My son has been accepted into the Honors College but I am struggling to find information on the academics/benefits etc. I Does anyone know whether there are classes specifically for honors students, or are there just some seminars that he could attend? He’s thinking of majoring in economics or political science whereas most comments I have seen refer to STEM majors. Is this going to be a good fit? Should he live in Honors housing? That seems to be the major benefit of the program.
Yes, there are departmental honors classes as well as University Honors classes. He needs 18 credit hours in honors courses to graduate with honors. An example would be Honors Calculus v Regular. I’m sure there are also honors classes in his area of study. He would definitely benefit from the smaller classes in his core classes. Honors students also get priority registration.
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Does anyone know whether there are classes specifically for honors students, or are there just some seminars that he could attend?
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There are classes specifically for honors students, particularly classes that fulfill the Core/GenEd.
I will have to look to see what’s offered in the Bschool.
The priority registration is awesome.
honors housing can also be a big plus.
Here are some of the Honors Classes that are B-school related
AC 210 Honors Introduction to Accounting
Introduction to accounting and financial reporting concepts and the use of accounting information in financial and managerial decisions
EC 110 Honors Principles of Microeconomics
Introduction to microeconomic analysis concentrating on consumer and producer behavior, competitive and imperfect markets, public policy and regulation, and income distribution.
EC 111 Honors Principles of Macroeconomics
Introduction to macroeconomic analysis concentrating on national income, price levels, employment, monetary and fiscal policies, and international trade and development.
EC 308 Honors Intermediate Microeconomics
Examination of the theory of price and the theory of resource allocation. Topics include demand theory, production and cost functions, pricing and output under competitive and noncompetitive conditions, resource markets, and rudiments of general equilibrium analysis.
EC 309 Honors Intermediate Macroeconomics
A study of the theoretical framework underlying income, employment, and growth analysis.
FI 410 Honors Intermediate Financial Management
Development of advanced practices of financial management and their application to decision making in the business firm.
GBA 171/172/271/272/371/372 STEM Business Honors I-VI
These courses build students’ critical and innovative thinking skills as they pertain to the issues of today’s business environment, while providing a modest introduction to financial information and accounting concepts, financial management, financial markets & investment strategies and the money supply and banking systems. These courses develop business model design as a tool to better understand how businesses operate, and build an understanding of human centered design for students with the opportunity to work in teams with a goal of developing an appreciation and basic understanding of the importance of business skills in their STEM careers. They will also create opportunities to network with other students as well as other business faculty, and are restricted to selected students.
GBA 481/482/483/484 Business Honors Seminar I-IV
These courses are interdisciplinary and emphasizes discussion and debate of contemporary business and economic issues and topics.
Honors Introduction to Ethics
This course is designed to give the students a broad introduction to the field of philosophical ethics. The primary aim is to acquaint students with the basic subject matter of ethics as it is studied within philosophy, a few central authorities and positions, and a feel for how philosophers engage with contemporary ethical issues in light of some of the historical influences on the discipline. We will read a variety of texts ranging from historical works on ethics generally to contemporary works focusing on specific moral issues. The hope is that students will develop an understanding and appreciation of how different ethical theories apply to particular cases, and how they might begin to engage in genuine ethical debates.
The Honors College has a partnership with UA’s Law School to allow select invited Honors students access to certain LAW classes as undergraduates. The topics and availability vary by semester.
LGS 200 Honors Legal Environment of Business
Environmental approach to the study of law, including the way the law interrelates, philosophy of law, and sources of law. The relationship among law, business, political
But to look at the hundreds of honors course offerings, click on this link and then click on the different categories
UH Fine Arts
UH Humanities
UH Social Behavioral
UH Writing
UH Non Core
Departmental
Thanks so much.
Respectfully, I think there may be three types of HC people at UA: those who use the HC designation purely for its registration benefits (and do the bare minimum to stay in the HC?); those who fully embed themselves in the HC culture and will take advantage of everything the HC has to offer, including taking much more than the bare minimum and attending HC events and really engaging with HC staff and students; and those who will start in the HC and drop out (for a variety of reasons).
My STEM son has not had the time to necessarily ‘enjoy’ the value of the HC, because he is in a very challenging major which eats up his schedule and there has been very little room for deviation into other coursework. He pointed out to me very recently that he felt having early registration is over-rated (at least for him and within his major). This is because registration is taken off of actual earned hours (not AP/CLEP hours), so beyond his initial semester, especially in engineering classes, there were no caps on his required courses. ALL STEM-majors will get the courses they require to graduate, and graduate on time. After your first year in engineering/STEM, you are pretty much with a cohort and have moved beyond the basic prerequisite classes anyway. UA COE does a great job of adding seats/sections where needed. Being part of the HC has not helped with registration, nor is needed, in that regard.
I think that being part of the Honors College is even more valuable for non-STEM majors, though, especially IF you are a student who will take advantage of the HC and its many events and interaction. If you’re just joining to join, I don’t think there is much point; but you never know until you join, right?
To really find out if HC is for your student, have them look at this and contact HC to speak to an actual student in their major: http://honors.ua.edu/admission-to-honors/honors-college-ambassadors/
Also, here is a full list of departmental honors courses: http://honors.ua.edu/academics/honors-courses/departmental/. Post #1 above mentions earning departmental honors as opposed to HC honors. Departmental Honors is often much more rigorous than merely HC designation on your diploma. Students can also take honors-by-contract coursework to complete departmental honors, and these courses will probably require significantly more work than ‘regular’ courses. Make sure your student is aware of Departmental Honors within their major - it might be something they want to strive for, than merely being part of the HC.
