Does FSU invite high stat students to accept honors college? Or does everyone that gets the freshmen scholarship have to apply? Is anyone automatically admitted?
I believe the only auto admits to the honors college are those who receive the Benacquisto scholarship, which is for National Merit Finalists. Everyone else must apply, and you are only allowed to apply if you receive the University Freshman Scholarship, the 100% Out of State Tuition Waiver or are a National Merit Semifinalist.
The FSU honors college webpage says admission to the honors college is by application only. I don’t believe there are auto admits.
@funfit, my daughter just received her admissions decision, and Searching2020 is correct - Benacquisto does include auto-admit into honors.
Yes, I stand corrected (happily). 
Congrats!!! That’s awesome. We got the freshmen scholarship so will fill out the application. Fingers crossed
I may have spoken too soon. I don’t believe honors is an auto admit. I believe our NMSF kids still need to do the honors application. Admittance is “guaranteed” but not automatic. I will be calling the honors office on Monday morning to double check this but just wanted to put it on your radar, just in case we might all be mistaken about this. I will come back and post her once I hear from FSU.
@amsunshine, thank you so much for the heads up! The phrasing is definitely open to interpretation, but I think you may be correct. She was looking for info on the Presidential Scholarship, and it seemed like it was tied into the Honors app somehow as well.
@TrendaLeigh Yes, you are correct. The Presidential is tied in with the Honors App anyway. I believe there may be an additional requirement for the Presidential, but in any event, I’ve already sent an email to the honors administrator and will post what I find out asap.
I hope someone will correct me if I’m wrong, but I was under the assumption that the Honors College application was used to choose the students that are brought in to interview for the Presidential Scholars program. In that case, so that you’d be under consideration for Presidential Scholars I can see why they’d want you to fill out the Honors College application even if you were already guaranteed admission to the Honors College. I’ve heard wonderful things about the Presidential Scholars program, it’s quite prestigious.
I finally was able to speak to someone in the honors office. It was a student, mind you, but she seemed to speak to someone who knew what they were talking about. She said the Benacquisto students are “auto” admitted to honors, but to be considered for the Presidential award, all students, including Benacquisto students, need to complete the honors application. So I suppose if your student is not interested in competing for the Presidential award, he/she would not need to do the application.
Daughter printed out the FSU Honors application so I could see it - wow, it’s fairly involved! Hoping she is selected to the Honors College. Fatigue has definitely set it for completing essays and applications lol.
Does anyone know what percent of freshmen scholarship winners, that fill out the honors application, get accepted?
The application is horrible, SEVEN ESSAYS. And no BS on any of them, they require you to link them all together, etc. It will take more work than most college applications; I know plenty of adults who would struggle with it. Also, it seems like they really don’t want you just because you are smart, they want you to be one of those kids who started a nonprofit at age 16, so if not, you’re SOL.
It’s bit frustrating.
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S just submitted the Honors app and yes, it’s a doozy. It really requires students to reflect on who they are and what’s important to them.
I agree- very in depth. And students are only given just over two weeks to complete it! It’s almost cruel, especially since so many high school seniors are just completely fatigued from applications like this by now. I wish it was more like UF’s process- you apply to the Honors program concurrent to your regular application. I’m determined to get through it, but boy, I am feel the second-semester-senior-year drain.
I wonder if FSU Honors does this intentionally, so they get a truer response that does not have time to be over-edited.
S20 submitted his honors app yesterday. I do think FSU runs the honors program admission this way to narrow the candidates down to kids that have a strong possibility of committing. Why do all that work if FSU really isn’t a top contender for next year? And yes, those questions required some effort - certainly not the shoe-in honors apps at other schools. Happy to have this last push done as S20 is definitely burnt out at this point.
I wonder how many students are accepted to the honors program?
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@funfit Seems like I saw somewhere that there were 400 or so in Honors but I can’t find that info now.