<p>We visited Clemson a few years ago when college hunting with my son. It’s a lovely school.</p>
<p>Calhoun is a good honors college. They have honors housing. I can’t remember anything bad about the program. As honors programs go, it seemed like a good one.</p>
<p>Ask yourself what the following from the Clemson Honors FAQ tells you about the program
Note, too, that the requirements for Honors consists primarily of the following: “Completion of a minimum of six honors courses of no less than three credits each”</p>
<p>Mikemac, your post is excellent! We stumbled upon the existence of Clemsons Calhoun Honors College the afternoon before the December 1 application deadline. We saw the statistics that I quoted in my previous post about the quality of the students, determined that significant merit scholarship money is available, and so our son submitted a last-minute application. If our son is accepted to Calhoun and receives some merit money, we will thoroughly investigate the program, including its academic rigor. Also </p>
<p>As for the academic rigor of the Ivies, I cannot speak for all of them, but I have first-hand knowledge of Brown. At least when I attended, Brown provided an extraordinarily-rigorous education for students who wanted one. However, for students who were so inclined, it was possible to turn the Brown experience into a pitiful academic joke. I do not know if Brown has changed any of the following in the intervening years, but here are four facts from when I attended:</p>
<p>1) Brown only required 28 credits (courses) to graduate. Interestingly, students were required to pay for the full 32 courses to receive a diploma.</p>
<p>2) Students could take as many of their courses pass/fail as they wished, even within their major. Or, more precisely, pass/no-credit, the difference being that the F did not show up on the transcript.</p>
<p>3) For courses taken for a grade, the only possible outcomes were: A, B, C, No Credit.</p>
<p>4) Brown had no course or distribution requirements.</p>
<p>If you take #1 to 4 together, it would have been possible to: A) sign up for the normal load of 32 courses over eight semesters, B) take all of them pass/fail, C) fail four of them, and D) graduate with 28 pass/fail credits (courses) and no Fs on the transcript! P.S </p>
<p>These academic reforms were spearheaded by Ira Magaziner during the 1960s when he was a student at Brown. It was referred to as The New Curriculum. Magaziner is better known as the architect of the failed 1993 Clinton Administration health care initiative that its opponents still refer to as HillaryCare.</p>
<p>^^ Mikemac’s post is an excellent, objective list of information to consider. I came to the opposite conclusion than MeadowbrookCourt about the quality of the honors college, but different people are looking for different things, indeed, have very different ideas of what appropriately constitutes “honors.”</p>
<p>For example, I personally prefer enriching courses that are harder/more time-consuming than normal. (And I currently attend a college with just such a reputation.) But for many honors students, this would be a valid negative.</p>
<p>In reference to the comments above about Penn State, I saw some numbers from last year that only a very few incoming Honors students decided to attend branch campuses (I think it was about 3).</p>
<p>Yes, it is much easier in regular admission to be admitted to a branch campus, however, many of the marginal students don’t advance into junior status and therefore are not eligible to transfer to University Park.</p>
<p>Some people fear that an honors course will be so demanding that their other classes will suffer and their GPA might suffer. If they need to maintain a certain GPA for med school prospects, keeping a scholarship, or perhaps even for parents’ satisfaction, then this concern can be very valid.</p>
<p>Generally, colleges don’t give “GPA bonus points” for honors classes - unlike high school. </p>
<p>*Honors courses tend to be faster paced and more intellectually challenging, but they should not require significantly more time than non-honors courses. *</p>
<p>A course doesn’t have to give twice as much homework in order to provide an excellent educational experience.</p>
<p>I know this has been mentioned before, but I’ll reiterate: University of Virginia! Obviously their Jefferson Scholars program is great, but also their Echolls scholars programs (there’s another but I don’t remember the name - I was picked as an Echolls scholar). Students get priority class registration, separate (and really nice!) dorms, and just generally seem to get a lot of priviledges. I almost went to UVA instead of Carleton, and a big reason was the awesome Echolls Scholars program.</p>
<p>If you are worried that your GPA won’t compare to those of non-honors students, perhaps you should attend a school where “honors” is the norm and everyone is taking those “faster paced and more intellectually challenging” courses. Then, even if you don’t get the best GPA, it will be in the same context as your peers’. (And if you’re still worried about GPA, then perhaps honors-level courses aren’t the right choice for you.) I am always wary of scholarships that require higher than a 3.0 to keep, because it puts the student into the position of needing to “protect” his/her GPA–a chronic issue that has just led Williams to institute a pass/fail-style Gaudino option.</p>
<p>IMO, an honors-level course worth the name should have higher expectations, which doesn’t necessarily translate to more work or lower grades, but reasonably could. So it worries me that an honors program would go out of its way to advertise the fact that its courses are NOT substantially more demanding (of time).</p>
<p>For example, Swarthmore offers a few “Honors” versions of lower-level courses like linear algebra and multivariable calculus, as well as intro chemistry (for those who got a 5 on the AP). I haven’t and don’t plan to take any of them, but I have friends who did, and uniformly I hear that these Honors courses are substantially harder and require more time.</p>
<p>I really want to get in to honors program but only have 1280/1600 sat(took it 3x) and 26 act (2x). I have good a good gpa, good extracurriculars and tons of community service hours. I was even invited to usf scholars showcase. Do you think they might still accept me or do you think I should just retake act and hope for the best?</p>