<p>Re honors and caliber of students-
Both my kids are in the honors program at state U, and have taken both honors and non honors courses. </p>
<p>The difference in the classroom is that an honors class only has students with 1400+, 4.0+ stats. So yes, the honors classroom experience, as far as peers, duplicates that of the most selective universities in the country. However, in the same <em>non-honors</em> class, you are likely to find as many, or nearly as many, of the same high caliber students. It’s just that there will also be lower-stats students within the same room. Does this undermine the experience? In my son’s opinion, absolutely not. It has no bearing on him whatsoever that there’s a 300 point SAT spread between the guy to his right and the guy to his left. </p>
<p>Thisisspartaaa: My advice is definitely do NOT go to a college that you abhor.</p>
<p>The honors dorm is a huge draw as well, for those that want that type of peer group. Being an honors student at their U, however, does NOT give one scheduling priority over the rest of the students for regular classes. You get priority for the honors classes only. Many students opt not to fill up their schedule with honors classes since they are a little more rigorous.</p>
<p>My sons went to a private hs which only admitted average and above students to begin with. I think they expected to feel on “top” when they went to public U. Older son was surprised that this was definitely NOT the case. He’s sitting in classes like Thermodynamics, Organic Chem, DiffEq, Physics… never felt dumber in his life. (not sure that’s a good thing… :))</p>