S was accepted to UMd SoE and the honors college. He went online for the honors college and it asked him to choose a living learning community. S has always wanted to join the VIRTUS LL community (not an honors college option). Is there an advantage of one over the other?
I think it depends on which honors program your son wants. Some have a living requirement, some do not, so it may be possible to do both. Virtus gives a lot of support specifically to engineers, but much of that can be done on your own through the Engineering Co-op and Career Services if the honors program he likes has a living requirement. http://www.coop.eng.umd.edu
There are typically a lot of engineering students in honors, so I wouldn’t worry about class clusters or having study groups if he doesn’t live with Virtus. However, he should look into both and talk to students at open house for admitted students if you can attend.