<p>Can someone enlighten me on the quality of the honors college experience at UMass? The school is on DS' list because for his intended major, it's one of the best departments in the country - otherwise it probably would not be on his radar (other schools are LACs and a couple of very large state schools with honors college programs). His stats are well above the usual student profile for UMass. Will he find enough of a community of intellectually-inclined fellow students? Also, I gather there is some merit money available, particularly if he applies EA - we are OOS. Thoughts?</p>
<p>I also am wondering about the requirements once accepted to the honors college. I could not find much online. It seems that every school is different…some requiring only a little extra work while other Honors programs seem overwhelming while studying for your major and keeping grades high enough to keep scholarships. Any input would be helpful. Thx</p>
<p>I don’t think it is quite up to the level of many southern colleges. In particular, there are very few perks - you don’t get preferential housing selection or special dorms (although one is in the works), you don’t get preferential course registration, there don’t seem to be special scholarships, etc. And it costs an extra $300/year.</p>
<p>It does get you access to better advising and the honors courses are typically pretty small, and I think many of them sound interesting, although I am a parent, not a student. ComCol has its own dean, which is a huge plus, and their own web site. </p>
<p>In my personal opinion, it is too big - something like 15% of all students are in ComCol. The school obviously disagrees.</p>
<p>There’s tons of information here:</p>
<p>[UMass</a> Amherst: Commonwealth College the Honors College at UMass Amherst](<a href=“http://www.comcol.umass.edu/index.html]UMass”>http://www.comcol.umass.edu/index.html)</p>
<p>If your kid is high-stats, you have a good chance at some merit aid that narrows the gap between IS and OOS, the highest seem to cover about 1/2 the difference. Other than that, UMass doesn’t seem to give out a tremendous amount of merit aid.</p>
<p>
If this is code for “doesn’t party”, then yes, there are plenty of kids who don’t. If you mean “stay up all night arguing some nuance of world politics”… I’m sure every school has kids like these, but even at a top LAC they are probably tough to find.</p>
<p>
I think you generally take 1 Honors class per semester, and have to do some sort of project at the end. Not too sure what that involves, my kid hasn’t gotten that far yet.</p>
<p>Thanks - very helpful. Sounds like it may go into DS’ list for eventual grad school but not a real undergrad match.</p>
<p>I’ll be keeping an eye on this thread. The honors college website seems to be a bit deceiving; it gave me the impression that Commonwealth is its own small, intimate community and unless I misread, I could have sworn it said that students there have their own separate residence halls and areas. A Google search, however, brought up many posts from honors students who were less than impressed with the reality. </p>
<p>If it helps, PghMom, I’m OOS and I got a really tempting merit aid offer.</p>
<p>What in particular makes you think UMass is not a good match?</p>
<p>@PghMomof2 May I ask what son’s major is. Just wondering because you said it was one of the best for his major in the country. Thanks.</p>
<p>
There are floors of freshman dorms that are for Honors students, divided by areas of interest, called RAPs (Residential Academic Programs), but as of right now there are no dorms (that I am aware of) that are entirely filled with only Honors students. And after freshman year there is no special Honors housing that I am aware of.</p>
<p>The school is in the process of building a new 1500 bed Honors-only dorm, but that won’t be open until 2013.</p>
<p>Like most things at large state universities, you get out what you put in. There is very little hand-holding. If you are expecting research opportunities, for example, to land in your lap just because you are in the Honors college, you will be disappointed. If you seek out the experiences, you will find them.</p>
<p>DS is planning to major in linguistics…obviously that could change, but he’s fairly set on it for now.</p>
<p>One thing to think about when you have high stats. Do you want to be the big fish in the sea, or the little fish in the sea? There are two types of kids with high stats. The kids that are naturally academically gifted, and those that have been manufactured through helicopter parenting. The former are your Bill Gates types that will be the tops wherever they go. The latter will face huge stress and depression going to a college where everyone has the 4.0+ GPA and perfect SAT scores. They are use to being the tops, now they are not. Parents freak that they bring home B’s and C’s now. Its that they are a B student, they are who they are. The worse thing is to put pressure on these kids. Personally, I feel someone who is a good student, but not that extraordinary brainiac would do great at a school like UMass Commonwealth College. They will draw the attention of a lot more people. I am so excited that the new building and dorms for honors kids will open in several years, that was a huge move on UMass’ part. If you want to see an example of true brainiacs, watch the MSNBC special that they have been running about the creation of Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg and his pals. If you feel your child can chime in on their conversations, then go for an Ivy. If not, look at other excellent solid options because they will be competing against the Zuckerbergs at the premier schools. Do you want that?</p>
