This may be a stupid question but… to my understanding if you apply to the honors college at a school, even if you are rejected from that you can still get into the school. Correct my if I am wrong… but why wouldn’t you apply to all of the honors programs at the schools you want to apply to?
You’re correct; applying to a honors program is completely separate from applying for admissions.
Some applicants apply to the honors college at every school they apply to. There are plenty of reasons not to; some people may not like one honors program as much as one at another school and decide it’s not worth it, some might only apply to the ones at the schools they’re most interested in (or on the flip side, they might only apply to the ones at their safety schools if they don’t make it into their top choice), etc.