College Park Scholars (v Honors College) Info/Discussion

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Maryland - College Park
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I am starting this discussion, hoping others will contribute, to help give some insight.

The first thing that you need to understand about Honors College at Maryland is that it is different than most school’s honors college. The fundamental difference is that it is not straight up only for the kids with the highest stats, and being invited to scholars is NOT a slight/insult.

Yes, most of the students in honors have the highest stats, but definitely not all. There are absolutely a good number of students in scholars that have higher stats than (some) students that were invited to honors. So, what is the difference? They are two different programs for academically talented students who approach academic challenges differently. It really is about fit. There is no standard numeric thresholds for the stats.

This is my assessment of the differences: Students invited to honors college tend to like challenges in the classroom (basically they took as many AP’s as they could based on what their school has to offer in a variety of subjects). Students invited to scholars tend to challenge themselves outside the classroom more (read they took AP’s (but maybe not as many) and have very impressive EC’s, so clearly the scholars is a better fit).

That’s NOT to say honors don’t have impressive EC’s or that scholars don’t have a lot of AP’s, because they both do.

At first, when my son was invited to honors programs elsewhere but “only” invited to scholars at Maryland, I gotta admit I was surprised. In retrospect, Maryland did a great job of “reading” him, not only through stats, but overall (prob from essays, short answers, etc). He really liked the visits to unique places that scholars offered (he was in STS so he went to Army Research Lab as an example) and the electives he had to choose from to fulfill the program did overlap with his major (yes, they recommend for you to pick a program you are interested in outside your major to expand your horizons, but he is only interested in STEM things) so it was good.

So if you’ve read other threads, you’ve probably read about departmental honors being a bigger deal than honors college. Why are people saying that? It’s not that honors college is anything to sneeze at, but rather invitations are based on high school performance. In comparison, departmental honors acceptance is based on college performance. Obviously, college rigor is more challenging than high school rigor. In addition, at least with engineering, departmental honors includes a research component.

There was one post that asked if you can do scholars and departmental honors. The answer is yes. So, if you didn’t get invited to honors, check out scholars before rushing to appeal that/request honors.

Fwiw, for those wanting to know about honors classes because you’ve heard about the small class size so that’s why you really want honors, there are two types of honors classes. There are honors seminars and H-versions of classes. So, the honors seminars are unique topics that may be able to fulfill a gen ed requirement or they are program-specific (i.e. only students in ACES can take those classes). Those, from what I have heard, are the most interesting/worthwhile classes, but do require a lot of work. Then there are h-versions of classes, so for example, there is MATH141 and MATH141H. Yes, one is a lecture hall 2 days with one day of small discussion, and the honors version is small all the time. However, it is more challenging to do well in the honors version.

Hope that helps.

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Thank you. This is a helpful explanation.

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how do I request honors? I didnt get into it and i really want to be in the honors program if i go to umd

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First off, congrats on your admission!

Here are the pages with info about honors admissions.
http://www.honors.umd.edu/prospective-freshmen.php
http://honors.umd.edu/prospective-current.php
If you were not invited as an incoming freshman, you can definitely apply at the end of freshman year. When I mentioned appeal/request honors, I was referring to a few cases of students I have seen over the years that were invited to scholars and appealed to be in honors for a specific, compelling reason. If you were not invited to scholars, I’m not sure you can do the appeal/request, but that doesn’t mean anything other than I haven’t heard of it. So, if you feel very strongly, it can’t hurt to ask.

On the other hand, I have heard that if you were not invited to either program, you can self-nominate to scholars right away.
https://www.scholars.umd.edu/invited-students/self-nomination

However, please understand that not participating in either program will NOT diminish your experience at Maryland. There is a lot going on and so many opportunities to get involved in a variety of programs once you matriculate!

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What if S was invited to honors but does not want to be in honors college (nor scholars)?

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@JGCStation, out of curiosity, is there a specific reason he doesn’t want to be in it?

He doesn’t have to be in any program. If he doesn’t respond by the deadline (the interest survey/questionnaire), I believe he won’t be put in the program. You can double check at admitted students events to be sure…

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Just wanted to eliminate any concern about social stereotype that people may infer goes with honors housing…being in honors doesn’t mean a less exciting social life. Students in honors like to have just as much fun as any other student. Just like anything else, you will see a lot of variety in how social the dorm is. Yes, there may be some floors that are quieter and some that are far more social.

