<p>Can someone please explain what is an honors program in college and how exactly you get in one? Is it automatic if you are high enough or do you apply specifically for the program? Thanks.</p>
<p>Here's how it works at the University of Washington: Basically, when you apply to the UW, you can also apply to the Honors Program, where you have smaller classes with more academic-oriented students with generally better professors. First you have to get into the UW itself, before you are considered for the Honors Program. So there are two separate aplications: one for the UW as a whole. For that one, there is a question that asks if you're applying to Honors and you check it off if you are. Then you have the Honors application, which is often just an extension of the UW application, for example, the Honors application might just ask a few more essay questions. In fact, for UW-Honors, the application just required a teacher rec and an additional essay. It's just harder to get into because you're competing with brighter students.</p>
<p>At the University of Michigan the Honors program is by invitation only--no application required, though they'll apparently consider you if you ask. An Honors program committee reviews the files of accepted students and invites roughly the top 10% of the entering class to join. It's entirely optional, but there are benefits: you get to skip the usual freshman English comp class in favor of a Great Books course taught by a top prof, and you can register for honors sections of other intro classes, generally smaller, taught by tenured professors (without TAs). You attend these classes with other Honors program students, an academically elite group whose stats compare favorably with HYPS and the very top LACs. And if you so choose (again, this is optional even if you do enroll in the honors program) you can live in Honors housing, essentially sections of a couple of large dorms set aside for Honors-only housing. Most Honors housing is in South Quad, especially convenient to the central campus.</p>
<p>Basically, then, the Honors program gives you many of the advantages of a small elite LAC---small classes taught by full professors in classes alongside the best and the brightest, and a residential setting in which you get to know and interact with your very bright classmates outside of class---but all within a great university, which provides access to one of the nation's largest academic libraries and an almost unlimited array of course choices, far more than you'd get at the typical LAC. In my view it's an extremely attractive option.</p>
<p>Careful, though; not all Honors programs are alike. Some aren't residential, for example, which I think loses much of the benefit. Check the details carefully.</p>
<p>Some (but not Michigan's) also confer automatic merit aid. Check out Michigan State, for example:</p>
<p>Scholarships</a> for Incoming Freshmen</p>
<p>They provide an automatic $8,000/yr to all OOS students enrolled in the Honors College, plus for those with ACT of 33 or better (or SAT cr + m = 1500 or better) a professorial assistantship worth $2300/year and tuition remission to in-state levels---a total package worth a little over $25,000/yr.</p>
<p>My son is in honors program at Northeastern. All applicants automatically considered. Gives you preferential housing for the freshman year, there are honors sections of classes which are more difficult, smaller, taught by full profs. There is an honors office with printing facilities/computers/staff to assist with course registration problems, etc.
Very similar to the poster above except there is no automatic scholarship though most honors students are probably getting some merit scholarship money.</p>