Honors College

<p>Anyone know about the Honors College? Is it good? What are the benefits of going there instead of going normally?</p>

<p>PSst..linkinpark..did we apply to ALL the same colleges? lol</p>

<p>(1) residential learning communities - living with other honors students and taking some courses in the residence hall as small classes
(2) advising - top notch advising through the honors program office
(3) easier access to research, scholarship, and other opportunities
(4) honors classes are smaller
(5) graduation with high latin honors</p>

<p>Do Commonwealth College students get priority registration like the honors colleges at UConn, Vermont and Ohio State?</p>

<p>CC students get priority registration for honors courses. New students also move into res halls before other students, as CC has special programming for them before the start of classes.</p>

<p>I think those other ones get priority registration for everything, am I wrong?</p>

<p>I thought the whole idea is to be able to get into your major quickly and get the honors students to the more advanced classes quickly. Otherwise, isn't there a risk that I wouldn't be able to get into a key prerequisite class in my major and never get to take some great classes? </p>

<p>My uncle went to a big public and said that he missed out on some great classes just because he couldn't get in. He then had to find crappy leftover classes with room just to fill out his schedule and get enough credits. </p>

<p>Admisscouns, why doesn't UMASS give priority registration for all classes to the CC students. It would make it far more attractive?</p>

<p>Vin--</p>

<p>Not sure those other programs offer priority registration for all classes ... would need to check into that. </p>

<p>As for your uncle's experience, not likely to happen at UMA. Seniors are ramped on to computer registration first, then juniors, then sophomores, then freshmen. Lots of schools do it this way. Majors have priority registration for major courses. Honors students have priority registration for honors courses (including those in the major). As students progress through their careers, their chances of getting their first-choice classes become better and better. Students here do not have difficulty scraping together enough credits to graduate.</p>

<p>Is the Honors College classes harder than the regular student's classes? Are you more likely to get a slightly lower GPA since your work is "honor" level??</p>

<p>What are the requirements for placing into the "Honors College"
Is it black and white or are there any lee way?</p>

<p>Honors college courses are different from other courses in several ways--
First, they are smaller, so they allow for more student-faculty interaction. This means students really need to be prepared for the course each and every time it meets, and also need to be prepared to contribute meaningfully to class discussions in a significant way. The classes are more interesting because of this, but also more demanding of students.</p>

<p>You also ask the perennial question asked by many high school students--better to get an "A" in a regular course or a "B" in an honors or AP course? The answer is always to take on the greater academic challenge. Graduate schools and employers want students who are willing to work hard and stretch themselves. Honors students do that.</p>

<p>In general, honors students have 1300+ (verbal and math) SAT, top 10% of class, and 3.5 or higher weighted GPA. lower SAT scores may be offset by higher GPA.</p>

<p>I checked on that priority registration from other comparable publics.</p>

<p>Uconn honors students get priority registration for all classes ahead of their non-honors classmates. So sophmore honors students register after junior non-honors but ahead of sophmore non-honors. </p>

<p>Ohio State, Vermont and Penn State honors students register for ALL classes even before non-honors seniors! That seems to virtually guarantee that you get the courses you want. </p>

<p>SUNY Stony Brook honors also has priority registration for all classes, at least ahead of non-honors classmates, but I can't find specifics. </p>

<p>UMASS needs to rethink its minimal priority registration policy for honors students in order to be competitive with other programs. Maybe admisscouns has some influence.</p>