<p>Can anyone fill us in on this? Are the Honors dorms better? Can you take more honors courses than the minimum? My d is trying to decide between College Park and Towson. So far College Park has said nothing about money and Towon has been most generous. Money is a huge issue for us. help!</p>
<p>Here's a link to the Honors college site:
<a href="http://wwwnew.towson.edu/honors/%5B/url%5D">http://wwwnew.towson.edu/honors/</a></p>
<p>Are you planning to go to one of the admitted student days next month? Might be a good idea to get the final feel. We still haven't gotten our finaid package but as oos, I don't expect much.</p>
<p>We have spent the day there on tour and open house before but may do it again. They are offering so much money it will be hard to turn down. My d also got into College Park Scholars program but no news of money yet and money is our big problem. I would like to see the inside of an honors dorm. We only saw a regular one.</p>
<p>My son go into the honor's college several years ago. My daughter just got rejected from the Honor's College this year with stats than my son. I guess it really got harder to get in. If you have questions, call me.</p>
<p>Tax guy- if you don't mind, what were your daughter's stats? What did you think of the Honors college? Is it that more difficult than the regular school? They are offering us so much money it's going to be hard to turn down although we haven't heard about money from anyone but them so far.</p>
<p>Taxguy- you left out a word in your post....were your daughter's stats better or worse than your son's? I'm assuming better??????.......??????? How much better?</p>
<p>Marylandgirl asks,"Tax guy- if you don't mind, what were your daughter's stats? What did you think of the Honors college? Is it that more difficult than the regular school? They are offering us so much money it's going to be hard to turn down although we haven't heard about money from anyone but them so far"</p>
<p>Response: I liked the benefits of the Honor's College. If you get in, stay in Richmond dorm. It is very social, with lots of honors kids and things to do. I highly recommend it. Getting first dibs on courses is also a nice benefit. Moreover, you are really well respected by the other kids in college. Finally, all kids in the honor's program get money.</p>
<p>As for my daughter, her stats were better than my son's. She had an unweighted average GPA of 3.45 and a weighted average of 3.95 and had 1820 on the new SAT (640 M and 580 verbal and 600 writing). She also was in the school's internal humanities magnet program, which required her to take almost all honors and AP courses and to submit a senior research project, which had to be defended in front of 3 faculty members.</p>
<p>My son had an unweighted GPA of 3.6 but a weighted GPA of only 3.7. He took very few honor's courses and didn't participate in the school's magnet program. Maybe Towson doesn't give additional weight to either honors or AP courses, which would be idiotic.</p>
<p>My daughter also had a very strong portfolio and applied to the school of art. However, there is no portfolio required for that school, and they don't even look at it for admission. Thus, her talent wasn't factored in despite applying as an art student. Go figure. Both RIT and Syracuse offered her substantial scholarships. </p>
<p>Is it more difficult? Not really. You do take a few honor's courses, which I really don't see much of a difference. In addition, these courses tend to be small. For example, my sons honor's accounting course had 12 kids!</p>
<p>Taxguy-thanks so much for sharing you information. It really sheds some light on our situation as I have an 11th grader this year as well as a senior ,so we will do this all over again next year. Your daughter's background is very impressive--I can't understand why Towson didn't grab her right up. Definately their loss............As for RIT, I have a niece there who is doing very well and LOVES it. She is majoring in photography. It has an outstanding reputation so you may be better off (if you know what I mean).............</p>
<p>Marylandgirl, actually, her top pick, so far, is University of Cincinnati. They have a very highly-ranked program in design and archtecture that contains 1.5 years of paid coops for everyone. My daughter was guaranteed at least 5k scholarship and maybe more, which we will find out by April. She did like RIT a lot though.</p>
<p>Personally, I am a bit put off by Cincinnati for several reasons. First, it is located in a somewhat seedy area. I would never want her to live off campus.</p>
<p>Secondly, although they have an amazing ranking in both design and archtecture, part of this is due to their school wide coop program. This means that my daughter would have to go to a strange city or area, get an appartment without knowing what the surrounding area is like, and do this once every other quarter starting in her junior year. She would have to grow up very quicly, which could be good and bad.</p>
<p>Finally, although Cincinnati has a fabulous reputation in art and design, most of their other undergraduate majors are mediocre at best. I am worried about the non- design part of her education. However, it is hard to beat the price for such a well- ranked program. In addition, we are wating to hear about scholarship money too.</p>
<p>She is still waiting on two other schools: Carnegie Mellon and Rhode Island School of Design. She will make her choice after she hears from all schools.</p>
<p>As far as Towson making a mistake, there is no question about it. She even took 15 credits of actual college courses during her high school year and achieved a 3.66 in these courses, and they still didn't count that. She doesn't care though. Towson isn't her top choice anyway. Although they just built new and beautiful facilities, they don't have a great reputation in art or design yet.</p>
<p>I applied to the Honors College and I haven't heard anything. Although I'm 99.999...% certain that I'm going to College Park - I'm still curious. I received a scholarship letter a few weeks ago - but I've never heard back from the Honors College application.</p>
<p>I have friends over at Towson - the honors dorms are cool classic buildings - the other freshies live in the Towers or Residence Tower - which are classis high rises - but they do have AC (unlike most college freshie dorms). The small classes and preferential registration is a real plus as my buds have consistently had problems registering and hitting closed classes. They haven't complained about class sizes though.</p>
<p>So when did you all hear about the Honors Program decision? Was it in a letter or online?</p>
<p>Well Taxguy - your dau is in good company (or at least I think so ;>) I got the letter today from the Honors College, turning me down. </p>
<p>This is first rejection for anything, so makes me a little sad - but good news is that Towson had fallen to the bottom of my list behind College Park and Penn State University Park (got fall admission to each) and 4 other schools which offered me honors and $. Based on what I've seen from sitting in on my friends's classes and observing their "stretch" level in the regular program at Towson, they only way I would have gone there would have been as a participant in the Honors College. Just not enough challenge for me - I'd get lazy and not make the most of the 4 years.</p>
<p>Would be interesting to know what criterion Towson HC used to make their cuts. I received a very generous merit scholarship - with instate tuition, it was basically a free ride. My stats were similar to your daughter's and my advisor said my Honors application essay was very well written. I actually received unsolicited feedback from someone in the Honors Program at Maryland telling me that my recommendations were outstanding and two different honors programs there put me on their list. I opted out of honors at CP because I really wanted their Civicus program - to which I was also invited. Soooooo.....who knows what Towson HC was looking for - guess they are working on some kind of balance that makes sense to them.</p>
<p>I'll be sending Towson my no thanks letter this week so they can work that waiting list! GGT</p>