<p>RAPs are not for honors students, you just take two or three classes per semester together, based on a theme. It’s only for freshman year. I wasn’t in the Commonwealth College (honors college) but I have many friends who were. The College talks itself up a lot to students but the consensus is that it’s a big joke. Some of the honors classes I’ve taken have had really great Professors, but anyone can take them. You are required to write a senior thesis/project (30-50 pages usually), take some honors courses, and take an extra ComColl class for 2 semesters called Dean’s book where you all study the same book, which is usually a pretty simple, pop-culturey book. The advisers in ComColl are apparently much worse than for the rest of the University as well. Hope this helps, overall I’d skip ComColl, there’s not much of an advantage and the thesis requirement will make senior year a lot harder for no good reason. Although they used to grant high academic honors at graduation (Magna cum laude etc) to honors college grads, I believe they have ended this policy. Put your energy into being involved in your major’s department and networking there instead of the honors college would be my advice.</p>
<p>^^^ So on one hand you complain that ComCol is a joke, and on the other you complain about the extra work it requires. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>And there are Honors RAPs:</p>
<p>[RAPs</a> Choices | Commonwealth Honors College](<a href=“http://www.honors.umass.edu/raps-choices]RAPs”>http://www.honors.umass.edu/raps-choices)</p>
<p>I have a friend who is a sophomore in Comm College, very high stats, who is thinking about dropping it. He is a Chem major, and has told me he has found little value-added in being in Comm College; in fact, it has kept him from taking other courses he would like to take.</p>
<p>Thought it was time to reactivate this thread with a new school year and admissions cycle underway. </p>
<p>Any recent students/parents have any comment on the UMass Honors experience? Is that new Honors building underway yet? I see no mention of it on the Commonwealth Common home page.</p>
<p>I was at UMass for Parent’s Weekend last weekend and they are doing site preparation (grading, etc.) for the new CommCol building.</p>
<p>Hi!
I’m a student and I was fairly set on attending the UMass Honors College but from what I’m reading, it seems like it’s not worth it?
Preventing me from taking other courses I want to take isn’t really appealing to me - and that the advisers for Honors is worse than regular? That’s crazy! 
If those things are true, I’m not sure that I want to go…
and I also read in one of the comments that they don’t give extra honors anymore as a graduate of being part of the Honors College??
So what is the advantage? Would I be able to meet better professors? Smaller classes?</p>
<p>It irks me that there is so much misinformation on this site. I’m a current junior at Umass and since I’m already on here looking at grad schools I might as well clear some stuff up.
I am in the honors college. Like every other experience ever it is what you make of it. Being in the honors classes gives you access to honors RAPS (honors floors, I highly recommend them if you want to be surrounded by other high minded individuals), honors classes (they are capped off at 24 people, a good way to fill gen eds) and a thesis.
There are 2 ways to graduate with honors from Umass.
- be a commenwealth college member, complete a thesis (huge for graduate schools) and you can get com col honors (magna, summa etc.)
- get a high enough gpa (it depends on the department) and graduate with latin honors.
Therefore it is possible to graduate with 2 different types of honors (elite students do)</p>
<p>I have greatly enjoyed my Umass and Honors experience. Not expecting to come here I met a lot of other people with the same mind set and they all love it honors and non honors. I for one didnt mind the extra com col requirements (some people like it, others hate it I dont think its that hard to pick one that seems interesting though), the classes were small and intimate, and my thesis (effects of stress and addiction on decision making) is going to give me a huge boost when I am inevitably going on to grad school.</p>
<p>Thanks fireandice07!!
So I guess UMass Honors college wouldn’t be so bad afterall haha
It’ll remain on my list of colleges then :)</p>
<p>Since I’m seriously considering UMass Amherst now, I was wondering what the work load is like. I don’t really have college friends that I can ask about these little things, so any info would be appreciated!
How fast pace are classes? Is HW a daily assignment kind of thing, or a here’s-what-you-need-to-get-done-in-two-weeks?
Is it any different form high school AP classes? harder? easier (I doubt that…)?</p>
<p>It depends on what type of class you’re taking. For example I’m a science major so I have had to do homework essentially every day, however if you are a history of english major most of the assignments are longer essays so there are less of them. I could usually coast in high school even most of the AP classes and I do have to say that Umass academically is a lot harder. It might be a trait that’s shared across colleges but theres no question that Umass is going to require more work. Of course college is so different than high school in the sense that you live at your school so even though you have more work, you still have a ton of free time to hang out with your friends, volunteer and join one of the activities on campus</p>