Hello! My mother talks about this site all the time, so I thought I would give it a try for my questions (Hi mom). I am curious about my acceptance to the honors college. I have a 33 act, in state, 3.9 unweighted and 4.7 weighted gpa.
However, my class rank is barely top 10 due to a competitive class within a competitive highschool.
So far I feel that my essays are standout and help exemplify my personality, however, I was stumped on the essay questioning a leadership position in high school.
I have never taken interest in sports or just being another honors kid in beta club. I am not national honor society, I am not in beta club, I never played a sport.
Will this ruin my chances to get in? I plan to take every opportunity I can get to be involved in college but had little to no draw to lie about service hours in NHS like every other kid did in high school.
With good scores and essays but no extracurriculars and a mediocore class rank, am I still Clemson honors material in their eyes?
P.s. Also, the major I am interested in isn’t the traditional engineering of the honors college, will this benefit me?
While many of the Honors college students are engineering majors, not all are. There are many benefits to being in the Honors college including Honors housing, priority scheduling , support and guidance from Honors staff , etc. Is your question that because you’re not a traditional engineering applicant, will it help you to get admittance to the Honors program? I don’t believe that it will give you any advantage.
When we went to speak with the Honors representative , her response to our question was usually " What makes you different from every other applicant? Everyone here has a high GPA, high test scores and lots of extracurriculars . What sets you apart ?" She emphasized the need to really showcase yourself in all of your essays, which it sounds like you’ve done with exception of the leadership essay . Leadership isn’t the same thing as holding a formal office in a club. It can be something as simple as leading a study group, helping a new student get acclimated to your school,etc. Will it prevent you from being accepted? No one knows for sure. It is extremely competitive with only 250-275 applicants being accepted. The only way to know is to apply and wait and see like every other applicant.
As a side note, contrary to your belief, not everyone lies about service hours for NHS or BETA club. Many students do participate in ECs because they enjoy them and want to serve the community or they enjoy them.
Thanks for the reply!
My question regarding major lies with the fact that, with regards undergrad admissions, choosing a less popular major can help a student with acceptance. Would this likely carry over to the honors college? Will specifying a major not as commonly represented in the honors college help ones chance being admitted.
The issue with the leadership essay is that it specifically askes for an elaboration on a previously listed activity. While I have many anecdotal stories for personal leadership, I was never one to take interest in my high school.
Wish me luck! I know many students genuinely do care to serve, but I know that none of my friends cared to. Being true to myself is really important and it’s hard to follow the general mass of college bound students within high school. I think my essays truly shine though and I am lucky to be provisionally accepted to clemsons undergrad so I don’t have that bad of a fallback.
Again thank you for your reply.
My son also has provisional acceptance. He’s trying to get into Calhoun Honors as well. Do you have any leadership activities outside of school? My son used his leadership from scouts. Have you gotten your formal acceptance letter yet? I’ve read that some have , but my son is still waiting on his.
No acceptance yet so don’t worry. We’ve had two show up at my school but one has an athletic scholarship and the other is validvictorian.
I competed in an academic challenge event and will likely use this for my application. I’m a natural born leader and have excellent social skills. Sadly I never use these skills in an established manner. I had a 30 on my act before retesting; I feel that if I still had a 30 I wouldn’t try for honors. However, with a 33 and solid essays, I feel confident that I am honors material if my ECs (or lack thereof) can be overlooked.