<p>UCBCHemEgrad: don't know where you got top 3%... I used that figure to describe the HS class rank. I think anywhere from 10-25% qualify for many university's honors programs.</p>
<p>UW has always had a limited approach to the HC concept as they did not wish to create a separate elite college within the university. What they did do long before Honors was even a concept was offer an alternative integrated liberal arts program that focused on just such things.</p>
<p>ILS</a> .: program</p>
<p>
[quote]
don't know where you got top 3%
[/quote]
ummm...sorry, top 3% in freshman high school class. So, yeah, 10-25% may be eligible along with other criteria.</p>
<p>
Spring</a> 2008 Honors Collegium Courses</p>
<p>Interesting courses...if you're a liberal arts major or need to get some GE requirements out of the way. The honors program is hardly a comprehensive program for all majors...it's mostly just some more intensive electives.</p>
<p>barrons, the concept at Wisconsin seems similar to the one at UCLA.</p>
<p>UCBChemEGrad -- yes, the Honors program at UCLA appears centered on integrating classes that are <em>not</em> physical sciences/math and engineering, and to a limited extent biological sciences.</p>
<p>seriously, if you're in-state at umd, it's the place to go for an honors program. im a student there in the gemstone program (more science focussed) which is a subset of the honors program. if you're looking for the humanities, honors humanities (another subset) is a great place to look. i have a few friends in it, and they seem to like it... last semester my friend's final project was a graphic novel (as in comic book). i thought it was pretty cool. also, most of the honors seminars are humanities focussed. you can also take honors versions of some regular courses which are smaller. (i took my math classes that way. easy to organize study groups.) anyhow, you can check out the courses at: UMD</a> Honors - Current Students - Honors 100. sadly, i don't know much about umbc, but i am under the impression that it's not as good (from what other people say about it).</p>
<p>For SUNYS, Stonybrook & Buffalo have terrific honors programs. :] Binghamton has something similar but, it's not called honors. But, you can check me on that... Basically at Stony & Buffalo, you get a mentor who is a professor in your major, priority scheduling, housing and certain honors classes. It's for all different majors. Yeah. :)</p>
<p>I may be a bit biased since I'll be going there next year, but I recommend the University of Washington honors program. I think the program does a good job of making a small, highly intellectual community without isolating honors students from the rest of the university. All students in the full college honors program complete the "Honors Core" classes as well as departmental honors for their major. There is honors housing available if you so choose. The program definitely tries to attract a lot of out-of-state kids, I think more OOS applicants got in this year than IS. Lots of scholarships offered as well. It's far away from MD, but definitely worth a look.</p>
<p>University</a> of Washington - Honors Program</p>
<p>Scholarships:
University</a> Honors Program: Scholarships and Fellowships</p>
<p>If a student is really into the whole Honors thing, great, especially if the school is not recognized as being one of the top public universities. But if they're only doing it to say they're in an Honors Program and they're really not into it, it's stupid to do it. There has to be a real internal interest within the student.</p>
<p>UCLA honors
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill HOnors
University of Michigan Ann Arbor Honors
the list goes on
just look up the top public schools</p>
<p>Penn State Schreyers Honors is up there at the top.</p>
<p>University of Florida has a residential honors program for the first two years. I believe they waive out-of-state tuition for National Merit Finalists.</p>
<p>Ohio State had an "External Honors Review" conducted in 2004, and the review team consisted of the Honors College Deans/Directors from Penn State, UNC - Chapel Hill, and the University of Georgia. The report listed OSU's strengths, "challenges", and recommendations for improvements. It's an interesting read for folks who are trying to figure out what makes for a quality honors program. I'd like to find out which of the recommendations were implemented, and what impact it had on OSU's program.</p>
<p><a href="http://oaa.osu.edu/reports/honorsreview.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://oaa.osu.edu/reports/honorsreview.pdf</a></p>
<p>^^DunninLA, post #75 :)
I'm assuming that you know why it's Case Western Reserve, but in case there are people on the thread who don't, here's some background.</p>
<p>Earlier, there were several universities in roughly the same part of Cleveland: Case Institute of Technology, Western Reserve University, and also Flora Stone Mather, a women's college. Case had a strong focus on science, engineering, and while Western Reserve focused more on the humanities.
Western Reserve University was so named because it was located in the swath across northern Ohio previously called the "Connecticut Western Reserve," a part of the country to which the colony of Connecticut had the presumptive claim. The New England influence is quite visible in this region of Ohio.
Some years ago--don't know offhand exactly when--Case, Western Reserve, and Mather joined to become Case Western Reserve.</p>
<p>An alum in my family will be amused by your suggestion about the interpretation of "Reserve."
