<p>i would not like any honors program that just added more homework. That’s not what an honors program should be about.</p>
<p>My kids’ honors program has included research and “hands on” opportunites as well as discussion-based smaller classes. Moreover, they’ve had opportunites to take honors classes on topics that are not “typical collegefare” to fulfill Core/GenEd req’ts…</p>
<p>If their classes had just required “more homework,” I doubt that they would have stayed with the program. </p>
<p>One of the purposes of an honors program (beside being smaller classes and hands-on or research opps) is that your classmates are supposed to be higher stats kids. Therefore, the discussions/insights that will get discussed will be at a greater depth than if the school’s general population were in the class.</p>
<p>I liken it to discussions you would have within your own family or social circles…when you’re discussing a subject with higher intellegence people you’re probably going to have a different discussion than you would with people of more average stats.</p>
<p>Virginia Tech has a honors programs and also a smaller residential honors program. At VT, you are invited to apply to the honors program after an admission decision is made. My son was offered a spot in the residential program last year and it was very appealing. VT invites approximately 30 freshman each year. There are two honors dorms where there are special programs for those students and extra faculty attention. These students also get priority registration and better faculty teaches the honors sections. There are merit scholarships attached to most of the spots and there is usually money for study abroad. The kids that were invited to the interview weekend ( a two-day affair) were all students who were had also applied to, and were competitive for, elite schools. We are OOS and the merit money that came with the program made it a real deal. (He ultimately decided to attend Duke.)</p>
<p>Small New College of Florida and SUNY Geneseo are ranked high. UGA, UNC, UVA, Clemson, and Auburn all have decent honors colleges. UGA has been good at spitting out Rhodes scholars, especially recently. Auburn gives alot of merit scholarships and the honor dorms in The Village are suite style with private rooms which can be conducive to good study time without having to leave your dorm room to find a place to study. </p>
<p>There are so many Honors Colleges and honors programs now at public universities that it is hard to investigate a large portion. Some like UGA offer 4 year Master’s, others put alot of effort in preparing honor students for Rhodes, Fulbright, Marshall, Mitchel, Truman, etc. scholarships. Some others claim to fame is having high percentages accepted into prestigious graduate programs. </p>
<p>The funny thing is my daughter looked at all these mentioned, in addition to privates like Davidson, Duke, Stanford, Rice and looks like she decided on Auburn. Why? A free-ride and the suite-style private room she can microwave a snack in the kitchen, talk to a suite-mate and then retire to her private room to study.</p>
<p>*she decided on Auburn. Why? A free-ride and the suite-style private room she can microwave a snack in the kitchen, talk to a suite-mate and then retire to her private room to study. *</p>
<p>FYI…Auburn only has 298 of those Super Suites honors private rooms, so she will likely only get that for one year. That can be shocking to the freshman who expected to stay in those dorms for 2+ years.</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids – does University of Alabama have suites? And so the honors kids get to stay in them all for years? (You’ve probably already answered these two questions, but I probably missed it.)</p>
<p>*@mom2collegekids – does University of Alabama have suites? And so the honors kids get to stay in them all for years? (You’ve probably already answered these two questions, but I probably missed it.) *</p>
<p>Bama has over 2500 honors super suites with private bedrooms. Returning honors students are not guaranteed them for following years, but if you submit your re contracting info on time, you probably will get one each year. My kids haven’t had any trouble getting them each year. </p>
<p>Also, Bama does not charge NMF’s more money for the honors super suites.</p>
<p>There are some ways to increase probability and you don’t have to stay in the “honors dorm” and still be in the village in subsequent years. Women have it easier since roughtly 1200 of the 1700 private rooms in the village are for women including the 3 used for sororities. It’s helpful to be a presidential scholar. If the presdiential scholar is also a National Merit Finalist it’s also helpful for student to make Auburn the 1st choice early in January. It’s also helpful to have the earliest priority date with a number less than 20. Never ask for a specific roommate, it’s much easier to place a single somewhere. </p>
