Interested in the University of Arizona Honors College. The University of Arizona itself is easy to get into. Their honors program is a bit harder. Their unweighted GPA average is 3.86, I’m sitting at a 3.825 going into senior year. Their SAT average is a 1338, I really half-assed prep for the SAT and ended up with a 1360. As far as extra-curriculars go I could put that I’m a debate captain and won a few tournaments in my freshman and sophomore year. I’ve also moved to a different state every single year of High School, so is that something worth mentioning under the section where it asks about anythings not reflected on the application? Should I apply before Senior Year starts and just role with my current GPA and SAT, or wait and try to improve them? I’ve also had less AP and honor opportunities, as I took whatever AP’s and Honors I could freshman and sophomore year. In my new school, there are many more opportunities, and I’m taking almost entirely AP next year. Will this lack of multiple AP classes screw me over, as I’ve taken AP Comp (5), Ap Bio (4), and APUSH (5)
What are my chances looking like? I’m a bit stressed out, since I was taking it pretty chill, but now I’m having doubts.
Any feedback would be appreciated, sorry for the long post.
I’m guessing your GPA is fine. Maybe retake the SAT at the next sitting. Don’t miss the scholarship deadline. My D had a 3.8 UW gpa but a higher SAT. She was accepted to both UArizona honors and Barrett at ASU. A friend with a lower GPA (not sure exacly but definitely lower) and similar SAT got into Barrett but not UA honors college. You can reapply to the honors college after your first year if you don’t get in as a freshman.
You’re fine. Apply as soon as your August SAT results are out though (and study hard before you take them), and before Nov 1st.
In addition, although UA itself is better than ASU, ASU Barrett the Honors college is better than UA honors so make sure you apply there too.
@MYOS1634 can you elaborate on why you think Barrett Honors is better than U of A Honors? Both are on my D19’s list. We’re in state and our HS guidance department gives us the impression that U of A Honors is a little harder to get admitted to, if only because it’s a lot smaller. That’s consistent with the stats:
Barrett 6,894 students, 3.79 average GPA, 1284 average SAT, 28.8 average ACT
U of A Honors 1,074 students; 3.86 mean GPA, 1338 mean SAT, 29.7 mean ACT
I recognize that “harder to get into” doesn’t necessarily mean better. But I’m interested in any other thoughts you have on the subject. Thanks.
The reason I think Barrett is better is in terms of offerings (lots and lots of choices both for gen eds and major-specific classes in addition to the Honors seminars most honors colleges offer) and outcomes (excellent support for internship/national grant applications with impressive results).
Related to the ASU vs UA honors programs, we toured both among several other schools in many different states. University to university, I preferred Arizona over ASU, but my D preferred ASU. Business school to business school was closer, but I’ll give W.P. Carey the nod there for most business disciplines . Honors program to honors program, we both much preferred Barrett. Without getting too bogged down in the details, the Barrett Honors College is a true residential college (at least for the first 1 - 2 years) with many attributes that are reserved for and specific to honors students. There’s a little bit of a liberal arts college bend to the honors program regardless of major, which I thought was pretty cool too. They way it was explained to us, the honors program at Arizona is just that, an honors program, not an honors college. You take certain classes to graduate with honors, there is an honors dorm, but there were not as many bells, whistles, and advantages as at Barrett. Full disclosure, we just dropped her off at ASU Barrett (Tempe) for her freshman year a few days ago, so we’ll see how it goes! Thanks.
For the other perspective, my daughter just visited both and preferred Arizona honors. She is more excited about the first year experience project than the common first year class at Barrett. I’d say the flip side to the “it’s not a coherent program, just a collection of different things” is that Arizona honors is more “choose your own adventure.” I’m sure either program is what the student makes of it.
It may be that things have changed since we went to the info sessions last spring. They may have extended deadlines when they upped the scholarship amounts? It’s clearly in my notes that the scholarship priority deadline was November 1st as of last March. No notes about deadlines at all from the campus tour in August.