Sorry that you had to attend a "Junior University." :)
A friend of mine, a Stanford post-doc, used to cut up Stanford decals and arrange them on his car (a Ford) to read
STAN
FORD</p>
<p>Again foiled by an over-zealous firewall on the computer I'm using now--that post should have said that Case focused on "science, engineering, and math, while Western Reserve . . . "</p>
<p>On the actual thread topic: If a student is trying to gauge an honors program at a public university, I think it's worthwhile to check the number of Rhodes, Marshall, Gates, Churchill, Truman, Goldwater, and Udall scholars, as well as National Science Foundation pre-doctoral fellowship winners (and National Endowment for the Humanities scholars, if that program is continuing). This will give you an idea of the institutional effort invested in the honors program, because research with faculty members and institutional attention contribute to the students' success in these programs. This will also give an idea of the likely size of the peer group for a top student (one or two orders of magnitude larger than the number of top award winners).</p>
<p>Penn State Schreyers Outcomes Outcomes:</a> Schreyer Honors College</p>
<p>@ pmyen</p>
<p>University of Michigan has a good Honors program in the liberal arts. However, be prepared to pay a lot of money because out-of-state tuition is very expensive.</p>
<p>The UVA honors program (Echols) really isn't much more than priority registration and special dorms your first year. The College Science Scholars program is much better, with guaranteed Masters programs, as well as the Rodman program for Engineering. But for Arts and Sciences type majors, Echols vs non-Echols doesn't really mean anything at all. There aren't any honors classes that aren't open to everyone else too (and there are very few at that anyways with UVA being such a huge and academically-rigorous school in its own right). Echols was made back when students did Echols to make their own major, but now that UVA lets anyone with a 3.4+ create their own major, Echols isn't anything more than a resume booster. There are plenty of departmental honors programs that are a much better use of time and more relevant to grad school. You have to have a 3.4 to stay in the program, but there are plenty of people with 3.4's+ who aren't in it.</p>
<p>Penn State's honors program is really selective and great though. You have to be REALLY great to get in. From my (Philly burbs) high school, most kids who got into PSU without APs only got into a branch campus. With APs they made it to main campus, and only 2 people got into Honors (one chose to go to Harvard over his acceptance to Yale, Princeton, etc, and PSU honors). It's the best of the best from PA at PSU.</p>
<p>I must agree with U of M LSA Honors. Definitely one of the top in the country.</p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
Miami DAP -- I know what a Junior University is (I went to Stanford), but what is a Reserve University? I am a wine collector, and Reserve usually means the best barrels out of the bunch. Are there several Case Western Universities, and this one is the best of them ??
[/QUOTE]
</p>
<p>The land was on the "western reserve" portion of land for Connecticut (during early American history, eastern states had land in the west). When Case Institute of Technology mered with Western Reserve University, the name Case Western Reserve was created. There is only one. The merger was explained by someone else above.</p>
<p>Temple. Great program with the residential togetherness (for 1st 2 years). There also very good with money.</p>
<p>
[quote]
It's an interesting read for folks who are trying to figure out what makes for a quality honors program. I'd like to find out which of the recommendations were implemented, and what impact it had on OSU's program.</p>
[/quote]
</a>
What an interesting report. I do know some of the changes. (for direct info <a href="http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/</a>)</p>
<p>Regarding their recommendation points:</p>
<h1>1 The Honors/Scholars program definitely offers courses that are more rigorous/smaller/unique.</h1>
<h1>2 Admission requirements are now 'Minimum 30 ACT and top 10%' for Honors and '27-29 ACT and top 20% for Scholars."</h1>
<h1>3 I'll have to ask D the number of Honors courses required per year. There is definitely a requirement now. They also have to take the Honors version of General Ed courses. Laying out the 4 year program is a big part of a 1 credit freshman symposium. Scholars have closed required clustered courses.</h1>
<h1>5 The Presidential Scholars pool is now based on many different things including test scores, class rank, multi-essay application, and scores from their Maximus scholarship on-campus competition which is two essays written in two hours. All Presidential Scholars are automatically members of the Honors Collegium.</h1>
<h1>7 Each Honors student has two advisors: a general Honors advisor and one from their major who is in charge of Honors students for that department.</h1>
<h1>8 There is now a very aggressive Office of Undergraduate Research. D feels guilty for not doing it.</h1>
<h1>9 There is enough Honors freshmen housing for everyone but it is not required. Scholars must live in their themed community. There are 13 Scholar programs with 50-175 freshmen in each.</h1>
<h1>10 There is a very aggressive Study Abroad office. They give those kids tons of opportunities to go abroad for a week, quarter, summer, or year. Of D's 8 sophomore suitemates next year, 4 will be gone at one time or another. It's got to drive the housing office crazy.</h1>
<p>The Ohio State University offers an amazing opportunity for bright and talented kids.</p>
<p>Here are some of their most recent award winners
[quote]
2007-2008
Rhodes Scholar
Jessica Hanzlik - Physics & French</p>
<p>Barry M. Goldwater Scholars
Craig Buckley - Chemical Engineering
Ehsan Sadeghipour - Mechanical Engineering
Douglas Schaefer - Physics & Math
Christine Zgrabik - Engineering Physics & Spanish</p>
<p>Fulbright Grantees
Robert Beaulieu - Comparative Studies
Matthew Borths - Geological Sciences & Anthropology
Heather Sweetser Arabic, Islamic Studies, & International Studies</ br> Carnegie Junior Fellow
Kevin Slaten - Political Science & Sociology</p>
<p>USA Today All-USA College Academic First Team
Joshua Lotz - Biochemistry & Chinese</p>
<p>Jacob K. Javits Fellow
Laura Herbert - Spanish & History</p>
<p>Board of Regents Graduate/Professional Fellows
Joshua Everhart - Biology
Rachel Mauk - Physics & Geography</p>
<p>Morris K. Udall Scholar
Ellis Robinson - Chemical Engineering</p>
<p>Morris K. Udall Honorable Mention
Hudson McFann - Geography</p>
<p>National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellows
Aimee Gall - Mechanical Engineering
Jessica Hanzlik - Physics & French
Julie Thompson - Mechanical Engineering
Matthew Wohlever Biochemistry</p>
<p>National Science Foundation Graduate Research Honorable Mention
Garrett Elliott - Astronomy & Physics
Robert Gulotty - Political Science & Philosophy
Gregory Kestin - Physics & Math
Kenton Williams - Mechanical Engineering
[/quote]
</p>