<p>Does anyone know anything about the Honors College/Honors Program at BU? My son checked the box for this on his application, and is really interested in being in a small college community within the large university, but we don’t know anything about how competitive it is to get into, or much else about it. Do any current BU students out there have any thoughts on it? Thanks.</p>
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<p>I read on another thread that BU revamped the Honors Program and the number of students was around 70 per year (which seems pretty low). I would like to know what the rough criteria is to be a contender for this program. Perhaps one of the students in it can give us some help.</p>
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<p>It has recently been restructured because it was very disorganized in the past. Students often felt that they weren’t on track for anything and the grade deflation (you should google “grade deflation Boston University”) was very problematic. They are trying to make it more structured, but it is in a state of change currently, so hard to analyze.</p>
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<p>Thx informative. The new structure looks logical but I trust they have someone who can take the reins and lead this program. Most university honors program/college sites have some description of criteria, even if it’s intentionally vague. Most honors programs I’ve seen use 1400+ in SAT CR+M plus some grade criteria like GPA or top 5% of class to be highly considered. I have not seen that on the BU site. With only 70 students, it seems the chances of getting in are very slim. Also with 70 students with diverse interests, you can’t run many honors courses unless you allow other students to fill spots. just isn’t making much sense to me.</p>
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<p>are you sure you weren’t thinking about the old UNI program? that had a very low admission rate and students were able to design their own major. the CAS honors program admitted the top 10% of the incoming class, and i think that’s the one that people had issue with. I was in it but dropped out after the first year because it was designed to work with your divisional studies requirements. so the student would take honors classes in their divisional requirements (ie general ed requirements). The problem for me (and I suspect most honors students) was that I had a lot of AP credit and didn’t need to take any gen ed classes after Freshman year. so I would have been taking honors classes just to take them. The new program seems to mix the UNI program and the CAS program…I think there is a thesis requirement and students have hte opportunity to work closely with profs right away, but I don’t know that it is as small as 70 students…that would seem a little extreme for a school as big as BU</p>
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<p>[University</a> Honors College Academics | Boston University](<a href=“http://www.bu.edu/academics/uhc/]University”>http://www.bu.edu/academics/uhc/)</p>
<p>It seems to be geared to arts and sciences students even though it is supposed to be a university wide program. Not sure how it would appeal to undergrads in the professional schools.</p>
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<p>My daughter is a current BU freshman. She was accepted to the Honors College, but ultimately decided not to participate in it. Her reason for doing so is that the Honors College curriculum is very structured with a number of requirements, which would have made it very difficult for her to double major and would have placed additional limits on when she could study abroad. That having been said, she’s heard from friends of hers currently in the Honors College that some of the Honors classes have been quite interesting. Even without the Honors College, D has made a number of friends and is really enjoying BU. OP, good luck to your son, and if you have any further questions, feel free to PM me.</p>
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<p>Thanks to all for the great information! Now we’ll just have to wait and see whether DS gets into BU, Honors College or not. Fingers crossed!</p>
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<p>momonthehill - thanks for the good info. Have any idea what kind of quals get one into the Honors program at BU (like SAT/GPA)? Didn’t realize that being in honors at BU pretty much precludes double majoring. If accurate, that makes a big difference for us.</p>
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<p>It doesn’t necessarily do that, it just means you need to have enough credits to take honors classes and classes in another major or be willing to overload or take classes during the summer. This is often true even if you choose to double major without being in the honors program.</p>
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<p>What gave me pause was “Honors College curriculum is very structured with a number of requirements”. Made it seem that there are additional requirements above and beyond that makes it even harder than normal to double major. One mitigating factor I forgot about is AP credits. That may relieve some of that pressure. What is the typical credit load? Do most students take an average of 15 credits?</p>
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<p>16 is the norm, you can overload up to 20 but you have to get a certain gpa</p>
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<p>Also, taking 20 credits isn’t any fun. I’ve never taken more than 16, and I’ve taken 12 or less 3/8 semesters. I did the old honors program, but it was a joke and the courses I took for it covered requirements I already had to take similar classes for anyway. I know very little about the new program, but I’d assume that it’s meaningless.</p>
<p>I think they’re trying to make the new honors program meaningful because the old one was meaningless. My son got accepted into the Pitt honors college and since we view Pitt and BU as relatively equivalent, he may not go to BU if he’s not in honors. So it can make a difference to the caliber of students who choose to attend. If anyone knows someone in the new version of honors, please encourage them to post.</p>
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<p>20 credits isn’t horrible. it’s not fun per se, but it’s doable as long as you’re not in 5 lab classes.</p>
<p>Choosing a college based on whether or not you’re accepted into an honors program probably isn’t a great idea.</p>
<p>BUsenior - can you elaborate? Just saying it doesn’t give me any idea of why you think honors doesn’t provide enough pluses to put one college over another, assuming they are all fairly equal.</p>
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<p>Yeah, would anyone choose BU Honors College over colleges like Tufts or CMU?</p>
<p>When I say “failry equal”, CMU is clearly stronger than BU so of course you would choose CMU. I was saying that all else being fairly equal, choose the honors college. Of course, one must look at the honors college to see if it provides real advantages for your intended field of study. For example, if you’re into the sciences, they can help you get better research gigs. Some require defended research papers, which looks good to grad schools. From what I’ve read, no one knows how BU’s honors program will work out because they’ve changed it.</p>
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<p>I’m not saying that there aren’t honors programs which offer great opportunities, but wherever you go there will be plenty of chances to distinguish yourself if you’re looking for them. There are so many things that are more important in choosing a school. The likelihood that you’ll look back on your college experience and think “Wow, self, aren’t you glad you were in that honors program? That was life-changing,” is rather low.</p>