<p>I can see there's not a lot of activity on this board, but I'm interested in impressions of CHC. (And If there's another place on the internet with more conversation related to UO and CHC, I 'd also be interested to know about that.) My D is looking at the honors college, and I can't find anything about it other than what it publishes about itself. Would love some reviews from students or parents with experience there.</p>
<p>We will be visiting in the next couple of weeks, so I'll let you know our impressions. I was impressed in arranging the visit that the person at the honors college was gracious about emailing a professor so my daughter could sit in on a class - the professor replied positively almost immediately. I also called a couple of different departments to arrange visits or ask questions and everyone was helpful and/or called back to respond to a message promptly. We'll also have a chance to visit with a friend of hers who currently lives in the honors dorms.</p>
<p>noseemom, I would really love to hear your impressions of the program, the classes your D visits, and the honors dorms. That would really be great.</p>
<p>I'd also like to hear about your visit to CHC, noseemom! I'll check back here over the next few weeks.</p>
<p>PM me if you have questions about UO in general. I'm a currently a student here.</p>
<p>I know of three students currently in UO honors college, a sophomore and two juniors. All of them regret being in it and recommend against it. One is an Art major, two are science majors. The UO honors college seems to work for students majoring in non-science liberal arts (English/philosophy/history/etc.), but not other majors. It's an additional unnecessary burden for science majors and the course schedule doesn't work at all with the Art department.</p>
<p>Also, once you are in the Honors College, you can't drop out, because you lose your general ed credits and have to redo them. Finally, some of the professors that teach Honors classes are terrible, and the student doesn't have a choice for certain courses.</p>
<p>Some Honors colleges reward students by letting them take less general ed classes and allowing more flexibility with double majors (UW Honors is one example), others punish them by adding requirements like thesis or narrowing down their choices. UO's Honors college seems to be in the second category. </p>
<p>Check carefully which classes they actually offer in a given quarter and see if they match your student's interests. Talk to students who are juniors and seniors to ask what they think of the Honors College.</p>
<p>Honors Dorm is old and small. The community of student peers is very nice though.</p>
<p>We just returned from a visit from CHC and U of O. I'm having trouble posting for some reason, so this may be in a few sections, don't want to lose it again. CHC is on the 3rd floor of Chapman Hall. It's a small space, but cozy. There's an office area with about three small offices, a nice little library (with a librarian just for CHC students), a computer lab, a small lounge with adjoining kitchen, and a handful of classrooms. I liked that the adults seemed accessible and to know the students.</p>
<p>There are three legs to a U of O degree: major courses, electives, and general education requirements. CHC students take their general ed requirements at the honors college. These courses are different from the requirements at the regular college. Portlandparent is correct that students who withdraw from CHC may be required to take additional courses. There is a literature sequence and history sequence that is required. At 4 hrs each, it would about half the freshman course load (although a student doesn't need to complete them both until the end of sophomore year). AP and IB credit can be used toward honors math, science, multicultural, and second language, but not the history and lit sequences.</p>
<p>The courses are taught by full professors and are capped at 25 students. THere are arranged like a liberal arts college. Reading, discussion, lots of writing. (CHC students don't take WRiting 121, 122). The two freshman we know in the program feel like they're in a small liberal arts college and are so far happy with their choice. The upper division courses change each term and cover a variety of interesting topics. </p>
<p>Our tour guide did mention that some majors are tougher to mix with honors, mentioned architecture and music as examples.</p>
<p>The way I understand it the honors dorms may change location from year to year and so are not so much a particular physical space, but a couple of subsections from one of the dorm complexes. This year they are in Walton. U of O dorms don't have a terrific rep, but this complex was better than some in my opinion. The students we know are stellar and are happy with the friends they've made in the honors dorms (honors students don't have to choose honors housing)</p>
<p>I was satisfied that the classroom experience would be like a liberal arts college. Small classes, individual attention, advising from full professors, discussion, writing. I've spent more time on liberal arts college campuses in the last few years and was reminded that U of O is a big, busy university. The general campus experience would be different, I think, than a LAC where the campus stretches out for 1500 students and most faces are familiar. It seems a terrific fit for a student that wants a taste of an LAC, but also wants to explore a pre-professional degree ( U of O is strong in journalism, architecture, and business) or for the students that wants the advantages of a big university (lots of choices, D1 sports).</p>
<p>We are definitely considering CHC. Liked the idea of a few small classes and an honors community. However, portlandparent's advice seems good. Scheduling between a demanding degree and required honors courses could be difficult. I would love to hear from any upperclassmen about their experience, especially about the freshman experience of being part of the honors community, and about dealing with the additional requirements once they are busy with their major.</p>
<p>Thanks so much noseemom. I'm new to the UO board but will be applying there this week...already?!</p>
<p>Thank you, noseemom. Your posts are really informative. I hope my daughter and I can get up to visit very soon. She's a born English major, so it also sounds like CHC would work well with her major.</p>
<p>I entered the Honors College in the fall of 1962. The program was in its infancy, in retrospect so was I. The first evening that class of 100 or so gathered to be welcomed by Kester Svendsen, Eng. Dept. Chairman. He quickly challenged us to realize that we were being presented the opportunity to be adults by embarassing a young woman about gum-chewing and others who had continued to light up cigarettes in the hall we were gathered. From that moment on the environment was absolutely oriented to the pursuit of knowledge so different from the larger university. We had full professors, class sizes of 6-10, seminars, lectures and high expectations. Though I had breaks from the college for academic reasons, The foundations of my future college experience were laid there. Today three of my best friends are people I met in the first few days there. If the college has maintained its mission, I can not think of a better place for a young person to pursue an intellectual path.</p>
