatively high rigor and workload that CS courses tend to have.