<p>My cousin and her ex have completely different views about what is important in a college education for their son, who is a HS senior. Somehow they have negotiated their differences about money (they will not qualify for need-based aid so are relying on merit aid - son is a solid student - composite ACT score of 31), educational and social opportunities, and distance from home to arrive at an honors college of a university as the best choice for the son. Fortunately son is agreeable to this - he's a pretty adaptable kid.</p>
<p>So, my cousin asked me for advice about "the best honors college in the south." I do teach at a university, but not in the south, so I am passing the question on to those of you CC people who have better information.</p>
<p>Driving distance from Auburn is factor one (shorter is better; I could guess why, but I don't know for sure why). Factor two is quality of the honors program. I do understand this factor--some honors programs have a depth and breadth that really makes them like mini-colleges, while others tack on a few honors sections to a few classes and call it an "honors program." Obviously, a more extensive, high-quality honors program is better,</p>
<p>The son is a classic math/science geeky kind of kid. </p>
<p>If the student lives in Alabama, the University of Alabama’s honors college is an obvious choice. UGA also has a very good honors college although it’s not nearly as inexpensive as UA and IMO the opportunities of UGA’s program do not justify a higher cost especially considering that it’s not GA’s hard science school, that honor falls to GA Tech. </p>
<p>If the student does want a heavy STEM school, GA Tech’s programs are extremely rigorous (I would argue more so than honors courses at other institutions). It’s a pretty easy drive from Auburn although it’s much more expensive than his in state offerings. Some might find the cost easy to justify given GA Tech’s overall dominance in hard science and math fields while others will balk at the price tag.</p>
<p>I would assume UAB has a great sciences program with a highly ranked med school attached to it. I just don’t know much about the school other than that there are pretty good merit scholarships there.</p>
<p>The University of South Carolina has the #1 ranked public school honors college in the country (according to a a guide that ranks the top 50) . Many schools have modeled their Honors College after it. My son is a senior in the Honors College there. It is a ‘full service honors’ college. We’ve been very impressed with it. </p>
<p>I’m in the Honors College at Auburn and absolutely love it. He should definitely be able to get some merit money, especially if he would be instate? You say he is a math/science kid, and Auburn has an amazing engineering department/school if that is something that interests him. We are also well known for preparing students for other prehealth professional schools if that is more his thing as well.</p>
<p>The student would also get a sizeable scholarship. </p>
<p>The courses offered in the HC are limited to 15 students per class. </p>
<p>The Honors College is led by Dean Shane Sharpe, an amazing man who truly LOVES the students…and the faculty he selects follows suit. </p>
<p>Where is the student coming from? Auburn?</p>
<p>One of my sons was a math major at Bama and the other was a ChemE major. The math major was in Computer-based Honors and was accepted to every PhD program he applied to. Younger son was in UHP and is now in med school.</p>
<p>Bama has a brand new 900,000 sq ft Science and Engineering Complex…gorgeous and state of the art. </p>
I love the assumption that the kid will assuredly get into an honors college.</p>
<p>A 31 ACT puts the kid in the bottom 25% of the honors class at South Carolina. Not a sure thing at all, especially if he is just a “solid” student. With an average weighted GPA of 4.6, “solid” may not be enough.</p>
<p>True…South Carolina, Auburn, and some others have competitive admissions for their Honors College.</p>
<p>This student would get accepted into Bama’s Honors College for UHP (University Honors Program). His stats are high enough. However, if he wanted to compete for Computer-Based Honors or University Fellows, a 31 isn’t likely strong enough. </p>
<p>Since the parents of this student are divorced, it sounds like there is a funding issue (maybe a disagreement about how much each “side” should pay), so it makes sense for them to seek out big merit and honors colleges as a possibility.</p>
<p>OP…is your nephew interested in Engineering? Computer Science?</p>
<p>I second South Carolina’s Honors college. With a 31 he will be borderline on whether he is admitted or not - that tells you how strong the program is at USC. My daughter is a freshman and 14 of her 17 hours are honors classes with less than 25 kids in each class. She has two classes in her dorm! It is extra work to get a honors diploma though - for example - my daughter took AP US History (5)and if she wasn’t in the honors program she wouldn’t have to take a history class. But the Honors program wants all the students to take an Honors level class in a well rounded curriculum. She has a friend that got a 5 on AP Physics and AP Chem who is majoring in business but he still has to take an Honors lab science. This is one of things that makes USC’s honors college stand out from others.</p>
<p>D1 is in honors at UGA. She loves it and we are happy. Participated in undergrad research as a Freshman and a paid research internship as a sophomore. 31 on ACT would not guarantee admission to UGA Honors and I doubt he would get any merit money.</p>
<p>Ga Tech offers the presidential scholarship- great program. No additional application required, but you need to apply by the first deadline. Unless, he has something else on his application I doubt he would be competitive for this scholarship with 31 ACT.</p>
<p>I will third University of South Carolina’s honors college program. DD received a McKissick Scholarship from USC but did not get accepted to the Honors College. The application is a doozie! It was the most challenging of any our kids did. When dd did it in 2005, it was due December 1 as was the application for admission. If your student is interested in USC’s honors college, I would suggest they get started on that application right now!</p>
<p>It depends on their budget, but the student should be eligible for UGAs ‘Classic Scholars’ which is 1/2 tuition differential for OOS students, amounting to approx $9,100/yr. With their total COA that brings the cost to about $30k. This is certainly not as low as what others offer, but I did want to mention it as someone had mentioned they didn’t think money would be available at UGA. This is not tied to the Honors Program.</p>
<p>Ole Miss’s Barksdale Honors College is a possibility. A geeky student would probably like the Honors residential community, STEM community, or residential colleges (which attract more students who don’t want to go Greek).</p>
<p>I went to the South Carolina Honors College. It has a great program that meshes well with the Engineering/Comp Sci programs for someone who is exceptionally academically focused. It means a lot smaller class sizes and a lot more motivated students.</p>
<p>I ended up leaving the honors college after junior year because for the fields I was interested in (finance/actuary work) it provided no benefit and it was a difficult scheduling classes around non academic schedules.</p>
<p>I highly recommend starting out in the Honors college, if you like it its only 250$ extra a year and if you don’t you can quit with no consequence. It wasn’t for me, but for someone more into school and coursework it was great.</p>
<p>I’d try to get in but the HC is very stat sensitive. I’d also try the SAT for some of the automatic in state colleges SC offers for high stats.</p>