<p>One unattractive thing about the Honors College is that there is a $700/qtr added fee. It might be justified, but doesn't seem to be a good way to attract and keep the brightest students.</p>
<p>Bump. My S is very interested in CHC and we plan to stop in for a visit during a West Coast college tour in May. I'd love to hear any more impressions of it -- or any other honors programs/colleges in the West where merit aid is a decent possibility for strong but not amazing out-of-state students.</p>
<p>Major: Japanese and General Science
Professional Objective: Medicine or Veterinary</p>
<p>The honors college has not been horrible but it has not served my majors and has detracted from the quality I could put into my prerequisites for professional school. If you are in a literature, humanities (more so on the side of Europe… I’m in Asian studies and feel painfully ignorant in all the Europe-geared social sciences classes I have been required to take), history, sociology… seems like the program serves those students pretty well. Instead of having to go through 2 or 3 writing classes honors students take at least 5 in a sequence from literature and history. There are about 5 colloquia</p>
<p>–Colloquia: small seminar classes from the categories of Literature, Social Science, and Science—</p>
<p>that also must be taken… however I have felt that they have LIMITED the scope of my classes. Look at the classes that are available… they are all published on the honors college website (and if they look good than the honors college is the place for you). Many have to do with European literature and history. GRANTED one or two of the professors I’ve had HAVE been amazing and have tried to make the program work for me. (But still, I feel, it really just doesn’t work… there are other non-double major pre-meds in the classes that don’t seem to be having as tough a time with it…) </p>
<p>The classes have been ok to good to excellent, but I feel I have had to give up interesting classes in my majors to take them and don’t have the freedom to do three majors like some of my friends. </p>
<p>Favorite professors: Professor Fracchia and Professor Cogan— Professor Fracchia was excellent in guiding us through a class in his interests about Marx and other thinkers on Capitalism–then coaching us through writing our own research projects on subjects relevant to our career objectives. I loved it. Some of the other classes make me feel cheated.</p>
<p>For science majors: I don’t think it works… but 46% of the student body is in science and coping with it. </p>
<p>PROS:</p>
<p>coaching in independent research, small class sizes, a few stellar educators who truly care about where the students are going… </p>
<p>That’s my biased opinion. Also, I don’t seem to feel the same diversity in the honors college classes as my other university classes. I’m not sure why… maybe it’s because there are so many “academics” in one place… not the same range of interests you get in other classes where the interests are more distributed. </p>
<p>My advice: KNOW what the honors college IS and what it IS NOT</p>
<p>It is SMALL, SMALL GENERAL ED CLASSSES, PASSIONATE FACULTY</p>
<p>It is NOT SCIENCE or ARCHITECTURE directed… but PEOPLE MAKE IT WORK… and in my opinion the small classes are not that diverse. Despite the small class sizes I have not made my closest friends in the honors college. (granted, majors in the h.c. are diverse)</p>
<p>(Right now I’m taking a colloquia “The Social Determinants of Health” and I am quite happy with it…)</p>
<p>My kid is in the honors college and has found it is an excellent match for her. She’s had exceptional professors and has enjoyed the level of participation of the other honors college students. I think pixipatrin makes a good point about diversity in the honors college, but my daughter feels she gets a lot of that in her major and minor classes.</p>
<p>I have heard other students talk about the program working better with some majors than others, and I can well imagine that is true. My daughter is an English major and it’s been an excellent combination for her.</p>
<p>She said the biggest complaint she hears from other honors college students is that it’s too hard. She said this complaint is pretty rampant, and not without justification. My daughter has also found it to be very demanding, but chose it for that reason so it is what it is.</p>
<p>The main thing she sees is the different level of teaching, discussion and intellectual engagement in the honors college. She said her classes outside the honors college have had a different culture – more students who are passive in class, fail to attend class, or slack off in other ways. That is, however, improving in her major department as she’s moving into only upper division classes.</p>
<p>I agree with that. My experience has not been horrible. It’s just been lukewarm. It is the rigor of the humanities classes that make it difficult to do at the same time as a science major. I can spend my time memorizing mechanisms for an organic chemistry exam… or I can spend my night reading a book for a writing project. But it is realistic that such tasks must be juggled and for people who are truly passionate… where there is a will there is a way and there definitely is that can-do attitude in the honors college.</p>
<p>I have also seen the different culture in my honors college classes from other humanities classes. People are there to learn and do the work. It’s intimidating but even so by the ending weeks of a course the classes develop a sense of community and discussion is easy–best, people actually make an effort to be interested! Or talk more seriously and critically abount works and concepts being discussed.</p>
<p>Some comparisons:</p>
<p>JPN305 (Intro Japanese Lit)
-all multiple choice exams
-100+ students in class, 25-ish in 1x/week discussion (which sometimes feels casual, and not critical or thoughtful)
-one “project”–one page paper and informal presentation in class ~8 min, no guidance and largely without useful feedback
-most students just taking to fulfill a requirement</p>
<p>HC434H Social Science Colloquia
-15+ page paper (working closely with a professor throughout the term)
-Formal presentations: both in presenting work and responding to others’ work
-~18 students
-students taking out of personal interest, a few for the credit but not on the same level.</p>
<p>(The Japanese program does have 400 level classes that are more similar to the structure of honors college classes, but they aren’t required for my major… instead I am confined to honors college classes outside of my major–but there is a petition process, and I do understand the idea of rounding out students by exposing them to other subjects… developing critical thinking)</p>
<p>The OSU honors college is much more geared towards science majors than the UO program. The requirements to get in are about the same at both OSU and UO. The average honors college student has a high school GPA of around 3.95 with an average SAT in the mid 2000 -2100 range at both schools.</p>