Hello,
I applied to UMass Dartmouth as a safety school, and to my suprise I was accepted into their Honors College. It seems like a good school according to their website (average gpa of 4.04, 1:1 student to faculty research ratio), but I can’t find any outside information on the honors college alone.
What I’m wondering is how it compares, academically, to some other schools I’m looking at, specifically Skidmore College and Wesleyan University. I plan on double majoring in psych and neuroscience, with a possible minor in data analysis. Price is not a factor.
Thanks!
Are you sure price is not a factor? There is a big price difference between these schools , Skidmore and Wesleyan are pretty small LAC and Umass Dartmouth is part of a large state university , although not the flagship campus IIRC.
Yes, I am sure. I’m simply looking at academics.
Wesleyan is the best college on your list., very unique campus vibe , skid more has some of that but I think W is the better school.
I would sit down with the course catalogues for all three institutions, and look at the specific offerings in the various major departments, and the degree requirements. You may find that one or another of them has offerings that are more interesting to you.
You also should dig into the details of the honors program. At some places these are essentially small LACs inside the larger university, at others they are no real distinctions between honors sections and regular sections of classes.
So S had a similar choice a few yrs ago, state flagship honors vs. small highly selective private. He chose private (first private school for him) and has had a great experience both academically and socially. I would describe the difference as going to a school where the entire campus is an honors college vs. carving out a space for high achievers within the general population of the state school.
Full disclosure - many yrs ago I attended my state flagship. I was an honors student (but we didn’t have an honors college - just extra work for the honors students). I had a few high achieving friends and we pushed each other a lot as we were quite competitive but many of my friends were just doing enough to get by. Didn’t realize this then, but I would have loved to have been in an environment where high achievement was the norm.
I mention that because that’s the environment where S attends. Everyone is super sharp and really good at several things. Most were leaders and top students in high school. Something to be said about spending four yrs in that environment where the expectations and results are high, whether they be pre professional, academic, etc.
Don’t know about your particular schools or course of study, but the environment will likely be quite different.
They’re not in the same universe academically.
Both Skidmore and Wesleyan are above UMass (except for CS) which itself is roughly equal but a bit less than UMass Lowell honors which is better than UMass Lowell which is roughly equal to UMass Dartmouth honors which is better than UMass Dartmouth.
Look at the required academic preparation, the bottom and top 25% test scores, the % admitted…
Wesleyan offers the best choice for the programs you’re interested in. If money is no object, then that’s the place to be.