<p>I was recently accepted to American and after being rejected at Penn and Cornell it’s shaping up to be my best option. </p>
<p>One thing that is irking me slightly is that I was not offered admission to the honors college. This is partially a point of pride, I suppose, but I have worked hard during HS and I think my transcript reflects that, and as such I’m wondering why I didn’t get in the honors program. </p>
<p>Any insight offered would be much appreciated.</p>
<p>My qualifications in brief:</p>
<p>SAT: 2380 (800CR 800M 780W)
SAT II: 800 Math II 780 US Hist
AP: Took 6 classes,3 tests, 4s on US Gov and Calc AB and 5 on Psychology
GPA: 3.8
Rank: 20/500</p>
<p>EC’s: Eagle Scout, Senior Patrol leader in Boy Scouts, Scholastic Scrimmage, FBLA with placement at regional and states, NHS, 2 mission trips</p>
<p>Awards: NMS Finalist, county spelling bee finalist like 5 times, Presidential Scholarship nominee (didn’t apply lulz)</p>
<p>Commonapp essay was about lifting weights (lame i know) and recs were probably pretty generic.</p>
<p>I apologize if I sounded arrogant or something, I’m just a little puzzled as to why I wasn’t invited to the honors program as I feel I’m fairly well qualified. Thanks for any ideas!</p>
<p>At this point I don’t think there is anything you can do to get in for freshman year.</p>
<p>As an AU student I can tell you that you can self-nominate into the Honors Program at the end of each year, given you meet the qualifications of item three in the following link:</p>
<p>[University</a> Honors Program | Admission | American University, Washington DC](<a href=“http://www.american.edu/provost/honors/admission.cfm]University”>http://www.american.edu/provost/honors/admission.cfm)</p>
<p>On the other hand, consider doing University College. It’s not Honors, but it’s a worthwhile program that you would not be able to get into otherwise as Honors and UC are mutually exclusive. This is due to how housing for each program is done.</p>
<p>UC is a great social experience where your floormates all share one same class with you and you have an undergradute “program advisor” living with you in addition to the RA. You seem ambitious, so you may be interested in the skill-building aspect of the year-long program (as opposed to the fall-only option). That being that in the spring the year-longs do a research presentation relevant to their course material. 25% of incoming freshman do UC and many self-nominate and get into Honors.</p>
<p>I got into honors as a transfer, my stats were: (note: I didn’t send my SATs since they weren’t required)
HS GPA: 3.96 (AP classes were Spanish and English, my rank is top 10%)
College GPA: 3.94 (with several 300 level and 200 level classes)
4 excellent letters of recommendation
An excellent essay on my upbringing in rural Puerto Rico
8 months of full-time employment
Fully trilingual and working knowledge in a total of 6 languages.</p>
<p>I’ve heard the honors program is very competitive but you seem like a really good fit, so I don’t know why you didn’t get in.</p>
<p>D self nominated for Honors at the end of her freshman year (you need 2 semesters >3.6 and a professor rec). She has really enjoyed the honors program.</p>
<p>I really don’t know why you didn’t get in. As others have said, you can self nominate yourself at the end of freshman year. My daughter is in honors but has many bright friends - who had stellar high school stats - who are not. Not sure what distinguishes one great application from another but I hope it did not deter you from accepting your admission offer.</p>