<p>Students that were dual enrolled since the 11th grade with alot of credits can get classified as a Junior after the end of the 1st semester. (gives you better priority for Village Renewals that start in the following January before Auburn housing calendar even mentions it. It’s not February like the housing site mentions, thats for every place except the Village) </p>
<p>Going for a sorority helps as most the sororities are always hoping for sophomores to move in as they have a committment with the university to keep every room full and upper-classmen tend to move off campus especially those without scholarships that cover the housing costs. Then there is always applying in early January to be a Resident Assistant for the following year possibly opening an additional option. It was also helpful recording the nice Sunday recruitment call from the President of the University and specifically asking about 4 years in the Village during the call. </p>
<p>As for just honors housing:</p>
<p>When you start with 2000-2400 total honor students (a couple of hundred presidentials) and begin accounting for the percentages that want to room with a non-honors students, locals that commute, subtracting those that choose to live off campus to save money, those that prefer Broun, Harper, Little and Teague in the Quad or Boyd and Sasnett on the Hill due to location, plus those that move into sorority and fraternity housing… the probabilities increase.</p>
<p>There are never guarantees but there are ways to increase the odds. Due diligence and being the early bird and persistence (going to housing day after day in January to be ready for earliest Village renewal date), and keeping an eye out for rule changes that are being discussed by housing for succeeding years (some people picked Talon 1st as they thought it was still the Honors dorm)… can all help. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Also make sure everything is prepared with housing before any semesters off for internships or study-abroad so you don’t slip in priority.</p>
<ol>
<li>Priority registration</li>
<li>Brand new dorms - She has a suite. Also available quads, singles and traditional doubles</li>
<li>Cafeteria and Honors hall for them. Gym and computer lab within the BHC complex</li>
<li>Adviser for Honors and adviser for her major</li>
<li>Ability to convert her classes into Honor’s courses via a contract with her professors</li>
<li>Study abroad programs</li>
<li>Internships</li>
<li>Special Honors lectures and courses</li>
<li>Being in an environment where it is OK to be smart and as she says be nerdy or geeky about things that you like.</li>
</ol>
<p>The must do a thesis or special program in order to graduate from Barrett.</p>
<p>To the person who asked about IU’s honors college–my daughter’s been really pleased so far. She’s a freshman, so it’s early days yet, but her honors course is a writing-intensive English course delving into a particular literary style. More homework? Possibly. She has to read A LOT and write a paper every week, and participate in class discussions. Most papers have been short-ish (3-4 pages) but there were a couple longer ones, and a final project that the students must self-design. She loves every minute of it, but it’s definitely challenging, even for a really solid writer. She would never take an honors math course, because that is not her strength!</p>
<p>I will say that as a freshman, she was unable to get the honors course she most wanted. However, she’s now happy she’s in the class she’s in. Semester 2 registration–she got everything she wanted (early registration for honors). </p>
<p>Her friends in other honors courses universally enjoy them.</p>
<p>She is in honors housing, which isn’t especially different/better than other housing, it is just that it is an area (several floors, usually) of a dorm that are designated for honors only. She has met so many bright, fun new friends through the dorm.</p>
<p>Her advising has been good, and she’s already planning on applying for a Hutton Honors College research grant.</p>
<p>One thing to note, she has ‘regular’ courses, too. This is fine with her, and she’s found the ‘regular’ courses to be very good and also challenging. But I don’t want to give the impression that the honors college students don’t mix with the rest of campus. They definitely do, but she enjoys that mix.</p>
So… After two years, when Honors-only course offerings have petered out and science majors are enjoying rigorous upper-division courses, what about the Honors English Lit majors? Or Honors Psych majors? If your weed-out claim is true, then these easier departments will be flooded with slackers.</p>
