<p>Which public university systems have honors colleges (in the sense of St. Mary's and New College of Florida)? And how do they rank?</p>
<p>Those two are the only two I know of as more or less separate entities from the universities.</p>
<p>What others are there?</p>
<p>Maryland, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Penn State, etc...</p>
<p>William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA is public "honors college" as well, but a completely separate entity (and several hours away) from the University of Virginia. Penn State's honors college has an avg. SAT (old) of about 1420, as of this past fall (I have friends who applied). Pitt's honors college is esentially open to anyone with a 1350+ old SAT (in state- I'm not sure if out of state differs, I'm from PA).</p>
<p>Are you committed to an in-state public university, maybe for financial reasons? If not, you would be better off applying to a more selective university. If you can get into an honors college, then you can get into a better, more selective university elsewhere and enjoy the advantages that greater selectivity provides. When you attend an honors college, your diploma will still be from the university to which the honors college belongs. The amenities of an honors college are not substantial.</p>
<p>Well if money is of concern then you can't go wrong when attending an honors program in a public university. It saves money and you can get lots of merit money. Going to a state university won't hurt your chances of getting into a great grad school program either. I forgot to mention that Michigan's LSA school has a very popular honors program.</p>
<p>Collegehelp, I say that exactly to people here in my state and they look at me as if I'm crazy.....makes perfect sense to me, though!</p>
<p>Texas Tech has an excellent honors college (see posts by Lonestardad).</p>
<p>Going along what collegehelp said, when you graduate and apply for a job, your potential employers will see where your degree is from, and not necessarily associate it with being more "difficult" if it is from a state school's honors college. For example, if you graduate from the Schreyer Honors College at Penn State, employers from outside of the PA region will have no idea if the honors college is challenging or not, if they even know you graduated from the HC. Furthermore, with financial aid packages being as they are, some state institutions' honors colleges can end up costing more than a private LAC, where more financial aid is generally provided.</p>
<p>Generally graduating from a major well known state university and the mention of with honors or from the honors college will get noticed. You get to write your resume and can make it sound pretty impressive. Chances are great the person doing the interview did not graduate with honors. They'll be duly impressed.</p>
<p>most state universities have honors programs. for example, the uconn honors program is fantastic- it was one of my top choices alongst side some of the top schools in the country.</p>
<p>spack - Unfortunately, I have never seen a specific ranking of state university/college honors colleges and programs. Overall, my advice to anyone applying to a state university or college is to also apply to its honors programs or college if you meet the minimal qualifications. However, a student has to do some research on the state university/college's website to see if there is more than one honors program on campus and whether your particular field (Arts & Sciences, Engineering, Business) has its own honors program requiring an individual application. However, with that said, participation in an honors program is definitely worth it if you are heavily considering going to that state university/college anyway. The special housing, courses, access to top professors, etc. are just the beginning.</p>
<p>By the way, Truman State University in Missouri is the state liberal arts honors college in Missouri that has a strong reputation.</p>
<p>Some schools have Honors programs...UC Davis has two..additional assistance in guidance and planning...extra small class discussion opportunities...ect,</p>
<p>If you have a strong sense of what type of profession you are headed toward you can always check to see where the graduate, or Law School gets its first year class from. If you want to go to Harvard Law your chances are certainly looking better if you graduate from a HYPS undergraduate degree, but I suspect a graduate from Berkeley or UCLA also has a shot at a decent career.</p>
<p>Here's a list of Honors Programs at colleges and universities (with links to their websites). The list is maintained by the Indiana University Honors Program.
<a href="http://www.indiana.edu/%7Eiubhonor/nchc/other.php%5B/url%5D">http://www.indiana.edu/~iubhonor/nchc/other.php</a></p>
<p>The list posted by Indiana is not complete. I know that BU has an Honors program and so does George Washington University.</p>
<p>The Indiana list is also missing UCLA honors.</p>
<p>Mizzou (U of Missouri-Columbia, the renowned journalism school) also has an honors program.</p>
<p>Often State University honors programs are more selective than many of the Ivys. For example, the acceptance rate for Univ. of Wash honors is about 11%. Last year the average unweighted GPA was 3.92 and the full SAT range (not mid 50%) was 1300 - 1600, and ACT 29 - 36.</p>
<p>hi, im a student at st. mary's in maryland. The main 3 seperate honors colleges are St. Mary's, New College in Florida, and The College of New Jersey in NJ. The others are generally considered not as reputable. If you have any questions about St. Mary's or college in general just ask.</p>
<p>For an "up and comer" the University of Arkansas has a kitty of $300 million in Walton (i.e. Wal-mart) money with which to improve its honors college and other programs.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>I posted this out of curiosity, rather than a burning desire to go to a public school. I've seen these places and I was wondering how they compared; maybe someone out there could use the information.</p>