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Hello @maryversity I have one son in UMD engineering and one prospective one in high school. Can you explain if there is much benefit to engineering students being in honors college? Because it seems that the only honors classes available to them are the calculus classes and a few humanities requirements. It seems that the engineering major classes and even the chemistry (chem135) and physics (phys161) classes for engineers do not have honors equivalents. Let me know if I’m missing something obvious. Thanks.

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Well, I think that depends on the student’s interests and the honors program they choose. One of my son’s good friends did the honors humanities. It was a good choice for him since that program isn’t as demanding with respect to taking specific classes and therefore the flexibility made it easier for him to fulfill the requirements. Did he get anything out of it? Not likely because he did the minimal possible, but that’s him and of course I could be mistaken.

On the other hand, a themed honors college like ACES or EIP would offer a lot for an engineering student to give them a taste of something other than engineering. Let’s face it, engineering is among the toughest courses of study, and there is very little room in their 4 year plans to take courses that are not required (either by engineering department or the university (gen eds)…). So, by being in a structured program that works with departmental and university requirements by double counting courses for the program and their major/or gen eds, it really does help them to expand their horizons at least a little.

My son did QUEST Honors Fellows (an honors program you have to apply to after you matriculate). So, as a sophomore on, he was eligible to take H-version courses, and general honors seminars, but never did. However, he was very busy taking all the honors classes that are restricted to QUEST students (so that was his “themed” honors). He got a LOT out those classes and has a working vocabulary/understanding of terms used often in the business world that he would not have had otherwise. Not to mention, he really loved it and made great friends.

As for the honors classes that are calculus and physics, (aka h-versions), I have heard it’s best to avoid those since they are more challenging to do as well in as the regular versions, so not worth it. However, I have no doubt that some students do enjoy and crave the extra challenge.

As for the honors seminars in general, if you look at the options, they really are some of the most interesting classes offered by the university!!! Check out the options for this spring https://ntst.umd.edu/soc/201601/HONR

Have you seen the one (offered in the past) that is about “Breaking Bad”…?http://www.universityhonors.umd.edu/Term1401/348F.php

Interesting, contemporary issues to make learning more exciting, demonstrating that you can take any topic as opportunity to educate yourself.

But, that’s my two cents.

As for who will enjoy/get a lot out of honors college, a lot depends on the student. What works for one son may not work for the other…

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Do Scholars Invites receive consideration for the Bannaker/Key Scholarship? Or is that only for Honors invites?

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No, you must be in honors to be eligible to be considered for B/K. However, Scholars are eligible for and can receive Presidential Scholarships.

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Hey I really like your post, but I think that distinction might not apply for some people. I took tons of APs and I don’t think my ECs are that great, and I got scholars. There might be something else they’re thinking of.

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@gq2016 of course there are always exceptions, haha. The invite to scholars instead of honors may also have to do with test scores, the way you responded to the short answers on your application, or your essays…

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That was super helpful! I’m seriously considering college park, and I think the honors/scholars are programs I’d be interesting in doing. What is the average SAT and GPA (both weighted and unweighted) people have that are in scholars and hours?

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There are no numeric thresholds. Anecdotally, I would say the average SAT is at least 1400+ for honors and 1320+ for scholars…? However, as I said, there are exceptions in both directions.

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S had a 1470 sat, 3.8 gpa, took many AP classes and was accepted into scholars, not honors. We thought it was strange, but I think the scholars program sounded like a better fit.

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I had a question about this…what if someone gets invited to Honors, but really wanted Scholars? Can they request a change?

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Hmm, that’s an interesting question and it couldn’t hurt to ask. Here’s the page with the contact info http://www.scholars.umd.edu/about/contact-us. However, I would wait to cross that bridge until you get there.

I know that students can self-nominate for scholars, and that after freshman year, you can apply to honors college university honors (no special themed honors though) or departmental honors.

http://honors.umd.edu/prospective-current.php

http://www.scholars.umd.edu/invited-students/self-nomination

Re departmental honors: you are allowed to take any honors seminar you want, but you will need to request “permission” for the specific class you want in advance of signing up for it. While departmental honors is part of the honors college, it does not give automatic access (there is a block on these classes so that only honors college students can sign up directly) to sign up for honors seminars. The “permission” is no big deal and does not involve anything other than an email to the guy in charge…his name is Dean Hebert (Dean is his first name, not a title).

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Daughter invited and accepted into honors program: 650/650/600 SAT. Weighted 4.71 unweighted 3.9. Captain of varsity sport x 2 yrs, class officer, 150 hrs volunteer work. Super recommendations from teachers and volunteer employer. 6 AP classes leading to 9 credits.

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Do you have to live in honors housing if you get accepted?