<p>If an Honors College/Program claims to provide an elite-level education, then it should do so for everyone (in Honors), no matter their major–not just for those majoring in 1/3 of the curriculum.</p>
<p>
After two years at Penn State, 88% of the original students remain. You claim that they will be redistributed by major, such that “harder majors” will have honors-level upper-division courses even though they are no longer honors-only. But redistributed students have to go somewhere, if they aren’t dropping out–which means that SOME major is taking them in, and that major probably has lots of Honors students in it, too.</p>
<p>I find it unlikely that the top 88% of the freshman class of Penn State all excels to elite-level in their major. Maybe in Classics or Creative Writing, but those majors enroll few enough students that we should really be looking at the most popular majors–again, Psychology is a prime example. A very deep and fascinating field if intellectual rigor is high, but at many places, you can also get through with minimal effort.</p>
<p>Moreover, the same kind of self-selection into majors happens at elite colleges–the “elite” standard rises at a constant rate, which cancels out any bubble-up effect. If upper-division courses in a given major are more rigorous at State U, then they will also be more rigorous at Ivy U (all relative to the original starting points).</p>
<p>I agree with IUmom–a good honors college at most any public U will offer a “fine” education. But it’s disingenous to suggest that “fine” is exactly the same as “elite.” There’s good reasons why people rarely choose a public honors program over an elite college/university **if financial considerations are equal<a href=“and%20yes,%20they%20can%20be%20for%20the%20middle-class!”>/b</a>.</p>
<p>* what about the Honors English Lit majors? Or Honors Psych majors? If your weed-out claim is true, then these easier departments will be flooded with slackers.*</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say that those who major in English Lit or Psychology are majoring in easy majors.</p>
<p>And, I would say real slackers have flunked out by upper division courses.</p>
<p>Does anyone have experience with the Commonwealth Honors College at UMass? It’s surprisingly hard to find info from people who have experienced it.</p>
<p>Add about ASU Barrett: In addition to many sections of the core “Human Event” course required for first year students, the spring schedule has more than 40 Honors courses unique to the honors college and taught by honors college faculty, most of which are upper division, more than 70 sections of honors-only general university courses limited to a max of 25 students each, and upper division honors students may enroll at certain electives in the law school. Honors contracts now require a significant amount of face-time with the prof outside of class and a required writing component. D met with her professor one-on-one for regular discussions of extra reading, and he facilitated another meeting with a different professor doing work in a related area. It was not a cake-walk.</p>
<p>^^^ What do you mean by “easy” majors, then? English and Psychology are certainly two popular and hence large majors at many schools. </p>
<p>The “real slackers” constitute the 12% who drop out, as represented by an 88% retention rate. Yet I would not say unequivocally that 88% of all Penn State freshman in a given year are capable of elite-level work, even if only in their major. (Maybe that’s elitist of me, but I’ve yet to see concrete evidence in either direction.)</p>
<p>“English and Psychology are certainly two popular and hence large majors at many schools…”</p>
<p>A bit off-topic, but do people really think English is an “easy” major? Ever take a novels course? Try reading <em>Tom Jones</em> in two days, LOL!</p>
<p>*Yet I would not say unequivocally that 88% of all Penn State freshman in a given year are capable of elite-level work, even if only in their major. (Maybe that’s elitist of me, but I’ve yet to see concrete evidence in either direction.) *</p>
<p>Keil…it can be argued that even at elite schools there are a good number of kids who are not willing or capable of elite-level work. So, even at elites, you’re not only learning and breathing amongst a pure group of academic standouts.</p>
<p>English and Psych are not what I consider easy majors…not at all…</p>
<p>Keil, if you were to look at the many, many major offerings at large state schools you would easily stumble over several majors that you could deduce are rather easy majors. </p>
<p>Furthermore…I don’t believe you have to be in a classroom where everyone (or nearly everyone) in the class is capable of “elite level” work in order to excel, succeed, and to get a super education. But, maybe that’s the non-elitist in me.</p>