I would respectfully disagree with aero on on the point that registration does not take AP/CLEP hours into consideration. My son registered for his second semester as a Sophomore based solely on his AP/CLEP credits.
Did that help him in getting the classes he wanted? Not sure how to know that for sure. Could be the classes he is taking or the professors he signed up to take. I just know he had didn’t have any difficulty getting the courses and professors he wanted. It may have to do with the fact that he is in a degree program that has less students making it to through the weed out courses.
My bad on that point @2015pop! I was confusing housing priority with registration priority. Housing priority considers earned hours only. My other thoughts still stand.
I can’t think of any reason NOT to be in the Honors College if you’re eligible. My daughter didn’t fall into any of the categories that Aeromom described. She did not immerse herself in the Honors College and take full advantage of everything it had to offer, nor did she do it just for priority registration or start then drop out. She would pick and choose the HC events that interested her, but did not immerse herself by any stretch of the imagination. She took more than minimum number of HC credits to stay in the program, but only took HC seminars that interested her; she never took an HC class simply to fill a requirement or stay in the program. She never took a departmental honors class; the professor and time were always more important to her than an honors designation and they never worked out with her schedule.
She felt HUGELY advantaged by the priority registration - she almost always got the course she wanted with the professor she wanted at the time she wanted, largely due to priority registration. She was not in a “lock step” program such an engineering; she is a business major, so this really mattered. I don’t think there’s anything to lose by being in the Honors College, but there is something to gain. For most students, priority registration is a huge perk and that alone justifies being in the HC. Add to that the ability to participate in the “Action” programs at the beginning of freshman year, Honors housing (if that is of interest), interesting seminars, and social programming. With the exception of a reasonable number of honors credits, none of it is required - you can pick and choose what you want to do and how you want to participate. My daughter has a triple major and a minor in CBH and still had plenty of time to fulfill the HC requirements. The Honors College was not the centerpoint of her academic or social life, but it was definitely a worthwhile experience.
Priority registration is a HUGE benefit. There are always professors or class times that are better than others.
The UH courses can also be a lot of fun! I started with Outdoor Action before my first semester even began. I made wonderful friends that week, and got acclimated to UA really quickly. Many UH courses also count for core requirements, and there are some really interesting topics: http://honors.ua.edu/academics/honors-courses/
Honors housing is also your best bet at ensuring that you get suite-style housing, which is a plus for many.
My kids were both busy STEM majors (S1 math/CBHP, the S2 chem eng’g premed). The first son was able to do more with the HC and graduated with a LOT of HC credits, but S2 was still grateful for the priority registration and did enjoy the HC classes that he did take.
Aeromom’s son may have had a different experience because AeroE is small. Her son’s cohort probably had most/all of their classes together in the same sections. ChemE is much bigger so the priority registration was important to get the particular section my son wanted for his major, his minors (bio, chem, math) and the premed prereqs.
Priority registration has also been essential for my son. As a Civil-E major, which is not among the largest majors in engineering some classes are only offered once per semester and many of the upper division courses are only offered during the fall or the spring. Since he’s participating in a co-op as well he’s out of sync with many of his classmates and has to make sure he gets the courses he needs to fill prereqs. Last semester when he registered for his transportation engineering class which is a requirement of the major there were only 2 seats left when he registered and he registered on the third day of registration. Had he not had priority registration, it would have been VERY difficult for him to get a seat in that course. Fortunately now with priority registration and the number of credits he registers early enough that he will be able to get the courses he wants. Would he be able to get into some classes and fill the graduation requirements on time without priority registration? It is very likely. Would he be able to get the courses that he needs to fill the architectural and structural minors that he wants to complete even though many are only offered once per year? It would be VERY challenging without priority registration.
Also my son’s another of those that was not immersed in the honor’s college, but found his niche because of it. He went to very few honor’s college events…I think there were a couple he went to like watching an away game in the stadium one year and something about ice skating? But he did get involved in Alabama Action Abroad and found his niche there. He traveled to Ecuador the first time after his freshman year, returned after his sophomore year as a student leader, and during his third year was the student director for the program helping plan their budget and travel. There are other travel abroad programs he could have chosen, but Alabama Action Abroad was a good fit for him because of the short duration and he would not have gotten the opportunity without participating in the honors college.
As someone noted above, if eligible there is NO reason not to join the honors college. There is no downside. If you join and for some reason think that the housing and priority registration aren’t worth it, you can drop out with no penalty. There’s no reason not to give it a chance.
I absolutely agree with all who say there is no downside to the Honors College, however there is one additional advantage which makes the Honors College very worthwhile. This additional advantage would be the wonderful staff of the Honors College. They are truly remarkable people…in particular Dean Sharpe, the dean of the Honors College.
And there is also the charity and sense of service the Honors College wants to instill. It’s not all about you! My son is in his second semester freshman year and one of his honors seminars is a mentoring class up in Northport.
My daughter is also interested in Economics and/or Political Science and is awaiting final confrmation for her Presidential Scholarship and the Honors College. If your son attends, perhaps they will have some classes together, etc. Alabama’s business school seems to have a good reputation so I’m wondering if she can major in Economics in the business school and minor in Poli Sci, or something like that.
Students graduating with honors also get a special cord to wear and a reasonably nice reception at Nott Hall. Alabama also has a tradition that students with a 4.0 or higher (and GPA has never fallen below a 4.0 ) wear a red mortar board at graduation.